The Works and Days

by Hesiod Narrated by Peter Coates

Overview

The Works and Days*is a didactic poem written by the 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. The 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.

Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

Stallings's new translation of Hesiod's Works and Days - witty, gritty, and unsettlingly relevant - is not to be missed. Toil; corruption in high places; injustice; the prevailing sense that things are getting worse - none of these prevents the Muses' chosen poets from doing their indispensable and soul-refreshing work.”
—Rachel Hadas, Times Literary Supplement
 
“Hesiod was the first self-declared poet of Ancient Greece, who boasted of having won a three-legged cauldron for his verses. A. E. Stallings brings him back to life in her rhyming translation of Works and Days, which mingles farming tips, myths and evocation of the seasons: 'when first the cuckoo cuckoos in the oak.' Stallings’s lively  and learned notes make it a treat.”
—The Times
 
“A. E. Stallings new verse translation of Works and Days for Penguin is a splendid development upon a recent flurry of Hesiod translation and poetic response ... Brilliantly sensitive ... Stallings's translation triumphs.”
—The Oxonian Review

“Mixing rhyme and assonance, this is a Works and Days for the age of rap. By translating Hesiod as poetry, Stallings encourages us to realize that the poem should not just be the object of scholarly study, but can be read aloud for fun.”
—Armand D'Angour, Times Literary Supplement

Product Details

BN ID:	2940159832542
Publisher:	Strelbytskyy Multimedia Publishing
Publication date:	02/05/2021
Edition description:	Unabridged

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