Hesiod Works and Days

Muses, from Pieria, glorifying in songs, come here, tell in hymns of your father Zeus, through whom mortal men are unfamed and famed alike, and named and unnamed, by the will of great Zeus. For easily he strengthens, and easily he crushes the strong, easily he diminishes the conspicuous and increases the inconspicuous, and easily he straightens the crooked and withers the proud—high-thundering Zeus, who dwells in the loftiest mansions. Give ear to me, watching and listening, and straighten the verdicts with justice yourself;1 as for me, I will proclaim truths to Perses.	Song: why? Because that is the medium for composing a work. Prose was not a thing yet. Famed and Unfamed: the currency/proof of worth. Great Zeus: Zeus is a person with limitations AND a supreme all powerful all good just director of the universe Zeus is also the guarantor of justice among humans.
(11) So there was not just one birth of Strifes after all,2 but upon the earth there are two Strifes. One of these a man would praise once he got to know it, but the other is blameworthy; and they have thoroughly opposed spirits. For the one fosters evil war and conflict—cruel one, no mortal loves that one, but it is by necessity that they honor the oppressive Strife, by the plans of the immortals. But the other one gloomy Night bore first; and Cronus’ high-throned  son, who dwells in the aether, set it in the roots of the earth, and it is much better for men. It rouses even the helpless man to work. For a man who is not working but who looks at some other man, a rich one who is hastening to plow and plant and set his house in order, he envies him, one neighbor envying his neighbor who is hastening toward wealth: and this Strife is good for mortals. And potter is angry with potter, and builder with builder, and beggar begrudges beggar, and poet poet.	Strifes: one is, all-things-considered, destructive: it is jealous and hateful. It's spirit is that one person's gain is another's loss. The other is healthy competition: it is a spur to greater productivity and rewards hard work. It is an engine of progress. NOTE: Hesiod does not speak theory, but he surely understands, behind the scenes, the import of what he says: it's a long story to try to prove that/back it up, but I am convinced of it. Hesiod is either himself a deep thinker or is composing within a tradition of 'wisdom literature' or more likely both. NOTE 2: Hesiod is the first author whose work we have from Ancient Greece: why would authors pop up when there were none before? Think about the fact that writing had just returned to Greece within maybe a century of Hesiod's time.
(27) Perses, do store this up in your spirit, lest gloating Strife keep your spirit away from work, while you gawk at quarrels and listen to the assembly. For he has little care for quarrels and assemblies, whoever does not have plentiful means of life stored up indoors in good season, what the earth bears, Demeter’s grain. When you can take your fill of that, then you might foster quarrels and conflict for the sake of another man’s wealth. But you will not have a second chance to act this way—no, let us decide our quarrel right here with straight judgments, which come from Zeus, the best ones. For already we had divided up our allotment, but you snatched much more besides and went carrying it off, greatly honoring the kings, those gift-eaters, who want to pass this judgment—fools, they do not know how much more the half is than the whole, nor how great the boon is in mallow and asphodel!	Perses is Hesiod's brother: this passage tells us that his brother liked to hang out in town at the assembly place and managed to bribe those who make decisions into giving him more than his share of their inheritance. stored up indoors: this is a world where real famine can happen (not the failure-of-humans famine that happens today): this is a world of subsistence farming for many. stored up indoors: obviously there was an idea of straight v. crooked judgements: good v. bad judges, etc. No hint of laws, lawyers, elections, etc. how much more the half is than the whole: my theory is that this is already or became a proverb: it means that getting what you have a right to is better and more secure than getting more than your share by illicit means.
(42) For the gods keep the means of life concealed  from human beings. Otherwise you would easily be able to work in just one day so as to have enough for a whole year even without working, and quickly you would store the rudder above the smoke, and the work of the cattle and of the hardworking mules would be ended.	The idea that Zeus is all-powerful and everything is at Zeus' will.
(47) But Zeus concealed it, angry in his heart because crooked-counseled Prometheus (Forethought) had deceived him.4 For that reason he devised baneful evils for human beings, and he concealed fire; but the good son of Iapetus5 stole it back from the counselor Zeus in a hollow fennel stalk for human beings, escaping the notice of Zeus who delights in the thunderbolt. (53) But the cloud-gatherer Zeus spoke to him in anger: “Son of Iapetus, you who know counsels beyond all others, you are pleased that you have stolen fire and beguiled my mind—a great grief for you yourself, and for men to come. To them I shall give in exchange for fire an evil in which they may all take pleasure in their spirit, embracing their own evil.”	The story of Prometheus and how he gave fire to humans in spite of Zeus and how Zeus punished humans by inventing Pandora.
(59) So he spoke, and he laughed out loud, the father of men and of gods. He commanded renowned Hephaestus to mix earth with water as quickly as possible, and to put the voice and strength of a human into it, and to make a beautiful, lovely form of a maiden similar in her face to the immortal goddesses. He told Athena to teach her crafts, to weave richly worked cloth, and golden Aphrodite to shed grace and painful desire and limb-devouring cares around her head; and he ordered Hermes, the intermediary,  the killer of Argus, to put a dog’s mind and a thievish character into her. (69) So he spoke, and they obeyed Zeus, the lord, Cronus’ son. Immediately the famous Lame One fabricated out of earth a likeness of a modest maiden, by the plans of Cronus’ son; the goddess, bright-eyed Athena, gave her a girdle and ornaments; the goddesses Graces and queenly Persuasion placed golden jewelry all around on her body; the beautiful-haired Seasons crowned her all around with spring flowers; and Pallas Athena fitted the whole ornamentation to her body. Then into her breast the intermediary, the killer of Argus, set lies and guileful words and a thievish character, by the plans of deep-thundering Zeus; and the messenger of the gods placed a voice in her and named this woman Pandora (All-Gift), since all those who have their mansions on Olympus had given her a gift—a woe for men who live on bread. (83) When he had completed the sheer, intractable deception, the father sent the famous killer of Argus, the swift messenger of the gods, to take her as a gift to Epimetheus (Afterthought). And Epimetheus did not consider that Prometheus had told him never to accept a gift from Olympian Zeus, but to send it back again, lest something evil happen to mortals; it was only after he accepted her, when he already had the evil, that he understood.	ur-misogyny: embedded in mythology and creation. It is to be observed and filed away as highly relevant to various things in this class, but not as central to political thought at the moment as other things in this poem. Compare it to the story of Adam's rib. Persuasion: it is notable that in Hesiod, abstract forces are often gods: they have no personhood, no birth, no childhood, no development: they are just gods and occasionally are mentioned as doing this or that, something which is always in keeping with their name and not indicative of personhood.
(90) For previously the tribes of men used to live upon the earth entirely apart from evils, and without grievous toil and distressful diseases, which give death to men. {For  in misery mortals grow old at once.}6 But the woman removed the great lid from the storage jar with her hands and scattered all its contents abroad—she wrought baneful evils for human beings. Only Anticipation7 remained there in its unbreakable home under the mouth of the storage jar, and did not fly out; for before that could happen she closed the lid of the storage jar, by the plans of the aegis-holder, the cloud-gatherer, Zeus. But countless other miseries roam among mankind; for the earth is full of evils, and the sea is full; and some sicknesses come upon men by day, and others by night, of their own accord, bearing evils to mortals in silence, since the counselor Zeus took their voice away. Thus it is not possible in any way to evade the mind of Zeus.	Pandora's Box: Blaming women for this is like blaming me for opening a box on my doorstep: the person who sent it is the guilty one, if there is guilt to assign. But strict and rigorous logic and reasoning do not apply to myth.
(106) If you wish, I shall recapitulate8 another story, correctly and skillfully, and you lay it up in your spirit: how the gods and mortal human beings came about from the same origin. (109) Golden was the race of speech-endowed human beings which the immortals, who have their mansions on Olympus, made first of all. They lived at the time of Cronus, when he was king in the sky; just like gods they  spent their lives, with a spirit free from care, entirely apart from toil and distress. Worthless old age did not oppress them, but they were always the same in their feet and hands, and delighted in festivities, lacking in all evils; and they died as if overpowered by sleep. They had all good things: the grain-giving field bore crops of its own accord, much and unstinting, and they themselves, willing, mild-mannered, shared out the fruits of their labors together with many good things, wealthy in sheep, dear to the blessed gods. But since the earth covered up this race, by the plans of great Zeus they are fine spirits upon the earth, guardians of mortal human beings: they watch over judgments and cruel deeds, clad in invisibility, walking everywhere upon the earth, givers of wealth; and this kingly honor they received.	The Golden age: the first age of huMANs. No need for government: no scarcity, no work, no struggle. Also, no good explanation for why Zeus ended them.
(127) Afterward those who have their mansions on Olympus made a second race, much worse, of silver, like the golden one neither in body nor in mind. A boy would be nurtured for a hundred years at the side of his cherished mother, playing in his own house, a great fool. But when they reached adolescence and arrived at the full measure of puberty, they would live for a short time only, suffering pains because of their acts of folly. For they could not restrain themselves from wicked outrage against each other, nor were they willing to honor the immortals  or to sacrifice upon the holy altars of the blessed ones, as is established right for human beings in each community. Then Zeus, Cronus’ son, concealed these in anger, because they did not give honors to the blessed gods who dwell on Olympus. But since the earth covered up this race too, they are called blessed mortals under the earth—in second place, but all the same honor attends upon these as well.	Silver age: they ended because they were bad and that angered Zeus. Divine punishment as a driver of history and human relations.
(143) Zeus the father made another race of speech-endowed human beings, a third one, of bronze, not similar to the silver one at all, out of ash trees9—terrible and strong they were, and they cared only for the painful works of Ares and for acts of violence. They did not eat bread, but had a strong-hearted spirit of adamant—unapproachable they were, and upon their massive limbs grew great strength and untouchable hands out of their shoulders. Their weapons were of bronze, bronze were their houses, with bronze they worked; there was not any black iron. And these, overpowered by one another’s hands, went down nameless into the dank house of chilly Hades: black death seized them, frightful though they were, and they left behind the bright light of the sun.	Bronze: they died because they killed each other. note that these metals seem to reflect the order in which metallurgy developed: gold is easily worked and found rather pure (nuggets). Silver can be found like that too (placer deposits) and is not as easily worked. Bronze is an alloy (copper and tin: tin had to be imported (from Britain, I believe) to Greece!)
(156) When the earth covered up this race too, Zeus, Cronus’ son, made another one in turn upon the bounteous earth, a fourth one, more just and superior, the godly  race of men-heroes, who are called demigods, the generation before our own upon the boundless earth. Evil war and dread battle destroyed these, some under seven-gated Thebes in the land of Cadmus while they fought for the sake of Oedipus’ sheep, others brought in boats over the great gulf of the sea to Troy for the sake of fair-haired Helen. There the end of death shrouded some of them, but upon others Zeus the father, Cronus’ son, bestowed life and habitations far from human beings and settled them at the limits of the earth; and these dwell with a spirit free of care on the Islands of the Blessed beside deep-eddying Ocean—happy heroes, for whom the grain-giving field bears honey-sweet fruit flourishing three times a year.10	4th age of huMANs: heroes. Some died at Troy (Homer's Iliad/Odyssey) while Zeus rewarded others with a nice place elsewhere. They don't have to work.
(174) If only then I did not have to live among the fifth men, but could have either died first or been born afterward! For now the race is indeed one of iron. And they will not cease from toil and distress by day, nor from being worn out by suffering at night, and the gods will give them grievous cares. Yet all the same, for these people too good things will be mingled with evil ones. But Zeus will destroy this race of speech-endowed human beings too, when at their birth the hair on their temples will be quite gray. Father will not be like-minded with sons, nor sons at all,11 nor guest with host, nor comrade with comrade, nor will the brother be dear, as he once was. They will dishonor their aging parents at once; they will reproach them, addressing them with grievous words—cruel men, who do not know of the gods’ retribution!—nor would they repay their aged parents for their rearing. Their hands will be their justice, and one man will destroy the other’s city. Nor will there be any grace for the man who keeps his oath, nor for the just man or the good one, but they will give more honor to the doer of evil and the outrage man. Justice will be in their hands, and reverence will not exist, but the bad man will harm the superior one, speaking with crooked discourses, and he will swear an oath upon them. And Envy, evil-sounding, gloating, loathsome-faced, will accompany all wretched human beings. Then indeed will Reverence and Indignation cover their beautiful skin with white mantles, leave human beings behind and go from the broad-pathed earth to the race of the immortals, to Olympus. Baleful pains will be left for mortal human beings, and there will be no safeguard against evil.	Iron huMANS: they have to work and toil: a mixed bag of good and evil. Ideals revealed by their opposites: brothers fight parents dishonored fathers and sons not like-minded ignorant of divine retribution don't take care of parents justice by fighting destroy each others' cities break their oaths pay honor to evil twisted speech will harm the good everyone will have ENVY Reverence and Indignation will depart from human company.
(202) And now I will tell a fable to kings who themselves too have understanding. This is how the hawk addressed the colorful-necked nightingale, carrying her high up among the clouds, grasping her with its claws, while she wept piteously, pierced by the curved claws; he said to her forcefully, “Silly bird, why are you crying out? One far superior to you is holding you. You are going wherever I shall carry you, even if you are a singer; I shall make you my dinner if I wish, or I shall let you go. Stupid he who would wish to contend against those stronger than he is: for he is deprived of the victory, and suffers pains in addition to his humiliations.” So spoke the swift-flying hawk, the long-winged bird.	there is a long hard-to-date tradition of fables: Aesop was a Greek: it is hard to say how to interpret this. But there is a strong one who simply takes and does what he will with a weak one.
(213) As for you, Perses, give heed to Justice and do not foster Outrageousness. For Outrageousness is evil in a worthless mortal; and even a fine man cannot bear her easily, but encounters calamities and then is weighed down under her. The better road is the one toward what is just, passing her by on the other side. Justice wins out over Outrageousness when she arrives at the end; but the fool only knows this after he has suffered. For at once Oath starts to run along beside crooked judgments, and there is a clamor when Justice is dragged where men, gift-eaters, carry her off and pronounce verdicts with crooked judgments; but she stays, weeping, with the city and the people’s abodes, clad in invisibility, bearing evil to the human beings who drive her out and do not deal straight.	Justice plays a long game and wins in the end. Optimistic?
(225) But those who give straight judgments to foreigners and fellow citizens and do not turn aside from justice at all, their city blooms and the people in it flower. For them, Peace, the nurse of the young, is on the earth, and far-seeing Zeus never marks out painful war; nor does famine attend straight-judging men, nor calamity, but they share out in festivities the fruits of the labors they care for. For these the earth bears the means of life in abundance, and on the mountains the oak tree bears acorns on its surface, and bees in its center; their woolly sheep are weighed down by their fleeces; and their wives give birth to children who resemble their parents. They bloom with good things continuously. And they do not go onto ships, for the grain-giving field bears them crops.	Interesting the idea of justice for citizen AND foreigner: not quite "all" but still. Famine as somehow a result of injustice?
(238) But to those who care only for evil outrageousness and cruel deeds, far-seeing Zeus, Cronus’ son, marks out justice. Often even a whole city suffers because of an evil man who sins and devises wicked deeds. Upon them, Cronus’ son brings forth woe from the sky, famine together with pestilence, and the people die away; the women do not give birth, and the households are diminished by the plans of Olympian Zeus. And at another time Cronus’ son destroys their broad army or their wall, or he takes vengeance upon their ships on the sea.	One person's evil deed can bring destruction on whole community. Zeus as guarantor of justice.
(248) As for you kings, too, ponder this justice yourselves. For among human beings there are immortals nearby, who take notice of all those who grind one another down with crooked judgments and have no care for the gods’ retribution. Thrice ten thousand are Zeus’ immortal  guardians of mortal human beings upon the bounteous earth, and they watch over judgments and cruel deeds, clad in invisibility, walking everywhere upon the earth. There is a maiden, Justice, born of Zeus, celebrated and revered by the gods who dwell on Olympus, and whenever someone harms her by crookedly scorning her, she sits down at once beside her father Zeus, Cronus’ son, and proclaims the unjust mind of human beings, so that he will take vengeance upon the people for the wickedness of their kings, who think baneful thoughts and bend judgments to one side by pronouncing them crookedly. Bear this in mind, kings, and straighten your discourses, you gift-eaters, and put crooked judgments quite out of your minds. A man contrives evil for himself when he contrives evil for someone else, and an evil plan is most evil for the planner. Zeus’ eye, which sees all things and knows all things, perceives this too, if he so wishes, and he is well aware just what kind of justice this is which the city has within it. Right now I myself would not want to be a just man among human beings, neither I nor a son of mine, since it is evil for a man to be just if the more unjust one will receive greater justice. But I do not anticipate that the counselor Zeus will let things end up this way.	Justice as an omnipresent and invisible force. Doing harm harms the doer the most! NOT SURE WHAT TO MAKE OF THIS: possibly things will go awry: 'justice' may not be just?
(274) Perses, lay these things in your heart and give heed to Justice, and put violence entirely out of your mind. This is the law that Cronus’ son has established for human beings: that fish and beasts and winged birds eat one another, since Justice is not among them; but to human beings he has given Justice, which is the best by far. For if  someone who recognizes what is just is willing to speak it out publicly, then far-seeing Zeus gives him wealth. But whoever willfully swears a false oath, telling a lie in his testimony, he himself is incurably hurt at the same time as he harms Justice, and in after times his family is left more obscure; whereas the family of the man who keeps his oath is better in after times.
(286) To you, Perses, you great fool, I will speak my fine thoughts: Misery is there to be grabbed in abundance, easily, for smooth is the road, and she lives very nearby; but in front of Excellence the immortal gods have set sweat, and the path to her is long and steep, and rough at first—yet when one arrives at the top, then it becomes easy, difficult though it still is.
(293) The man who thinks of everything by himself, considering what will be better, later and in the end—this man is the best of all. That man is fine too, the one who is persuaded by someone who speaks well. But whoever neither thinks by himself nor pays heed to what someone else says and lays it to his heart—that man is good for nothing. So, Perses, you of divine stock, keep working and always bear in mind our behest, so that Famine will hate you and well-garlanded reverend Demeter will love you and fill your granary with the means of life. For Famine is ever the companion of a man who does not work; and gods and men feel resentment against that man, whoever lives without working, in his temper like stingless drones that consume  the labor of the bees, eating it without working. But as for you, be glad to organize your work properly, so that your granaries will be filled with the means of life in good season. It is from working that men have many sheep and are wealthy, and if you work you will be dearer by far to immortals and to mortals: for they very much hate men who do not work.12 Work is not a disgrace at all, but not working is a disgrace. And if you work, the man who does not work will quickly envy you when you are rich; excellence and fame attend upon riches. Whatever sort you are by fortune, working is better, if you turn your foolish spirit away from other men’s possessions toward work, taking care for the means of life, as I bid you. Shame is not good at providing for a needy man—shame, which greatly harms men and also benefits them: for shame goes along with poverty, and self-confidence goes along with wealth.
(320) Property is not to be snatched: god-given is better by far. For if someone grabs great wealth with his hands by violence, or plunders it by means of his tongue, as often happens when profit deceives the mind of human beings and Shamelessness drives Shame away, then the gods easily make him obscure, and they diminish that man’s household, and wealth attends him for only a short time. It is the same if someone does evil to a suppliant or  to a guest, or if he goes up to his own brother’s bed, sleeping with his sister-in-law in secret, acting wrongly, or if in his folly he sins against orphaned children, or if he rebukes his aged father upon the evil threshold of old age, attacking him with grievous words: against such a man, Zeus himself is enraged, and in the end he imposes a grievous return for unjust works.
(335) But as for you, keep your foolish spirit entirely away from these things. According to your capability, make holy sacrifice to the immortal gods in a hallowed and pure manner, and burn splendid thigh pieces on the altar; at other times, seek propitiation with libations and burnt offerings, both when you go to bed and when the holy light returns, so that their heart and spirit will be propitious to you, so that you may barter for other people’s allotment, not someone else for yours.
(342) Invite your friend to the feast, but let your enemy be; and above all call whoever lives near to you. For if something untoward happens on your estate, your neighbors come ungirt, but your in-laws gird themselves. A bad neighbor is a woe, just as much as a good one is a great boon: whoever has a share in a fine neighbor has a share in good value; not even a cow would be lost, if the neighbor were not bad. Measure out well from your neighbor, and pay him back well, with the very same measure, and better if you can, so that if you are in need again you will find him reliable later too. Do not seek profit evilly: evil profit is as bad as calamities. Be friendly to your friend, and go visit  those who visit you. And give to him who gives and do not give to him who does not give: for one gives to a giver, but no one gives to a nongiver—Give is good, Grab is bad, a giver of death. For whatever a man gives willingly, even if it is much, he rejoices in the gift and takes pleasure in his spirit; but whoever snatches, relying upon shamelessness, this congeals his own heart, even if it is little.
(364) What lies stored up in the household does not cause a man grief: it is better for things to be at home, for what is outdoors is at risk. It is fine to take from what you have, but it is woe for the spirit to have need of what you do not have. I bid you take notice of this. For if you put down even a little upon a little and do this often, then this too will quickly become a lot; whoever adds to what is already there wards off fiery famine.13 Take your fill when the storage jar is just opened or nearly empty, be thrifty in the middle: thrift in the lees is worthless. Let the payment agreed for a man who is your friend be reliable; and smile upon your brother—but add a witness too: for both trust and distrust have destroyed men. Do not let a fancy-assed woman deceive your mind by guilefully cajoling you while she pokes into your granary: whoever trusts a woman, trusts swindlers. Let there be a single-born son to nourish the father’s household: in this way wealth is increased in the halls; and may he die an old man, leaving behind one son in his turn. And yet Zeus could easily bestow immense wealth upon more people: more hands, more work, and the surplus is bigger.
(381) If the spirit in your breast longs for wealth, then act in this way, and work at work upon work.