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Epic & Didactic · Hesiod

Works and Days

Hesiod, c. 700 BCE (as conventionally dated) — in Greek.

A poem of labour and justice addressed to the poet's brother — the farmer's year, and the case for honest work.

The words most alive here

If one word means both the custom already followed and the punishment still to fall, where does the showing become the sentence?

By how often they stand in this work, the commonest particles set aside. Each opens onto its own word.

Read from it

  • μοῦσαι Πιερίηθεν ἀοιδῇσιν κλείουσαι δεῦτε, Δίʼ ἐννέπετε, σφέτερον πατέρʼ ὑμνείουσαι:

    Works and Days 1–2
  • ἐγὼ δέ κε, Πέρση, ἐτήτυμα μυθησαίμην.

    Works and Days 10
  • πλείη μὲν γὰρ γαῖα κακῶν, πλείη δὲ θάλασσα:

    Works and Days 101
  • νοῦσοι δʼ ἀνθρώποισιν ἐφʼ ἡμέρῃ, αἳ δʼ ἐπὶ νυκτὶ αὐτόματοι φοιτῶσι κακὰ θνητοῖσι φέρουσαι σιγῇ, ἐπεὶ φωνὴν ἐξείλετο μητίετα Ζεύς.

    Works and Days 102–104
  • οὕτως οὔτι πη ἔστι Διὸς νόον ἐξαλέασθαι.

    Works and Days 105
  • εἰ δʼ ἐθέλεις, ἕτερόν τοι ἐγὼ λόγον ἐκκορυφώσω εὖ καὶ ἐπισταμένως:

    Works and Days 106

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