Passages from the Homeric poems are quoted from T.W. Allen’s editio maior of the Iliad (1931) and P. Von der Mühll’s Teubner Odyssey (1962) respectively. Those from Hesiod are from M. L. West’s Theogony (1966), F. Solmsen’s Works and Days (1970), and R. Merkelbach’s and M. L. West’s Fragmenta Hesiodea (1967). Quotations from the Theban fragments come from the editions of M. Davies (1988) and A. Bernabé (1996). Unless otherwise stated, translations are our own, for which we have generally opted for usefulness over elegance. In transliterating proper names we have used a hybrid system, preferring Latinized forms for names that are widely familiar but a more precise transliteration of the Greek for those less so: thus Achilles and Oedipus (rather than Akhilleus and Oidipous), but Kyknos and The Ehoiai (rather than Cycnus and The Ehoeae). We ask the reader’s forbearance for any irregularities in this system (e.g. Herakles).