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.
Themes
The Interconnection of Gods, Humans, and the Natural World
The poem’s two parts—the first explaining why Zeus decreed men must work and the second sharing advice for how to succeed at work—portray gods, humans, and the natural world as an interconnected web. In Hesiod’s conception, the gods represent and control forces of the natural world and the human condition. The gods created the five tribes of men and the first woman, meaning, according to Hesiod, that “gods and mortal men have come from the same starting-point” (40). Although they diverge in powers and mortality, gods and humans share an essence.
When Prometheus conspired for men to receive the better ox meat portion, he attempted to subvert Zeus’s primacy. When he returned fire to men after Zeus had taken it from them, Prometheus attempted to subvert Zeus’s will. For these offenses, Zeus punishes both Prometheus and men, demonstrating that his primacy and will are supreme among gods and men alike and can be neither denied nor subverted. Because of this supremacy, men must accept and respect Zeus’s decree that they labor and act accordingly. The fable of the hawk and the nightingale shows that this form of justice applies only to humans. In the animal world, there are only the stronger and the weaker.
This conception of work as human justice forms the basis of Hesiod’s argument to Perses. He should seek to increase his wealth through industrious work habits and knowledgeable practice because this is acting in accordance with Zeus’s will. Schemes and lawsuits, which enable men to achieve wealth dishonorably, are thus impious. The judges who help Perses gain wealth by trickery are as guilty of injustice and impiety as Perses himself.
Hesiod’s advice for achieving success at one’s endeavors often includes how to recognize, through natural signs and cycles, the appropriate times to undertake certain activities. For example, regarding agriculture, Hesiod advises: “When the carryhouse climbs up the plants to escape the Pleiades, then digging of vines is past” (54). For sailors, he recommends: “For fifty days after the solstice, when the summer has entered its last stage, the season of fatigue, then it is time for mortals to sail” (56). Hesiod’s exacting review of lucky and unlucky days are an attempt to reveal the gods’ will and preferences to humans. By heeding them, humans earn the gods’ approval. In this sense, nature provides another link to connect humans and gods.
Value of Work in Human Societies
The first four (of five) tribes of men that the gods created did not labor. The gold tribe lived free of work and misery, but while the following three (silver, bronze, and demigod) also did not work, they destroyed themselves due to their preoccupation with violence and war. Hesiod predicts his fifth tribe will also be destroyed when men no longer love their brothers, respect their parents, or observe the gods’ laws. Envy and evil will overtake men, and they too will destroy themselves.
In Hesiod’s characterization, labor could provide an antidote because it keeps men productively and meaningfully occupied. Labor is right, and in its immortal form, “Right,” as described by Hesiod, was a gift from Zeus to men and “much the best practice” (45). To succeed at work, men must be industrious, apply their attention, and not become distracted by dishonorable pursuits (including violence). Thus, in addition to being Zeus’s justice, work also can provide redemption for humans. This is suggested, for example, in the association of agriculture with civilization (see “eaters of corn” in Symbols and Motifs). It is also evident in Hesiod urging Perses to avoid quarrels and violence as means of gaining wealth dishonorably. Instead, Perses should seek wealth through work and careful decision-making. Hesiod advises that “application […] promotes your cultivation” and warns that “evil gains are not better than losses” (47). Whatever the size of one’s fortune, “work is preferable” (47).
Truths, Lies, and Rivalries
The poem’s premise is a quarrel between Hesiod and his brother over a family inheritance. Relationships between brothers recur in the poem. Hesiod suggests that the end of love among brothers will precede the destruction of the fifth tribe of men. The poetry contest Hesiod claims to have won was held at funeral games for Amphidamas, a war hero, organized jointly by his sons. The Theban myth involves a dispute between brothers Eteocles and Polyneices. Two brothers, Agamemnon and Menelaus, led the Trojan war effort. Finally, in his family advice, Hesiod suggests it is best to have an only son, implying multiple brothers can lead to conflict.
Whether the quarrel with his brother, Perses, was an inciting action that inspired the poem or it was invented to provide Hesiod an opportunity to expound on the necessity and justice of work is debated. Textual evidence can support both interpretations. Defenders of the former view note that Hesiod provides revealing personal details about his father’s migration, poetic achievements, and place of birth. If one accepts these at face-value, it follows that an invented quarrel would have, during the poet’s time, been immediately recognized as false. In support of the latter, wisdom/didactic literature often depicts advice as being handed down between older and younger family members, typically fathers and sons. “Works and Days” also features aphorisms, another trope of didactic literature, as well as specific advice on farming and seafaring, time-keeping, and proto-economic thought (working is seen as a means of increasing wealth).
