Works and Days

Use these questions or activities to help gauge students’ familiarity with and spark their interest in the context of the work, giving them an entry point into the text itself.

Short Answer

1. Hesiod’s Works and Days is one of the earliest works of Greek literature, composed during what is usually known as the Archaic Period. List 6-8 facts or suppositions you recall from previous studies of ancient Greece and/or the Archaic Period. What are some of the cultural, political, and historical achievements that can be associated with early Greek history?

Teaching Suggestion: It will be important to discuss the major historical landmarks of early Greece, focusing especially on the Archaic Period (776-479 BCE). For example, readers might review or briefly investigate through research the development of the Greek alphabet, the structure and purposes of the Greek city-state (the polis), and the expansion of Greek networks across the Mediterranean Sea.

• This article from the National Archaeological Museum of Greece offers a short introduction to the Archaic Period.
• This article from World History Encyclopedia documents the history of the Greek polis.

2. Hesiod’s Works and Days is usually classified as a didactic poem. What is didactic literature? What are some other examples of didactic literature from ancient times or other eras?