Works and Days by Hesiod

First transcribed:Erga kai Emerai, c. 700 b.c.e. (English translation, 1618)

Type of work: Poetry

The Work:

The details of Hesiod’s biography at times overshadow his contributions to the literary tradition. Whether he was a contemporary of Homer (proven unlikely by careful linguistic analysis); whether he ever bested the author of the Iliad (c. 750 b.c.e.; English translation, 1611) and Odyssey (c. 725 b.c.e.; English translation, 1614) in a poetry contest (equally unlikely); even whether the brother to whom Works and Days is addressed actually lived (a fact questioned skillfully by twentieth century scholar Gilbert Murray)—all are of little importance in comparison to his works, especially his long didactic poem on the joys and vicissitudes of the agricultural life. In Works and Days, Hesiod explains how the people of his day fit into a cosmos peopled by gods who interact frequently, if indirectly, with them and with the creatures of the natural world. His advice, sometimes philosophical, sometimes extremely practical, shows how one can live a life that can be at some times happy, at all times virtuous.

Perhaps the best way to appreciate the significance of Hesiod’s accomplishment is to compare his work to that of Homer. The latter fills his stories with heroes and gods engaged in political and military struggles; personal bravery, cunning, and might serve as measures of greatness. By contrast, Hesiod focuses on the commonplace, on life outside the limelight of national issues and international conflict. Hesiod is the first in the history of Western civilization to think earnestly about problems of conduct and to embody these thoughts in literary form. Hesiod is the first writer in Greek history to judge deeds by their rightness and not their strength, brilliance, or cleverness. In fact, Hesiod consciously set out to oppose the Homeric ideal in his works, becoming in the process the champion of the commoner and the proponent of righteous living. Numerous scholars have noted the similarities between Hesiod’s moralizing and the works of the Hebrew prophets and teachers whose admonitions and prescriptions fill the pages of the Old Testament.

The Western literary tradition has come to venerate the Homeric writings, but the significance of Hesiod’s investigation of the moral dimensions of human nature should not be overlooked. The immediate source for Vergil’s Georgics (36-29 b.c.e.), Works and Days is also the first work of a tradition that finds exponents in every century: The pastoral poems of the Greeks and Romans and their European inheritors and moralistic poems owe much to this Greek ancestor, who believed that people should be judged by the strength of their character rather than by their might in deeds.

Facts about the existence of a writer who flourished more than two thousand years ago are hard to find. Herodotus, liking to exaggerate the antiquity of people, wrote that Hesiod lived “not more than four hundred years before my time,” putting him about 850 b.c.e. Most scholars, however, are inclined to place him about a century later.

At any rate, Homer and Hesiod left the only Greek writing of the epic age. It is clear from Homeric influences in Hesiod that Homer came first. In Works and Days, the gods are contemporary, directly influencing life in Boeotia. Hesiod speaks about his own environment. From internal evidence (lines 636-640), it is assumed that the author’s father migrated across the Aegean from Cyme in Aeolia on account of poverty. He settled at Ascra, a village of Boeotia, at the foot of Mount Helicon. Ovid, in referring to Hesiod, uses the adjective “ascraeus.” The poet himself, heir to the traditions of minstrelsy in this colony of Hellas, says that he once sailed to Chalcis in Euboea, where he competed in a poetry contest held by Amphidamas, and won the prize, a tripod with handles, which he gave to the Muses of Helicon.

The poem also contains details of a lawsuit brought against Hesiod by his brother Perses. Apparently by bribery of the judges, Perses was awarded Hesiod’s sheep, but the diligent Hesiod accumulated another fortune, whereas Perses lost all he had and was forced to beg further help from the poet. Without hard feelings, Hesiod gave him assistance, with the warning not to ask again, and put his admonitions in a poem of 828 lines, of which the title well sums up its content: Rules for work and days on which luck is favorable.

Works and Days is neither a scientific treatise on farming nor a lesson on economic recovery through diligence, but rather a combination of moral precepts and an agricultural almanac. Under the symbols of Prometheus and Epimetheus (Forethought and Afterthought), Hesiod epitomizes himself and his brother.

In epic style, Hesiod begins Works and Days with an appeal to the Muses of Pieria, to sing of their father Zeus, who determines one’s fame or dishonor, provides the good and the bad, destroys the mighty, and rewards the humble. The poet adds that there are two kinds of Strife on earth, one good and one bad. The good Strife, the elder daughter of Dark Night and of Zeus the Son of Chronos, makes people industrious so that they strive to imitate and surpass their neighbors.

Then, addressing himself to his brother Perses, Hesiod begs him not to follow the other Strife, in marketplace or in courthouse. First, lay up food for a year, he advises, and then, if necessary, enter disputes of law. This section contains references to Perses’ unbrotherly lawsuit to get more than his rightful share of their father’s possessions.

Prometheus by craft recovered the fire that Zeus took from men, and in revenge Zeus created a woman of water and earth. Pandora (“The All-Endowed”) received all the lures provided by the gods to deceive men. She was eagerly accepted by Epimetheus, who had forgotten his brother’s warning against gifts from the gods. Before her advent, men lived on earth free from wearying toil and death-bringing diseases. Pandora removed the great lid from the jar, and all the evils flew out and scattered over the earth.

Hesiod then tells another tale about the way gods and humanity came from the same seed. In the time of Chronos there existed a golden race of mortals, living like gods and ignorant of sorrow and of old age. Everything good belonged to them: abundant flocks, fruits, the blessings of the gods. After the earth covered them, the gods created an inferior race of silver. After a hundred years of idiotic childhood, they came of age, only to kill off one another in warfare. A third race followed whose delight was war; they died and went to chill Hades. Then came the demigods, the heroes of Thebes and Troy, preceding the present race of iron, whose daily lot is weariness and woe. To them, might is right. They have no reverence for justice and for oaths.

At this point in the poem Hesiod tells the first animal fable in Greek literature, the tale of a hawk who flies high into the sky with a nightingale, lecturing her against the folly of trying to compete with stronger people. To Perses, he adds a warning that violence is a bad quality in a poor man. For him, justice is better.

A city that provides honest judgments, says Hesiod, is blessed by Zeus, who protects it from war and famine. Its citizens never have to make sea voyages (which Hesiod hated); their earth provides their living. An insolent city, even one with a single insolent citizen, is plagued by the gods because Justice, the daughter of Zeus, is quick with rewards or punishment. Then follows a series of homilies as encouragement to the lazy and improvident Perses: “Work is no disgrace; it is idleness that is disgraceful.” “The idle envy the wealth of the hard worker and try to seize it violently. God-given wealth is better.”

After these homilies the poet rhymes a sort of farmers’ almanac: Plow when the Pleiades set (in November). After forty days they come back. Then sharpen your sickle. When the autumn rains come, cut your wood. Choose oak for ploughbeams, and bring home two, in case one breaks. Get two nine-year-old oxen to plow. A forty-year-old slave is most reliable in the fields. Have everything ready to start plowing when the cry of the crane is heard. If the cuckoo sings, plant quickly, for it will rain in three days. When winter comes, your slaves will need twice as much food, your oxen half their regular ration. Prune your grapes before the return of the swallow, sixty days after the sun turns. When Orion is overhead, it is time to harvest your grapes. Sun them for ten days, cover them for five, and then press out the wine.

His theories on husbandry extend into domestic life. The ideal time for a man to marry, he says, is at the age of thirty; for a woman, the fifth year after puberty. Marry a neighbor, but be sure the others will not laugh at your choice. Finally, the poet records holy days and the lucky days for different tasks. He concludes that the wise man is the one who works blamelessly before the deathless gods, for he knows the propitious omens and avoids sin.

Bibliography

Athanassakis, Apostolos, trans. Hesiod: Theogony, Works and Days, Shield. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1983. A superior translation of three major works. Includes a concise introduction to Hesiod and his historical period as well as useful notes to the text.

Clay, Jenny Strauss. Hesiod’s Cosmos. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2003. An analysis of two of Hesiod’s poems: Works and Days and Theogony. Clay argues that each poem represents one-half of Hesiod’s total conception of the cosmos, with Works and Days depicting the human dimension, and Theogony portraying the divine. She describes how these two works, which present the earliest accounts of Greek religion and the nature of human life, laid the foundation of future Greek literature and philosophy.

Fränkel, Hermann. Early Greek Poetry and Philosophy. Translated by Moses Hadas and James Willis. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1975. Fränkel’s work provides an exhaustive scholarly study of the major contributions to literature in ancient Greek society. His third chapter is an interesting exploration of Hesiod’s role in the dialogue between the literary genres.

Gotshalk, Richard. Homer and Hesiod: Myth and Philosophy. Lanham, Md.: University Press of America, 2000. Examination of the nature and function of the two poets’ work, including Works and Days. Focuses on the poets’ attempts to transcend religion and myth to express the truth, and how this aspiration established the basis for Greek philosophy.

Lamberton, Robert. Hesiod. New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1988. Brief, excellent introduction to Hesiod. Provides line-by-line interpretation of Hesiod’s poems and focuses on the meaning of his imagery. Chapter 3 focuses exclusively on Works and Days. Includes extensive bibliography, notes on translations, and index.

Marsilio, Maria S. Farming and Poetry in Hesiod’s “Works and Days.” Lanham, Md.: University Press of America, 2000. Focuses on the relationship between Hesiod’s poetry and his discussion of farming, describing how Works and Days connects a “farmers’ almanac” with moral themes.

West, M. L. Hesiod: Works and Days. New York: Oxford University Press, 1978. The standard scholarly commentary on Hesiod’s poem. Includes Greek text and copious notes. A rewarding introduction to the poet and his society, as well as to issues surrounding the poem’s composition.