The poem consists of four main sections. (_a_) After the prelude, which
Pausanias failed to find in the ancient copy engraved on lead seen by
him on Mt. Helicon, comes a general exhortation to industry. It begins
with the allegory of the two Strifes, who stand for wholesome Emulation
and Quarrelsomeness respectively. Then by means of the Myth of Pandora
the poet shows how evil and the need for work first arose, and goes on
to describe the Five Ages of the World, tracing the gradual increase in
evil, and emphasizing the present miserable condition of the world, a
condition in which struggle is inevitable. Next, after the Fable of the
Hawk and Nightingale, which serves as a condemnation of violence and
injustice, the poet passes on to contrast the blessing which
Righteousness brings to a nation, and the punishment which Heaven sends
down upon the violent, and the section concludes with a series of
precepts on industry and prudent conduct generally. (_b_) The second
section shows how a man may escape want and misery by industry and care
both in agriculture and in trading by sea. Neither subject, it should
be carefully noted, is treated in any way comprehensively. (_c_) The
third part is occupied with miscellaneous precepts relating mostly to
actions of domestic and everyday life and conduct which have little or
no connection with one another. (_d_) The final section is taken up
with a series of notices on the days of the month which are favourable
or unfavourable for agricultural and other operations.
It is from the second and fourth sections that the poem takes its name.
At first sight such a work seems to be a miscellany of myths, technical
advice, moral precepts, and folklore maxims without any unifying
principle; and critics have readily taken the view that the whole is a
canto of fragments or short poems worked up by a redactor. Very
probably Hesiod used much material of a far older date, just as
Shakespeare used the _Gesta Romanorum_, old chronicles, and old plays;
but close inspection will show that the _Works and Days_ has a real
unity and that the picturesque title is somewhat misleading. The poem
has properly no technical object at all, but is moral: its real aim is
to show men how best to live in a difficult world. So viewed the four
seemingly independent sections will be found to be linked together in a
real bond of unity. Such a connection between the first and second
sections is easily seen, but the links between these and the third and
fourth are no less real: to make life go tolerably smoothly it is most
important to be just and to know how to win a livelihood; but happiness
also largely depends on prudence and care both in social and home life
as well, and not least on avoidance of actions which offend
supernatural powers and bring ill-luck. And finally, if your industry
is to be fruitful, you must know what days are suitable for various
kinds of work. This moral aim—as opposed to the currently accepted
technical aim of the poem—explains the otherwise puzzling
incompleteness of the instructions on farming and seafaring.
Of the Hesiodic poems similar in character to the _Works and Days_,
only the scantiest fragments survive. One at least of these, the
_Divination by Birds_, was, as we know from Proclus, attached to the
end of the _Works_ until it was rejected by Apollonius Rhodius:
doubtless it continued the same theme of how to live, showing how man
can avoid disasters by attending to the omens to be drawn from birds.
It is possible that the _Astronomy_ or _Astrology_ (as Plutarch calls
it) was in turn appended to the _Divination_. It certainly gave some
account of the principal constellations, their dates of rising and
setting, and the legends connected with them, and probably showed how
these influenced human affairs or might be used as guides. The
_Precepts of Chiron_ was a didactic poem made up of moral and practical
precepts, resembling the gnomic sections of the _Works and Days_,
addressed by the Centaur Chiron to his pupil Achilles. Even less is
known of the poem called the _Great Works_: the title implies that it
was similar in subject to the second section of the _Works and Days_,
but longer. Possible references in Roman writers 1106 indicate that
among the subjects dealt with were the cultivation of the vine and
olive and various herbs. The inclusion of the judgment of Rhadamanthys
(frag. 1): “If a man sow evil, he shall reap evil,” indicates a gnomic
element, and the note by Proclus 1107 on _Works and Days_ 126 makes it
likely that metals also were dealt with. It is therefore possible that
another lost poem, the _Idaean Dactyls_, which dealt with the discovery
of metals and their working, was appended to, or even was a part of the
_Great Works_, just as the _Divination by Birds_ was appended to the
_Works and Days_.