A review by leelulah
Works and Days by Hesiod
2.0
I had no idea I already had read this one, it's pretty short.
There are lots of things here, first a mythological account of why men must work, mainly blamed on Prometheus and Pandora (the ever living myth of the seductive woman, but created specifically by gods to deceive men) and a reference to Helen of Troy.
Of course, the justification is that work is in itself some kind of punishment for divine trangression and subject to all sorts of complicated rules such as figuring out the right time to do any sort of activity, because you don't want to make your situation with the gods worse. As much as they're on a superior level compared to mere mortals, they aren't prevented by divine wisdom of having terrible behavior.
In fact, it surprised me how morally inclined is, not that we're forced to agree with its ethics, after all it advices 30 year old men to marry off 14-15 year old girls, but those were considered the age of male maturity and the age of female fertility, respectively.
There are lots of things here, first a mythological account of why men must work, mainly blamed on Prometheus and Pandora (the ever living myth of the seductive woman, but created specifically by gods to deceive men) and a reference to Helen of Troy.
Of course, the justification is that work is in itself some kind of punishment for divine trangression and subject to all sorts of complicated rules such as figuring out the right time to do any sort of activity, because you don't want to make your situation with the gods worse. As much as they're on a superior level compared to mere mortals, they aren't prevented by divine wisdom of having terrible behavior.
In fact, it surprised me how morally inclined is, not that we're forced to agree with its ethics, after all it advices 30 year old men to marry off 14-15 year old girls, but those were considered the age of male maturity and the age of female fertility, respectively.