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Works and Days

 
Classical Literature Companion: Works and Days
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Works and Days (Erga kai hēmerai), Greek poem in 828 hexameters by Hesiod; the ‘works’ are the activities of the farming year, the ‘days’ (from line 765 onward) are an almanac of days in the month that are favourable or unfavourable for different activities. No reason is given for the category of a particular day except for the implication that Zeus has ordained it so. Lucky or unlucky days are scarcely mentioned again until Hellenistic times.

The chief themes of the poem are justice and the need for hard work. After an invocation to the Muses the poet addresses his brother Persēs, urging him to a reconciliation of their quarrel (see HESIOD). To explain why men have to work hard and act justly he uses myth: Prometheus and the story of Pandora, the five ages or generations (Golden, Silver, Bronze, Heroic, and Iron), and the fable of the hawk and the nightingale, illustrating the unjust use of power; the whole is blended with proverbs, moral maxims, and threats of divine anger. In the remaining two thirds of the poem Hesiod gives Perses instructions on how to work as a farmer, which are mostly an enumeration of the tasks of the various seasons with some practical advice, for example on how to construct a plough; there is a fine descriptive passage on the rigours of winter (504–35), balanced by a picture of the farmer enjoying the languorous heat of summer (582–96). There follow some brief advice on sea trading, a collection of proverbial maxims about religious and social conduct, and the almanac of lucky and unlucky days. The poem is a work of exhortation and instruction, for which parallels exist, but in Near Eastern literature rather than in Greek; the poems of Phocylidēs and Theognis are comparable in tone, but much more limited in scope. Works and Days is given unity chiefly by the personality of the author. Whether the circumstances of its composition are real or imaginary, the poem represents the life-experience of a cautious and conservative farmer, inured to hardship and adversity, suspicious of pleasure, and no lover of women, but one who by reflection had come to believe that the conditions of life were divinely and justly ordained.

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An image from a 1539 printing of Works and Days

Works and Days (in ancient Greek Ἔργα καὶ Ἡμέραι / Erga kaí Hēmérai, sometimes called by the Latin name Opera et Dies, as in the OCT) is a Greek poem of some 800 verses written by Hesiod (around 700 BC). The poem revolves around two general truths: labour is the universal lot of Man, but he who is willing to work will get by. Scholars have seen this work against a background of agrarian crisis in mainland Greece, which inspired a wave of colonial expeditions in search of new land.

Contents

Description

This work lays out the five Ages of Man, as well as containing advice and wisdom, prescribing a life of honest labour and attacking idleness and the practice of usury. It describes immortals who roam the earth watching over justice and injustice[1]. The poem regards labour as the source of all good, in that both gods and men hate the idle, who resemble drones in a hive[2].

It also repeats the story of Prometheus, which is also written in Theogony, and the theft of fire from Zeus and the resulting punishment of man with Pandora and her jar with Hope only left inside it.[3]

A backstory

Hesiod, the creator and narrator of Works and Days, describes himself as the heir of a farm bequeathed to him and his brother Perses. However, Perses apparently went to law and, accoridng to Hesiod, cheated the poet out of part of the farmland. The poem contains a sharp attack against unjust judges like those who decided in favour of Perses; they are depicted as pocketing bribes as they render their unfair verdicts.

History of astronomy

Works and Days contains the earliest recorded mention of the star Sirius, the brightest star in the heavens as seen from Earth. Sirius, in Greek, is Σείριος (Seirios, "glowing" or "scorcher").

Hesiod and the Problem of Scarcity

Hesiod is often labeled the first economist. He lived in the small, agricultural community of Ascra, a spot he describes as a "“sorry place...bad in winter, hard in summer, never good."” He was therefore sensitive to the everlasting problem of scarcity on earth. A gulf exists between man’s unending dreams and desires and the existing resources on earth required to make them a reality. The first half of Works and Days is devoted to the fundamental economic problem of the scarcity of resources for the pursuit of all human needs and desires. He characterizes society as one where "“men never rest from labor and sorrow by day and from perishing by night.”" He notes that because of scarcity; time, labor, and production goods must be efficiently allocated. Hesiod analyzes the importance of labor and capital that puts an end to man’s state of leisure. He points to basic need, social condemnation of indolence, and rising consumption standards as moving man towards economic development and growth. Hesiod mentions a spirit of competition, of “good conflict” that tends to reduce the problems of scarcity.

Hesiod was in favor of the rule of law and the dispensation of justice to provide stability and order within society. He spoke out against corrupt methods of wealth acquisition and denounced robbery.

References

  1. ^ Hesiod, Works and Days, Canto III, [250]: "Verily upon the earth are thrice ten thousand immortals of the host of Zeus, guardians of mortal man. They watch both justice and injustice, robed in mist, roaming abroad upon the earth". (cf. also, J. A. Symonds, p. 179).
  2. ^ Hesiod, Works and Days, [300]: "Both gods and men are angry with a man who lives idle, for in nature he is like the stingless drones who waste the labour of the bees, eating without working".
  3. ^ There is some debate about the simple and obvious translation of "elpis" as "hope". Some scholars argue that is really should be translated as "expectation" since the root word is from "suppose". And in this context it is argued that what was left in the jar was not Hope as we know it, but the "expectation of ills" so that Man would be unpleasently surprised by ills that befell him instead of expecting them. Confer W.J. Verdenius, "Commentaries on Hesiod", et al. Also written in Tandy and Neale's translation of "Works and Days". p.64, note 37.

Selected translations

  • Athanassakis, Apostolos N., Theogony ; Works and days ; Shield / Hesiod ; introduction, translation, and notes, Baltimore : Johns Hopkins University Press, 1983. ISBN 0801829984
  • Cooke, Hesiod, Works and Days, Translated from the Greek, London, 1728
  • Frazer, R.M. (Richard McIlwaine), The Poems of Hesiod, Norman : University of Oklahoma Press, 1983. ISBN 0806118377
  • Most, Glenn, translator, Hesiod, 2 vols., Loeb Classical Library, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 2006-07.
  • Schlegel, Catherine M., and Henry Weinfield, translators, Theogony and Works and Days, Ann Arbor, Michigan, 2006
  • Sinclair, Thomas Alan (translator), Hesiodou Erga kai hemerai, London, Macmillan and co., 1932.
  • Tandy, David W., and Neale, Walter C. [translators], Works and Days: a translation and commentary for the social sciences, Berkeley: University of California Press, 1996. ISBN 0520203836
  • West, Martin Litchfield (translator), Hesiod Works & Days, Oxford University Press, 1978, ISBN 0-19-814005-3. Edited with Prolegomena and Commentary.

Further reading

  • Bartlett, Robert C. "An Introduction to Hesiod's Works and Days", The Review of Politics 68 (2006), p.177-205, University of Notre Dame.
  • Beall, E.F., What Pandora let out and what she left in, paper read at the annual meeting of the Classical Association of the Atlantic States, October 6, 2006
  • Clay, Jenny Strauss, Hesiod’s Cosmos, Cambridge, 2003.
  • Kenaan, Vered Lev, Pandora’s Senses : The Feminine Character of the Ancient Text, Madison, Wisconsin, University of Wisconsin Press, 2008.
  • Lamberton, Robert, Hesiod, New Haven : Yale University Press, 1988. ISBN 0300040687. Cf. Chapter III, "The Works and Days", pp.105-133.
  • Nelson, Stephanie A., God and the Land: The Metaphysics of Farming in Hesiod and Vergil, New York and Oxford, 1998
  • Nisbet, Gideon, Hesiod, Works and Days: A Didaxis of Deconstruction?, Greece and Rome 51 (2004), pp.147-63.
  • Peabody, Berkley, The Winged Word: A Study in the Technique of Ancient Greek Oral Composition as Seen Principally Through Hesiod's Works and Days, State University of New York Press, 1975. ISBN 0873950593
  • Verdenius, Willem Jacob, A Commentary on Hesiod Works and Days vv 1-382 (Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1985). ISBN 9004074651

External links


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