A Call To Arms: The Use of Ambiguity to

Construct the Agency of Justice in Works and

Days

In Works and Days, it is well established that the poem is a form of wisdom literature
delivered through triangulated address. As stated in the introduction, this address from
Hesiod to Perses is “clearly meant for a third party” (Introduction pg 3). Perses (if he at all
existed) is not the true audience – instead, it is likely intended as an indirect message to the
people who hear it. It is also agreed that the immortals of Ancient Greece had great
importance to him; Hesiod’s “devotion to the Muses” (Introduction, pg 5) seeps into his work
with a short invocation, and the speaker also makes numerous references to gods, particularly
Zeus, in Works and Days. Hesiod intends to impart such values as work ethic, rural life and
justice. However, while Hesiod clearly affirms his belief in the sole agency of mortals to
implement the work ethic and rural life he expounds, he remains ambiguous on the agency of
mortals and immortals in the execution of justice. It is clear from the text that Hesiod believes
in the gods as the designers of justice, so why not then take a side on who doles out the
justice? Some might see Hesiod as simply confused, but that would be misguided
underestimation of the author – as Hesiod states: “gods and humans go back a long way
together” (line 128). I believe this ambiguity is intentional; through carefully constructed
ambivalence as to which group has the agency in executing justice, Hesiod is encouraging his
true audience to realise that while mortal actions also have agency in the execution of justice,
legitimate justice is the collaboration of immortal actions and mortal actions in accordance
with the will of the gods - in hope that bringing about this recognition can bring about
societal reform.
We must first address the (unintentionally!) ambiguous terms ‘agency’, ‘legitimate justice’
and ‘societal reform’. To go into the specifics of defining agency would involve garden-path
discussion on free will and choice than could be brought into this paper; for the purposes of
this essay, the group that has agency is simply the group that independently incites the chain
of actions leading up to a state in which justice (legitimate or otherwise) has been dealt. Their
actions are taken without direct influence from the other group forcing their hand. As for
legitimate justice, Hesiod believes in the gods to be designers of true justice. In his invocation
of the Muses, the speaker implores Zeus to “hand down just judgements” (line 16). These
judgements would be opposed to the “bribe-eating lords” (line 55) whom Perses paid off to
award him the majority of their inheritance. Indeed, the speaker believes that a “straight
[judgement] from Zeus” (line 52) would see their feud settled correctly. In Hesiod’s view,
true justice is the will of the gods, and the will of the gods would be truly just. As for societal
reform, Hesiod has a greatly pessimistic view of human society; it is a society he wants to see
changed. In talking about the “Iron Age” in his time, “not a day goes by [when] a man
doesn’t have some kind of trouble” (line 204-206). This is a world he wants changed for the
better. Thus, by teaching his audience to recognise legitimate justice, they would bring about
the change that he feels would make it better. Furthermore, with his low view of the “bribe-
eating lords”, as well as his contemptuous “fable for kings” (line 235), it is possible he might
even be encouraging a power struggle between the rural, common people and their
“superiors” (line 243).
Gods certainly play an important role in the system of justice Hesiod is attempting to
construct. I have already established that Hesiod sees Zeus as its designer, and indeed we do
see a number of instances in which Zeus and the other gods can be argued to be the
orchestrators of true justice.
A strong case for Zeus’ agency in doling out justice is the story of Pandora. In the section
“Why Life Is Hard”, Zeus tells Prometheus that because fire had been “stolen”, “things will
go hard for [Prometheus] and the humans after this” because “[Zeus is] going to give them…
their very own Evil to love and embrace” (lines 73-76). Zeus then calls upon the other gods to
build Pandora with a “face like an immortal goddess’” and “a bitchy mind and a cheating
heart” (lines 81 and 87) to give to Epimetheus, after which she “scattered all the miseries that
spell sorrow for men… All by the plan of [Zeus]” (lines 116-120). In this sequence of events,
Zeus brings about justice against “[Prometheus] and the humans” for the clear-cut wrong of
theft with a sequence of events he initiated.
Finally, in his vivid recount of The Five Ages, Hesiod attributes the impending destruction of
the people of the Iron Age (his own era) to Zeus and the other gods and shows that their
destruction is legitimate justice. He explains that “soon as they start being grey around the
temples”, “[mortals] will start taking justice into their own hands, sacking each others’ cities,
no respect at all” (line 219-220), and thus “Zeus will destroy this generation too” (lines 209-
210). In doing so, he shows a straightforward line of cause-and-effect between the injustice of
their current society and Zeus’ will to destroy it, establishing Zeus’ agency and justification
These references to Zeus attribute agency and true justice to him. And yet, littered throughout
the poem in no discernable pattern are other equally significant cases that seem to have Zeus
as orchestrator of justice but are actually intentionally vague.
In the section Days, the speaker flatly states that “days come from Zeus… in his wisdom”
(line 845 and 849), then goes on to give superstitious explanations as to why it is just to
follow these cycles. This seems to elevate Zeus as orchestrator - he mandated which days are
the just days for actions, so is he not the one with agency? I disagree because that
interpretation clashes with a significant concluding wisdom line from the earlier section on
Seafaring: the speaker tells Perses to remember that “everything you do is best done in
season” (line 768). If indeed it were an inevitable conclusion of Zeus’ actions that everyone
does everything in season, Zeus would be the agent. However, the wording of the wisdom
line (“everything you do”) is a statement that mortals are the ones with agency - it is their
actions and choices to abide by the seasons to reach a state that is just.
As stated in the introduction, during the invocation of the Muses, the speaker implores Zeus
to “bend hither [his] mind, hand down just judgements” (line 15-16), which he later states to
be something we simply cannot “get around” (line 125). In wanting Zeus to “bend hither” his
mind, Hesiod envisions the will of Zeus delivering legitimate justice directly, without
working through the actions of mortals. Yet this is is subverted with a snarky interjection at
the conclusion of the invocation - after pronouncing grandiose praises of Zeus, he completely
undercuts this by stating “and as for me… I’d like to state a few facts” (lines 19-20). With
those lines, he levels himself with Zeus by comparing his desire to that of Zeus; that Hesiod
can be an objective, ethereal observer while the will of Zeus carries out its justice. To suggest
that he is somehow ‘above’ the will of Zeus takes away from his agency.
The section Justice is perhaps the best self-contained example of ambiguity. The speaker
states that Zeus imposes penalties and that Justice is literally born of Zeus asserting that “for
those who live for violence and vice, Zeus… decrees a just penalty, and often a whole city
suffers.” (lines 276-278) and that “Virgin Justice” is “Zeus’ own daughter” (line 295) -
confirming that Zeus’ actions are indeed the legitimate form of justice. Immediately after,
however, he tells the audience in a personal aside he doesn’t believe Zeus has the power to
see justice done, in that he “[doesn’t] look for Zeus in his wisdom to bring things to that pass
for a long time yet” (lines 314-315). This undercuts the audience’s faith in Zeus that he can
accomplish the true state of justice.
The other gods make a less ambiguous case for the gods as agents of justice. In the section
Two Kinds of Strife, Eris - as the personification of strife - is seen to come in an incarnation
who “[stirs shiftless folks] up to work” and is “a lot better for humans” (lines 31-32). The
speaker attributes these outcomes of justice - where “potter feuds with potter… poet of poet”
(line 38-41), a world that “does people good” (line 37) - to that incarnation. Here, Hesiod
testifies to the god Eris being the agent that carries out this true form of justice. Another
example comes from a different section, “The Five Ages”, in which the speaker says that if
the personified gods “Shame and Nemesis” abandon “mortal men”, they will be left with “no
defence against evil” (line 233-234). This has the implication that the mortal men rely on
Shame and Nemesis to be the protectors of justice.
It appears for the most part that Hesiod sees the gods as the true agents of justice. However -
in stark opposition to the lofty subject matter of Theogony concerning the genesis of the
divine - Works and Days deals in worldly, rustic issues, and thus discusses what are
essentially human actions and human character in great detail. A number of significant
characters - authoritative, mythological or personal - are shown to have agency; it is through
this earthly lens that Hesiod argues for the agency of mortals in carrying out justice -
particularly the illegitimate kind.
Hesiod references a number of titled, authoritative figures who carry out misguided exercises
in justice - and two visions of those same figures carrying out proper and improper justice
respectively. By alluding to the importance of the “bribe-eating lords” (line 55) to the justice
process, Hesiod both awards them agency and criticises the justice they carry out. While
addressing Perses in Two Kinds of Strife, he calls these lords “damn fools” who “don’t know
the half from the whole” (line 56), clearly condemning their decisions when it comes to
justice while simultaneously acknowledging that they are agents of this false justice. Hesiod
also writes a “fable for kings” (line 235) in order to explain to the audience how kings
miscarry justice. The fable describes a “hawk” telling a “speckle-throated nightingale” (lines
236-237) it has caught that “‘[the nightingale is] in the grip of real strength now’”, and that
“‘[the hawk] will make a meal of [the nightingale] if [the hawk] wants, or [it] might let [the
nightingale] go.’” (lines 240 and 242). Through this fable, Hesiod explains that the inbalance
of power between the common man and the kings gives the kings the agency to execute their
own version of justice on a whim. Finally, he provides a more optimistic view, describing a
world that is just because its leaders follow the will of Zeus. In the section Justice, he tells us
that “when judges judge straight” and “never turn their backs on Justice”, their “cities
blossom and people bloom” (lines 261 and 263), and their “youngsters grow tall, because
broad-browed Zeus hasn’t marked them out for war” (lines 265-266). Zeus does not punish
this world by marking their youngsters for death; instead, he causes this world to flourish
because legitimate justice is being executed in accordance with his will. However, in a world
in which people “live for violence and vice” (line 276), “Zeus’ Olympian will” sees to it that
“whole families die off” (lines 282-283). Thus, it is up to the “rulers and lords… to observe
this justice” (lines 286-287).
Hesiod addresses the mythological characters that dole out justice improperly, which are
referenced mainly in the section The Five Ages. Hesiod describes how the mortals of the
Silver age “could not stop hurting each other” and “could not bring themselves to serve the
Immortals, nor sacrifice at the altars the way men ought to”, and that for that reason “Zeus…
did away with them” (lines 155-159). In the context of this poem, this might be a metaphor
for how mortals were incapable of carrying out true justice without guidance and thus were
destroyed.
Finally, Hesiod does not exclude himself from the argument that justice carried out by
mortals when not in accordance with the will of Zeus is false justice. He gives examples of
himself having the agency of justice and carrying it out illegitimately. While addressing
Perses about the feud, Hesiod asks that they “settle this feud right now” through a “straight
one from Zeus”. If he had believed that any mortals could carry out legitimate justice, he
would have attempted to settle it himself, or at least asked that they bring their case to court.
However, for Hesiod to bring it up to Zeus demonstrates that either he does not believe that
the judges act in accordance with Zeus, or he believes that Zeus is the only one who can bring
their feud to a just conclusion. Another case comes in the section Justice, where he admits
that “as for [him]”, he would “as soon not be a just man, not myself nor my son” (lines 310-
311). This confession that he is not perfect serves to further his argument that he is imperfect
and that he has the agency to make imperfect choices - and, that any version of justice he
carries out would be imperfect.
Throughout the poem, Hesiod expounds on his pessimistic views of human life and the
injustice he sees all around him. His is a bleak view of a world that has lost faith and piety to
the gods. However, he does have a vision of a brighter future; one in which there is interplay
between the actions and will of gods and mortals - as alluded to in the examples from the
sections Days and Justice. With this wisdom poem, his aim is thus to encourage his audience
to recognise the difference between legitimate and illegitimate justice - borne of the gods and
of humans respectively - and demonstrate that pious mortals must be agents of Zeus’ will for
true justice to manifest. It is a call to social reform.