工作与时日

《工作与时日》（古希腊语：Ἔργα καὶ Ἡμέραι，Erga kai Hēmerai）为古希腊诗人赫西俄德于大约公元前7世纪所写的田园牧诗，系统地记录了当时农耕生产的知识，表现了平静而优美的农村生活场景，富于生活气息，包含有很多道德和农业生产方面的警句，是早期一部百科全书式的著作，广泛地为后世古典作家所引用。在其中心，《工作与时日》是一个农民的年鉴，赫西奥德在指导他的兄弟珀耳塞斯的农艺。 学者们在希腊大陆的土地危机背景下看到了这项作品，这引发了一场殖民地探险以寻找新土地的浪潮。 在这首诗中，诗人赫西俄德还向他的兄弟提供了他应该如何过他的生活的广泛的道德建议。《工作与时日》可能最出名的是它的两个神话原因论：辛苦和痛苦，定义了人类的状况：普罗米修斯和潘多拉的故事，以及所谓的五个时代的神话。

Works and Days (Ancient Greek: Ἔργα καὶ Ἡμέραι, romanized: Érga kaì Hēmérai) is a didactic poem written by ancient Greek poet Hesiod around 700 BC. It is in dactylic hexameter and contains 828 lines. At its center, the Works and Days is a farmer's almanac in which Hesiod instructs his brother Perses in the agricultural arts.

Scholars have seen this work against a background of agrarian crisis in mainland Greece, which inspired a wave of colonial expeditions in search of new land. In the poem, Hesiod also offers his brother extensive moralizing advice on how he should live his life. Works and Days is perhaps best known for its two mythological aetiologies for the toil and pain that define the human condition—the story of Prometheus and Pandora, and the so-called Myth of Five Ages.

Synopsis

In Works and Days, Hesiod describes himself as the heir of a farm bequeathed to his brother Perses and him. Perses, though, apparently squandered his wealth and came back for what is owned by Hesiod. Perses went to the law and bribed the lords to judge in his favour. The poem contains a sharp attack against unjust judges like those who decided in favour of Perses; they are depicted as pocketing bribes as they render their unfair verdicts. Hesiod seems to have thought that instead of giving him money or property, which he will again spend in no time, teaching him the virtues of work and impart his wisdom, which can be used to generate an income, would be better.

Like the Theogony, Works and Days begins with a hymnic invocation to the Muses, albeit much shorter (10 lines to the Theogony's 115) and with a different focus. The poet invokes the "Pierian Muses" to sing of their father Zeus and his control of the fates of mankind. Through the power of Zeus, men might be famous or nameless; he easily strengthens the meek and oppresses the strong; reduces the conspicuous and raises up the inconspicuous; easily he straightens the crooked and withers the many. Hesiod then appeals to Zeus to guide his undertaking: "Hearken, seeing and hearing, and through justice put straight the laws; and may I speak the truth to Perses."

Hesiod begins the poem proper by directly engaging with the content of the Theogony. There was after all not one Eris (Ἔρις, "Strife"), as in that poem, but two: one is quite blameworthy and provokes wars and disagreement among mankind; but the other is commended by all who know her, for she compels men to work honorably, rivaling each other:

Hesiod encourages Perses to avoid the bad Eris and not let her persuade him to frequent the arguments in the agora, but to focus on working for his livelihood. Family business follows, as Hesiod implores his brother to join him in sorting out their fraternal discord through the "justice of Zeus". It comes out that they had previously divided their patrimony, but that Perses claimed more than his fair share by influencing "bribe-devouring kings" (δωροφάγοι βασιλεῖς, dōrophagoi basileis).