Hesiod, the Homeric Hymns, and Homerica
deeds, and the son of Cronos lays great trouble upon the people, famine
and plague together, so that the men perish away, and their women do
not bear children, and their houses become few, through the contriving
of Olympian Zeus. And again, at another time, the son of Cronos either
destroys their wide army, or their walls, or else makes an end of their
ships on the sea.
(ll. 248-264) You princes, mark well this punishment you also; for the
deathless gods are near among men and mark all those who oppress their
fellows with crooked judgements, and reck not the anger of the gods.
For upon the bounteous earth Zeus has thrice ten thousand spirits,
watchers of mortal men, and these keep watch on judgements and deeds of
wrong as they roam, clothed in mist, all over the earth. And there is
virgin Justice, the daughter of Zeus, who is honoured and reverenced
among the gods who dwell on Olympus, and whenever anyone hurts her with
lying slander, she sits beside her father, Zeus the son of Cronos, and
tells him of men’s wicked heart, until the people pay for the mad folly
of their princes who, evilly minded, pervert judgement and give
sentence crookedly. Keep watch against this, you princes, and make
straight your judgements, you who devour bribes; put crooked judgements
altogether from your thoughts.
(ll. 265-266) He does mischief to himself who does mischief to another,
and evil planned harms the plotter most.
(ll. 267-273) The eye of Zeus, seeing all and understanding all,
beholds these things too, if so he will, and fails not to mark what
sort of justice is this that the city keeps within it. Now, therefore,
may neither I myself be righteous among men, nor my son—for then it is
a bad thing to be righteous—if indeed the unrighteous shall have the
greater right. But I think that all-wise Zeus will not yet bring that
to pass.
(ll. 274-285) But you, Perses, lay up these things within your heart
and listen now to right, ceasing altogether to think of violence. For
the son of Cronos has ordained this law for men, that fishes and beasts
and winged fowls should devour one another, for right is not in them;
but to mankind he gave right which proves far the best. For whoever
knows the right and is ready to speak it, far-seeing Zeus gives him
prosperity; but whoever deliberately lies in his witness and forswears
himself, and so hurts Justice and sins beyond repair, that man’s
generation is left obscure thereafter. But the generation of the man
who swears truly is better thenceforward.
(ll. 286-292) To you, foolish Perses, I will speak good sense. Badness
can be got easily and in shoals: the road to her is smooth, and she
lives very near us. But between us and Goodness the gods have placed
the sweat of our brows: long and steep is the path that leads to her,
and it is rough at the first; but when a man has reached the top, then
is she easy to reach, though before that she was hard.
(ll. 293-319) That man is altogether best who considers all things
himself and marks what will be better afterwards and at the end; and
he, again, is good who listens to a good adviser; but whoever neither
thinks for himself nor keeps in mind what another tells him, he is an
unprofitable man. But do you at any rate, always remembering my charge,
work, high-born Perses, that Hunger may hate you, and venerable Demeter
richly crowned may love you and fill your barn with food; for Hunger is
altogether a meet comrade for the sluggard. Both gods and men are angry
with a man who lives idle, for in nature he is like the stingless
drones who waste the labour of the bees, eating without working; but
let it be your care to order your work properly, that in the right
season your barns may be full of victual. Through work men grow rich in
flocks and substance, and working they are much better loved by the
immortals 1308. Work is no disgrace: it is idleness which is a
disgrace. But if you work, the idle will soon envy you as you grow
rich, for fame and renown attend on wealth. And whatever be your lot,
work is best for you, if you turn your misguided mind away from other
men’s property to your work and attend to your livelihood as I bid you.
An evil shame is the needy man’s companion, shame which both greatly
harms and prospers men: shame is with poverty, but confidence with
wealth.
(ll. 320-341) Wealth should not be seized: god-given wealth is much
better; for if a man take great wealth violently and perforce, or if he
steal it through his tongue, as often happens when gain deceives men’s
sense and dishonour tramples down honour, the gods soon blot him out
and make that man’s house low, and wealth attends him only for a little
time. Alike with him who does wrong to a suppliant or a guest, or who
goes up to his brother’s bed and commits unnatural sin in lying with
his wife, or who infatuately offends against fatherless children, or
who abuses his old father at the cheerless threshold of old age and
attacks him with harsh words, truly Zeus himself is angry, and at the
last lays on him a heavy requittal for his evil doing. But do you turn
your foolish heart altogether away from these things, and, as far as
you are able, sacrifice to the deathless gods purely and cleanly, and
burn rich meats also, and at other times propitiate them with libations
and incense, both when you go to bed and when the holy light has come
back, that they may be gracious to you in heart and spirit, and so you
may buy another’s holding and not another yours.
(ll. 342-351) Call your friend to a feast; but leave your enemy alone;
and especially call him who lives near you: for if any mischief happen
in the place, neighbours come ungirt, but kinsmen stay to gird
themselves 1309. A bad neighbour is as great a plague as a good one is
a great blessing; he who enjoys a good neighbour has a precious
possession. Not even an ox would die but for a bad neighbour. Take fair
measure from your neighbour and pay him back fairly with the same
measure, or better, if you can; so that if you are in need afterwards,
you may find him sure.
(ll. 352-369) Do not get base gain: base gain is as bad as ruin. Be
friends with the friendly, and visit him who visits you. Give to one
who gives, but do not give to one who does not give. A man gives to the
free-handed, but no one gives to the close-fisted. Give is a good girl,
but Take is bad and she brings death. For the man who gives willingly,
even though he gives a great thing, rejoices in his gift and is glad in
heart; but whoever gives way to shamelessness and takes something
himself, even though it be a small thing, it freezes his heart. He who
adds to what he has, will keep off bright-eyed hunger; for if you add
only a little to a little and do this often, soon that little will
become great. What a man has by him at home does not trouble him: it is
better to have your stuff at home, for whatever is abroad may mean
loss. It is a good thing to draw on what you have; but it grieves your
heart to need something and not to have it, and I bid you mark this.
Take your fill when the cask is first opened and when it is nearly
spent, but midways be sparing: it is poor saving when you come to the
lees.
(ll. 370-372) Let the wage promised to a friend be fixed; even with
your brother smile—and get a witness; for trust and mistrust, alike
ruin men.
(ll. 373-375) Do not let a flaunting woman coax and cozen and deceive
you: she is after your barn. The man who trusts womankind trusts
deceivers.
(ll. 376-380) There should be an only son, to feed his father’s house,
for so wealth will increase in the home; but if you leave a second son
you should die old. Yet Zeus can easily give great wealth to a greater
number. More hands mean more work and more increase.
(ll. 381-382) If your heart within you desires wealth, do these things
and work with work upon work.
(ll. 383-404) When the Pleiades, daughters of Atlas, are rising 1310,
begin your harvest, and your ploughing when they are going to set 1311.
Forty nights and days they are hidden and appear again as the year
moves round, when first you sharpen your sickle. This is the law of the
plains, and of those who live near the sea, and who inhabit rich
country, the glens and dingles far from the tossing sea,—strip to sow
and strip to plough and strip to reap, if you wish to get in all
Demeter’s fruits in due season, and that each kind may grow in its
season. Else, afterwards, you may chance to be in want, and go begging
to other men’s houses, but without avail; as you have already come to
me. But I will give you no more nor give you further measure. Foolish
Perses! Work the work which the gods ordained for men, lest in bitter
anguish of spirit you with your wife and children seek your livelihood
amongst your neighbours, and they do not heed you. Two or three times,
may be, you will succeed, but if you trouble them further, it will not
avail you, and all your talk will be in vain, and your word-play
unprofitable. Nay, I bid you find a way to pay your debts and avoid
hunger.
(ll. 405-413) First of all, get a house, and a woman and an ox for the
plough—a slave woman and not a wife, to follow the oxen as well—and
make everything ready at home, so that you may not have to ask of
another, and he refuses you, and so, because you are in lack, the
season pass by and your work come to nothing. Do not put your work off
till to-morrow and the day after; for a sluggish worker does not fill
his barn, nor one who puts off his work: industry makes work go well,
but a man who puts off work is always at hand-grips with ruin.
(ll. 414-447) When the piercing power and sultry heat of the sun abate,
and almighty Zeus sends the autumn rains 1312, and men’s flesh comes to
feel far easier,—for then the star Sirius passes over the heads of men,
who are born to misery, only a little while by day and takes greater
share of night,—then, when it showers its leaves to the ground and
stops sprouting, the wood you cut with your axe is least liable to
worm. Then remember to hew your timber: it is the season for that work.
Cut a mortar 1313 three feet wide and a pestle three cubits long, and
an axle of seven feet, for it will do very well so; but if you make it
eight feet long, you can cut a beetle 1314 from it as well. Cut a
felloe three spans across for a waggon of ten palms’ width. Hew also
many bent timbers, and bring home a plough-tree when you have found it,
and look out on the mountain or in the field for one of holm-oak; for
this is the strongest for oxen to plough with when one of Athena’s
handmen has fixed in the share-beam and fastened it to the pole with
dowels. Get two ploughs ready work on them at home, one all of a piece,
and the other jointed. It is far better to do this, for if you should
break one of them, you can put the oxen to the other. Poles of laurel
or elm are most free from worms, and a share-beam of oak and a
plough-tree of holm-oak. Get two oxen, bulls of nine years; for their
strength is unspent and they are in the prime of their age: they are
best for work. They will not fight in the furrow and break the plough
and then leave the work undone. Let a brisk fellow of forty years
follow them, with a loaf of four quarters 1315 and eight slices 1316
for his dinner, one who will attend to his work and drive a straight
furrow and is past the age for gaping after his fellows, but will keep
his mind on his work. No younger man will be better than he at
scattering the seed and avoiding double-sowing; for a man less staid
gets disturbed, hankering after his fellows.
(ll. 448-457) Mark, when you hear the voice of the crane 1317 who cries
year by year from the clouds above, for she give the signal for
ploughing and shows the season of rainy winter; but she vexes the heart