Precepts of Chiron

A lekythos taken to depict Peleus (left) entrusting his son Achilles (center) to the tutelage of Chiron (right), c. 500 BCE, National Archaeological Museum of Athens

The Precepts of Chiron (Ancient Greek: Χείρωνος ὑποθῆκαι, Cheírōnos hypothêkai) is a now fragmentary Greek didactic poem that was attributed to Hesiod during antiquity. The poem was presented in the voice of Chiron, the wise centaur, as he instructed a young Achilles. To judge from the few fragments that are preserved in other ancient authors, the hero's lessons consisted of moral, religious and practical advice. As such, the poem shows affinities not only with the Hesiodic Works and Days, with which it shared its hexameter verse form, but also with the gnomic elegies of Theognis.

Select editions and translations

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Translations

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