46 pages • 1 hour read
HesiodWorks and Days
Fiction | Poem | AdultA modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.
Background
Historical Context
As is typically the case with ancient literature, scholars debate the poem’s dating, meaning, and influences. Further, some of Hesiod’s Greek is obscure, leaving the meaning in these sections unclear. In addition, “Works and Days” is discursive, wandering from one topic to the next. It also incorporates contradictions, sometimes leaning toward misanthropy and pessimism and other times encouraging hopefulness. The conclusion wraps up the wide-ranging discussion in a single sentence.
Historical context suggests a possible explanation for the poem’s discursive construction. In the 9th and 8th centuries BCE, the Hellenic world was emerging from a Dark Age during which written language seems to have been lost (based on archeological findings). Travel, trade, and cultural exchange were developing. Communication among Hellenic communities was increasing. Around 850 BCE, some scholars believe the Greek alphabet was adapted from the Phoenician, with a ground-breaking difference: the Greek alphabet included symbols for vowels. Previous alphabets featured symbols only for consonants. This rendered deciphering written language an arcane and specialized process limited to a learned scribe class. In contrast, the Greek alphabet enabled anyone who memorized the sounds of its twenty-four symbols to read. Whether Hesiod himself was literate and transcribed his poem is debated. Nevertheless, whether he wrote it down himself or attracted the attention of a literate person, struggle to acclimate to a new technology, in this case written language, is a potential explanation for the poem’s loose transitions and abrupt ending.
As a whole, “Works and Days” can be understood as an argument for human labor as just (the poem’s first part) and specific advice for how to achieve success in one’s work, thereby both pleasing the gods and achieving a meaningful life (the second part). It blends elements of Hellenic traditions (e.g., the Theban and Trojan legends) with Near Eastern mythology (e.g., associating metals with races as in Persian and Indian myths, succession of the races that has parallels in Babylonian myth, epithets for and behavior of Zeus that reflect Eastern models).
Cultural-Mythological Context
Hesiod’s concept of justice is tied to the ancient Greek conception of the gods. From the outset of the poem, the gods are depicted as forces of nature and the human condition. Hesiod capitalizes Strife, indicating that it is both a human condition and an immortal. Strife in itself is value-neutral but has positive and negative manifestations. Positive strife encourages men to be competitive and thus achieve while negative strife promotes “ugly fighting and conflict” (Line 37). Like Strife, “Decency” and “Moral Disapproval” (Line 42) are capitalized and personified, as are “Right” and “Oath” (Line 43) and, towards the end of the poem, “Rumour” (Line 59). Hesiod refers to the gods as “immortals” (Line 40), meaning they are immutable and eternal. Their character and behavior mirrors that of humans, unlike in Abrahamic religions, but they possess powers and are immortal, distinguishing them from humans. Humans are at the mercy of the gods’ whims. As the king of the gods, Zeus is the primary determiner of what is just (See: Character Analysis).
“Works and Days” underscores Hesiod’s beliefs in the need for labor in ancient Greek society and the way humankind can exemplify what is just through labor, labor that Zeus himself expects of humankind. By shirking labor and doing so unjustly, Hesiod’s brother and the judge who schemes with him, are guilty of cultural slights and religious sacrilege.
