PENGUIN CLASSICS

WORKS AND DAYS

HESIOD probably lived and composed in the late eighth century BCE in the hamlet of Askra in Boeotia, mainland Greece. Alongside the works of Homer, his poems mark the beginning of Western literature. The first Western poet to give his own biography, Hesiod describes himself as a farmer, son of an Asia Minor sea merchant, and winner of the Amphidamas’ funeral games tripod in poetry.

A. E. STALLINGS is an American poet and translator who lives in Greece. She has published three books of poetry, Archaic Smile (1999), Hapax (2006) and Olives (2012); another, Like, is forthcoming. She has received fellowships from the Guggenheim and MacArthur Foundations. Her verse translation of Lucretius’ The Nature of Things (2007) is published in Penguin Classics.

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This edition first published in Penguin Classics 2018

Translation and editorial material © A. E. Stallings, 2018

All rights reserved

The moral rights of the editor and translator have been asserted

Cover: detail of Prometheus tortured by the eagle by the Nettos Painter, 610 B.C. in the National Archaeological Museum Athens (Photograph © DeAgostini Picture Library/Scala, Florence)

ISBN: 978-0-141-97066-0

Contents

Note on the Translation

Map

Introduction

WORKS AND DAYS

Notes

Further Reading

Glossary of Proper Names

Acknowledgements

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