In Hesiod’s piece, “The Works and Days”, Hesiod addresses his brother Perses about how to be a good and virtuous man. Hesiod calls upon Zeus to direct his speech in explaining to Perses how to describe the true way to exist. He starts by explaining the difference between healthy competition and trouble and fighting, Hesiod says “It was never true that there was only one kind of strife. There have always been two on earth” (Lattimore, Hesiod’s Works and days, 2010, p.19).
That one is evil and builds up towards war while the other is harsh, but promotes his strife with reward. He goes on to say that being clever and creating short cuts is not a trait worth having. Hesiod gives the example of when Prometheus stole fire from Zeus and in turn, future generations were punished because of Prometheus’ cleverness and deception. He relates this to his life and the time when he and Perses’ father died. This was a prominent theme in the poem and conveyed the injustice Hesiod felt towards his brother.
There were issues splitting the inheritance between the two men, and Hesiod accuses Perses of coercing and bribing the “kings” residing over this matter. This is why Hesiod created this poem – to address his brother on his short comings and explain ways of how to improve them. Though this poem was addressed to Perses, my first impression was that it was a practical guide to living and prospering in society. Upon closer inspection, however, this work could be more about morality. Which poses the question of “What is the value of morality?” Hesiod goes into great detail about how morality and honest work can better your life in many ways, an example would be farming, it’s both rewarding to the land and family but it is also rewarding to the individual because he has what he needs and doesn’t need to be jealous of his neighbor. Hesiod gives many suggestions on how Perses can better his life through honest work. The first part of this analysis will attempt to show the overall moral elements of the poem.
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One of his more prominent events in his life that shaped this poem was when Perses wronged Hesiod during the distribution of their inheritance. Injustice is one of the most important issues for Hesiod because without this feeling of injustice, there wouldn’t be this poem The Works and Days. He portrays this in regard to the kings presiding over this issue and towards Perses. This complaint of injustice, notably towards the kings, is incredibly important because this shows that Hesiod was not afraid to speak out in public against government officials. Another significant issue for Hesiod is that of religion. Religion appears all throughout the poem in different ways, ranging from the beginning mentioning the Muses to the ending recounting which days are holy in the eyes of the gods.
When planning out your life, there’s always the issue of deciding if you really have control over your life or if everything in your life in already planned out. Hesiod explains to his brother that everything that we do will be and is preordained by the power of the gods. As Hesiod says, “But Zeus will destroy this generation of mortals also,” (Lattimore, Hesiod’s Works and days, 2010, p.39) he speaks of his own age of people, the age of iron or the age of force. When he says this, he’s telling Perses that because of people like him, people that are envious and not working, this age will end. Every person that acts like him will turn on each other because of the anxieties set forth by the gods. Hesiod also uses the myth of Prometheus to expand his idea. Prometheus, who stole fire from Zeus lead to the fact that now man must work and toil for his well being because of the evils released from Pandora. Sacrifice and offerings were another big aspect of religion stressed by Hesiod. He tells of the silver age of man in which they neglected to offer respect unto the gods, and in turn the gods destroyed them.
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I think this was a scare tactic for Hesiod to try and slap some sense into his brother. It might have worked, but the whole “the world is going to end because of people like you,” thing isn’t that convincing to me, but this is merely one way that Hesiod tries to change his brother’s attitude towards his moral standing and his attitude towards work. The concern of war and peace also assails Hesiod’s thoughts. Although Hesiod’s age is one of war and violence, he talks about what happened in previous wars in order to affirm the insanity and foolishness of violence and the importance of peace. An example of this would be when Hesiod talks about the bronze age saying, “and the ghastly action of Ares was theirs, and violence…destroyed beneath the hands of each other” (Lattimore, Hesiod’s Works and days, 2010, p.35).
Hesiod also speaks of peace without a mythological allegory. Furthermore, a significant part of The Works and Days deals with the relationships of people and families and the community. Hesiod perceives the end of his people, the people of the age of iron, as he says “Men will deprive their parents of all rights, as they grow old…men shall give their praise to violence” (Lattimore, Hesiod’s Works and days, 2010, p.41).
Hesiod also gives advice on social behavior; he warns that the actions of a single man may adversely affect the whole community. Everything above is a conglomeration of all the main concerns of Hesiod in his poem The Works and Days. After these, Hesiod gives a great deal of practical advice, like how to work and when to work. This advice encompasses an incredibly large portion of the poem and suggests that the poem The Works and Days is less about practical guidance than it is about morality. In essence, the practical aspects presented are used as a means of teaching morality. All the advice that Hesiod gives can be related to moral issues. For instance, Hesiod’s concept of work, both on land and sea, is argued to be the most prominent theme of his advice. He gives a very detailed and organized list of side tasks and gives times when and where to do them. On should wonder why Hesiod gives such a detailed explanation of how one should work.
This can be traced back to the poem when Hesiod says that your own work is preferable over your own fortune, even if you are envious of other’s work. He goes on to explain that work keeps you from begging for money or food; work for your own gives you a sense of moral fulfillment. To wrap up, I find that there are many reasons why I think that Hesiod’s The Works and Days has no real practical value. Even though he gives a lengthy explanation of the practical application of his advice, I doubt his teachings because in comparison to the moral aspects of the poem, it creates an alternate factor. Which is, firstly, that every Greek across the nation should already know of this practical advice, because that is what it is, common sense; this knowledge is well known to every Greek. Hesiod doesn’t make up any new ways of living or any new crop patterns or rotations or even a better way to deal with your neighbors that the populace doesn’t already know. It’s well known that the predominant occupations for this time were farming and sailing (both having merchant classes).
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So taking the well known knowledge that everyone is either working by sea or land, I’m fairly sure that they all have already heard this advice, that it’s not a newly discovered secret or remedy to better your life. Another factor that plays a role in this argument is that Hesiod doles out advice about sailing when he himself has limited experience sailing. He says that he has never sailed the broad sea, except from Euboea to Aulis. This is a distance of approximately 65 meters! Though Hesiod has his own short comings in his experience, this doesn’t mean that he pulled this advice out of thin air. He spent time with experienced sailors and put everything he learned from them into this poem and he also drew from other poets in order to strengthen his advice. Moreover, Hesiod’s poem cannot be a fully advisory look into the work of daily life because a enormous section of it doesn’t even deal with practical advice at all, it deals with morality. When he says that a certain time period is good for the birth of a man and not a girl is an example of this. On the other hand, some of the guidance that that Hesiod gives is common knowledge. One such example would be when he says what to wear on your feet and what to cover your head with when it’s cold.
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Concerning work, he gives advice on when to work. He says to work before day break, in order to avoid rain and the sun, and to have a dog watching over your house and protect it. In essence, this poem doesn’t teach practical advice relevant to today, but even if it did, it would not be practical but more moral guidance to lead people down the right path. In summary, Hesiod’s The Works and Days is an exceptional look into what typical life was like in ancient Greece. He shows us that there is a personal, religious, and above all, a moral obligation that you owe society and in doing that, you can a fruitful and pleasant life. I saw in this work that Hesiod was strongly pushing his idea of morality to his brother, Perses. That he was concerned with issues in morality containing injustice, religion, war, and community. Though a great deal of the poem deals with practical advice and guidance, under closer inspection one can surmise that Hesiod’s arguments can be more related to the question of morality or to the knowledge already known to the populace of the period in Greece. All of these instances of advice giving and guidance just bolsters the point that The Works and Days is more concerned with moral teaching than it is about the teaching of practical advice.
