Book IX, 64

The Muses themselves saw thee, Hesiod, feeding thy sheep at mid-day in the rugged hills, and all drawing round thee proffered thee a branch of holy laurel with lovely leaves. They gave thee also the inspiring water of the Heliconian spring, that the hoof of the winged horse once struck, and having drunk thy fill of it thou didst write in verse the Birth of the gods and the Works, and the race of the ancient demigods.