the collection and interpretation of the hesiodic fragments in the modern era began during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, primarily with the editions of and . the earliest collections simply presented ancient quotations organized by the quoting author, and it was not until the work of , and that attempts at a proper reconstruction began. marckscheffel was the first to recognize that the early portions of the poem treated the descendants of deucalion in a systematic fashion, but he regarded what were called the ""catalogue of women"" and ""ehoiai"" as two initially separate works that had been joined: the former was genealogically structured, while the latter, in marckscheffel's view, simply recounted myths involving notable thessalian and boeotian heroines, with each introduced by the "ē' hoiē"-formula. since the ehoie of alcmene was attested for book 4, marckscheffel proposed that books 1–3 were the ""catalogue"", and books 4 and 5 were the ""ehoiai"".