The
Works and Days (,
Erga kai Hemerai) is a
didactic poem of some 800 lines written by the ancient Greek poet
Hesiod around 700 BCE. At its center, the
Works and Days is a
farmer's almanac in which Hesiod instructs his brother Perses in the agricultural arts. Scholars have seen this work against a background of agrarian crisis in mainland Greece, which inspired a wave of
colonial expeditions in search of new land. In the poem Hesiod also offers his brother extensive moralizing advice on how he should live his life. The
Works and Days is perhaps best known for its two mythological
aetiologies for the toil and pain that define the
human condition: the story of
Prometheus and
Pandora, and the so-called
Myth of Five Ages.