Hesiod's Works And Days Audiobook

Hesiod's Works And Days audiobook with text and illustrations, and dramatized 🎵 with sound effects and music, by Audiobooks Dimension.

Title : Works And Days (Ἔργα καὶ Ἡμέραι)
Author : Hesiod (Ἡσίοδος)
Written : 700 BCE
Place of Origin : Ancient Greece
Original Media type : Papyrus
Original Language : Ancient Greek
Translator : Hugh G. Evelyn White
Genre(s) : Ancient Greece, Greek Mythology, Knowledge
Reader : Arthur Krolman
Musician : Aakash Gandhi
Editor : AudioBooks Dimension

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Dramatized 🎵

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Works And Days (Ἔργα καὶ Ἡμέραι) of Hesiod is a didactic poem in dactylic hexameter. It is a farmer's almanac in which Hesiod instructs his brother Perses in the agricultural arts, and also offers his brother extensive moralizing advice on how he should live his life. Works And Days is best known for its two mythological aetiologies for the toil and pain that define the human condition, the story of Prometheus and Pandora, and the Myth of Five Ages.

Unlike Homer, Hesiod tell us a certain amount about himself and his life. Hence we are able to say that his father came from the Aeolian city of Cyme on the coast of Asia Minor, just south of Lesbos. (Certain occasional traces of Aeolian dialect in Hesiod's work are no doubt to be explained by this.) He had been a merchant seaman, but found it difficult to make ends meet and removed to Ascra, an out-of-the-way village on the eastern side of Mount Helicon in Boeotia, presumably to make a living off the land. Here, it seems, Hesiod was born and brought up, together with his brother Perses.

Hesiod became a poet, so he claims, through instruction from the Muses themselves as he tended his lambs, or his father's lambs, on the mountain slopes. The goddesses presented him with a staff as a token of his new role, and told him to sing of the family of immortals. The passage served as a model for a series of later poets who boasted playfully of similar encounters with the Muses or Apollo. It is debatable to what extent he genuinely experienced a religious vision. It might well be true that is was when he was alone on the mountainside that he realized he had the ability to compose poetry. But he must have listened to many other poets reciting, and they must count as his real instructors.

Hesiod systematizing things constructively. In two passages in 'Works and Days', we find him creating new goddess. Near the beginning he announces his realization that there is another sort of Strife, a good sort, and he assigns her a place in his system as the elder sister of the bad one. Towards the end, after warning of the dangerous power of rumour, he remarks that once it gets going it never died, and this lead him to the thought 'She too is somehow a goddess'.

The poem consists of four main sections.

(1) It begins with the allegory of the two Strifes, who stand for wholesome Emulation and Quarrelsomeness respectively. Then by means of the Myth of Pandora the poet shows how evil and the need for work first arose, and goes on to describe the Five Ages of the World, tracing the gradual increase in evil, and emphasizing the present miserable condition of the world, a condition in which struggle is inevitable. Next, after the Fable of the Hawk and Nightingale, which serves as a condemnation of violence and injustice, the poet passes on to contrast the blessing which Righteousness brings to a nation, and the punishment which Heaven sends down upon the violent, and the section concludes with a series of precepts on industry and prudent conduct generally.

(2) The second section shows how a man may escape want and misery by industry and care both in agriculture and in trading by sea. Neither subject, it should be carefully noted, is treated in any way comprehensively.

(3) The third part is occupied with miscellaneous precepts relating mostly to actions of domestic and everyday life and conduct which have little or no connection with one another.

(4) The final section is taken up with a series of notices on the days of the month which are favourable or unfavourable for agricultural and other operations.

It is from the second and fourth sections that the poem takes its name. At first sight such a work seems to be a miscellany of myths, technical advice, moral precepts, and folklore maxims without any unifying principle; and critics have readily taken the view that the whole is a canto of fragments or short poems worked up by a redactor. Very probably Hesiod used much material of a far older date, close inspection will show that the Works and Days has a real unity and that the picturesque title is somewhat misleading. The poem has properly no technical object at all, but is moral: its real aim is to show men how best to live in a difficult world. So viewed the four seemingly independent sections will be found to be linked together in a real bond of unity. Such a connection between the first and second sections is easily seen, but the links between these and the third and fourth are no less real: to make life go tolerably smoothly it is most important to be just and to know how to win a livelihood; but happiness also largely depends on prudence and care both in social and home life as well, and not least on avoidance of actions which offend supernatural powers and bring ill-luck. And finally, if your industry is to be fruitful, you must know what days are suitable for various kinds of work. This moral aim—as opposed to the currently accepted technical aim of the poem—explains the otherwise puzzling incompleteness of the instructions on farming and seafaring.

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Persons mentioned in Works and Days :

1. Amphidamas (Ἀμφιδάμας) : a historical king of Chalcis, who died about 730 BCE after the Lelantine War; whose burial ceremony being associated with the poetic agon is mentioned by Hesiod.
2. Cadmus (Κάδμος) : the legendary Greek hero and founder of Boeotian Thebes. He was, alongside Perseus and Bellerophon, the greatest hero and slayer of monsters before the days of Heracles.
3. Helen (Ἑλένη) : a figure in Greek mythology said to have been the most beautiful woman in the world. She was believed to have been the daughter of Zeus and Leda, and was the sister of Clytemnestra, Castor and Pollux, Philonoe, Phoebe and Timandra. She was married to King Menelaus of Sparta "who became by her the father of Hermione. Her abduction by Paris of Troy was the most immediate cause of the Trojan War.
4. Oedipus (Οἰδίπους) : a mythical Greek king of Thebes. A tragic hero in Greek mythology, Oedipus fulfilled a prophecy that he would end up killing his father and marrying his mother, thereby bringing disaster to his city and family.
5. Pandion (Πανδίων) : a legendary King of Athens, the son and heir to Erichthonius of Athens and his wife, the naiad Praxithea. Through his father, he was the grandson of the god Hephaestus. Pandion married a naiad, Zeuxippe, and they had two sons Erechtheus and Butes, and two daughters Procne and Philomela.
6. Pandora (Πανδώρα) : the first human woman created by Hephaestus on the instructions of Zeus.
7. Perses (Πέρσης) : brother of Hesiod.

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Deities mentioned in Works and Days :

1. Aidos (Αἰδώς) : the Greek goddess of shame, modesty, respect, and humility. Aidos, as a quality, was that feeling of reverence or shame which restrains men from wrong. It also encompassed the emotion that a rich person might feel in the presence of the impoverished, that their disparity of wealth, whether a matter of luck or merit, was ultimately undeserved.
2. Aphrodite (Αφροδιτη) : an ancient Greek goddess associated with love, lust, beauty, pleasure, passion, procreation.
3. Apollo (Απολλων) : the Olympian god of prophecy and oracles, music, song and poetry, archery, healing, plague and disease, and the protection of the young.
4. Ares (Ἄρης) : the Greek god of war and courage. He is one of the Twelve Olympians, and the son of Zeus and Hera. He embodies the physical valor necessary for success in war but can also personify sheer brutality and bloodlust.
5. Athena (Αθηνη) : an ancient Greek goddess associated with wisdom, warfare, and handicraft.
6. Atlas (Ἄτλας) : a Titan condemned to hold up the heavens or sky for eternity after the Titanomachy. Atlas was the son of the Titan Iapetus. He was a brother of Epimetheus and Prometheus. He had many children, mostly daughters, the Hesperides, the Hyades, the Pleiades, and the nymph Calypso.
7. Boreas (Βορέας) : the Greek god of the cold north wind, storms, and winter. Boreas is depicted as being very strong, with a violent temper to match.
8. Cronos (Κρόνος) : the leader and youngest of the first generation of Titans, the divine descendants of the primordial Gaia (Mother Earth) and Uranus (Father Sky). He overthrew his father and ruled during the mythological Golden Age, until he was overthrown by his own son Zeus and imprisoned in Tartarus.
9. Dawn / Eos (Ἠώς) : the goddess and personification of the dawn, who rose each morning from her home at the edge of the river Oceanus to deliver light and disperse the night.
10. Death / Thanatos (Θάνατος) : the personification of death. Thánatos has no father, but is the son of Nyx (Night) and brother of Hypnos (Sleep).
11. Demeter (Δημήτηρ) : the Olympian goddess of the harvest and agriculture, presiding over crops, grains, food, and the fertility of the earth. Although Demeter is mostly known as a grain goddess, she also appeared as a goddess of health, birth, and marriage, and had connections to the Underworld.
12. Dionysus (Διόνυσος) : the god of wine-making, orchards and fruit, vegetation, fertility, festivity, insanity, ritual madness, religious ecstasy, and theatre.
13. Epimetheus (Ἐπιμηθεύς) : the twin brother of Prometheus, the pair serving "as representatives of mankind". Both sons of the Titan Iapetus, while Prometheus ("foresight") is ingeniously clever, Epimetheus ("hindsight") is inept and foolish.
14. Erinyes (Ἐρινύες) : three goddesses of vengeance and retribution who punished men for crimes against the natural order. They were particularly concerned with homicide, unfilial conduct, offenses against the gods, and perjury. A victim seeking justice could call down the curse of the Erinys upon the criminal.
15. Hephaestus (Ἥφαιστος) : the Greek god of artisans, blacksmiths, carpenters, craftsmen, fire, metallurgy, metalworking, sculpture and volcanoes.
16. Hermes (Ἑρμῆς) : an Olympian deity in ancient Greek religion and mythology considered the herald of the gods. He is also widely considered the protector of human heralds, travelers, thieves, merchants, and orators. He is able to move quickly and freely between the worlds of the mortal and the divine aided by his winged sandals.
17. Hope / Elpis (ἐλπίς) : the spirit of hope. She was depicted as a young woman, usually carrying flowers or a cornucopia in her hands. Elpis was the last item in Pandora's box (or jar).
18. Horcus / Oath (Ὅρκος) : the offspring of Eris (Strife), with no father. Horcus personifies the curse that will be inflicted on any person who swears a false oath.
19. Hours / Horae (Ὧρα) : the goddesses of the seasons and the natural portions of time. The Horae were originally the personifications of nature in its different seasonal aspects, but in later times they were regarded as goddesses of order in general and natural justice.
20. Iapetus (Ἰαπετός) : a Titan, the son of Uranus and Gaia and father of Atlas, Prometheus, Epimetheus, and Menoetius.
21. Justice / Dike (Δίκη) : the goddess of justice and the spirit of moral order and fair judgement as a transcendent universal ideal or based on immemorial custom, in the sense of socially enforced norms and conventional rules.
22. Leto (Λητώ) : a goddess and the mother of Apollo and Artemis. She is the daughter of the Titans Coeus and Phoebe, and the sister of Asteria.
23. Nemesis (Νέμεσις) : the goddess who personified retribution for the sin of hubris; arrogance before the gods. Nemesis was one of the children of Nyx alone.
24. Night / Nyx (Νύξ) : the goddess and personification of the night.
25. Notus (Νότος) : the god of the south wind and one of the Anemoi (wind-gods), sons of the dawn goddess Eos and the star-god Astraeus. A desiccating, hot wind of heat, Notus was associated with the storms of late summer and early autumn, wetness, mist, and was seen as a rain-bringer.
26. Orion (Ὠρίων) : a giant huntsman whom Zeus placed among the stars as the constellation of Orion.
27. Outrage / Hybris (Ὑβρις) : the goddess or personified spirit (daimona) of insolence, hubris, violence, reckless pride, arrogance and outrageous behaviour in general.
28. Peace / Eirene (Εἰρήνη) : one of the Horae, the personification and goddess of peace in Greek mythology and ancient religion. She was depicted in art as a beautiful young woman carrying a cornucopia, sceptre, and a torch or rhyton. She is usually said to be the daughter of Zeus and Themis and thus sister of Dike and Eunomia.
29. Persuasion / Peitho (Πειθώ) : the personification of persuasion. She is typically presented as an important companion of Aphrodite. As a personification, she was sometimes imagined as a goddess and sometimes an abstract power with her name used both as a common and proper noun.
30. Poseidon (Ποσειδῶν) : one of the Twelve Olympians, presiding over the sea, storms, earthquakes and horses.
31. Prometheus (Προμηθεύς) : one of the Titans and a god of fire. Prometheus is best known for defying the Olympian gods by stealing fire from them and giving it to humanity in the form of technology, knowledge, and more generally, civilization.
32. Strife / Eris (Ἔρις) : the Greek goddess of strife and discord.
33. Zephyr (Ζέφυρος) : the god and personification of the West wind, one of the several wind gods, the Anemoi.
34. Zeus (Ζεύς) : the sky and thunder god in ancient Greek religion and mythology, who rules as king of the gods on Mount Olympus.

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Other Being mentioned in Works and Days :

1. Argus (Ἄργος) : a many-eyed giant in Greek mythology. Argus was Hera's servant. His great service to the Olympian pantheon was to slay the chthonic serpent-legged monster Echidna as she slept in her cave. Hera's defining task for Argus was to guard the white heifer Io from Zeus, who was attracted to her, keeping her chained to the sacred olive tree at the Argive Heraion. Hera knew that the heifer was in reality Io, one of the many nymphs Zeus was coupling with to establish a new order. She required someone who had at least a hundred eyes spread out, always watching in all directions, someone who would stay awake despite being asleep. Argos was meant to be the perfect guardian. To free Io, Zeus had Argus slain by Hermes. The messenger of the Olympian gods, disguised as a shepherd, first put all of Argus' eyes asleep with spoken charms, then slew him.

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Places mentioned in Works and Days :

1. Arcturus (Ἀρκτοῦρος) : the fourth-brightest star in the night sky, and the brightest in the northern celestial hemisphere.
2. Ascra (Ἄσκρη) : a town in ancient Boeotia which is best known today as the home of the poet Hesiod. It was located upon Mount Helicon.
3. Aulis (Αὐλίς) : a Greek port town, located in ancient Boeotia in central Greece, at the Euripus Strait, opposite of the island of Euboea.
4. Chalcis (Χαλκίς) : the chief city of the island of Euboea in Greece,
5. Cyme (Κύμη) : an Aeolian city in Aeolis (Asia Minor) close to the kingdom of Lydia. The Aeolians regarded Cyme as the largest and most important of their twelve cities, which were located on the coastline of Asia Minor. As a result of their direct access to the sea, unlike most non-landlocked settlements of the ancient world, trade is believed to have prospered.
6. Euboea (Εὔβοια) : the second-largest Greek island in area and population, after Crete, and the sixth largest island in the Mediterranean Sea.
7. Helicon (Ἑλικών) : a mountain in the region of Thespiai in Boeotia, Greece.
8. Hellas (Ἑλλάς) : a name for all lands inhabited by Hellenes, i.e. all of ancient Greece, including the Greek colonies.
9. Olympus (Όλυμπος) : the highest mountain in Greece, the home of the twelve gods of Olympus in Greek mythology. It is part of the Olympus massif near the Thermaic Gulf of the Aegean Sea, located in the Olympus Range on the border between Thessaly and Macedonia, between the regional units of Larissa and Pieria.
10. Orion (Ὠρίων) : a constellation which is visible from most parts of the world. It is named for a hunter in Greek mythology. In the Northern Hemisphere, Orion is most prominent during winter evenings, as are five other constellations that have stars in the Winter Hexagon asterism.
11. Pieria (Πιερία) : one of the regional units of Greece located in the southern part of the Region of Central Macedonia, within the historical province of Macedonia. Pieria contains Mount Pierus, from which Hermes takes flight in order to visit Calypso,[2] and is the home of Orpheus, the Muses, and contains the Pierian Spring. Mount Olympus, the highest mountain in Greece and throne of the ancient Greek gods, is located in the southern part of Pieria.
12. Sirius (Σειριος) : the god and personification of the star Sirius, the brightest star in the night sky, also known as the Dog Star, the most prominent star in the constellation Canis Major (the Greater Dog).
13. Thebes (Θῆβαι) : the largest city of the ancient region of Boeotia and was the leader of the Boeotian confederacy.
14. Thrace (Θράκη) : geographical and historical region in Southeast Europe. Bounded by the Balkan Mountains to the north, the Aegean Sea to the south, and the Black Sea to the east, it comprises present-day southeastern Bulgaria (Northern Thrace), northeastern Greece (Western Thrace), and the European part of Turkey (East Thrace), roughly the Roman Province of Thrace.
15. Troy (Τροία) : the capital of a rich and powerful kingdom. The city is sitting on a steep hill, protected by enormous sloping stone walls, rectangular towers, and massive gates whose wooden doors can be bolted shut.

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Terms mentioned in Works and Days :

1. A loaf of four quarters : the loaf is a flattish cake with two intersecting lines scored on its upper surface which divide it into four equal parts.
2. A raw old age : untimely, premature (caused by gluttony).
3. Achaeans (Ἀχαιοί) : one of the names which is used to refer to the Greeks collectively.
4. Aeolian (Αἰολεῖς) : a thing or person of or from Aeolia, Asia Minor.  
5. At a cheerful festival of the gods do not cut the withered from the quick upon that which has five branches with bright steel : ‘do not cut your finger-nails’.
6. Cut a beetle : a mallet for breaking clods after ploughing.
7. Cut a mortar : for pounding corn.
8. Do not be boorish at a common feast where there are many guests; the pleasure is greatest and the expense is least : the ‘common feast’ is one to which all present subscribe. One of the chief pleasures of a banquet is the general conversation. Hence the present passage means that such a feast naturally costs little, while the many present will make pleasurable conversation.
9. Do not let your face put your heart to shame : the thought is parallel to that of ‘O, what a goodly outside falsehood hath.’
10. Dusky men : the darker-skinned people of Africa, the Egyptians or Aethiopians.
11. Eight slices : giving eight mouthfulls.
12. Fates / Moirai (Μοιραι) : the three goddesses of fate who personified the inescapable destiny of man. They assigned to every person his or her fate or share in the scheme of things.
13. Father of Men and Gods : title of the god Zeus.
14. Fifty days after the solstice, when the season of wearisome heat is come to an end : July-August.
15. Graces / Charites (Χάριτες) : three goddesses of charm, beauty, nature, human creativity, goodwill, and fertility.
16. Grey springtime : spring is so described because the buds have not yet cast their iron-grey husks.
17. Have grey hair on the temples at their birth : the race will so degenerate that at the last even a new-born child will show the marks of old age.
18. Hellenes (Έλληνες) : an ethnic group and nation native to Greece, Cyprus, southern Albania, Anatolia, parts of Italy and Egypt, and to a lesser extent, other countries surrounding the Eastern Mediterranean and Black Sea.
19. Herald of the Gods : refer to the god Hermes.
20. House-carrier : the snail.
21. Hyades (Ὑάδες) : a sisterhood of nymphs that bring rain. The Hyades are sisters to the Pleiades and the Hesperides.
22. Lame God : refer to the god Hephaestus.
23. Mallow and Asphodel : the poor man’s fare, like ‘bread and cheese’.
24. Muses (Μοῦσαι) : the nine inspirational goddesses of literature, science, and the arts. They were considered the source of the knowledge embodied in the poetry, lyric songs, and myths that were related orally for centuries in ancient Greek culture.
25. Neighbours come ungirt, but kinsmen stay to gird themselves : neighbours come at once and without making preparations, but kinsmen by marriage (who live at a distance) have to prepare, and so are long in coming.
26. Ocean (Ὠκεανός) : the great river which encircled the entire world.
27. Olympian : the 12 great gods of the Greeks, together they presided over every aspect of human life.
28. Pallas : the epithet of the goddess Athena
29. Pleiades (Πλειάδες) : the seven sister-nymphs, companions of Artemis, the goddess of the hunt. The Pleiades' parents were the Titan Atlas and the Oceanid Pleione born on Mount Cyllene.
30. Put away your rudder over the smoke : to preserve it when not in use. The point is that one would not need to engage in sea-trading to support oneself.
31. Slayer of Argus : the title of the god Hermes.
32. Son of Cronos : refer to the god Zeus.
33. The Boneless One : the octopus or cuttlefish.
34. The Day-sleeper : a robber.
35. The Guide : the title of the god Hermes.
36. The month Lenaeon : the latter part of January and earlier part of February.
37. The shrilly wailing daughter of Pandion : Philomela, after being raped and mutilated by her sister's husband, Tereus, obtains her revenge and is transformed into a nightingale, a bird renowned for its song. Because of the violence associated with the myth, the song of the nightingale is often depicted or interpreted as a sorrowful lament. In nature, the female nightingale is mute, and only the male of the species sings.
38. The solstice : the time or date (twice each year) at which the sun reaches its maximum or minimum declination, marked by the longest and shortest days (about June 21st and December 22nd). In this case, Hesiod means in December.
39. The Three-legged One : an old man walking with a staff (the ‘third leg’— as in the riddle of the Sphinx).
40. The waxing month : the month is divided into three periods, the waxing, the mid-month, and the waning, which answer to the phases of the moon.
41. The Wise One : the ant.
42. They know not how much more the half is than the whole, nor what great advantage there is in mallow and asphodel : even such poor fare is better than a loaded table that depends on dishonesty.
43. Things which may not be moved : things which it would be sacrilege to disturb, such as tombs.
44. Thracian (Θρᾷκες) : a thing or person of or from Thrace.
45. Upon the well-rolled threshing floor : corn was threshed by means of a sleigh with two runners having three or four rollers between them.
46. When Orion and Sirius are come into mid-heaven, and rosy-fingered Dawn sees Arcturus : in September.
47. When strong Orion first appears, on a smooth threshing-floor in an airy place : in July.
48. When the artichoke flowers, and the chirping grass-hopper sits in a tree and pours down his shrill song continually from under his wings in the season of wearisome heat : in June.
49. When the cuckoo first calls in the leaves of the oak : in March.
50. When the House-carrier climbs up the plants from the earth to escape the Pleiades : The season is the middle of May.
51. When the piercing power and sultry heat of the sun abate, and almighty Zeus sends the autumn rains : in October.
52. When the Pleiades and Hyades and strong Orion begin to set : the end of October.
53. When the Pleiades plunge into the misty sea to escape Orion’s rude strength : the end of October or beginning of November.
54. When the Pleiades, daughters of Atlas, are going to set : in November.
55. When the Pleiades, daughters of Atlas, are rising : early in May.
56. When you hear the voice of the crane who cries year by year from the clouds above : about the middle of November.
57. When Zeus has finished sixty wintry days after the solstice, then the star Arcturus leaves the holy stream of Ocean and first rises brilliant at dusk : February to March.
58. Wine of Biblis : a Thracian wine. Thrace and the neighboring lands were considered as lands with a sweet wine

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