Works and Days
Critique • Quotes
1968 collectionFirst publication
c.700 BCE
Literature form
Poem
Genres
Instructional, philosophical
Writing language
English
Author's country
United States
Length
Approx. 1,000 lines
Notable lines
Pierian Muses, bringers of fame: come
Tell of your father, Zeus, and sing his hymn,
Through whom each man is famous or unknown....
— First lines, trans. Wender
That man is best who reasons for himself
Considering the future. Also good
Is he who takes another's advice.
But he who neither thinks himself nor learns
From others, is a failure as a man.
Never reproach a man for poverty
Which eats out the heart and destroys, for it
Is given by the blessed, deathless gods.
— trans. Wender
He is truly blest
And rich who knows these things and does his work,
Guiltless before the gods, and scrupulous,
Observing omens and avoiding wrong.
— Last lines
Critique • Quotes
