Tom's Learning Notes

The Works and Days (Greek: Ἔργα καὶ Ἡμέραι, Erga kai Hēmerai) is a poem in 828 hexametres by Hesiod, who may have lived around 700 BC. It is addressed to the poet's brother Perses, urging him to reconcile their quarrel, and invoking a number of myths to illustrate the need to act justly. Hesiod goes on to advise Perses on how to work as a farmer. The Works and Days of the title are the activities of the farming year and the auspicious days on which to perform them, invoked in a sort of verse almanac in the final two thirds of the poem.

Works and Days at Amazon: United States | Canada | United Kingdom | France | Germany | Spain | Italy

Free online texts

Gutenberg: Hesiod, the Homeric Hymns, and Homerica.

Loebulus. L496 - Hesiod, the Homeric Hymns, and Homerica. PDF of public domain Loeb edition in Greek and English.

University of Adelaide: Works and Days, translated by H.G. Evelyn-White. Multiple formats.

Wikisource: Works and Days, translated by H.G. Evelyn-White (1920). Multiple formats.

Other Resources

History of Ancient Greece: Oligarchs and Hesiod, podcast by Ryan Stitt.

Internet Archive: The Successors of Homer, by William Cranston Lawton (1898). Multiple formats.

Librivox: Works and Days, The Theogony, and The Shield of Heracles - Public domain audiobook.

Literature and History: Hesiod's Lands and Seasons - The Works and Days of Hesiod. Podcast and transcript.  

Wikipedia: Works and Days.

The Great Conversation: Further reading at Tom's Learning Notes

Homer: The Iliad and The Odyssey.

Hesiod: Theogony.

 Ancient Greek resources: Learn to read Greek classics in the original.

Bloom's Western Canon: Works and Days is listed.

The Theogony (Greek: Θεογονία, Theogonía), a poem by Hesiod, is the earliest and most important systematic account of Greek mythology. Little is known of Hesiod other than that he was a farmer in Boeotia, probably in the 7th century BCE. This background is reflected in the opening of the Theogony, in which Hesiod is inspired by the muses while pasturing sheep on Mount Helicon. The poem goes on to describe the creation of the world out of primeval chaos, the genealogy of the Gods, the struggle of the Titans and Olympians, and the divine parentage of human heroes.

Hesiod wrote in a similar epic dialect to Homer, though he is often seen as reflecting a later development. The relatively systematic worldview presented in the Theogony has made it a key point of comparison with the earliest Greek philosophers, a number of whom continued to use poetic forms and indeed myth.

The Theogony at Amazon: United States | Canada | United Kingdom | France | Germany | Spain | Italy

Free online texts

Gutenberg: Hesiod, the Homeric Hymns, and Homerica.

Loebulus. L496 - Hesiod, the Homeric Hymns, and Homerica. PDF of public domain Loeb edition in Greek and English.

Perseus: Greek text - English text, translated by Hugh Evelyn-White (1914). HTML and XML formats.

Sacred-Texts: Theogony, translated by H.G. Evelyn-White. HTML format.

Theoi: Theogony ,translated by H.G. Evelyn-White. HTML format.

Wikisource: The Theogony, translated by H.G. Evelyn-White (1920).  Multiple formats.

Wikisource: ΘΕΟΓΟΝΙΑ. Greek text. Multiple formats.

Other Resources

History of Ancient Greece: The Greek Genesis, podcast by Ryan Stitt.

History of Ancient Greece: Oligarchs and Hesiod, podcast by Ryan Stitt.

Librivox: Works and Days, The Theogony, and The Shield of Heracles - Public domain audiobook.

Literature and History: Before Orthodoxy - Hesiod's Theogony - Ancient Greece's Creation Story. Podcast and transcript.

Wikipedia: Theogony.

The Great Conversation: Further reading at Tom's Learning Notes

Homer: The Iliad and The Odyssey.

Hesiod: Works and Days.

 Ancient Greek resources: Learn to read Greek classics in the original.

Bloom's Western Canon: The Theogony is listed.