Reading Room

Whisper's Muses

A classical oracle and reading room arranged in paper, ink, and line.

Search, draw, and read public-domain verse with stable line references and quiet editorial structure.

Verse

Works and Days

Book 1, Line 57 by Hugh G. Evelyn-White (English)

(ll. 695-705) Bring home a wife to your house when you are of the right age, while you are not far short of thirty years nor much above; this is the right age for marriage. Let your wife have been grown up four years, and marry her in the fifth. Marry a maiden, so that you can teach her careful ways, and especially marry one who lives near you, but look well about you and see that your marriage will not be a joke to your neighbours. For a man wins nothing better than a good wife, and, again, nothing worse than a bad one, a greedy soul who roasts her man without fire, strong though he may be, and brings him to a raw old age.

Works and DaysHesiodHugh G. Evelyn-WhiteEnglishVerse permalinkRead in Book 1

Book 1, Line 57ProseID works-and-days-evelyn-white-en-prose-1-57

Project Gutenberg #348, Hesiod, The Homeric Hymns, and Homerica (Hugh G. Evelyn-White), Works and Days