Hesiod's Wordks and Days

Works and Days : 

Works and Days By Hesiod

Hesiod’s Life : 

Hesiod’s Life Hesiod was a Greek oral poet. His date is uncertain but leading scholars believe that Hesiod lived in the latter half of the Eighth-century BCE. Hesiod and Homer are both contemporaries of each other. Hesiod and Homer have generally been considered the earliest Greek poets whose work has survived, and they are often paired. Scholars disagree about who lived first, and the fourth-century BCE sophist Alcidamas' Mouseion even brought them together in an imagined poetic agon, the Contest of Homer and Hesiod. Hesiod's writings serve as a major source on Greek mythology, farming techniques, archaic Greek astronomy and ancient time-keeping.

Works & Days : 

Works & Days Works and Days is a poem of about 800 lines. The poem basically revolves around two truths of life. These truths are that labor is the universal lot of Man, but he who is willing to work will get by. Scholars have interpreted this work against a background of agrarian crisis in mainland Greece, which inspired a wave of documented colonizations in search of new land. During this time poverty was a great problem in Greece. This work lays out the five Ages of Man, all created by the Olympian Gods, mainly Zeus son of Cronus. It contains advice and wisdom, prescribing a life of honest labour and attacking idleness and unjust judges as well as the practice of usury. It describes immortals who roam the earth watching over justice and injustice. The poem regards labor as the source of all good, in that both gods and men hate the idle, who resemble drones in a hive.---all in all, Work hard and don’t be a bum!

What is Oral Poetry? : 

What is Oral Poetry? Oral composition This is where poets used to sing like rhapsodies, lyrics, for entertainment at parties or for royalty. They sang of legends of the past and other stories. They improvised and passed it down generation to generation. Like Homer, Hesiod’s “writing” were oral compositions. Back then most of these orators were Iliterate. It wasn’t until later in time that these traditional stories were written down to be recorded for future generations. Unlike many other works from oral traditions, Works and Days and Theogony were one of the few that survived time.

Understanding The Mechanics : 

Understanding The Mechanics Epithets: A characteristic of Homer's style is an epithet, as in "rosy-fingered dawn" or "swift-footed Achilles”, when referring to a character. These epithets were metric stop-gaps as well as mnemonic devices for the aoidos (singer) — both, signs of the deep oral tradition that preceded the written codification of the Iliad and Odyssey, which Hesiod also incorporated in his poetry and which was basically a format for the style of composition during those days. Epithets gave a way to recognize characters and remember them better.

Wisdom Literature : 

Wisdom Literature Wisdom literature is the genre of literature common in the Ancient Near East. This genre is characterized by sayings of wisdom intended to teach about divinity and about virtue. The key principle of wisdom literature is that whilst techniques of traditional story-telling are used, books also presume to offer insight and wisdom about nature and reality. Hesiod is trying to teach society about morals through experience of the creation of the gods and their creation of the ages. As he writes about the experience of his brother and what should or shouldn’t be done, like work hard and live a productive life and not waste money watching others get wealthier around town.

Who Were The Muses? : 

Who Were The Muses? Pierian Muses: They were the source of inspiration. They lived in Mt. Pieria which is on the southern part of Macedonia. They were nine muses, which were the daughters of Zeus and Mnemosyne, otherwise known as the Goddess of Memory. They Gave Hesiod his inspiration and so he composes about them on the beginning and ending paragraphs of his poems, as such was their deal with him and his inspiration by them.

The Brother : 

The Brother Perses He was Hesiod’s brother whom he writes about in Works & Days. In mythology there ware three people with the name Perses. But one particular, aside from Hesiod’s mentioned brother, was the brother of Aeetes. This Perses usurped the throne of Colchis from his brother then slain by his niece. However, in Hesiod’s Works & Days, his brother Perses does something similar. He cheats Hesiod from his inheritance, left to them when their father dies. He also goes recklessly about it, spending the money everywhere to gain favor within the upper class, hoping to make connections that way. It is uncertain whether Hesiod had such a brother, and because of this scholars wonder if “Perses” was a made up character so that Hesiod could have a basis for the poem to write to society about the acceptable morals one should attain throughout life.

Detailed Understanding : 

Detailed Understanding Poetic Fiction Poetry that is not true or based on non-fictional facts. Works and Days uses Mythology to get the point across. Legends of the Olympian Gods and deeds that shaped and affect society with every and all decisions we as humans make throughout our lifetime. Good decisions, and bad ones. He also gives examples of why things happen. And like all works from these times, mythology plays a big part since our existance and all our miseries are not carried by our decisions alone, but also the divine gods have a play at it. We are their game, and in their game us humans are the puppets with which they play and control…however, the tricky part is that they cannot mess with fate. Our fate is already pre-destined.

What Say Have The Divine? : 

What Say Have The Divine? If Our Fate is Predestined, then what is their take on our lives? --- None. They just control it and maneuver it for their own amusement. Humans are their entertainment when they are not dining with the Ethiopians, or partying up in Mt. Olympus. However, aside the fact that they are cruel, greedy, and to be feared…they are also just and punish those who do not follow the righteous path, or those who do not sacrifice or follow the rites of their mandates.---Which takes us to the NEXT slide.

The Olympian Gods : 

The Olympian Gods

The Five Ages of Hesiod : 

The Five Ages of Hesiod After being inspired by the muses, Hesiod writes one of his pieces called Works and Days. This work includes and explains the Greek creation story line that traces the lineage of mankind through FIVE successive "ages" or "races" from the "Golden Age" to the present "Iron Age."

First: The Golden Age : 

First: The Golden Age The Golden Age was a mythical first period of man when everything was happy and easy, and mortals lived like gods, although they died, but only as if falling asleep. No one worked or grew unhappy. Spring never ended. It is even described as a period in which people aged backwards. When they died, they became daimones (from which Philip Pullman gets his "daemon" and others get the word demon) and roamed the earth. The people of the Golden Age were formed by or for the Titan Cronus, whom the Romans called Saturn. When Zeus overcame the Titans, the Golden Age ended.

The Golden Age Before the Olympian Gods : 

The Golden Age Before the Olympian Gods

Titans Vs. Olympians : 

Titans Vs. Olympians The culmination of the Golden Age and the beginning of the Silver Age. Zeus becomes the boss.

The Silver Age : 

The Silver Age During the Silver Age the Olympian god Zeus was in charge. Zeus caused this generation of man to be created inferior in appearance and wisdom to the last. He divided the year into 4 seasons. Man had to plant grain and seek shelter, but still, a child could play for 100 years before growing up. The people wouldn't honor the gods, so Zeus caused them to be destroyed. When they died, they became "blessed spirits of the underworld."

The Silver Age : 

The Silver Age

The Bronze Age : 

The Bronze Age The Third Age was of bronze. Zeus created men from ash trees -- a hard wood used in spears. The Bronze Age men were strong and warlike. Among other traits, they did not eat bread. Their armor and homes were of bronze. It was this generation of men that was destroyed by the flood in the days of Prometheus' son Deucalion and Pyrrha. When the bronze men died they went to the Underworld.

The Bronze Age : 

The Bronze Age

The Age of Heroes : 

The Age of Heroes The Heroic Age was the one before our own. This race of men was called Henitheoi and was, like the Bronze race, made by Zeus. The men of this age were more heroic than their predecessors and successors. They were the demigods, but many were destroyed by the great wars of Greek legends. After death, some went to the Underworld; others to the Islands of the Blessed ones.

The Age of Heroes : 

The Age of Heroes Menelaus, Paris, Diomedes, Odysseus, Nestor, Achilles and Agamemnon

The Age of Heroes : 

The Age of Heroes Perseus sees Andromeda being sacrificed to a sea monster. Perseus falls in love with her and rescues her. With Andromeda, he had a child named Persues.

The Iron Age : 

The Iron Age Zeus placed a fifth race of men on earth during the present, Iron Age. All manner of evils came into being during this age. Piety and other virtues disappeared and most of the gods who were left on Earth, abandoned it. This is the present age, and like all other ages before us, Zeus will destroy this race some day as well.

The Iron Age--Present Age : 

The Iron Age--Present Age

Other Myths In Works & Days : 

Other Myths In Works & Days Prometheus; This Myth first appeared in Hesiod’s Theogony, where he exaplains all about the Olympian gods and their births into existance. He was a son of the Titan Iapetus by Themis or Clymene, one of the Oceanids. He was brother to Menoetius and Epimetheus. In the Theogony, Hesiod introduces Prometheus as a lowly challenger to Zeus' omniscience and omnipotence. He created the first man from clay, stole fire from the gods to give to mankind, and was punished by Zeus, the father of the gods, by being chained to a rock where an eagle came everyday to feed on his liver. Pandora; was the first woman. Each god helped create her by giving her unique gifts. Zeus ordered Hephaestus to mould her out of Earth as part of the punishment of mankind for Prometheus' theft of the secret of fire, and all the gods joined in offering this "beautiful evil" seductive gifts. According to the myth, Pandora opened a jar (pithos) in modern accounts referred to as "Pandora's box", releasing all the evils of mankind— although the particular evils are not specified in detail — leaving only Hope inside once she had closed it again.[4] She might have opened the jar out of simple curiosity and not as a malicious act

Lesson Learned? : 

Lesson Learned? Hope --is the one thing mankind has left from Pandora’s Jar. A probability that Works and Days is a composition by Hesiod to warn us to begin living our lives according to the age designed by Zeus or that maybe his anger will subside and a better age will be created. Also may be a resignation that there might be no other Age after this, and so we might as well just take the best of it by leading a righteous and modest life according to what has been given to us by fate and Olympian Gods. Might also exist the possibility that he wants to teach his brother a moralistic lesson through the myths presented by legend and tradition so that he changes his ways and doesn’t spend the inheritance left by his father. He wants his brother to live a modest life.

References : 

References S. Trzaskoma, R. Scott Smith. 2004. Antholoy of Classical Myths; Primary Sources In Translation. Hackett Publishing Company. McPhail, CLA220; University of Miami, Miami, FL. Spring 2009 http://www.wikipedia.com Google Images