most scholars do not currently believe that the "catalogue" should be considered the work of hesiod, but questions about the poem's authenticity have not lessened its interest for the study of literary, social and historical topics. as a hesiodic work that treats in depth the homeric world of the heroes, the "catalogue" offers a transition between the divine sphere of the "theogony" and the terrestrial focus of the "works and days" by virtue of its subjects' status as demigods. given the poem's concentration upon heroines in addition to heroes, it provides evidence for the roles and perceptions of women in greek literature and society during the period of its composition and popularity. greek aristocratic communities, the ruling elite, traced their lineages back to the heroes of epic poetry; thus the "catalogue", a veritable "map of the hellenic world in genealogical terms," preserves much information about a complex system of kinship associations and hierarchies that continued to have political importance long after the archaic period. many of the myths in the "catalogue" are otherwise unattested, either entirely so or in the form narrated therein, and held a special fascination for poets and scholars from the late archaic period through the hellenistic and roman eras.