Hesiod: Works and Days
02/13/2017
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.
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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 (Internet Archive): 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.