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 Hesiod, Works and Days in The Works of Hesiod, Translated from the Greek by Mr. Cooke (London, 1728); [Transcribed from the fascimile reprint edition, New York, 1976]; Online at Animal Rights History, 2006.
Works and Days
Book III.
[1-4] YOUR Servants to a just Observance train Of Days,
as Heav'n and human Rites ordain;
Great Jove, with Wisdom, o'er the Year prefides,
Directs the Seasons, and the Moments guides.
[5-81] Of ev'ry Month, the most propitious Day
, The thirtyth choose, your Labours to survey;
And the due Wages to your Servants pay.
The first of ev'ry Moon we sacred deem,
Alike the fourth throughout the Year esteem;
And in the seventh Apollo we adore,
In which the golden God Latona bore;
Two Days succeeding these extend your Cares,
Uninterrupted, in your own Affairs;
Nor in the next two Days, but one, delay
The Work in Hand, the Bus'ness of the Day,
Of which th' eleventh we propitious hold
To reap the Corn, the twelfth to cheer the Fold;
And then behold, with her industrious Train,
The Ant, wise Reptile, gather in the Grain;
Then you may see, suspended in the Air,
The careful Spider his Domain prepare,
And while the Artifst spins the Cobweb Dome
The Matron chearful plys the Loom at Home.
Forget not in the thirteenth to refrain
From sowing, lest your Work should prove in vain;
Tho then the Grain may find a barren Soil,
The Day is grateful to the Planter's Toil:
Not so the sixteenth to the Planter's Care;
A Day unlucky to the new born Fair,
Alike unhappy to the marry'd then;
A Day propitious to the Birth of Men:
The sixth the same bath to the Man and Maid;
Then fecret Vows are made and Nymphs betray'd;
The Fair by soothing Words are Captives led;
The Gossip's Tale is told, Detraction spread;
The Kid to castrate, and the Ram, we hold
Propitious now; alike to pen the Fold.
Geld in the eighth, the Goat, and lowing Steer;
Nor in the twelfth, to geld the Mule-colt fear.
The Offspring Male born in the twenty'th prize,
'Tis a great Day, he shall be early wise.
Happy the Man-child in the tenth Day born;
Happy the Virgin in the fourteenth Morn;
Then train the Mule obedient to your Hand,
And teach the snarling Cur his Lord's Command;
Then make the bleating Flocks their Master know,
And bend the horned Oxen to the Plow.
What in the twenty-fourth you do beware;
And the fourth Day requires an equal Care;
Then, then, be circumspect in all your Ways,
Woes, complicated Woes, attend the Days.
When, resolute to change a single Life,
You wed, on the fourth Day lead home your Wife
But first observe the feather'd Race that fly,
Remarking well the happy Augury.
The fifths of ev'ry Month your Care require,
Days full of Trouble, and Afflictions dire;
For then the Furys take their Round, 'tis say'd,
And heap their Vengeance on the perjur'd Head
In the sev'nteenth prepare the level Floor,
And then of Ceres thresh the sacred Store;
In the same Day, and when the Timber's good,
Fell, for the Bedpost, and the Ship, the Wood.
The Vessel, suff'ring by the Sea and Air,
Survey all o'er, and in the fourth repair.
In the nineteenth 'tis better to delay,
Till Afternoon, the Bus'ness of the Day.
Uninterrupted in the ninth pursue
The Work in Hand, a Day propitious thro
Themselves the Planters prosp'rous then employ;
To either Sex, in Birth, a Day of Joy.
The twentyninth is befst observe the Rule,
Known but to few, to yoke the Ox and Mule;
'Tis proper then to yoke the flying Steed;
But few, alas! these wholesome Truths can read;
Then you may fill the Cask, nor fill in vain;
Then draw the swift Ship to the fable Main.
To pierce the Cask till the fourteenth delay,
Of all most fsacred next the twenty'th Day;
After the twenty'th Day few of the rest
We sacred deem, of that the Morn is best.
[82-89] These are the Days of which th' Observance can
Bring great Advantage to the Race of Man;
The rest unnam'd indiff'rent pass away,
And Nought important marks the vulgar Day:
Some one commend, and some another praise.
But most by Guess, for few are wise in Days:
One cruel as a Stepmother we find,
And one as an indulgent Mother kind.
[90-95] 0 ! happy Mortal, happy he, and bless'd,
Whose Wisdom here is by his Acts confess'd;
Who lives all blameless to immortal Eyes,
Who prudently consults the Augurys,
Nor by Transgression, works his Neighbour Pain,
Nor ever gives him Reason to complain.
The End of the third BOOK.
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