Though there are many works from ancient Greece that survived, there are two authors that are the most well-known or frequently taught. Homer’s two epics, the Iliad and the Odyssey, are perhaps the most well-known, because of the heroes epic battles of strength and wit against those deemed as enemies. Hesiod’s Works and Days, however, may be the most pertinent to finding out how everyday citizens of ancient Greece went about their everyday lives. These epics detail the lives of both extraordinary and ordinary men’s lives in ancient Greece. When compared to one another, Homer’s heroic world and Hesiod’s more common world have many similarities, such as views towards religion and right and wrong, and a significant difference, the role of women.
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Hesiod claims that when men are honest to other men, and judge them fairly, they will be rewarded with prosperity, but when men are dishonest and do not judge fairly they bring upon themselves evil (53). In the country of the Cyclopes, one Cyclopes named Polyphemus had taken to eating Odysseus’s men, and Odysseus and his men were able to maim him after the gods breathed bravery into them (36). What Polyphemus did is wrong, and Odysseus and his men did what is right, to correct the situation. Book one of the Iliad details Apollo’s priest coming to buy back his daughter from Agamemnon, but the king refuses, and consequently Apollo sets a plague on the Greeks until the priest’s daughter is returned (2-14). The Iliad and the Odyssey both contain wrongs done that are righted, and Hesiod outlines what happens when right and wrongs are done. Hesiod says that evil falls upon those who did erroneous tasks, such as the Greeks not releasing the priest’s daughter and Polyphemus losing his sight, and good is brought upon those who do fair or just things, such as Odysseus’s men escaping the Cyclops and the plague being lifted on the Greeks when they return the
Hesiod claims that when men are honest to other men, and judge them fairly, they will be rewarded with prosperity, but when men are dishonest and do not judge fairly they bring upon themselves evil (53). In the country of the Cyclopes, one Cyclopes named Polyphemus had taken to eating Odysseus’s men, and Odysseus and his men were able to maim him after the gods breathed bravery into them (36). What Polyphemus did is wrong, and Odysseus and his men did what is right, to correct the situation. Book one of the Iliad details Apollo’s priest coming to buy back his daughter from Agamemnon, but the king refuses, and consequently Apollo sets a plague on the Greeks until the priest’s daughter is returned (2-14). The Iliad and the Odyssey both contain wrongs done that are righted, and Hesiod outlines what happens when right and wrongs are done. Hesiod says that evil falls upon those who did erroneous tasks, such as the Greeks not releasing the priest’s daughter and Polyphemus losing his sight, and good is brought upon those who do fair or just things, such as Odysseus’s men escaping the Cyclops and the plague being lifted on the Greeks when they return the