bservances?'

HOMER: 'By scorning to get unclean gain and if the good were honoured,
but justice fell upon the unjust.'

HESIOD: 'What is the best thing of all for a man to ask of the gods in
prayer?'

HOMER: 'That he may be always at peace with himself continually.'

HESIOD: 'Can you tell me in briefest space what is best of all?'

HOMER: 'A sound mind in a manly body, as I believe.'

HESIOD: 'Of what effect are righteousness and courage?'

HOMER: 'To advance the common good by private pains.'

HESIOD: 'What is the mark of wisdom among men?'

HOMER: 'To read aright the present, and to march with the occasion.'

HESIOD: 'In what kind of matter is it right to trust in men?'

HOMER: 'Where danger itself follows the action close.'

HESIOD: 'What do men mean by happiness?'

HOMER: 'Death after a life of least pain and greatest pleasure.'

After these verses had been spoken, all the Hellenes called for Homer
to be crowned. But King Paneides bade each of them recite the finest
passage from his own poems. Hesiod, therefore, began as follows:

'When the Pleiads, the daughters of Atlas, begin to rise begin the
harvest, and begin ploughing ere they set. For forty nights and days
they are hidden, but appear again as the year wears round, when first
the sickle is sharpened. This is the law of the plains and for those
who dwell near the sea or live in the rich-soiled valleys, far from the
wave-tossed deep: strip to sow, and strip to plough, and strip to reap
when all things are in season.' [3703]

Then Homer:

'The ranks stood firm about the two Aiantes, such that not even Ares
would have scorned them had he met them, nor yet Athena who saves
armies. For there the chosen best awaited the charge of the Trojans
and noble Hector, making a fence of spears and serried shields. Shield
closed with shield, and helm with helm, and each man with his fellow,
and the peaks of their head-pieces with crests of horse-hair touched
as they bent their heads: so close they stood together. The murderous
battle bristled with the long, flesh-rending spears they held, and the
flash of bronze from polished helms and new-burnished breast-plates
and gleaming shields blinded the eyes. Very hard of heart would he have
been, who could then have seen that strife with joy and felt no pang.'
[3704]

Here, again, the Hellenes applauded Homer admiringly, so far did
the verses exceed the ordinary level; and demanded that he should be
adjudged th