Works and Days
by Hesiod, A. E. Stallings · first published 2008
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I hope that the A.E. Stallings translation of Hesoid's "Work And Days" lasts for centuries. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/36355637-works-and-days It would show the future some portion of us as English speakers knowledge of ancient Greek and Latin. And since it is in heroic couplets it will offer a window into our pronunciation, syllabic emphasis,…
on “Which Writers Will We Remember?” ↗Hesiod in his Works and Days (c. 700 BC) talks about the behaviour of octopuses, saying that when octopuses get hungry they will eat their own tentacles. Amazingly, Hesiod was right about this behaviour (octopuses do sometimes eat…
on “The mystery of social behavior in octopuses” ↗Homer wasn't the only person writing in the classical period. His contemporary, Hesiod, depicted gods as immortal arbiters of justice in Works and Days. The Ilyad clearly has struck some narrative gold, but was in no way the only manner in which the pantheon was portrayed.
on “Complex societies precede moralizing gods throughout world history” ↗…have placed sweat: long and steep is the path that leads to her, and it is rough at the first; but when a man has reached the top, then is she easy to reach, though before that she was hard. (Hesiod, Works and Days)
on “Sugary drinks and cancer risk: results from NutriNet-Santé prospective cohort” ↗What myths and stories are you referring to? Hesiod’s Works and Days is opposed to exactly what you suggest. And the Myth of Eden in Judaism - the received tradition of its origin - is a commentary and the need to toil in life. Both “Athens and Jerusalem” are principled…
on “Collusion rings threaten the integrity of computer science research” ↗…seems to ignore the long tradition of didactic poetry, which was typically sung rather than simply read aloud. How would this theory account for Lucretius' De Rerum Natura, for instance, or Hesiod's Works and Days? These are musical works, intended for singing, but they are also supposed to convey fairly detailed factual information to the listener. We still use song for similar purposes today (e.g. in religious…
on “Music is a negative superstimulus for speech (2020)” ↗…proverb is older than his criticism. His letter, alas, seems to be the oldest still existing source of this formulation. Similar thoughts expressed earlier are quoted by Büchmann ²⁰1900 p. 353: - Hesiod ‘Works and Days’ v. 763–764: “Φήμη δʼ οὔτις πάμπαν ἀπόλλυται, ἥντινα πολλοὶ | Λαοὶ φημίζουσι. θεός νύ τίς ἐστι καὶ αὐτή.” ‘No rumour will perish completely which is rumoured by so many people. A kind of god indeed is…
on “What is the history of ‘Vox populi, vox Dei’? (2013)” ↗…and by the later classical period, Zeus was increasingly associated with Justice. Also, Hesiod, who wrote at about the same time as Homer, certainly associated justice with Zeus. Here is a quote from Works and Days: > You too, my lords, attend to this justice-doing of hours. For close at hand among men there are immortals taking note of all those who afflict each other with crooked judgements, heedless of the…
on “The extraordinary influence of the Iliad and Odyssey” ↗You can go back to Hesiod's Works and Days around 700 BC for economic analyses.
on “The Unicorns Fell into a Ditch” ↗Almost adopted, or almost back to it. I remember reading in Toynbee that the solar calendar was an effect of the hard transition from a matriarchal society to a patriarchal one. I also remember reading Works and Days and how the Boreas impregnated the mares. So yes, sure it was a hard revolution, I think the most important one. 13 was the unlucky number, the Satan number and so on. But 28 days is easy and convenient,…
on “The world nearly adopted a calendar with 13 months of 28 days” ↗