Didactic poem by Hesiod including the myth of Pandora and the Ages of Man.
Overview
Works and Days (Greek: Ἔργα καὶ Ἡμέραι, Latinized: Erga kai Hēmerai), also known as Works and Days (Hesiod), is an Archaic Greek didactic poem in dactylic hexameter, written in Ancient Greek. It is attributed to Hesiod and mixes practical instruction, especially for farmers, with moral advice and mythological examples.
The poem includes the myth of Pandora and the origin of womankind, the sequence of the Ages of Man (Golden, Silver, Bronze, Heroic, and Iron), brief references to Prometheus and the theft of fire, and repeated thoughts on Zeus’s justice and divine punishment. Using these myths, it looks at the origins of labor, justice, and human suffering in a world ruled by the gods.
Authorship and Date
Works and Days is traditionally linked to Hesiod, the Boeotian poet from Ascra in central Greece, who is also credited with the Theogony. Ancient sources consistently name Hesiod as the author, and modern study usually accepts that the poem has a Hesiodic core, while allowing that some lines or short parts may be later additions.
The poem is usually dated to the late 8th to early 7th century BCE, in the Archaic period of Greece. This date is supported by its language and meter, which match early hexameter poetry, by its close connection with the Theogony (normally placed in the same general era), and by the Archaic social and farming world reflected in its advice and assumptions.
The poem is generally seen as a mostly unified didactic work, even though some readers suggest small interpolated passages and later expansions. There is no wide agreement that it went through heavy later editing. Overall, it is treated as genuinely Hesiodic, with only minor later additions.
Contents and Structure
Works and Days is a continuous didactic poem in dactylic hexameter. It moves from an opening proem and personal address to Hesiod’s brother, through mythological examples and short sayings, to detailed farming and calendar instructions.
The poem is framed as advice from Hesiod to his brother Perses. It moves from broad ideas about moral and divine order to more specific practical guidance.
It begins with the “Proem and Address to Perses” (about lines 1–41). Here Hesiod calls on the Muses, introduces the theme of strife (and distinguishes two kinds of Eris), and directly criticizes Perses for injustice and greed.
Next come the “Myths of Strife, Justice, and Human Condition” (about lines 42–285). This part explains the two forms of Strife, praises honest work, tells the myth of Prometheus and the origin of Pandora, describes the creation of woman as a “beautiful evil,” and lays out the sequence of the Ages of Man, ending in the present Iron Age. These stories are mixed with reflections on Zeus’s justice and the fate of unjust people.
The section on “Gnomic and Ethical Instruction” (about lines 286–382) gives maxims on justice, moderation, social behavior, and relations with neighbors and family. All of this is presented as advice to Perses and is tied to the watchfulness of Zeus and the other gods.
The large section called “Agricultural Calendar and Practical Advice” (about lines 383–764) offers seasonal instructions on ploughing, sowing, harvesting, seafaring, running a household, and choosing servants and tools. Short mythic and proverbial examples appear throughout and support the themes of hard work and piety.
The poem ends with the “Days and Omens Section” (about lines 765–828). This is a list of lucky and unlucky days of the month for different activities. It mixes practical superstition with religious observance and concern for divine favor.
Throughout the poem, mythic episodes such as Pandora, the Ages of Man, and allusions to Prometheus serve as examples that explain why labor and justice are necessary in a world ruled by Zeus. Main figures include the narrator Hesiod, his brother Perses, Zeus, Prometheus, Pandora, the successive races of men, Eris (Strife), and Dike (Justice, personified).
The poem does not include any long heroic saga or continuous heroic story, and it largely leaves out Hesiod’s accounts of the origin of the gods and the universe, which appear instead in the Theogony. Works and Days survives almost complete in the medieval manuscript tradition, with some textual doubts and small gaps but no major missing sections.
Mythological Significance
Works and Days is one of the two main poems attributed to Hesiod and is a key source for Greek myth, especially for stories about the origins of humanity (anthropogony), the problem of divine justice (theodicy), and the moral meaning of human labor and suffering.
It preserves the earliest full version of the Pandora myth, where Pandora is the first woman created by the gods and a source of human troubles. This story is closely tied to Prometheus’ trick at Mecone and the theft of fire. The poem also gives the earliest systematic account of the Ages of Man (Golden, Silver, Bronze, Heroic, and Iron).
Works and Days offers an early and influential picture of Dike (Justice) and Eris (Strife) as personified and moralized figures. Among its notable mythic features are the placement of a distinct Heroic Age between the Bronze and Iron Ages, linked to the heroes of Theban and Trojan legend and seen as a brief improvement in human life; the portrayal of Pandora as a crafted woman, given gifts by the gods and sent as punishment for Prometheus’ deception and Epimetheus’ mistake, showing the double nature of Zeus’s gifts; and the strong link between the decline in the Ages of Man and the poet’s own Iron Age, marked by injustice and toil, which gives the scheme a sharp moral and social focus.
The poem set the standard Greek version of the Ages of Man, later taken up and reworked by authors such as Pindar, Plato, and Ovid. It also shaped later literary and artistic images of Pandora as the source of human miseries and as the archetypal “first woman.”
Works and Days presents Zeus as the guarantor of justice and the punisher of hubris, an image that influenced later Greek ethical and religious thought. It became an important model for didactic and gnomic literature that mixes myth with moral and practical teaching.
In its wider mythic setting, Works and Days connects the Prometheus cycle—his deception of Zeus at Mecone, the theft of fire, and the sending of Pandora—to a broader story of human decline and the need for labor. It links heroic tales, especially the Theban and Trojan wars, to a specific Heroic Age in the history of mankind, placing epic heroism inside an overall pattern of decline. As a counterpart to the Theogony, which tells how divine order was established, Works and Days explains the human condition under that order.
Related myths in the poem include Prometheus’ deception of Zeus at Mecone (mentioned briefly), the theft of fire and Zeus’s response, the creation and sending of Pandora, the opening of her jar (or chest) and the release of evils with Hope remaining, the detailed description of the five Ages of Man, and Zeus’s watch over kings and human justice.
Comparative studies point out that the sequence of declining ages has parallels in Near Eastern and later Greco-Roman traditions, though Works and Days gives the earliest surviving Greek version. They also note that Pandora’s jar motif can be compared with other cultural myths about an early mistake or the loss of an earlier blessed state.
Discussions of the poem often focus on how closely the Prometheus–Pandora story in Works and Days matches the versions suggested in the Theogony and whether they come from a single underlying mythic complex; on the role and place of the Heroic Age within the Ages of Man scheme, including whether it is a later addition or part of the original plan; and on Pandora’s role, which is variously seen as a misogynistic model, a symbol of the double nature of divine gifts, or a more complex figure who brings both culture and civilization along with suffering.