Works and Days

Works and Days is Hesiod's didactic poem addressed to Perses, against the background of a dispute over property and justice. Stories of Prometheus, Pandora and the successive human ages frame a world in which labor and hardship are unavoidable. Hesiod then offers practical guidance on agriculture, seafaring and the management of a household. These instructions are connected to judgments about fairness, restraint and the dangers of idleness or dishonest gain. The poem's movement between myth and seasonal tasks gives daily work a moral setting, joining the rhythms of rural life to the pursuit of a sustainable livelihood.