Hesiod, Works and Days 633-40

How to quote this translation

M = reading of the whole MS tradition
m = reading of part of the MS tradition
P = reading on a papyrus
 
ὥς περ ἐμός τε πατὴρ καὶ σός, μέγα νήπιε Πέρση,
πλωίζεσκ’ ἐν νηυσί, βίου κεχρημένος ἐσθλοῦ·
ὅς ποτε καὶ τύιδ’ τύιδ’ vel τεῖδ Bergk: τῆιδε M ἦλθε πολὺν διὰ πόντον ἀνύσσας, 635
Κύμην Αἰολίδα προλιπὼν ἐν νηὶ μελαίνηι,
οὐκ ἄφενος φεύγων οὐδὲ πλοῦτόν τε καὶ ὄλβον,
ἀλλὰ κακὴν πενίην, τὴν Ζεὺς ἄνδρεσσι δίδωσιν.
νάσσατο δ’ ἄγχ’ Ἑλικῶνος ὀιζυρῆι ἐνὶ κώμηι,
640 Ἄσκρηι χεῖμα κακῆι, θέρει ἀργαλέηι, οὐδέ ποτ’
                                                    [ ἐσθλῆι.

Thus my father and yours, Perses, you great fool, sailed in ships, since he lacked a decent livelihood. And once he came here, too, having traversed a great expanse of the sea, leaving Aeolian Cyme in his black ship, not fleeing riches, nor wealth or prosperity, but wretched poverty, which Zeus gives to mortals. And he settled near Helicon in a miserable village, Ascra, harsh in winter, grievous in summer, never temperate.


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