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This reading comes from the Cave’s

The Best of Hesiod’s Theogony & Works and Days

(where it appears as chapter nine of the Works and Days).

__________

THE MAN WHO ADDS TO  what he has will ward off burning hunger. If you add only a little to a little, and you do this often, soon the “only a little” will become a lot.

What a man has stored up in his house is no trouble to him. And it’s better for it to be indoors, inside his house, than outside. It is fine to take from what you have but miserable to need something and not have it.

I advise you to consider this, Perses.

Satisfy yourself in full when the storage jar is first opened and when it is nearly at end. Be sparing in the middle. Thrift at the bottom is worthless.

[370] May the wages offered to a friendly man be reliable. Also: smile upon your brother—with the addition of a witness. For trust and distrust alike have ruined men.

Do not let a gussied-up, flattering, chattering woman deceive your mind. She’s after everything in your storehouse. The man who trusts a woman is won over by a thief.

May there be only one son to feed his father’s house. That way wealth will grow in the house’s halls. And when you die an old man, may you leave behind another child—a grandson. It is easy for Zeus to give an unspeakable amount of wealth and happiness to even more people than these. [380] More hands mean more work, which means a greater increase.

So ends Reading 9, “Maintenance and Consumption – Stores, Satisfaction, Women, and Children.” See you in Reading 10, “When and How to Do What – The Agrarian Calendar and Other Advice.”