A Conversation with Hesiod

​For I do not think one should demand from poets a completely perfect account of what they have said, examining them with extreme precision down to every single syllable, nor, if something happens to slip by unnoticed in the rush of poetry, should one scrutinize this bitterly; rather, one should know that we insert many things both for the sake of the meters and for euphony. And as for other things, the verse itself, being often smooth, has somehow accepted them. But you are robbing us of the greatest of the blessings we possess—I mean freedom and the authority in making poetry—and while you do not see all the other beautiful aspects of poetry, you pick out certain splinters and thorns and seek handles for your false accusations. Yet you are not the only one to do this, nor against me alone; many others also pick at the works of my fellow-craftsman Homer in this extremely fine way, going through certain very small matters.

​And if it is necessary to confront the accusation directly and make the most correct defense, read, my good sir, my Works and Days. For you will know how many things have been prophesied by me in that poem, both divining and predicting, foretelling the outcomes of actions done rightly and in due season, and the penalties of those that are neglected. Such as: “And you will carry it in a basket, and few will look upon you,” and again, all the goods that will remain for those who farm rightly might be considered a most useful art of divination for life.

​LYCINUS Well now, wondrous Hesiod, this is indeed a very shepherd-like thing you have said, and you yourself seem to prove the inspiration of the Muses, being unable even to defend your own verses. But we were not expecting this kind of divination from you and the Muses; since in such matters, the farmers are far more prophetic than you, and would prophesy to us best about them—namely, that if the god sends rain, the sheaves will be flourishing, but if drought takes hold and the fields thirst, there is no way that famine will not follow their thirst; and that one must not plow in the middle of summer, or else no benefit would come from the seeds scattered in vain, nor reap the ear while it is still green, or the fruit will be found empty. Nor indeed does that other thing require divination, that if you do not cover the seeds and a servant with a hoe does not throw earth over them, the birds will fly down and eat up beforehand the entire hope of summer.

​For while one would not err in calling such things exhortations and precepts, they seem to me to fall very far short of divination, whose task is to foreknow things that are unseen and in no way manifest—such as foretelling to Minos that his son would be drowned in the jar of honey, and forewarning the Achaeans of the cause of Apollo’s wrath and that Ilium would be captured in the tenth year. For these are divination. Since if anyone were to attribute such things as yours to it, he would not be slow in calling me too a prophet. For I shall foretell and prophesy, even without Castalia and the laurel and the Delphic tripod, that if anyone walks around naked in the cold, while the god is moreover raining or hailing, a major chill will fall upon such a person, and, what is still more prophetic than this, that a fever will naturally follow after these things; and many other such things which it would be ridiculous to mention.

​So, let go of such defenses and divinations. But that which you said in the beginning is perhaps worthy of acceptance: that you knew nothing of what was said, but some divine inspiration implanted the meters in you, though even that was not entirely reliable; for it would not have fulfilled some of the promises while leaving others unaccomplished.