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Works and Days
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Character Analysis
Hesiod
Hesiod is known as a didactic poet who was popular in antiquity, though not as influential long-term as Homer, with whom Hesiod is often linked. Although dating is contested, they are typically believed to have been active in the 8th century BCE. Scholars debate whether Hesiod or Homer came first; regardless, Hesiod’s works demonstrate that he was familiar with the Theban and Trojan myths, the subjects of epic poetry.
Unlike Homer, Hesiod reveals biographical information about himself in his poems. In “Works and Days,” he divulges that his father was an economic migrant from Asia Minor who settled in a village called Ascra in Boeotia, where Hesiod grew up. At the beginning of his other poem, “Theogony,” Hesiod describes being inspired by the Muses as he tended his sheep. This, along with the dispute over the family estate and the advice Hesiod gives Perses regarding treatment of laborers, suggests the brothers could have been involved in yeomanry. When presenting seafaring advice, Hesiod notes that his only personal experience with sailing involves having crossed a narrow channel from Aulis to Euboea to participate in a poetry contest, which Hesiod claims to have won.
All that said, whether the information Hesiod provides about himself—including the dispute with his brother—can be taken at face value has been debated since antiquity. Hesiod’s name could translate to “song-thrower” or “he who delights in journeying,” while Perses means “profligate.” These convenient names, along with the poem’s use of tropes common in didactic poetry, lend themselves to interpreting the dispute between the brothers as a literary device that creates the context for advice-giving.
Perses
In the poem, Hesiod addresses Perses as his brother. Hesiod laments that after the brothers had evenly divided their estate, Perses sought more than his share by bribing judges to rule in his favor. Hesiod admonishes his brother for this, suggesting that the problem is Perses’s desire to avoid labor, a form of impiety since Zeus decreed men must work. This provides the context for Hesiod to present his argument that human labor is just and to offer specific advice for achieving success in farming or seafaring, reading signs in the natural world, and identifying lucky and unlucky days for undertaking certain tasks.
Zeus
Zeus is an Olympian god, the generation of gods that followed the Titans after Zeus challenged his father for supremacy and won. In Hesiod, Zeus is conceived of as an all-father, king of mortals and immortals, god of thunder, the sky, and the clouds. In addition to controlling the weather, Zeus dispenses justice, punishes wrong-doers, and resolves conflicts. In “Works and Days,” Zeus instructs the Olympian gods to create the first woman, Pandora, as “an affliction” (38) for men to balance the gift of fire they received from Prometheus against Zeus’s will. He intends for man to “delight” in Pandora thus “embrace their own misfortune” (38), making her at once pleasure and pain. This duality echoes in how Hesiod portrays work: it is both humanity’s burden, imposed by Zeus as punishment, and its salvation in that it provides meaning and purpose to men’s lives.
Prometheus
Prometheus was a Titan god. His name translates to “forethought” in English. In Hesiod’s version of the myth, Prometheus twice defies Zeus to help mankind. Whether his motivation is compassion for man or the pleasure of trickery is unclear. Prometheus’s first offense, recounted in Hesiod’s “Theogony,” is tricking Zeus into choosing a less appealing cut of meat, leaving the better portion for men. As a result, Zeus punishes men by hiding fire from them so they will have to eat the meat raw. Prometheus’s second trick is stealing fire back for men after which Zeus punishes both Prometheus and men. Prometheus’s punishment is to be chained to a rock and have his liver eaten daily by an eagle (because Prometheus is immortal, his liver grows back overnight).
Hephaestus
Hephaestus is the god of artisans, metalwork, craftsmen, and sculptors. In “Works and Days,” Zeus instructs Hephaestus to create the figure of a woman from clay and water and endow her with “human voice and strength” (38).
Athena
Athena is the goddess of wisdom, handicrafts, and strategic warfare. In the poem, Zeus tasks Athena with teaching Pandora how to weave, typically women’s work in Hesiod’s time. Athena also dresses Pandora and arranges her adornments.
Aphrodite
Aphrodite was the goddess of love, beauty, passion, procreation, and pleasure. Her task is to bestow these same gifts to woman so as to inspire “painful yearning and consuming obsession” (39) in men.
Hermes
Hermes was the messenger god and god of thieves, trickery, trade, travelers, merchants, and roads. Zeus instructs Hermes to endow Pandora with cunning and trickery. Hermes also delivers Pandora to Epimetheus, Prometheus’s brother, as a gift from the gods.
Epimetheus
Prometheus’s brother, Epimetheus translates to “hindsight” or “afterthought” in English. Prometheus warns him not to accept any gifts from the gods, but Epimetheus forgets and accepts Pandora. It is only in hindsight (thus the significance of his name) that he realizes what he has done, as he “had the bane before he realized it” (39).
Pandora
Zeus has Pandora, whose name means “all-gift,” created by Hephaestus and endowed with the gifts of several gods as both the punishment and delight of man. Hesiod relates that men lived free “from ills, without harsh toil and the grievous sicknesses that are deadly to men” until Pandora “unstopped the jar” in which they were contained, releasing “grim cares upon mankind” (39). By the grace of Zeus, Pandora covers the jar before Hope can escape, securing her as humanity’s consolation. Pandora is meant to illustrate that, ultimately, Zeus’s will cannot be evaded.
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