Page:History of the Literature of Ancient Greece (Müller) 2ed.djvu/105

83 LITERATURE OF ANCIENT GREECE. 83 scribed by the ancients, but some Boeotian husbandman, whose mind had been so forcibly moved by peculiar circumstances as to give a poetical tone to the whole course of his thoughts and feelings. The father of Hesiod, as was before mentioned, had settled at Ascra as a farmer ; and although he found the situation disadvantageous, from its great heat in summer and its storminess in winter, yet he had left a considerable property to his two sons, Hesiod and a younger brother, Perses. The brothers divided the inheritance ; and Perses, by means of bribes to the kings (who at this time alone exercised the office of judge), contrived to defraud his elder brother. But Perses showed a disposition which in later times became more and more common among the Greeks ; he chose rather to listen to lawsuits in the market-place, and to contrive legal quibbles by which he might defraud others of their property, than to follow the plough. Hence it came to pass that his inheritance, probably with the help of a foolish wife, was soon dissipated ; and he threatened to commence a new suit against his elder brother, in order to dispute the possession of that small portion ot their tather s land which had been allotted to him. The peculiar situation in which Hesiod was thus placed called forth the following expression of his thoughts. We give only the principal heads, in order to point out their reference to the circumstances of the poet*. "There are two kinds of contention" (the poet begins by saying), " the one blameable and hateful, the strife of war and litigation ; the other beneficial and praiseworthy, the competition of mechanics and artists. Avoid the first, O Perses ; and strive not again through the injustice of the judges to wrest from me my own ; keep rather to the works of honest industry. For the gods sent toil and misery among men, when they punished Prometheus for stealing fire from heaven by sending Pandora to Epimetheus, from whose box all evils were spread among mankind. We are now in the fifth age of the world, the age of iron, in which man must perpetually contend with want and trouble. I will now relate to the judges the fable of the hawk which killed the nightingale heedless of her song. The city where justice is practised will alone flourish under the protection of the gods. But to the city where wicked deeds are done, Zeus sends famine and plague. Know, ye judges, that ye are watched by myriads of Jove's immortal spirits, and his own all-seeing eye is upon you. To the brutes have the gods given the law of force — to men the law of justice. Excellence is not to be acquired, O Perses, except by the sweat of thy brow. Labour is pleasinp; to the gods, and brings no shame : honest industry alone gives lasting satisfaction. Beware of wrongful acts ; honour the gods ; hold fast good friends and good neighbours ; be not misled by an im- ancient critics, and probably was only one id' the introductory strains which the Hesiodean rhapsodists could prefix to the Works and Pays.
 * I pass over the short proocmium to Zens, as it was rejected by most of the