There is no doubt that the _Works and Days_ is the oldest, as it is the
most original, of the Hesiodic poems. It seems to be distinctly earlier
than the _Theogony_, which refers to it, apparently, as a poem already
renowned. Two considerations help us to fix a relative date for the
_Works_. (1) In diction, dialect and style it is obviously dependent
upon Homer, and is therefore considerably later than the _Iliad_ and
_Odyssey_: moreover, as we have seen, it is in revolt against the
romantic school, already grown decadent, and while the digamma is still
living, it is obviously growing weak, and is by no means uniformly
effective.
(2) On the other hand while tradition steadily puts the Cyclic poets at
various dates from 776 B.C. downwards, it is equally consistent in
regarding Homer and Hesiod as “prehistoric”. Herodotus indeed puts both
poets 400 years before his own time; that is, at about 830-820 B.C.,
and the evidence stated above points to the middle of the ninth century
as the probable date for the _Works and Days_. The _Theogony_ might be
tentatively placed a century later; and the _Catalogues_ and _Eoiae_
are again later, but not greatly later, than the _Theogony_: the
_Shield of Heracles_ may be ascribed to the later half of the seventh
century, but there is not evidence enough to show whether the other
“developed” poems are to be regarded as of a date so low as this.