Works and Days

Hesiod

ISBN 10: 0141197528 / ISBN 13: 9780141197524

Published by Penguin Books Ltd, 2018

About this Item

'Stallings's new translation of Hesiod's Works and Days - witty, gritty, and unsettlingly relevant - is not to be missed' TLS, Books of the YearSHORTLISTED FOR THE 2019 RUNICMAN AWARDA new verse translation of one of the foundational ancient Greek works by the award-winning poet A. E. Stallings.Hesiod was the first self-styled 'poet' in western literature, revered by the ancient Greeks. Ostensibly written to chide and educate his lazy brother, Works and Days tells the story of Pandora's jar and humanity's place in a fallen world. Blending the cosmic and the earthy, and mixing myth, lyrical description, personal asides, astronomy, proverbs and down-to-earth advice on rural tasks and rituals, it is also a hymn to honest toil as man's salvation. This vibrant new verse translation by award-winning poet A. E. Stallings conveys the clarity and unexpected humour of a founding work of classical literature.

Seller Inventory # CIN0141197528G

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Works and Days
• Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd
• Publication Date: 2018
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0141197528
• ISBN 13: 9780141197524
• Binding: Paperback
• Condition: Good

About this title

Synopsis

A new verse translation by award-winning poet Alicia Stallings of one of the foundational works of ancient Greece

TLS BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR 2018, selected by Rachel Hadas and Emily Wilson
 
The ancient Greeks revered Hesiod, believing he had beaten Homer in a singing contest and that after his dead body was thrown to sea, it was brought back by dolphins. His Works and Days is one of the most important early works of Greek poetry. Ostensibly written by the poet to chide his lazy brother, it recounts the story of Pandora’s box and humanity’s decline since the Golden Age, and can be read as a celebration of rural life and a hymn to work. Alicia Stallings’s new translation breathes new life into Hesiod’s work, rendering its vivid poetry for a new generation of classics readers.
 
For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,800 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.

About the Author

Hesiod, a contemporary of Homer, probably lived in the eighth century in Boeotia on the Greek mainland. He is often considered to be the author of both the Theogony and Works and Days, although this has been debated.
 
Alicia Stallings is an American poet and translator. She has published three books of original verse, Archaic Smile, Hapax, and Olives, a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award. Her verse translation of Lucretius’s The Nature of Things is published by Penguin Classics.