Ascra




Ascra (Ancient Greek: Ἄσκρη, Áskrē) was an ancient town in Boeotia which is best known today as the home of the poet Hesiod. It was located upon Mount Helicon, five miles west of Thespiae. According to a lost poetic Atthis by one Hegesinous, a maiden by the name of Ascra lay with Poseidon and bore a son Oeoclus who, together with the Aloadae, founded the town named for his mother. In the Works and Days, Hesiod says that his father was driven from Aeolian Cyme to Ascra by poverty, only to find himself situated in a most unpleasant town (lines 639–40):