The Center for Hellenic Studies

Heat and Lust: Hesiod’s Midsummer Festival Scene Revisited

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6. Hesiod’s Festival Reconsidered

Hesiod frames his bucolic scenario by means of vv. 571-581 and 597-608. First, then, we may examine vv. 571-581:

          ἀλλ’ ὁπότ’ ἂν φερέοικος ἀπὸ χθονὸς ἂμ φυτὰ βαίνη
          Πληιάδας φεύγων, τότε δὴ σκάφος οὐκέτι οἰνέων
          ἀλλ’ἅρπας τε χαρασσέμεναι καὶ δμῶας ἐγείρειν.
          φεύγειν δὲ σκιεροὺς θώκους καὶ ἐπ’ ἠῶ κοῖτον
575    ὥρῃ ἐν ἀμήτου, ὅτε τ’ἠέλιος χρόα κάρφει·
          τημοῦτος σπεύδειν καὶ οἴκαδε καρπὸν [1] ἀγινεῖν
          ὄρθρου άνιστάμενος, ἵνα τοι βίος [2] ἄρκιος εἴη.
          ἠὼς γάρ τ’ἔργοιο τρίτην ἀπομείρεται αἶσαν
          ἠώς τοι προφέρει μὲν ὁδοῦ, προφέρει δὲ καὶ ἔργου,
580    ἠώς, ἥ τε φανεῖσα πολέας ἐπέβησε κελεύθου [3]
          ἀνθρώπους πολλοῖσι δ᾽ ἐπὶ ζυγὰ βουςὶ τίθησιν.

          But when the ‘bearer of his own house’ [i.e., snail] crawls up vines from the earth
          to escape the [rising of the] Pleiades, then indeed it is no longer necessary to hoe vineyards
          but rather to whet sickles and rouse the servants.
          Avoid sitting in the shade and lying in bed until dawn
575    during harvest season, when the sun parches the skin;
          at that time hurry and bring the cereal crop home,
          rising around daybreak, so that your means of livelihood might be more than enough for you.
          For morning accounts for a third portion of [a day’s] work;
          morning, indeed, carries you forward on your journey and also carries your work forward,
580    morning, that is, which after appearing prompts many men to embark on their way
          and sets yokes on many oxen.


The injunction to work hard (574-577) indicates the harvest in May- June. Precisely as in Greece today, this period will have been one of utter physical exhaustion. [4] Moreover, the farmer cannot lose a minute, for his labor at this critical period will determine his survival: [5]

τημοῦτος σπεύδειν καὶ οἴκαδε καρπὸν ἀγινεῖν
ὄρθρου ἀνιστάμενος, ἵνα τοι βίος ἄρκιος εἴη.

WD 576-577 [6]

at that time hurry and bring the cereal crop home,
rising around daybreak, so that your means of livelihood might be more than enough for you.


Verse 577, in particular, sets up the typical work regimen for this season—a regimen not unlike that observed in Greece today: the farmer must rise early and work throughout the day. [7] This consideration (ὄρθρου ἀνιστάμενος, ‘rising around daybreak’) prompts the triple anaphora of ἠώς (used in the sense of ‘morning/ as West notes):

ἠὼς γάρ τ’ ἔργοιο τρίτην ἀπομείρεται αἶσαν·
ἠώς τοι προφέρει μὲν ὁδοῦ, προφέρει δὲ καὶ ἔργου,
ἠώς, ἥ τε φανεῖσα πολέας ἐπέβησε κελεύθου
ἀνθρώπους, πολλοῖσι δ’ ἐπὶ ζυγὰ βουσὶ τίθησιν.

WD 578-581

For morning accounts for a third portion of [a day’s] work;
morning, indeed, carries you forward on your journey and also carries your work forward,
morning, that is, which after appearing prompts many men to embark on their way
and sets yokes on many oxen.


WD 578 in effect argues that the morning is a critical time to work, for it corresponds to one-third of the day’s work. The morning will also be a convenient time to reap since, as our demotic sources suggest, [8] the heat is still tolerable and does not prevent heavy work.

According to WD 47-49 [9] (cf. 42), Zeus devised labor, especially agricultural labor—’grievous cares’ (κήδεα λυγρά) as WD 49 terms it [10] —as a revenge for Prometheus’ offence. But for this ancestral sin, a man might easily earn a year’s supply of food by working even for only one day; [11] there would be no need for the annual round of tasks like plowing (and probably threshing), [12] and consequently no positive need to reap. [13] Κήδεα λυγρά in the sense of toil sums up man’s fallen state, and perhaps no event in the Hesiodic farmer’s life could better sum up the experience of toil than the month-long rigors of reaping in the summer heat—an almost punishing heat, that compounded the hardship to which mortal men were born. This sheer physical enterprise—which Thracian farmers today consider as taxing as waging war—must fall on the rehabilitated Perses. In fact, the key to his rehabilitation, the poet implies, has been his conscientious application to his farming tasks, particularly the harvest:

σοὶ δ᾽εἰ πλούτου θυμὸς ἐέλδεται ἐν φρεσὶν ᾗσιν,
ὧδ᾽ ἔρδειν, καὶ ἔργον ἐπ᾽ ἔργῳ ἐργάζεσθαι.
Πληιάδων Ἀτλαγενέων ἐπιτελλομενάων
ἄρχεσθ᾽ἀμήτου, ἀρότοιο δὲ δυσομενάων.

WD 381-384 [14]

So if in your heart you yearn for plenty,
do as follows, and in particular perform task after task:
at the [heliacal] rising of the Pleiades over Mt. Atlas
start harvesting, and plowing, at their setting [just before sunrise].


This advice, notably, is Hesiod’s “second-to-last warning” [15] and one which Perses does not take to heart. By v. 396 he has been reduced to poverty and must resort to begging from his brother. The advice that follows (ἐργάζεο νήπιε ΠέρσηWD 397, ‘work, foolish Perses’) [16] frames the next half of the Works and Days and locks the poet and the now reformed Perses into the permanent relationship of a parainesis (‘exhortation’) that resembles a farmer’s almanac (414-764). The implication is that once Perses adopts an earnest concern for the central task of the harvest, he will have been changed into the model farmer.

Immediately following the treatment of the harvest, the famous festival scene (WD 582-596) [17] puzzles West (cf. West, p. 54). This scene must occur after the completion of the threshing by mid-July and may even refer to the month of August as well. The treatment of the threshing that follows (WD 597-608) may, then, suggest that Hesiod is confusing his dates:

          δμωσὶ δ’ ἐποτρύνειν Δημήτερος ἱερὸν ἀκτήν
          δινέμεν, εὖτ’ ἂν πρῶτα φανῇ σθένος· Ὠρίωνος,
          χώρῳ ἐν εὐαεῖ καὶ ἐυτροχάλῳ ἐν ἁλωῇ·
600    μέτρῳ δ ᾽εὖ κομίσασθαι ἐν ἄγγεσιν. αὐτὰρ ἐπὴν δή
          πάντα βίον κατάθηαι ἐπάρμενον ἔνδοθι οἴκου,
          θῆτά τ’ἄοικον ποιεῖσθαι καὶ ἄτεκνον ἔριθον
          δίζησθαι κέλομαι· χαλεπὴ δ’ὑπόπορτις ἔριθος·
          καὶ κύνα καρχαρόδοντα κομεῖν—μὴ φείδεο σίτου—
605    μή ποτέ σ’ἡμερόκοιτος ἀνὴρ ἀπὸ χρήμαθ’ἕληται.
          χόρτον δ’ἐσκομίσαι καὶ συρφετόν, ὄφρα τοι εἴῃ
          βουσὶ καὶ ἡμιόνοισιν ἐπηετανόν. αὐτὰρ ἔπειτα
          δμῶας ἀναψῦξαι φίλα γούνατα καὶ βόε λῦσαι.

          As for your male slaves, urge them to cause the holy food of grain
          to be trampled, as soon as mighty Orion appears,
          in a wind-blown place and in a well-rolled threshing-floor,
600    and to collect it carefully in jars with a scoop. And when
          you store away all your means of livelihood under lock and key at home,
          I advise you to hire a [free] farmhand with no household of his own and to seek a [free]          female worker with no offspring;
          a female worker with offspring is a liability.
          Look after your sharp-toothed dog—don’t be frugal with its food—
605    lest the ‘man who lies abed by day’ [i.e., thief] should ever snatch your possessions.
          Carry in hay and chaff, so that there might be
          an abundant supply for your oxen and mules. And afterwards
          your male slaves should cool their poor [tired] knees and unyoke the pair of oxen.


West accounts for this apparent anachronism as a grateful reminder anticipating the rewards for the reaper’s exertions. Further, he notes, this “perfect picnic” (as he calls it) causes the poet to correct himself by self-consciously implying that the task of threshing (which occurs, we might add, some ten to thirty days before the feast) [18] falls to the δμῶες (‘male slaves’) after all (WD 597, 608), though it is evident particularly in WD 575-577 and 601-607 that the farmer himself is also active during the harvest and threshing. [19]

More than a corrective observation, however, WD 597-608 is a continuation of the theme of seasonal work developed in 571-581. We thus have a ring structure typical of the oral composition of the WD. Practically speaking, the δμῶες (‘male slaves’) as well as the oxen are required for the threshing. (The mention of βουσί [‘oxen’] in 581, though used in a different context, may anticipate the threshing in which the oxen are prominent.) The poet, then, is adducing further detail to complement the description of the harvest. From v. 577 we already know that the reaper has not a moment to lose, and with reason enough: his annual grain supply is at stake. (In fact, βίος ἄρκιος [‘more than sufficient means of livelihood’] WD 577 may hark forward to πάντα βίον κατάθηαι [‘when you store away all your means of livelihood’] WD 601.) This desired efficiency occupies the poet again when he prescribes the measures to be taken after the threshing. Total efficiency is now ensured by hiring a male servant unencumbered by a household of his own (θῆτα ἄοικον, 602), and a childless woman laborer (ἄτεκνον ἔριθον, 602). [20] During the threshing, too, the farmer himself presumably is distracted from any but his family’s urgent needs: as we know from our demotic material, the threshing and winnowing must at the very latest be completed by July 20 (the feast of St. Elias), which coincides with the rising of Sirius.

The two sections (571-581, 597-608) complement each other at a further thematic level: they both evoke the theme of industry vs. idleness, as can be seen from examining the diction of these passages. The very term ἡμερόκοιτις ἀνήρ (605, ‘the man who lies abed by day’), no- tionally akin to ἐπ᾽ ἠῶ κοῖτον (574, ‘lying in bed until dawn’), is the reverse of the collocation ὄρθρου ἀνιστάμενος (‘rising around daybreak’) used of the conscientious harvester (577). The negative cast of 605 (μή ποτέ σ’ ἡμερόκοιτος ἀνήρ,’lest the layabout should ever’) shows the poet to be dismissing idleness at the threshing season. Verse 577, moreover, affirms that one should indeed be an early riser at harvest-time. The implication of this subtle counter-play of opposites becomes clear: read together, both sections argue decidedly against the habits of the laggard during the harvest/threshing. In Hesiodic terms, to guard (with all one’s resources, cf. the implication of ἐπάρμενον [‘under lock and key’] 601, and the detail of the watchdog 604) against the ἡμβρόκοιτος ἀνήρ (‘the man who lies abed by day’) who is ready to steal one’s grain supply (605) is the functional equivalent of guarding against indolence which also deprives one of grain. The denigration of the ἡμερόκοιτος ἀνήρ mirrors the injunction to rise early and work in the scorching sun (574-575), and both passages play against the theme of relaxation and sexual license developed in the festival scene. [21]

We return now to this middle component of the ring structure. The transition to the festive scene would appear to be less abrupt than West suggests (see West, p. 54). The repast itself may be modelled on the comparable occasions observed at the end of harvest in Greece even today. This will explain why a feast supposedly held in mid-July or later can immediately follow on the description of the harvest. Furthermore, the placing of the crucial detail of the τέττιξ seems to be extremely well thought out; the τέττιξ is a “strategic” reference that is appropriate both to the completion of the harvest in late June and the end of threshing by July. [22] Not only is it thematically apposite for these two distinct tasks, but if demotic tradition may again serve as a guide, this detail anticipates the ripening of grapes (and hence also the vintage which is glossed over in WD 609-614) and the ensuing Dog Days. Also in the light of modem tradition, it is possible to link the cry of the cicada in mid-July to the reduced lactation of goats at this time: γάλα τ᾽ αἰγῶν σβεννυμενάων ‘the milk of goats which are running dry’ (590). The τέττιξ thus marks a smooth transition to this later festive scene by virtue of its traditional function as a seasonal “signpost,” or precursor. [23]

If it is true that the ancient τέττιξ—as also his demotic counterpart—had the certifiable ethos of a heedless hedonist, then his appearance in a festive scene can scarcely be fortuitous. Hesiod’s insect presumably feasts on dew [24] while the menfolk (including the slaves) [25] drink wine and replenish themselves in the shade. The τέττιξ sits in a tree, while the men fully enjoy the ‘shady seats’ denied them at the height of the harvest (cf. 574). Busily stridulating, the cicada is at his indefatigable forte, much like Hesiod’s leisured ladies at home. But this insect is more than a fitting element of the seasonal décor; he has a didactic function as well. His presence may be a subtle cross-reference to the ἡμερόκοιτος ἀνήρ (‘the man who lies abed by day’), whose habits the poet implicitly but clearly condemns. Further, assuming that the cicada’s Archilochean aspect as an αἰσχρός (‘lowly/ ‘shameful’) figure was already intact at the time of the WD, then the poet may be alluding to Perses before his “conversion”:

          γυμνὸν [26] δ ἀμάειν, εἴ ᾽ ὥρια πάντ’ ἐθέλῃσθα
          ἔργα [27] κομίζεσθαι Δημήτερος, ὥς τοι ἕκαστα
          ὥρι᾽ ἀέξηται, μή πως τὰ μέταζε χατίζων
395     πτώσσῃς ἀλλοτρίους οἴκους καὶ μηδὲν ἀνύσσεις —
          ὡς καὶ νῦν ἐπ’ἔμ’ἦλθες· ἐγὼ δέ τοι οὐκ ἐπιδώσω … [28]

WD 392-396

          Harvest stripped to your khitοn, if you wish in the right season
          to bring in all grain crops, so that each [crop]
          will grow for you in the right season, lest lacking [food] afterwards
395     you go begging at others ‘ houses and accomplish nothing—
          as you came to me just now: but I will not give you anything in turn …


These words strongly imply a blaming of Perses for his neglect of the harvest, and are parallel to the scenario of the τέττιξ—μύρμηξ (‘cicada-ant’) confrontation in Aesop. [29] It is possible therefore that this creature’s impracticality and his concomitant ἀσιτία (‘lack of grain/ lack of food’) were already a matter of recognized tradition. If so, the cicada may even be a conscious foil to the farmer’s beasts of burden which, unlike him, have truly earned food and respite after the harvest and threshing (vv. 606-609). In any case, it is understandable that the cicada is featured in a grand fiesta which would suit his prodigal, pleasure-seeking nature as well as rid him (for the time being, that is) of his traditional ἀσιτία.

Footnotes

[ back ] 1. On καρπός, see Verdenius, p. 82 on WD 117, and cf. v. 32.

[ back ] 2. On βίος, cf. ibid., p. 32 on WD 31. For abundance connoted by ἄρκιος, see Nisbet and Hubbard 1970 on Horace 1.21, and WD 307, cited in n. 6 below. MG farmers must overproduce as a “hedge” against subsequent crop failure: Halstead-Jones 1989. 51-52, 54.

[ back ] 3. Note the triple anaphora of ἠώς 578-580, and the repetition of ἔργον 578-579; on the force of ἥ τε 580, cf. Appendix 1 on ἥ τ᾽ ἀθόλωτος 595.

[ back ] 4. Cf. chs. 2 and 4, and Halstead’s and Jones’s computation of “sheer drudgery” at harvest: 1989.47.

[ back ] 5. The cereal harvest is a matter of life and death, and a period of “acute time stress” in modern Greece, as it was in antiquity; cf. ch. 2 n. 4, and n. 6 immediately below.

[ back ] 6. WD 306-307 argues that the farmer’s central consideration should be a full granary and urges that his labors (ἔργα) throughout the year should be organized to that end:

… σοὶ δ’ ἔργα φίλα ἔστω μέτρια κοσμεῖν,
ὥς κέ τοι ὡραίου βιότου πλήθωσι καλιαί.

… let work be dear to you to organize properly
[i.e., with respect especially to quantity and location]
so that your granaries might be full of grain gathered at the right time.

(On this passage, cf. Verdenius, p. 155.) Also cf. WD 299-301. Grain (wheat and barley) was truly the μυελὸς ἀνδρῶν/ (‘the marrow of men’) and wheat in particular was prized as μελίφρων (‘honey-hearted/ ‘delicious’) and μελιηδής (‘honey-sweet’) according to Homer: on the botanical significance and “emotional” associations of cereal terms in archaic Greece, see Richter 1968.107-118, especially 109-111.

[ back ] 7. Iliad 18.366 f.

[ back ] 8. See ch. 2.

[ back ] 9. ἀλλὰ Ζεὺς ἔκρυψε, χολωσάμενος φρεσὶν ᾗσιν,
ὅττί μιν ἐξαπάτησε Προμηθεὺς ἀγκυλομήτης
τοὔνεκ’ ἄρ’ ἀνθρώποισιν ἐμήσατο κήδεα λυγρά

But Zeus in his anger concealed it [sc. man’s means of livelihood]
because Prometheus of crooked craftiness had deceived him.
For this reason, as might be expected, he contrived grievous cares for mankind.

[ back ] 10. See West, p. 156 and Verdenius, p. 45 ad loc.

[ back ] 11. WD 43-44.

[ back ] 12. WD 45-46; see West, p. 156 on 46.

[ back ] 13. This latter follows i) logically, because if the farmer need not plow, he need not harvest, and ii) from the text itself, because WD 384 (quoted below) treats plowing and harvesting as activities that are necessarily complementary.

[ back ] 14. Cf. West, pp. 254-256, and especially Verdenius, p. 182 ad loc.

[ back ] 15. The first warning is given at 299-302; the brothers are reconciled by v. 286. See Nagy 1990b [1982], 66-67.

[ back ] 16. Cf. n. 28 below.

[ back ] 17. Cited in ch. 1.

[ back ] 18. Depending on whether we adopt West’s earlier chronology (which takes Hesiod at his word) or the more flexible chronology suggested by modern field data: cf. ch. 2 n. A harvester may reschedule his activities, and make other tactical decisions according to the labor supply and weather conditions: consult Halstead and Jones 1989. especially 50-53.

[ back ] 19. See ch. 4.

[ back ] 20. Cf. West, pp. 309-310 on WD 602-603.

[ back ] 21. In principle hedonism is preferable, according to WD 307-313; cf. Verdenius, p. 45 on κήδεα λυγρά 49.

[ back ] 22. See especially ch. 4 on the MG cicada’s agricultural associations.

[ back ] 23. For more on seasonal “signposts,” see again Nagy 1985.64-68 and Nagy 1990b [19831.213.

[ back ] 24. On the ancient cicada, see especially Appendix 1 on WD 582,583, 584, 589, 592.

[ back ] 25. Cf. WD 606-607.

[ back ] 26. On γυμνόν, cf. ch. 4 n. 16.

[ back ] 27. On ἔργα = (originally) ‘products, subsequently food’, cf. ch. 2 n. 8.

[ back ] 28. West, p. 39 notes “the important contrast between begging from one’s brother and the later, more desperate step of begging from ἀλλότριοι οἶκοι.” ’ Επιδίδωμι here surely means ‘give in accordance with a request, hence give in turn’ (cf. ἐπόμνυμι.); West, p. 39 renders the verse as “I will give you nothing extra.”

[ back ] 29. The kenning ἴδρις (‘the knowing one’) at WD 778 is used of the μύρμηξ (‘ant’). It would not, I think, be too fanciful to assume that the Hesiodic audience readily intuited the close analogy: [ back ] wise Hesiod/ νήπιος Perses : wise ant/νήπιος cicada [ back ] (Of course Perses is alm ost fatally foolish, whereas Aesop’s cicada is fatally foolish indeed; on the moral connotations of νήπιος in Homer and Hesiod, see Vermeule 1979. 112-116, and Edmunds 1990.)