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6. Hesiod’s Festival Reconsidered
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]
ὄρθρου ἀνιστάμενος, ἵνα τοι βίος ἄρκιος εἴη.
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):
ἠώς τοι προφέρει μὲν ὁδοῦ, προφέρει δὲ καὶ ἔργου,
ἠώς, ἥ τε φανεῖσα πολέας ἐπέβησε κελεύθου
ἀνθρώπους, πολλοῖσι δ’ ἐπὶ ζυγὰ βουσὶ τίθησιν.
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.
ὧδ᾽ ἔρδειν, καὶ ἔργον ἐπ᾽ ἔργῳ ἐργάζεσθαι.
Πληιάδων Ἀτλαγενέων ἐπιτελλομενάων
ἄρχεσθ᾽ἀμήτου, ἀρότοιο δὲ δυσομενάων.
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.
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]
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]
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
… 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.
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.