# The Remains of Hesiod the Ascræan, including the Shield of Hercules/The Works and Days

The Works and Days.
THE WORKS AND DAYS.
The Argument.
The poem comprehends the general œconomy of industry and morals. In the first division of the subject, the state of the world, past and present, is described; for the purpose of exemplifying the condition of human nature: which entails on man the necessity of exertion to preserve the goods of life; and leaves him no alternative but honest industry or unjust violence; of which the good and evil consequences are respectively illustrated. Two Strifes are said to have been sent into the world, the one promoting dissension, the other emulation. Perses is exhorted to abjure the former and embrace the latter; and an apposite allusion is made to the circumstance of his litigiously disputing the patrimonial estate, of which, through the corruption of the judges, he obtained the larger proportion. The judges are rebuked, and cheap contentment is apostrophized as the true secret of happiness. Such is stated to have been the original sense of mankind before the necessity of labour existed. The origin of labour is deduced from the resentment of Jupiter against Prometheus; which resentment led to the formation of Pandora: or Woman: who is described with her attributes, and is represented as bringing with her into the world a casket of diseases. The degeneracy of man is then traced through successive ages. The three first ages are severally distinguished as the golden, the silver, and the brazen. The fourth has no metallic distinction, but is described as the heroic age, and as embracing ​the æra of the Trojan war. The fifth is styled the iron age, and, according to the Poet, is that in which he lives. The general corruption of mankind in this age is detailed, and Modesty and Justice are represented taking their flight to heaven. A pointed allusion to the corrupt administration of the laws, in his own particular instance, is introduced in a fable, typical of oppression. Justice is described as invisibly following those who violate her decrees with avenging power, and as lamenting in their streets the wickedness of a corrupted people. The temporal blessings of an upright nation are contrasted with the temporal evils which a wicked nation draws down from an angry Providence. Holy Dæmons are represented as hovering about the earth, and keeping watch over the actions of men. Justice is again introduced, carrying her complaints to the feet of Jupiter, and obtaining that the crimes of rulers be visited on their people. A pathetic appeal is then made to these rulers in their judicial capacity, urging them to renounce injustice. After some further exhortations to virtue and industry, and a number of unconnected precepts, the Poet enters on the Georgical part of his subject: which contains the prognostics of the seasons of agricultural labour, and rules appertaining to wood-felling, carpentry, ploughing, sowing, reaping, threshing, vine-dressing, and the vintage. This division of the subject includes a description of winter and of a repast in summer. He then treats of navigation: and concludes with some desultory precepts of religion, moral decorum, and superstition: and lastly, with a specification of Days: which are divided into holy, auspicious, and inauspicious: mixed and intermediary: or such as are entitled to no remarkable observance.
WORKS.
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* ↑ The bowed feeble rears.] This proem was wanting in the leaden-sheeted copy, seen by Pausanias in Bœotia. The affinity with scriptural language is remarkable. “The Lord maketh poor and maketh rich: he bringeth low and lifteth up. He raiseth up the poor out of the dust, and lifteth up the beggar from the dung-hill to set him among princes.” Samuel v. 1, ch. 2. “God is the judge: he putteth down one, and setteth up another. The Lord upholdeth all that fall, and raiseth up them that be bowed down. The Lord lifteth up the meek: he casteth the wicked down to the ground.” Psalms 75, 145, 147. I was originally led to suspect that this introduction had been ingrafted on the poem by one of the Alexandrian Jews; who were addicted to this kind of imposture; but it is probably more ancient than the establishment of the Jewish colony at Alexandria, under the Ptolemies. There is nothing conclusive to be drawn from coincidences of this sort between ancient writings. The first principles of morality, implanted in the human heart by its author, have in all ages been the same: and Socrates and Confucius might be found to agree, surely without any suspicion of imitation. Many passages of Hesiod may be paralleled with verses in the Psalms and Proverbs: and in the proem under consideration, there seem no grounds for the conjecture of plagiarism from views of the vicissitudes of human condition, and the ordinations of a ruling providence which are continually passing before our eyes, and which must have struck the reasoning and serious part of mankind in all ages. Horace has a similar passage: b. i. od. 34.The God by sudden turns of fate Can change the lowest with the loftiest state: Eclipse of glory the diminish'd ray, And lift obscurity to day. Le Clerc conjectures this exordium to be the addition of one of the rhapsodists: of whom Pindar says, Nem. Od. 2.Th' Homeric bards, who wont to frame A motley-woven verse, Ere they the song rehearse, Begin from Jove, and prelude with his name.
* ↑ The other elder rose.] Night is meant to be the mother of both the Strifes. Guietus remarks that ευφρονη is a term for night: from ευφρονεω, to be wise. She was the mother of wise designs, because favourable to meditation: the mother of good, therefore, as well as of evil. The good Strife is made the elder, because the evil one arose in the later and degenerate ages of mankind.
* ↑ Almsmen zealous throng,] The proximity of the beggar to the bard might in a modern writer convey a satirical innuendo, of which Hesiod cannot be suspected. The bard, as is evident from Homer’s Odyssey, enjoyed a sort of conventional hospitality, bestowed with reverence and affection. It should seem, however, from this passage that the asker of alms was not regarded in the light of a common mendicant with us. It was a popular superstition that the gods often assumed similar characters for the purpose of trying the benevolence of men. A noble incentive to charity, which indicates the hospitable character of a semi-barbarous age.
* ↑ The patrimonial land.] The manner of inheritance in ancient Greece was that of gavelkind: the sons dividing the patrimony in equal portions. When there were children by a concubine, they also received a certain proportion. This is illustrated by a passage in the 14th book of the Odyssey:An humbler mate, His purchased concubine, gave birth to me: . . . . . .His illustrious sons among themselves Portion'd his goods by lot: to me indeed They gave a dwelling, and but little more. Cowper.
* ↑ The good which asphodel and mallows yield.] A similar sentiment occurs in the Proverbs: “Better is a dinner of herbs where love is, than a stalled ox and hatred therewith.” Ch. 15. v. 17. Plutarch in the “Banquet of the Seven Sages,” observes, that “the herb mallows is good for food, as is the sweet stalk of the asphodel or daffodil.” These plants were often used by metonymy for a frugal table. Homer (Odyssey 24.) places the shades of the blessed in meadows of asphodel, because they were supposed to be restored to the state of primitive innocence, when men were contented with the simple and spontaneous aliment of the ground. Perhaps the Greeks had this allusion in their custom of planting the asphodel in the cemeteries, and also burying it with the bodies of the dead. It appears from Pliny, b. xxii. c. 22. that Hesiod had treated of the asphodel in some other work: as he is said to have spoken of it as a native of the woods.
* ↑ The food of man in deep concealment lies.] The meaning of this passage resembles that of the passage in Virgil's first Georgic:The sire of gods and men with hard decrees Forbade our plenty to be bought with ease. Dryden.
* ↑ Have laid the rudder by.] It seems the vice of commentators to refine with needless subtleties on plain passages. Le Clerc explains this to mean that "in one day's fishing you might have caught such an abundance of fish, as to allow of the rudder being laid by for a long interval." The common sense of the passage, however, is that, were the former state of existence renewed, the rudder, which it was customary after a voyage to hang up in the smoke, might remain there for ever. You needed not have crossed the sea for merchandise. The custom of suspending the helms of ships in chimneys, to preserve them from decay, is adverted to again among the nautical precepts. The well-framed rudder in the smoke suspend. Virgil recommends the same process with respect to the timber hewn for the plough: Georg. 1.Hung where the chimney's curling fumes arise, The searching smoke the harden'd timber dries.
* ↑ Mock'd by wise Prometheus.] The original deception which provoked the wrath of Jupiter was the sacrifice of bones mentioned in the Theogony. It would appear extraordinary that the crime of Prometheus, who was a god, should be visited on man. This injustice betrays the real character of Prometheus; that he was a deified mortal. If Prometheus, the maker of man according to Ovid, and his divine benefactor according to Hesiod, be in reality Noah, as many circumstances concur to prove, the concealment of fire by Jupiter might be a type of the darkness and dreariness of nature during the interval of the deluge; and the recovery of the flame might signify the renovation of light and fertility and the restitution of the arts of life.
* ↑ An ill which all shall love.] In the scholia of Olympiodorus on Plato, Pandora is allegorized into the irrational soul or sensuality: as opposed to intellect. By Heinsius she is supposed to be Fortune. But there never was less occasion for straining after philosophical mysteries. Hesiod asserts in plain terms, that Pandora is the mother of woman; he tells us she brought with her a casket of diseases; and that through her the state of man became a state of labour, and his longevity was abridged. It is an ancient Asiatic legend; and Pandora is plainly the Eve of Mosaic history. How this primitive tradition came to be connected with that of the deluge is easily explained. “Time with the ancients,” observes Mr. Bryant, “commenced at the deluge; all their traditions and genealogies terminated here. The birth of mankind went with them no higher than this epocha.” We see here a confusion of events, of periods, and of characters. The fall of man to a condition of labour, disease, and death is made subsequent to the flood; because the great father of the post-diluvian world was regarded as the original father of mankind.
* ↑ The zone, the dress.] This office is probably assigned to Pallas, as the inventress and patroness of weaving and embroidery, and works in wool.
* ↑ With chains of gold.] Ορμους, rendered by the interpreter monilia, are not merely necklaces, but chains for any part of the person: as the arms and ankles. Ornaments of gold, and particularly chains, belong to the costume of very high antiquity. "Ye daughters of Israel, weep over Saul: who clothed you in scarlet with other delights: who put on ornaments of gold upon your apparel. Samuel b. ii. ch. 1. v. 24. "And she took sandals upon her feet, and put about her her bracelets, and her chains, and her rings, and her ear-rings, and all her ornaments, and decked herself bravely, to allure the eyes of all men that should see her." Judith ch. x. v. 4.
* ↑ The beauteous-tressed Hours.] The Hours, according to Homer, made the toilette of Venus:The smooth strong gust of Zephyr wafted her Through billows of the many-waving sea In the soft foam: the Hours, whose locks are bound With gold, received her blithely, and enrobed With heavenly vestments: her immortal head They wreathed with golden fillet, beautiful, And aptly framed: her perforated ears They hung with jewels of the mountain-brass And precious gold: her tender neck, and breast Of dazzling white, they deck’d with chains of gold, Such as the Hours wear braided with their locks. Hymn to Venus.
* ↑ His herald from above.] The first edition had “winged herald;” but the wings of Mercury are the additions of later mythologists. Homer, in the Odyssey, speaks only ofThe sandals fair, Golden, and undecay’d, that waft him o’er The sea, and o’er th’ immeasurable earth With the swift-breathing wind: there is no mention of the sandals being winged. They seem to have possessed a supernatural power of velocity, like the seven-leagued boots, or the shoes of swiftness, in the Tales of the Giants.
* ↑ Th’ unbroken vase] αρρηκτοισι δομοισι. Seleucus, an ancient critic, quoted by Proclus, proposed πιυοισι: as if the casket in which Hope dwelt, might not literally be called her house. Heinsius supposes an allusion to the chamber of a virgin. After this, who would expect that δομοισι means nothing more than a chest?Ελουσα κεδρινῳν δομῶν Εσθῆτα, κοσμον τ’.Euripides. Alcestis. 158. ———taking from her cedar coffers Vestures and jewels.
* ↑ On casual wing they glide.] Perhaps Milton had Hesiod in his eye, in the speech of Satan to Sin: Par. Lost, b. ii. line 840.Thou and Death Shall dwell at ease, and up and down unseen Wing silently the buxom air.
* ↑ Wealthy in flocks.] Grævius has misled all the editors by arguing that μῆλα are, in this place, fruits of any trees; as arbutes, figs, nuts; and not flocks: but his arguments respecting the food of primitive mankind are drawn from the conceptions of modern poets; such as Lucretius and Ovid. The traditionary age described by Hesiod was a shepherd age. Flocks are the most ancient symbol of prosperity, and are often synonymous with riches and dominion.
* ↑ High Jove as dæmons raised them from the ground.] In the account of this age we have a just history of the rise of idolatry; when deified men had first divine honours paid to them; and we may be assured of the family in which it began; as what was termed Crusean, the golden race, should have been expressed Cusean; for it relates to the age of Chus, and the denomination of his sons. This substitution was the cause of the other divisions being introduced; that each age might be distinguished in succession by one of baser metal. Had there been no mistake about a golden age, we should never have been treated with one of silver; much less with the subsequent of brass and iron. The original history relates to the patriarchic age, when the time of man’s life was not yet abridged to its present standard, and when the love of rule and acts of violence first displayed themselves on the earth. The Amonians, wherever they settled, carried these traditions along with them, which were thus added to the history of the country; so that the scene of action was changed. A colony who styled themselves Saturnians came to Italy, and greatly benefited the natives. But the ancients, who generally speak collectively in the singular, and instead of Herculeans introduce Hercules; instead of Cadmians, Cadmus; suppose a single person, Saturn, to have betaken himself to this country. Virgil mentions the story in this light, and speaks of Saturn’s settling there; and of the rude state of the nation upon his arrival; where he introduced an age of gold. Æn. viii. 314. The account is confused; yet we may discern in it a true history of the first ages, as may be observed likewise in Hesiod. Both the poets, however the scene may be varied, allude to the happy times immediately after the deluge; when the great patriarch had full power over his descendants, and equity prevailed without written law.—Bryant.
* ↑ Their kingly state.] The administration of forensic justice is implied in the words γερας βασιληιον, regal office.
* ↑ The wealth of fields.] Heinsius quotes Hesychius to show that πλοῦτος does not always mean riches, properly so called; but the riches of the soil: and says that it is here applied to the good dæmons as presiding over the productions of the seasons. Bacchus, in the Lenæan rites, was invoked by the epithet πλουτοδοτης, wealth-bestower; in allusion to the vineyard. It seems intimated here, that the Spirits reward the deeds of the just by abundant harvests; the common belief of the Greeks, as appears both from Hesiod and Homer.
* ↑ A hundred years.] Heinsius explains this passage to mean, that "although this age was indeed deteriorated from the former, this much of good remained; that the boys were not early exposed to the contagion of vice, but long participated the chaste and retired education of their sisters in the seclusion of the female apartments." Grævius, on the contrary, insists that Hesiod notes it as a mark of depravation, that the youth were educated in sloth and effeminacy, and grew up, as it were, on the lap of their mothers. These two opinions are about equally to the purpose. ["The poet manifestly alludes to the longevity of persons in the patriarchic age: for they did not, it seems, die at three-score and ten, but took more time even in advancing towards puberty. He speaks, however, of their being cut off in their prime; and whatever portion of life nature might have allotted to them, they were abridged of it by their own folly and injustice."]—Bryant.
* ↑ To Troy’s far shore.] Dr. Clarke in his travels in Greece, Egypt, and the Holy-land, has noticed that the existence of Troy, and the facts relative to the Trojan war, are supported by a variety of evidence independent of Homer: as has been abundantly shown in the course of the controversy between Mr. Bryant and his able antagonist, Mr. Morritt. This passage of Hesiod seems to me decisive testimony. If Hesiod be older than Homer, as is computed by the chronicler of the Parian Marbles, it is self-evident that the Trojan war is not of Homeric invention: and if they were contemporary, or even if Hesiod, according to the vulgar chronology, were really junior by a century, it is not at all probable that he should have copied the fiction of another bard, while tracing the primitive history of mankind. He manifestly used the ancient traditions of his nation, of which the war of Troy was one.
* ↑ In those blest isles.] Pindar also alludes to these in his second Olympic Ode:They take the way which Jove did long ordain To Saturn's ancient tower beside the deep:   Where gales, that softly breathe, Fresh-springing from the bosom of the main  Through the islands of the blessed blow. As the life of these beatified heroes was a renewal of that in the golden age, it is figured by the reign of Saturn or Cronus: the father of post-diluvian time. The era in which, after the waste of the deluge, the vine was planted and corn again sown, was represented by tradition as a time of wonderful abundance and fruitfulness. Hence apparently the fable of the Elysian fields: which some have supposed to originate from the reports of voyagers, who had visited distant fertile regions. Saturn is usually placed in Tartarus: but Tartarus meant the west: from the association of darkness with sunset: and the Blessed Islands were the Fortunate Isles on the Western Coast of Afric. "These heroes, whose equity is so much spoken of, upon a nearer inquiry are found to be continually engaged in wars and murders; and like the specimens exhibited of the former ages, are finally cut off by each other’s hands in acts of robbery and violence: some for stealing sheep, others for carrying away the wives of their friends and neighbours. Such was the end of these laudable banditti: of whom Jupiter, we are told, had so high an opinion, that after they had plundered and butchered one another, he sent them to the island of the Blest to partake of perpetual felicity."—Bryant.
* ↑ This iron age of earth.] Les écrivains de tous les tems ont regardé leur siècle comme le pire de tous: il n'y a que Voltaire qui ait dit du sien, O le bon tems que ce siècle de fer! Encore était-ce dans un accès de gaieté: car ailleurs il appelle le dixhuitième siècle, l'égout des siècles. C'est un de ces sujets sur lesquels on dit ce qu'on veut: selon qu'il plait d'envisager tel ou tel côté des objêts.—La Harpe, Lycée, tome prémier.
* ↑ For scarcely spring they to the light of day, Ere age untimely strews their temples gray.] Dr. Martyn, in a note on Virgil's 4th Eclogue, has fallen into the error of the old interpreters; when he quotes Hesiod as describing the iron age "which was to end when the men of that time grew old and gray." Postquam facti circa tempora cani fuerint: but the proper interpretation is, quum vix nati canescant: as Grævius has corrected it. The same critic is unquestionably right in his opinion, that the future tenses of this passage in the original are to be understood as indefinite present: μεμψονται, incusabunt: i.e. incusare solent: use to revile. Mark, iii. 27. και τοτε την οικιᾶν αυτου διαρπασει: " and then he will spoil his house:” that is, he is accustomed to spoil. The imperfect time has also frequently the same acceptation: as in the same evangelist: ch. xiv. 12. το πασχα εθυον, they killed the passover: they are used to kill it.
* ↑ Now man's right hand is law.] Imitated by Milton in the vision of Adam:So violence Proceeded, and oppression, and sword-law Through all the plain.
* ↑ Leave the broad earth.] Virgil alludes to this passage, Georg. ii. 473.From hence Astræa took her flight, and here The prints of her departing steps appear.—Dryden. As also Juvenal: Sat. vi. line 19.I well believe in Saturn’s ancient reign This Chastity might long on earth remain:— By slow degrees her steps Astræa sped To heaven above, and both the sisters fled.
* ↑ Now unto kings.] Βασιλευς, which we render king, was properly, in the early times of Greece, a magistrate. The kings against whom Hesiod inveighs, are therefore simply a kind of nobles, who exercised the judicial office in Bœotia; like the twelve of Phœacia mentioned in the Odyssey. See Mitford's History of Greece, vol. i. ch. 3.
* ↑ A neck-streak'd nightingale.] Ποικιλοδειρον, with variegated throat. This has not been thought appropriate to the nightingale. Tzetzes and Moschopolus interpreted the term by ποικιλοφωνον, with varied voice; a very forced construction; yet it is adopted by Loesner, who renders it by canoram. Ruhnken proposes the emendation of ποικιλογηρυν, which is synonymous. Others have doubted whether αηδων, which is literally singer, might not apply to some other bird, as the thrush, which is defined by Linnæus, "back brown, neck spotted with white." But the name singer might have been applied to the nightingale by way of eminence. In fact I see no difficulty. Linnæus, indeed, describes the nightingale, "bill brown, head and back pale mouse-colour, with olive spots," and says nothing of the throat. Simonides, however, speaks of χλοραυχενες αειδονες, green-necked nightingales, which might justify Hesiod's epithet. Bewick in the "British Birds" thus describes the luscinia: "the whole upper part of the body of a rusty brown tinged with olive; under parts pale ash-colour; almost white at the throat." A more ancient ornithologist has a description still more nearly approximating to the term of Hesiod; and it seems evident that there is more than one species of nightingale. "Luscinia, philomela, αηδων. "The nightingale is about the bigness of a goldfinch. The colour on the upper part, i. e. the head and back, is a pale fulvous (lion, or deep gold colour) with a certain mixture of green, like that of a red-wing. Its tail is of a deeper fulvous or red, like a red-start's. From its red colour it took the name of rossignuolo, in Italian: (rossignol, French). The belly is white. The parts under the wings, breast, and throat, are of a darker colour, with a tincture of green." Willoughby's Ornithology, fol. 1678.
* ↑ The fool by suffering his experience buys.] Παυων δε τε νηπιος εγνω. This seems to have been a national proverb. Homer has a similar apophthegm: Il. 17. 33.μηδ’ αντιος ισταθ’ εμειο Πριν τι κακον παθεειν· ρεχθεν δε τε νηπιος εγνω. Confront me not, lest some sore evil rise: The fool must rue the act that makes him wise. Plato uses the same proverbial sentiment:Ευλαβηθῆναι και μη, κατα την παροιμιαν, ωσπερ νηπιον παθονται γνωναι.Beware lest, after the proverb, you get knowledge like the fool, by suffering.
* ↑ Walks in awful grief the city-ways.] Something similar is the prosopopæia of Wisdom in the Proverbs of Solomon, ch. viii. She standeth on the top of high places, by the way, and the places of the paths.She crieth at the gates: at the entry of the city: at the coming in of the doors.
* ↑ O'er their stain'd manners.] Grævius observes that the interpreters render ηθεα λαῶν, "most foolishly" by the manners of the people: because ηθεα signifies also habitations. But as it is not pretended that ηθεα does not equally signify manners, "the extreme folly" of the interpreters has, I confess, escaped my penetration. Is it so very forced an image that Justice should weep over the manners of a depraved people?
* ↑ They and their cities flourish.] This passage resembles one in the nineteenth book of the Odyssey: but not so closely as to justify the charge of plagiarism which Dr. Clarke prefers against Hesiod, and which might be retorted upon Homer. These were sentiments common to the popular religion.Like the praise of some great king Who o'er a numerous people and renown'd, Presiding like a deity, maintains Justice and truth. Their harvests overswell The sower's hopes: their trees o'erladen scarce Their fruit sustain: no sickness thins the folds: The finny swarms of ocean crowd the shores, And all are rich and happy for his sake. Cowper.
* ↑ Reflects the father’s face.] Montesquieu remarks: “The people mentioned by Pomponius Mela (the Garamantes) had no other way of discovering the father but by resemblance. Pater est quem nuptiæ demonstrant.” But this uncertain criterion was considered as infallible generally by the ancients.She whom no conjugal affections bind, Still on a stranger bends her fickle mind: But easy to discern the spurious race, None in the child the father’s features trace. Theocritus—Encomium of Ptolemy. Oh may a young Torquatus bending From his mother’s breast to thee, His tiny infant hands extending, Laugh with half-open’d lips in childish ecstasy: May he reflect the father in his face: Known for a Mallius to the glancing eye Of strangers unaware, who trace In the boy’s forehead of paternal grace A mother’s shining chastity. Catullus—Epithalamium on Julia and Mallius.
* ↑ ————————Holy demons rove This breathing world.————————] Milton is thought to have copied Hesiod in this passage:Millions of spiritual creatures walk the earth Unseen, both when we wake and when we sleep. But the coincidence seems merely incidental, as the parallel wants completeness. There is nothing of angelic guardianship or judicial inspection in the spirits of Milton: he says only,All these with ceaseless praise his works behold Both day and night. How often from the steep Of echoing hill, or thicket, have we heard Celestial voices to the midnight air, Sole, or responsive to each other's note, Singing their great Creator?Par. Lost, iv.
* ↑ ————————Their glance alike surveys The upright judgments and th' unrighteous ways.] The eyes of the Lord are in every place, beholding the evil and the good. Proverbs, xv. 3.
* ↑ So rue the nations when their kings offend.] Theobald, in a note on Cooke’s translation, proposes to change δημος, the people, into τημος, then: and renders αποτιση in the sense of punish, instead of rue: thus the meaning would be, “that he might then, at that instant, punish the sins of the judges.” Never was an interference with the text so little called for. The meaning which Theobald is so scrupulous to admit is exactly conformable with that of a preceding passage: And oft the crimes of one destructive fall; The crimes of one are visited on all. It is idle to inquire where is the justice of this kind of retribution? since it is evident from all the history of mankind that such is the course of nature.By the blessing of the upright the city is exalted: but it is overthrown by the mouth of the wicked. Proverbs, xi. 11.The king by judgment establisheth the land; but he that receiveth gifts overthroweth it. Ch. xxix. 4.In Simpson’s notes on Beaumont and Fletcher, this passage is compared with the following in Philaster:In whose name We’ll waken all the Gods, and conjure up The rods of vengeance, the abused people: and it is proposed to understand it in the sense of Fletcher, “that the people might be raised up to punish the crimes of their prince.” There is taste and spirit in this interpretation, which cannot be said for the amendment of Theobald: but the common acceptation seems to me the right one, for the reasons already stated.
* ↑ Pours down the treasures of felicity.] In the house of the righteous is much treasure: but in the revenues of the wicked there is trouble. Proverbs, xv. 6.The Lord will not suffer the soul of the righteous to famish: but he casteth away the substance of the wicked. Ch. x. 3.The memory of the just is blessed: but the name of the wicked shall rot. Ch. x. 7.A false witness shall not be unpunished: and he that speaketh lies shall perish. Ch. xix. 9.The righteous shall never be removed: but the wicked shall not inhabit the earth. Ch. x. 30.The inheritance of sinners’ children shall perish: and their posterity shall have a perpetual reproach. Wisdom of Jesus the Son of Sirach, xli. 6.Their fruit shalt thou destroy from the earth, and their seed from among the children of men. Psalms, xxi. 10.
* ↑ Smooth is the track of vice.] The way of sinners is made plain with stones: but at the end thereof is the pit of hell. Wisdom of Jesus the Son of Sirach, xxi. 10.Both Plato and Xenophon who quote this line of Hesiod, read λειη, smooth, instead of ολιγη, short. Krebsius prefers the reading, as a short road and dwells near make a vapid tautology: and smooth forms a good antithesis to rough.
* ↑ The sweat that bathes the brow.] Spenser has imitated this parable in his description of Honour:In woods, in waves, in wars she wonts to dwell,  And will be found with peril and with pain: Ne can the man that moulds in idle cell  Unto her happy mansion attain. Before her gate high God did sweat ordain,  And wakeful watches ever to abide: But easy is the way and passage plain  To Pleasure's palace: it may soon be spied, And day and night her doors to all stand open wide. This allegory of Hesiod seems the basis of the apologue of Hercules, Virtue and Vice, which Xenophon in his "Memorabilia," 2, 21, quotes by memory from Prodicus's "History of Hercules."
* ↑ To the wiser friend.] The way of a fool is right in his own eyes: but he that hearkeneth to counsel is wise. Proverbs, xii. 15. A scorner loveth not one that reproveth him: neither will he go unto the wise. Ch. xv. 12.
* ↑ Oh son of Dios.] Διον γενος: Tzetzes had written in the margin Διου γενος, and this is in all probability the true reading; not that there is any thing extraordinary in the application of the term divine, as the Greeks used it in a wide latitude, and on frequent occasions. Homer applies it to the swineherd of Ulysses. It was a term of courtesy or respect; and Hesiod may have intended to compliment, not Perses, but their father. We have, however, the testimony of Ephorus, as recorded by Plutarch, that Dius was the father of Hesiod; and a copyist might easily have mistaken a υ for a ν. The author of the "Contest of Homer and Hesiod" seems to have read Διου γενος, as he makes Homer address his competitor,Ησιοδ' εκγονη Διου— Oh Hesiod! Dius' son! The reading is recommended by the Abbé Sevin in the "Histoire de l'Académie des Inscriptions," and by Villoison; and is adopted by Brunck in his "Gnomici Poetæ Græci." The herma of Hesiod exhibited by Bellorio in his "Veterûm Poetarûm Imagines" has the inscription, Ησιοδου Διου Ασκραιος, Ascræan Hesiod the son of Dios.
* ↑ Still on the sluggard hungry want attends.] He that gathereth in summer is a wise son; but he that sleepeth in harvest is a son that causeth shame. Proverbs, x. 5. He that tilleth his land shall have plenty of bread: but he that followeth after vain persons shall have poverty enough. Ch. xxviii. 19. Hate not laborious work; neither husbandry: which the Most High has ordained. Wisdom of Jesus the Son of Sirach, vii. 15. He becometh poor that dealeth with a slack hand: but the hand of the diligent maketh rich. Proverbs, x. 4. The desire of the slothful killeth him; for his hands refuse to labour: he coveteth greedily all the day long: but the righteous giveth and spareth not. Ch. xxi. 25.
* ↑ Shame, which our aid or injury we find.] The verse No shame is his, Shame, of mankind the injury or aid, occurs in the Iliad, 24; and in the Odyssey, 17, we meet with An evil shame the needy beggar holds: but Le Clerc should have known better than to follow Plutarch in the supposition of the lines being inserted from Homer by some other hand. It is one of the proverbial and traditionary sayings which frequently occur in their writings, and which belong rather to the language than to the poet. The admirable Jewish scribe, in that ancient book of the Apocrypha entitled Ecclesiasticus, uses the same proverb: Observe the opportunity and beware of evil; and be not ashamed when it concerneth thy soul. For there is a shame that bringeth sin; and there is a shame which is glory and grace. Wisdom of Jesus the Son of Sirach, iv. 20, 21.
* ↑ But shun extorted riches.] He that hasteth to be rich, hath an evil eye, and considereth not that poverty shall come upon him. Proverbs, xxviii. 22. He that by usury and unjust gain increaseth his substance, he shall gather it for him that will pity the poor. Ch. xxviii. 8.
* ↑ Who spurns the suppliant.] The ninth book of the Odyssey exhibits a beautiful passage illustrative of the high reverence in which the Grecians held the duties of hospitality.Illustrious lord! respect the gods, and us Thy suitors: suppliants are the care of Jove The hospitable: he their wrongs resents, And where the stranger sojourns there is he.Cowper.
* ↑ If aught thou borrowest.] Lend to thy neighbour in time of his need, and pay thou thy neighbour again in due season. Keep thy word and deal faithfully with him, and thou shalt always find the thing that is necessary for thee. Wisdom of Jesus the Son of Sirach.
* ↑ Who loves thee, love.] Far different is the spirit of the Gospel. “Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbour and hate thine enemy: but I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you and persecute you, that ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust. Matthew, v. 43. If ye love them which love you, what thank have ye? for sinners also love those that love them. And if ye lend to them of whom ye hope to receive, what thank have ye? for sinners also lend to sinners, to receive as much again. But love ye your enemies, and do good, and lend, hoping for nothing again; and your reward shall be great, and ye shall be the children of the Highest; for he is kind unto the unthankful and to the evil. Luke, vi. 32.
* ↑ Spare the middle wine.] Hesiod says that we should use the middle of the cask more sparingly, that we might enjoy the best wine the longer. It was the ancient opinion that wine was best in the middle, oil at the top, and honey at the bottom. Grævius. This opinion of Hesiod is discussed by Plutarch in his Symposiacs, iii. 7, and by Macrobius in his Saturnalia, vii. 12.
* ↑ As in laughter.] Και τε κασιγνητω γελασας επι μαρτυρα θεσθαι. The interpreters say, Etiam cum fratre ludens, testem adhibeto. But I should place the comma after fratre, and join ludens with testem adhibeto. "Even in a compact with your brother, have a witness: you may do it laughingly, or as if in jest."}}
* ↑ With garment gather'd in a knot behind.] πυγοστολος, adorning the hinder parts, seems to refer to some meretricious distinction of dress. Solon compelled women of loose character to appear in public in flowered robes. Solomon in that beautiful chapter of the Proverbs has a similar allusion. "There met him a woman with the attire of a harlot, and subtle of heart." Ch. vii. 10.
* ↑ Prattling with gay speech.] With her much fair speech she caused him to yield: with the flattering of her lips she forced him. Proverbs, vii. 21.
* ↑ ——————————Arise Before the sun.——————] In the words of Hesiod there is made mention of one rising of the Pleiads, which is heliacal, and of a double setting: the time of the rising may be referred to the 11th of May. The first setting, which indicated ploughing-time, was cosmical; when, as the sun rises, the Pleiads sink below the opposite horizon, which, in the time of Hesiod, happened about the beginning of November. The second setting is somewhat obscurely designated in the line They in his lustre forty days lie hid; and is the heliacal setting, which happened the third of April, and after which the Pleiads were immerged in the sun's splendour forty days. Hesiod, however, speaks as if he confounded the two settings, for no one would suppose but that the first-mentioned setting was that after which the Pleiads are said to be hidden previous to the harvest. But his words are to be explained with more indulgence, since he could not be ignorant of the time that intervened between the season of ploughing and that of harvest. Le Clerc.
* ↑ 'Tis time to sow.] In the original, begin ploughing; by which is meant the last ploughing, when they turned up the soil to receive the seed. Thus Virgil, Georg. 1:First let the morning Pleiades go down: From the sun's rays emerge the Gnossian crown, Ere to th' unwilling earth thou trust the seed.Warton. Heyne observes, "they sink below the region of the West, at the same time that the sun emerges from the East;" the cosmical setting described by Hesiod. The receding of the bright star of the crown of Ariadne, which Virgil mentions, is its receding from the sun; that is, its heliacal rising. The heliacal rising is a star's emersion out of the sun's rays; that is, a star rises heliacally when, having been in conjunction with the sun, the sun passes it and recedes from it. The star then emerges out of the sun's rays so far that it becomes again visible, after having been for some time lost in the superiority of day-light. The time of day in which the star rises heliacally is at the dawn of day; it is then seen for a few minutes near the horizon, just out of the reach of the morning light; and it rises in a double sense from the horizon and from the sun's rays. Afterwards, as the sun's distance increases, it is seen more and more every morning. The heliacal rising and setting is then, properly, an apparition and occultation. With respect to the Pleiads, it appears that different authors vary in fixing the duration of their occultation from about thirty-one days to above forty.
* ↑ In a note by Holdsworth on Warton's Georgics, it is observed that the heliacal setting of these stars is pointed out by the word abscondantur. But this is a contradiction; for Eoæ absconduntur is the same as occidunt matutinæ, set in the morning; but the time of day in which a star sets heliacally is in the evening, just after sun-set, when it is seen only for a few minutes in the west near the horizon, on the edge of the sun's splendour, into which in a few days more it sinks.
* ↑ Plough naked still.] Virgil copies this direction, Georg. i:Plough naked swain! and naked sow the land, For lazy winter numbs the labouring hand.Dryden. Servius explains the meaning to be, that he should plough and sow “in fair weather, when it was so hot as to make clothing superfluous.” This seems to be very idle advice, and fixes on Virgil the imputation of a truism. An equally superfluous counsel is ascribed by Robinson and Grævius to Hesiod. We are correctly told that both γυμνος and nudus applied to men who had laid aside their upper garment, whether the pallia or toga, the Grecian cloak or the Roman gown; and thus is explained the passage in Matthew, xxiv. 18: “Neither let him which is in the field return back to take his clothes:” but as no husbandman, whether Greek or Italian, unless insane, would dream of following the plough in a trailing cloak, Hesiod may safely be acquitted of so unnecessary a piece of advice. In the hot climates of Greece and Italy, it was probably the custom for active husbandmen to bare the upper part of their bodies. Virgil does not say “Plough in fine weather and not in winter;” but “Plough with your best diligence, for winter will soon be here:” equivalent to Hesiod’s “Summer will not last for ever.”
* ↑ The idler never shall his garners fill.] He that tilleth his land shall have plenty of bread: but he that followeth after vain persons shall have poverty enough. Proverbs, xxviii. 19.
* ↑ Trees bud no more.] The sap of the trees, which causes them to germinate, is then at rest. Trees when moist with sap are subject to worms, and the timber in consequence would be liable to putrefaction. Vitruvius also recommends that timber be felled in the autumn.
* ↑ A mortar of three feet.] The purposes to which ancient marbles are applied by the Turks may serve to explain the use of the mortar, which Hesiod mentions as part of the apparatus of the husbandman. “Capitals, when of large dimensions, are turned upside down, and being hollowed out are placed in the middle of the street, and used publicly for bruising wheat and rice, as in a mortar.” Dallaway’s Constantinople.
* ↑ Of bending figure.] So also Virgil, Georg. i. 169:Young elms, with early force, in copses bow, Fit for the figure of the crooked plough. Dryden. Dr. Martyn, in his comparison of Virgil’s plough with that of Hesiod, has fallen into the mistake of the old interpreters who render γοην dentale, the share-beam: whereas γυην is burim, the plough-tail, to which the share-beam joins.
* ↑ Thy artist join the whole.] In the original “the servant of Minerva,” that is, the carpenter. Minerva presided over all crafts, and was the patroness of works in iron and wood.
* ↑ ————————————with bread Of four-squared loaf.————————]The loaf here mentioned is similar to the quadra of the Romans: so denominated from its being marked four-square by incisions at equal distances. See Athenæus, iii. 29. By “a quadruple loaf containing eight portions,” Hesiod, perhaps, means a loaf double the usual size; similar, probably, to that mentioned by Theocritus, Idyl. xxiv. 135:A huge Doric loaf: Which he that digs the ground and sets the plant Might eat and well be fill’d.
* ↑ The shrill crane's migratory cry.] The cranes generally leave Europe for a more southern climate about the latter end of autumn; and return in the beginning of summer. Their cry is the loudest among birds; and although they soar to such a height as to be invisible, it is distinctly heard. It is often a prognostic of rain: as from the immense altitude of their ascent they are peculiarly susceptible of the motions and changes of the atmosphere: but Tzetzes is mistaken in supposing that the migratory cry of the crane denotes only its sensibility of cold. These migrations are performed in the night-time, and in numerous bodies; and the clangous scream, alluded to by Hesiod, is of use to govern their course. By this cry they are kept together; are directed to descend upon the corn-fields, the favourite scene of their depredations, and to betake themselves again to flight in case of alarm. Though they soar above the reach of sight they can, themselves, clearly distinguish every thing upon the earth beneath them. See "Goldsmith's Animated Nature." Virgil notices the crane's instinct as to rain, Georg. i. 375:The wary crane foresees it first, and sails Above the storm, and leaves the lowly vales. Dryden.
* ↑ Of ploughing-time the sign.] Of the first ploughing Hesiod says, ειαρι πολειν: turn the soil in spring; of the second, θερεος νεωμενη, ploughed again in summer; the summer tilth: of the third αροτον: by which he invariably means the seed-ploughing, when they both ploughed up and sowed the ground. Salmasius in Solinum, 509. Robinson quotes a passage of Aristophanes: Birds, 711: "Sow when the screaming crane migrates to Afric." The ploughing first mentioned by Hesiod is, then, actually the last. It appears that he recommends ground to be twi-fallowed: or prepared twice by ploughing before the seed-ploughing. Virgil directs it to be tri-fallowed, Georg. i. 47:Deep in the furrows press the shining share: Those lands at last repay the peasant's care, Which twice the sun and twice the frosts sustain, And burst his barns surcharged with ponderous grain. Warton. Fallowing, or ploughing the soil while at rest from yielding a crop, prepares it for the growth of seed by pulverizing it, exposing it to the influences of the atmosphere, and destroying the weeds: and is of essential use in recovering land that had been impoverished and exhausted by a succession of the same crops. The practice of fallows seems, however, to be now in a great degree superseded by that of an interchange of other crops in rotation; and the succession of green or leguminous plants alternately with the white crops or grain: the frequent hoeings, in this mode of tillage, cleaning the soil no less effectually than fallowings.
* ↑ Rich in his own conceit.] The sluggard is wiser in his own conceit than seven men who can render a reason. Proverbs, xxvi. 16.
* ↑ These let thy timely care provide before.] See Virgil, Georg. i. 167:The sharpen'd share and heavy-timber'd plough: And Ceres' ponderous waggon rolling slow: And Celeus' harrows, hurdles, sleds to trail O'er the press'd grain, and Bacchus' flying sail: These long before provide.Warton.
* ↑ Jove subterrene.] Guietus supposes that the husband of Proserpine is invoked from the consanguinity between Pluto, Proserpine, and Ceres. But this is not the only reason. Grævius properly remarks, that the earth, and all under the earth, were subject to Pluto, as the air was to Jupiter: Pluto, therefore, was supposed the giver of those treasures which the earth produces: whether of metals or grain. He was in fact the same with Plutus: and both names are formed from the Greek word πλουτος, wealth.
* ↑ And scare the birds away.] So Virgil, Georg. i. 156:Et sonitu terrebis aves. Scare with a shout the birds.
* ↑ Nor thou on others' heaps a gazer be.] Virgil, Georg. i. 158:On others' crops you may with envy look, And shake for food the long-abandon'd oak. Dryden.
* ↑ And few shall pass thee then with honouring eye.] The Psalmist alludes to a blessing given by the passers-by at harvest: while comparing the wicked to grass withering on the house-top: "Wherewith the mower filleth not his hand, nor he that bindeth sheaves his bosom: neither do they which go by say, "The blessing of the Lord be upon you." Psalm cxxix. 7, 8.
* ↑ The brazier's forge.] Θακος was properly a seat or bench: and λεσχη, conversation, chit-chat—but they came to be applied to the places where loungers sat and talked: hence the former meant a shop, and the latter a portico, piazza, or public exchange, whither idlers of all kinds resorted. It should seem from Homer that beggars took up their night's lodging in such places: Odyssey xvii. Melantho, taking Ulysses for a mendicant, says to him,Thou wilt not seek for rest some brazier's forge, Or portico.
* ↑ To gripe thy tumid foot.] Aristotle remarks that, in famished persons, the upper parts of the body are dried up, and the lower extremities become tumid. Scaliger.
* ↑ Make now your nests.] Grævius finds out that καλιαι may mean huts and barns, as well as nests: and in the true spirit of a verbal commentator, explodes the old interpretation of "facite nidos" and substitutes "exstruite casas:" in which he is fol- lowed, like the leader of the flock, by all the modern editors. These viri doctissimi are for ever stumbling on school-boy absurdities in their labour to be critical and sagacious: "they strain at a gnat, and swallow a camel." Are the labourers to set about building huts and barns in the middle of harvest? Who does not see that "make nests," as old Chapman properly renders it, is a mere proverbial figure? "Make hay while the sun shines."
* ↑ Those icy frosts.] Hesiod is said, in this description, to have imitated Orpheus: as if two poets could not describe the appearances and effects of winter, without copying from each other.Many and frequent from the clouds of heaven The frosts rush down, on beeches and all trees, Mountains and rocks and men: and every face Is touch'd with sadness. They sore-nipping smite The beasts among the hills: nor any man Can leave his dwelling: quell'd in every limb By galling cold: in all his limbs congeal'd.
* ↑ Yet from bland Venus' mystic rites aloof.] Hesiod introduces the privacy and retiredness of a virgin's apartment in the house of her mother, as conveying the idea of more complete shelter.
* ↑ With shining ointment.] Ointment always accompanied the bath. Thus Homer describes the bathing of Nausicaa and her maids in the sixth book of the Odyssey:And laving next and smoothing o'er with oil Their limbs, all seated on the river bank They took repast. And afterwards of Ulysses: At his side they spread Mantle and vest; and next the limpid oil Presenting to him in a golden cruse, Exhorted him to bathe.Cowper.
* ↑ Now gnaws the boneless polypus his feet.] Athenæus, book vii. explodes the notion of the polypus gnawing its own feet, and states that its feet are so injured by the congers or sea-eels. Pliny accounts for the mutilation in rather a marvellous manner. “They are ravenously fond of oysters: these, at the touch, close their shell, and cutting off the claws of the polypus take their food from their plunderer. The polypi, therefore, lie in wait for them when they are open; and placing a little stone, so as not to touch the body of the oyster, and so as not to be ejected by the muscular motion of the shell, assail them in security and extract the flesh. The oyster contracts itself, but to no purpose, having been thus wedged open.” Lib. ix. c. 30. The same story has been told, with greater probability, of the monkey. “The name of polypi has been peculiarly ascribed to these animals by the ancients, because of the number of feelers or feet of which they are all possessed, and with which they have a slow progressive motion: but the moderns have given the name of polypus to a reptile that lives in fresh water, by no means so large or observable. These are found at the bottom of wet ditches, or attached to the under-surface of the broad-leaved plants that grow and swim on the waters. The same difference holds between these and the sea-water polypi, as between all the productions of the land and the ocean. The marine vegetables and animals grow to a monstrous size. The eel, the pike, or the bream of fresh waters is but small: in the sea they grow to an enormous magnitude. It is so between the polypi of both elements. Those of the sea are found from two feet in length to three or four: and Pliny has even described one, the arms of which were no less than thirty feet long. The polypus contracts itself more or less in proportion as it is touched, or as the water is agitated in which they are seen. Warmth animates them, and cold benumbs them: but it requires a degree of cold approaching congelation, before they are reduced to perfect inactivity. The arms, when the animal is not disturbed, and the season is not unfavourable, are thrown about in various directions in order to seize and entangle its prey. Sometimes three or four of the arms are thus employed; while the rest are contracted, like the horns of a snail, within the animal’s body. It seems capable of giving what length it pleases to these arms: it contracts and extends them at pleasure; and stretches them only in proportion to the remoteness of the object it would seize. Some of these animals so strongly resemble a flowering vegetable in their forms, that they have been mistaken for such by many naturalists. Mr. Hughes, the author of the Natural History of Barbadoes, has described a species of this animal, but has mistaken its nature, and called it a sensitive flowering plant. He observed it to take refuge in the holes of rocks, and, when undisturbed, to spread forth a number of ramifications, each terminated by a flowery petal, which shrunk at the approach of the hand, and withdrew into the hole from which it had before been seen to issue. This plant, however, was no other than an animal of the polypus kind: which is not only to be found in Barbadoes, but also on many parts of the coast of Cornwall, and along the shores of the Continent." Goldsmith, Animated Nature, vol. vi. The Polypus is mentioned by Homer, Odys. v.:As when the polypus enforced forsakes His rough recess, in his contracted claws He gripes the pebbles still to which he clung: So he within his lacerated grasp The crumbled stone retain'd, when from his hold The huge wave forced him, and he sank again. Cowper .
* ↑ Like aged men.] In the original, τριποδι βροτᾶ, a three-footed mortal: that is, a man with a crutch: a metaphor suggested, probably, by the ænigma of the Sphinx. "What is that, which is two-footed, three-footed, and four-footed, yet one and the same? Œdipus declared that the thing propounded to him was man: for that a man, while an infant, went on four: when grown up, on two; and when old, on three: as using a staff through feebleness." Diodorus, Bibl. 4.
* ↑ On a scant warp.] The nap is formed by the threads of the woof: Hesiod therefore directs the woof to be thick and strong, that the nap may the better exclude wet.
* ↑ A strong-dying ox.] This expression is borrowed from Chapman. Thus we find in Homer, “a thong from a slaughtered ox.” This is illustrated by Plutarch in his Symposiacs, 2. by the fact that the skins of slaughtered beasts are tougher, less flaccid, and less liable to be broken than those of animals which have died of age or distemper. The ancients, says Grævius, made their shoes of the raw hide. Πιλοι, in Latin udones, were woollen socks; worn, when abroad, inside the shoes; or as substitutes for shoes, in the manner of slippers, when within doors and in the bed-chamber. Le Clerc.
* ↑ And kid-skins ’gainst the rigid season sew.] This was a sort of rough cloak of skins common to the country people of Greece.Stripp’d of my garberdine of skins, at once I will from high leap down into the waves. Theocritus, Idyl. iii. 25. Grævius quotes Varro as authority for a similar covering being worn among the Romans: by soldiers in camp, by mariners, and poor people.
* ↑ A well-wrought-cap.] In very ancient times the cap answered no other purpose for the head than the sock, which was worn inside the shoe, did for the foot. The helmets were lined with it. Of this kind was that of the helmet which Ulysses, Odys. x. received from Merion:Without it was secured With boar’s-teeth ivory-white, inserted thick On all sides, and with woollen head-piece lined. Cowper. Eustathius tells us, that in after-times they gave the same term, πιλος, to any covering for the head, and thus they ascribed to Ulysses a cap such as they then used. Thus as the club is the badge of Hercules, so is the cap of Ulysses: as appears from coins and other antiques. The ancient Greeks did not use any covering for the head: and it was from them that the Romans borrowed the custom of going bare-headed. They used caps only on journeys; in excessive heat or cold; or in rainy weather. These caps the Latins called petasos: they were a kind of broad-brimmed hat, like that which is observed in the figures of Mercury. Otherwise, when in the city, they merely wrapped their heads in the lappet of the gown. Grævius.
* ↑ The wintry tropic.] The winter solstice, according to the table of Petavius, happened in Hesiod’s time on the 30th of December. The acronychal rising of Arcturus took place in the 14th degree of Pisces, which corresponds in the calendar with the 5th of March. Le Clerc. The acronychal rising of a star is when it rises at the beginning of night: the acronychal setting is when it sets at the end of night. But there are two acronychal risings and settings: the one when the star rises exactly as the sun sets, and sets exactly as the sun rises. This is the true acronychal rising and setting, but it is invisible by reason of the day-light. The other is the visible or apparent acronychal rising and setting; which is, when the star is actually seen in the horizon.
* ↑ The green artichoke.] Σκολυμος is not the thistle, as has been commonly supposed. Pliny says of it, lib. xxii. c. 22, “The scolymos is also received for food in the East. The stalk is never more than a cubit in height, with scaly leaves, and a black root of a sweet taste.” It is, therefore, the artichoke.
* ↑ The loud cicada.] The interpreters translate ηχετα canora, and λιγυρην dulcem; and hence an idea is prevalent that Hesiod speaks of the cicada as having a sweet note; but of these epithets the first is properly vocal or sonorous, and the second shrill or stridulous. Anacreon calls the insect “wise in music,” but he seems to think the note musical from its cheerful association with summer:Mortals honour thee with praise, Prophet sweet of summer days. Virgil applies to it the characteristics of hoarse and querulous. Ecl. ii. Georgic. iii. "Of this genus the most common European species is the cicada plebeia of Linnæus. This is the insect so often commemorated by the ancient poets; and generally confounded by the major part of translators with the grasshopper. It is a native of the warmer parts of Europe, and particularly of Italy and Greece: appearing in the latter months of summer, and continuing its shrill chirping during the greatest part of the day: generally sitting among the leaves of trees. Notwithstanding the romantic attestations in honour of the cicada, it is certain that modern ears are offended rather than pleased with its voice; which is so very strong and stridulous, that it fatigues by its incessant repetition; and a single cicada, hung up in a cage, has been found to drown the voice of a whole company. The male cicada alone exerts this powerful note, the female being entirely mute. That a sound so piercing should proceed from so small a body may well excite our astonishment; and the curious apparatus, by which it is produced, has justly claimed the attention of the most celebrated investigators. Reaumur and Roësel, in particular, have endeavoured to ascertain the nature of the mechanism by which the noise is produced; and have found that it proceeds from a pair of concave membranes, seated on each side of the first joints of the abdomen: the large concavities of the abdomen, immediately under the two broad lamellæ in the male insect, are also faced by a thin, pellucid, iridescent membrane, serving to increase and reverberate the sound; and a strong muscular apparatus is exerted for the purpose of moving the necessary organs." Shaw, General Zoology, vol. vi. The same naturalist specifies several large and elegant insects in this division of the genus cicada. One with the body of a polished black colour, marked with scarlet rings: another of a green hue, with transparent wings, veined also with green; and a third of a fine black varied beneath with yellow streaks, and the wings black towards the base.
* ↑ But weak of man the heat-enfeebled reins.] Aristotle is of the same opinion. The curious reader may consult the Dictionnaire de Bayle, iv. 222. Note A.
* ↑ Byblian wine.] This was so called from a region of Thrace: it was a thin wine, and not intoxicating. See Athenæus, i. 31. It is mentioned by Theocritus, Idyl. xiv. 15: I open'd them a flask of Byblian wine Well-odour'd: with the flavour of four years.
* ↑ Orion's beamy strength.] In the table of Petavius the bright star of the foot of Orion makes its heliacal rise in the 18th degree of Cancer: that is, on the 12th of July. Le Clerc.
* ↑ On gusty ground.] So Varro, de Re Rusticâ, lib. i. c. 51. "The threshing-floor should be in a field, on higher ground, where the wind might blow over it." See also Columella, lib. xi. c. 20.
* ↑ ————————Thy hireling swain From forth thy house dismiss.———] Θητα αοικον ποιεισθαι is rendered by Grævius comparare sibi servum domo carentem: and Schrevelius explains the passage to mean that "you should seek out a servant who, having no house of his own to look after, could direct his whole attention to your concerns." So when the harvest is over, and the corn laid up in the granaries, he is to look out for a labourer! Was there ever a direction so unmeaning as this? I translate the words, (meo periculo) "servum operarium è domo dimitte."
* ↑ Keep, too, a sharp-tooth'd dog.] Virgil has a more poetical passage on the same subject, Georg. iii. 404:Nor last forget thy faithful dogs: but feed With fattening whey the mastiff's generous breed And Spartan race, who for the fold's relief Will prosecute with cries the nightly thief, Repulse the prowling wolf, and hold at bay The mountain robbers rushing to the prey. Dryden.
* ↑ —————On Arcturus looks from high The rosy-finger'd morn.————————] By this is understood the heliacal rising of Arcturus, which happened in the time of Hesiod about the 21st of September. Le Clerc.
* ↑ ———————On morning's brink The Pleiads, Hyads, and Orion sink.] This is the morning, or cosmical, setting of the Pleiads; which, according to Petavius, happened some time in November. Le Clerc.
* ↑ Then varying winds.] Virgil cautions the navigator against the appearances of the sun, Georg. i. 455:If dusky spots are varied on his brow And streak’d with red a troubled colour show: That sullen mixture shall at once declare Winds, rain, and storms, and elemental war: What desperate madman then would venture o’er The frith, or haul his cables from the shore? Dryden.
* ↑ Black ocean.] Οινοπι ποντω, wine-coloured. This evidently means black: as the Greek poets apply the epithet black to wine. Hesiod has αιθοπα οινοι, black coloured wine. The sense of this latter epithet is deduced from the blackness caused by burning: as αιθω is to burn.
* ↑ In summer irksome.] This inconvenience arose from the site of the place: as the scholiasts Proclus and Tzetzes relate: for by the neighbourhood of so high a mountain as Helicon, the breezes, which might have alleviated the summer heat, were intercepted: and in winter, the rays of the sun were excluded from the village; which was also exposed to torrents from the melting of the snow. Robinson.
* ↑ Decline a slender bark.] Αινειν, commend. This passage is quoted by Plutarch in illustration of words used in a different sense from what they seem to import. Praise means refuse. The same idiom occurs in Virgil's second Georgic: Commend the large excess Of spacious vineyards: cultivate the less.Dryden.
* ↑ O'er the sea's broad way.] From the following extracts it will not appear extraordinary that this prodigious voyage of Hesiod should have afforded him but little opportunity of acquiring a practical knowledge of navigation. On an inspection of the map we must, however, concede that the passage from Aulis direct to Chalcis is somewhat wider than the part of the strait crossed by a draw-bridge. "Elle (Chalcis) est située dans un endroit où à la faveur de deux promontoires qui's'avançent de part et d'autre, les côtes de l'île touchent presque à celles de Bèotie. "Ce leger intervalle, qu'on appelle Euripe, est en partie comblé par une digue. A chacune de ses extrémités est une tour pour le défendre, et un pont-lever pour laisser passer un vaisseau." Barthelemy, Voyages d'Anacharsis, tom. ii. p. 82.
* ↑ Where first their tuneful inspiration flow'd.] That is, on mount Helicon. Both Le Clerc and Robinson unaccountably refer the term ενθα, where, to Chalcis: and regard this passage as contradictory to that in the proem to the Theogony: whereas the one confirms the other.}}
* ↑ When from the summer-tropic fifty days Have roll'd.——————————] If no verses be wanting here, Hesiod truly needs not boast of his skill in nautical affairs. For what can be more absurd than to confine all navigation within fifty days, and those beginning from the summer-solstice; especially as the summer solstice fell on the 3d of July? I should suppose that there was a deficiency of two verses to this effect: Before the summer-tropic fifty days Thy keel may safely plough the azure ways. The similarity of the lines may have caused the copyist's omission of the two former. I am aware that the art of navigation was in that age imperfect: but if sea-faring men had learnt from experience that navigation was safe fifty days after the summer solstice, they could have learnt from the same teacher that it was equally safe fifty days before it: namely, in the months of May and June. Le Clerc.
* ↑ Men, too, may sail in spring.] What the poet says here of a spring voyage, I understand of that which may be made in the month of April: which is not much less liable to gales and storms than even the winter months. Certainly it was in April that the fig-tree began to be in leaf. Le Clerc.
* ↑ And wed the fifth of her expanded bloom.] She begins to bloom in her twelfth year. Let her wed in the fifth year of her puberty; that is, in her sixteenth. Guietus. Robinson, not considering the difference of climate, supposes that the fourteenth year is the first of her puberty, and that she is directed to wed in her nineteenth.
* ↑ Shall send a fire thy vigorous bones within.] A virtuous wo woman is a crown to her husband, but she that maketh ashamed is as rottenness in his bones. Proverbs, xii. 4.
* ↑ Nor lie with idle tongue.] Devise not a lie against thy brother, neither do the like to thy friend. Ecclesiasticus, vii. 12.
* ↑ Chastise his sin.] Far more liberal is the counsel of the son of Sirach: Admonish a friend: it may be, he hath not done it; and if he have done it, that he may do it no more. Admonish thy friend: it may be he hath not said it; and if he have, that he speak it not again. Admonish a friend, for many times it is a slander; and believe not every tale. There is one that slippeth in his speech, but not from his heart: and who is he, that hath not offended with his tongue? Ecclesiasticus, xix. Cicero says elegantly, “Care is to be taken lest friendships convert themselves even into grievous enmities: whence arise bickerings, backbitings, contumelies: these are yet to be borne, if they be bearable: and this compliment should be paid to the ancient friendship, that the person in fault should be he that inflicts the injury, not he that suffers it.”De Amicitia, c. 21. The author of the Pythagorean “golden verses” has a line which deserves indeed to be written in letters of gold: Hate not thy tried friend for a slender fault. This is probably one of the maxims of Hesiod which induced La Harpe to observe, "Cette morale n'est pas toujours la meilleure du monde." Lycée, tom. i. Hésiode.
* ↑ Rebuke not want.] Whoso mocketh the poor reproacheth his Maker. Proverbs, xvii. 5.
* ↑ Lo! the best treasure is a frugal tongue.] In the multitude of words there wanteth not sin: but he that refraineth his lips is wise. The tongue of the just is as choice silver. Proverbs, x. 19, 20.
* ↑ When many guests combine.] There were two sorts of entertainments among the ancient Grecians: the first was provided at the expense of one man, the second was at the common charge of all present: at the latter some of the guests occasionally contributed more than their exact proportion. These were generally most frequented, and are recommended by the wise men of those times as most apt to promote friendship and good neighbourhood. They were for the most part managed with more order and decency, because the guests who ate of their own collation were usually more sparing than when they were feasted at another man's expense; as we are informed by Eustathius. So different was their behaviour at the public feasts from that at private entertainments, that Minerva, in Homer, having seen the intemperance and unseemly actions of Penelope's courtiers, concludes their entertainment was not provided at the common charge.Behold I here A banquet, or a nuptial feast? for these Meet not by contribution to regale; With such brutality and din they hold Their riotous banquet.Cowper, Odyss. l. Potter, Archæologia Græca.
* ↑ The feast of gods.] A sacrifice was followed by a general banquet, and the tables were spread in the temple itself. The gods were supposed invisibly to be present. Thus we are to explain their visit to the Æthiopians in Homer, Il. i: For to the banks of the Oceanus Where Æthiopia holds a feast to Jove He journied yesterday; with whom the gods Went also.Cowper.
* ↑ Ne'er to thy five-branch'd hand apply the blade.] This precept is somewhat obscurely expressed, like the symbols of Pythagoras: that things of no value might appear to involve a mysterious importance. Hesiod seems to intimate that we should not choose the precise time of the feast for washing the hands and paring the nails, but sit down to table with hands ready washed. No person, indeed, even at a private entertainment, would have thought of cutting his nails at table, if he did not wish the parings to fly into the dishes, which I conceive could not have been more agreeable to the Greeks than to ourselves. Le Clerc.
* ↑ Upon the goblet's edge.] Robinson supposes a sentiment of hospitality; that the flaggon is not to stand still. Others suppose οινοχοη to be a bowl used only in libation, and which it was indecent to prostitute to common use. But for this there seems not the least authority. "All the allegorical glosses invented by the latter Greeks to varnish over the doting superstitions of their ancestors are utterly destitute of verisimilitude. Even in our day traces of the old superstitions remain in many places. There are people, for instance, who think it a bad omen if the loaf be inverted, so that the flat part is uppermost; if the knives be laid across, or the salt spilt on the table. It would be just as easy to find a mystical sense in these, as in the idle fancies of Hesiod." Le Clerc.
* ↑ Unhallow’d vessels.] There is here an allusion to the ancient custom of purifying new vessels and consecrating them to a happy use; or, as we say, blessing them. Guietus. Le Clerc imagines a prohibition against seizing the flesh from the tripods before a sacrifice, which he illustrates by the offence of the sons of Eli, 1 Sam. ii. 13; but what has the bathing to do with this?
* ↑ On moveless stones.] By ακινητα, immoveable things, he appears to mean the ground or stones, which are cold and hard; or by sitting on immoveable things we may understand habits of sloth. Guietus. Proclus interprets the word to mean sepulchres, which it was unlawful to move: but on the same grounds it may be interpreted land-marks. One should rather understand by it any sort of stones; Hesiod preferring that a boy should be placed on wooden slabs that might be moved about. But the being placed on a stone could not be more hurtful to him on the twelfth day or month than at any other period of his childhood. This was a mere superstition; and we may as well seek to interpret the dreams of a man who is light-headed. Le Clerc.
* ↑ The thirtieth of the moon.] That is, the last day of each month; for the most ancient Greeks, as well as the Orientals, employed lunar months of thirty days. Le Clerc. The Greek month was divided into τρια δεκημερα, three decades of days. The first was called μηνος αρχομενου or ισταμενου; the second, μηνος μησουντος; and the third, μηνος φθινοντος, παυομενου, or ληγοντος: the beginning month, the middle month, the declining or ending month. The words were put in the genitive case because some day was placed before them. Thus the middle-first or first of the second decade was the eleventh of the whole month; and the first of the end, or of the last decade, was the twenty-first: the twenty-ninth was called εικας μεγαλη, the great twentieth. The French Republican calendar was formed on the Greek model.
* ↑ What time the people to the courts repair.] The forenoon was distinguished by the time of the court of judicature sitting, as in this passage of Hesiod; the afternoon by the time of its breaking up, as in the following of Homer:At what hour the judge, After decision made of numerous strifes Between young candidates for honour, leaves The forum, for refreshment’s sake at home. Cowper, Odyss. xii.
* ↑ Beware the fifth.] Virgil copies this, as well as some other of these superstitions, Georg. i. 275:For various works behold the moon declare Some days more fortunate: the fifth beware: Pale Orcus and the Furies then sprang forth— ••••••••••••••• Next to the tenth the seventh to luck inclines For taming oxen and for planting vines: Then best her woof the prudent housewife weaves: Better for flight the ninth; averse to thieves. Warton.