Works and Days
Erga kai Hemerai
Justice and hard work, not divine favor alone, are what separate a household that survives the year from one that starves, and the poem is written to prove it to Hesiod's own idle brother.
- labor as piety
- justice as a practical, not only divine, matter
- the myth of Pandora
- the five ages of man
A didactic poem addressed to Hesiod's brother Perses, mixing farming almanac, sailing advice, and moral exhortation with myth, including the tale of Pandora and the five ages of man. Its core argument is that Zeus rewards diligence and just dealing and punishes idleness and fraud, making agricultural labor itself a form of piety. The poem grew out of a real dispute: Perses had reportedly bribed corrupt local judges to win an unfair share of their father's inheritance, and Hesiod's exhortations to justice are addressed to him as both scolding and practical advice. Later sections shift into a working farmer's almanac, detailing when to plow, harvest, and sail by the seasons, interspersed with proverbs on thrift and neighborliness.
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