What five centuries has the human race lived? Ancient myth about the five centuries, the life of Hesiod

The second human race and the second century were no longer as happy as the first. It was the Silver Age. The people of the Silver Age were not equal in strength or intelligence to the people of the Golden Age. For a hundred years they grew up foolish in the houses of their mothers, only when they matured did they leave them. Their life in adulthood was short, and since they were unreasonable, they saw many misfortunes and grief in life. The people of the Silver Age were rebellious. They did not obey the immortal gods and did not want to burn sacrifices for them on the altars; the Great Son of Cronos Zeus destroyed their family on earth. He was angry with them because they did not obey the gods living on bright Olympus. Zeus settled them in the underground dark kingdom. There they live, knowing neither joy nor sorrow; people also pay homage to them.

Father Zeus created the third generation and the third age - the Copper Age. It doesn't look like silver. From the shaft of the spear Zeus created people - terrible and powerful. The people of the Copper Age loved pride and war, abundant in groans. They did not know agriculture and did not eat the fruits of the earth that gardens and arable land provide. Zeus gave them enormous growth and indestructible strength. Their hearts were indomitable and courageous and their hands irresistible. Their weapons were forged from copper, their houses were made of copper, and they worked with copper tools. They didn’t know dark iron back in those days. The people of the Copper Age destroyed each other with their own hands. They quickly descended into the dark kingdom of the terrible Hades. No matter how strong they were, yet the black death kidnapped them, and they left the clear light of the sun.

As soon as this race descended into the kingdom of shadows, the great Zeus immediately created on the earth that feeds everyone the fourth century and a new human race, a nobler, more just race of demigod heroes equal to the gods. And they all died in evil wars and terrible bloody battles. Some died at the seven-gate Thebes, in the country of Cadmus, fighting for the legacy of Oedipus. Others fell at Troy, where they came for the beautiful-haired Helen, and sailed across the wide sea in ships. When death snatched them all away, Zeus the Thunderer settled them on the edge of the earth, far from living people. The demigod heroes live a happy, carefree life on the islands of the blessed near the stormy waters of the Ocean. There, the fertile land gives them fruits three times a year, sweet as honey.

The last, fifth century and the human race is iron. It continues now on earth. Night and day, without ceasing, sorrow and exhausting work destroy people. The gods send people difficult worries. True, gods and good are mixed with evil, but still there is more evil, it reigns everywhere. Children do not honor their parents; a friend is not faithful to a friend; the guest does not find hospitality; there is no love between brothers. People do not observe this oath, they do not value truth and goodness. They are destroying each other's cities. Violence reigns everywhere. Only pride and strength are valued. The goddesses Conscience and Justice left people. In their white robes they flew up to high Olympus to the immortal gods, but people were left with only grave troubles, and they had no protection from evil.

The people of the Copper Age committed many crimes. Arrogant and wicked, they did not obey the Olympian gods. The Thunderer Zeus was angry with them...

Prometheus is the son of the Titan Iapetus, cousin of Zeus. Prometheus's mother is the oceanid Clymene (according to other options: the goddess of justice Themis or the oceanid Assia). Titan's brothers - Menoetius (thrown into Tartarus by Zeus after the Titanomachy), Atlas (supports the firmament as punishment), Epimetheus (husband of Pandora)...

The Ori laid a wreath of fragrant spring flowers on her lush curls. Hermes put false and flattering speeches into her mouth. The gods called her Pandora, since she received gifts from all of them. Pandora was supposed to bring misfortune to people...

Zeus the Thunderer, having kidnapped the beautiful daughter of the river god Asopus, took her to the island of Oinopia, which has since been called after the daughter of Asopus - Aegina. The son of Aegina and Zeus, Aeacus, was born on this island. When Aeacus grew up, matured and became king of the island of Aegina...

The son of Zeus and Io, Epaphus, had a son Bel, and he had two sons - Egypt and Danaus. The entire country, which is irrigated by the fertile Nile, was owned by Egypt, from which this country received its name...

Perseus is the hero of Argive legends. According to the oracle's prediction, the daughter of the Argive king Acrisius Danae should give birth to a boy who will overthrow and kill his grandfather...

Sisyphus, the son of the god Aeolus, the ruler of all winds, was the founder of the city of Corinth, which in ancient times was called Ephyra. No one in all of Greece could equal Sisyphus in cunning, cunning and resourcefulness of mind...

Sisyphus had a son, the hero Glaucus, who ruled in Corinth after the death of his father. Glaucus had a son, Bellerophon, one of the great heroes of Greece. Bellerophon was as beautiful as a god and equal in courage to the immortal gods...

In Lydia, near Mount Sipila, there was a rich city called after Mount Sipila. This city was ruled by the favorite of the gods, the son of Zeus Tantalus. The gods rewarded him with everything in abundance...

After the death of Tantalus, his son Pelops, so miraculously saved by the gods, began to rule in the city of Sipylus. He did not rule for long in his native Sipylus. King Il of Troy went to war against Pelops...

The king of the rich Phoenician city of Sidon, Agenor, had three sons and a daughter, beautiful as an immortal goddess. This young beauty's name was Europe. Agenor's daughter once had a dream.

Cadmus in Greek mythology is the son of the Phoenician king Agenor, the founder of Thebes (in Boeotia). Sent by his father along with his other brothers to search for Europe, Cadmus, after long failures in Thrace, turned to the Delphic oracle of Apollo...

In Greek mythology, Hercules is the greatest hero, the son of Zeus and the mortal woman Alcmene, wife of Amphitryon. In the absence of her husband, who at that time was fighting against the tribes of TV fighters, Zeus, attracted by the beauty of Alcmene, appeared to her, taking on the image of Amphitryon. Their wedding night lasted three nights in a row...

The founder of great Athens and its Acropolis was the earth-born Cecrops. The earth gave birth to him as a half-man, half-snake. His body ended in a huge snake tail. Kekrop founded Athens in Attica at a time when the shaker of the earth, the god of the sea Poseidon, and the warrior goddess Athena, the beloved daughter of Zeus, argued for power over the entire country...

Cephalus was the son of the god Hermes and the daughter of Cecrops, Chersa. Far throughout Greece, Cephalus was famous for his wondrous beauty, and he was also famous as a tireless hunter. Early, even before sunrise, he left his palace and his young wife Procris and went hunting in the mountains of Hymet. One day the rose-fingered goddess of the dawn Eos saw the beautiful Cephalus...

The king of Athens, Pandion, a descendant of Erichthonius, waged war against the barbarians who besieged his city. It would have been difficult for him to defend Athens from a large barbarian army if the king of Thrace, Tereus, had not come to his aid. He defeated the barbarians and drove them out of Attica. As a reward for this, Pandion gave Tereus his daughter Procne as his wife...

Grozen Boreas, god of the indomitable, stormy north wind. He rushes frantically over the lands and seas, causing all-crushing storms with his flight. One day Boreas, flying over Attica, saw the daughter of Erechtheus Orithia and fell in love with her. Boreas begged Orithia to become his wife and allow him to take her with him to his kingdom in the far north. Orithia did not agree...

The greatest artist, sculptor and architect of Athens was Daedalus, a descendant of Erechtheus. It was said about him that he carved such marvelous statues from snow-white marble that they seemed alive; the statues of Daedalus seemed to be looking and moving. Daedalus invented many tools for his work; he invented the ax and the drill. The fame of Daedalus spread far...

National Hero of Athens; son of Ephra, princess of Troezen, and Aegeus or (and) Poseidon. It was believed that Theseus was a contemporary of Hercules and some of their exploits were similar. Theseus was raised in Troezen; when he grew up, Efra ordered him to move the rock, under which he found a sword and sandals...

Meleager is the son of the Calydonian king Oeneus and Althea, a participant in the Argonauts' campaign and the Calydonian hunt. When Meleager was seven days old, a prophetess appeared to Althea, threw a log into the fire and predicted to her that her son would die as soon as the log burned out. Althea snatched the log from the flame, extinguished it and hid it...

The deer took refuge in the shade from the midday heat and lay down in the bushes. By chance, Cypress was hunting where the deer lay. He did not recognize his favorite deer, since it was covered by foliage, so he threw a sharp spear at it and struck it to death. Cypress was horrified when he saw that he had killed his pet...

The great singer Orpheus, the son of the river god Eager and the muse Calliope, lived in distant Thrace. Orpheus' wife was the beautiful nymph Eurydice. The singer Orpheus loved her dearly. But Orpheus did not enjoy a happy life with his wife for long...

Beautiful, equal to the Olympian gods themselves in his beauty, the young son of the king of Sparta, Hyacinth, was a friend of the arrow god Apollo. Apollo often appeared on the banks of the Eurotas in Sparta to visit his friend and spent time there with him, hunting along the mountain slopes in densely overgrown forests or having fun with gymnastics, in which the Spartans were so skilled...

The beautiful Nereid Galatea loved the son of Simefida, young Akidas, and Akidas loved the Nereid. Akid was not the only one captivated by Galatea. The huge cyclops Polyphemus once saw the beautiful Galatea, when she was swimming out of the waves of the azure sea, shining with her beauty, and he was inflamed with frantic love for her...

The wife of the king of Sparta Tyndareus was the beautiful Leda, the daughter of the king of Aetolia, Thestia. Throughout Greece, Leda was famous for its marvelous beauty. Leda became the wife of Zeus, and she had two children from him: the daughter Helen, beautiful as a goddess, and the son, the great hero Polydeuces. Leda also had two children from Tyndareus: daughter Clytemnestra and son Castor...

The sons of the great hero Pelops were Atreus and Thyestes. Pelops was once cursed by the charioteer of King Oenomaus, Myrtilus, who was treacherously killed by Pelops, and with his curse doomed the entire family of Pelops to great atrocities and death. The curse of Myrtil weighed heavily on both Atreus and Thyestes. They committed a number of atrocities...

Esak was the son of the king of Troy, Priam, brother of the great hero Hector. He was born on the slopes of wooded Ida, by the beautiful nymph Alexiroe, daughter of the river god Granik. Having grown up in the mountains, Esak did not like cities and avoided living in the luxurious palace of his father Priam. He loved the solitude of mountains and shady forests, loved the open space of fields...

This amazing story happened with the Phrygian king Midas. Midas was very rich. Wonderful gardens surrounded his luxurious palace, and in the gardens grew thousands of the most beautiful roses - white, red, pink, purple. Midas once loved his gardens very much and even grew roses in them himself. This was his favorite pastime. But people change over the years - King Midas also changed...

Pyramus, the most beautiful of youths, and Thisbe, the most beautiful of maidens of the eastern countries, lived in the Babylonian city of Semiramis, in two neighboring houses. From early youth they knew and loved each other, and their love grew year by year. They already wanted to get married, but their fathers forbade them - they could not, however, forbid them to love each other...

In one deep valley of Lycia there is a light-water lake. In the middle of the lake there is an island, and on the island there is an altar, all covered with the ashes of the victims burned on it and overgrown with reeds. The altar is dedicated not to the naiads of the lake waters and not to the nymphs of the neighboring fields, but to Latona. The goddess, the favorite of Zeus, has just given birth to her twins, Apollo and Artemis...

Once upon a time, the father of the gods Zeus and his son Hermes arrived at this place. Both of them took on human form with the intention of experiencing the hospitality of the inhabitants. They went around a thousand houses, knocking on doors and asking for shelter, but were rejected everywhere. In only one house did they not close the doors to the aliens...

The poet Hesiod tells how the Greeks of his time looked at the origin of man and the change of centuries. In ancient times everything was better, but life on earth was constantly getting worse, and life was worst of all during the time of Hesiod. This is understandable for Hesiod, a representative of the peasantry and small landowners. During the time of Hesiod, class stratification deepened and the exploitation of the poor by the rich intensified, so the poor peasantry really lived poorly under the yoke of rich large landowners. Of course, even after Hesiod, the life of the poor in Greece did not get any better; they were still exploited by the rich.
Based on Hesiod's poem "Works and Days"
The immortal gods living on bright Olympus created the first human race happy; it was a golden age. God Kron ruled then in heaven. Like blessed gods, people lived in those days, knowing neither care, nor labor, nor sadness. They also did not know frail old age; Their legs and arms were always strong and strong. Their painless and happy life was an eternal feast. Death, which came after their long life, was like a calm, quiet sleep. During their lifetime they had everything in abundance. The land itself gave them rich fruits, and they did not have to waste labor on cultivating fields and gardens. Their herds were numerous, and they grazed calmly on rich pastures. The people of the golden age lived serenely. The gods themselves came to them for advice. But the golden age on earth ended, and none of the people of this generation remained. After death, people of the golden age became spirits, patrons of people of new generations. Shrouded in fog, they rush across the earth, defending truth and punishing evil. This is how Zeus rewarded them after their death.
The second human race and the second century were no longer as happy as the first. It was the Silver Age. The people of the Silver Age were not equal in strength or intelligence to the people of the Golden Age. For a hundred years they grew up foolish in the houses of their mothers, only when they matured did they leave them. Their life in adulthood was short, and since they were unreasonable, they saw many misfortunes and grief in life. The people of the Silver Age were rebellious. They did not obey the immortal gods and did not want to burn sacrifices for them on the altars; the Great Son of Cronos Zeus destroyed their family on earth. He was angry with them because they did not obey the gods living on bright Olympus. Zeus settled them in the underground dark kingdom. There they live, knowing neither joy nor sorrow; people also pay homage to them.
Father Zeus created the third generation and the third age - the Copper Age. It doesn't look like silver. From the shaft of the spear Zeus created people - terrible and powerful. The people of the Copper Age loved pride and war, abundant in groans. They did not know agriculture and did not eat the fruits of the earth that gardens and arable land provide. Zeus gave them enormous growth and indestructible strength. Their hearts were indomitable and courageous and their hands irresistible. Their weapons were forged from copper, their houses were made of copper, and they worked with copper tools. They didn’t know dark iron back in those days. The people of the Copper Age destroyed each other with their own hands. They quickly descended into the dark kingdom of the terrible Hades. No matter how strong they were, yet the black death kidnapped them, and they left the clear light of the sun. As soon as this race descended into the kingdom of shadows, the great Zeus immediately created on the earth that feeds everyone the fourth century and a new human race, a nobler, more just race of demigod heroes equal to the gods. And they all died in evil wars and terrible bloody battles. Some died at the seven-gate Thebes, in the country of Cadmus, fighting for the legacy of Oedipus. Others fell at Troy, where they came for the beautiful-haired Helen, and sailed across the wide sea in ships. When death snatched them all away, Zeus the Thunderer settled them on the edge of the earth, far from living people. The demigod heroes live a happy, carefree life on the islands of the blessed near the stormy waters of the Ocean. There, the fertile land gives them fruits three times a year, sweet as honey.

State Polar Academy

Department of Russian Language and Literature

Hesiod's myth of the five centuries. Origin and Parallels in other mythologies.

Completed by: Remizov Dmitry

Group: 211-A

St. Petersburg 2002

The time of Hesiod's life can only be roughly determined: the end of the 8th or the beginning of the 7th century. BC. He is thus a younger contemporary of the Homeric epic. But while the question of an individual "creator" of the Iliad or Odyssey is a complex and unsolved problem, Hesiod is the first clearly defined personality in Greek literature. He himself names his name or provides some biographical information about himself. Hesiod's father left Asia Minor due to dire need and settled in Boeotia, near the “Mount of Muses” Helicon

Near Helikon he settled in the joyless village of Askra,

"Works and Days"

Boeotia belonged to the relatively backward agricultural regions of Greece with a large number of small peasant farms, with weak development of crafts and urban life. Monetary relations were already penetrating this backward region, undermining the closed subsistence economy and traditional way of life, but the Boeotian peasantry defended its economic independence for a long time. Hesiod himself was a small landowner and at the same time a rhapsode (wandering singer). As a rhapsode, he probably also performed heroic songs, but his own work belongs to the field of didactic (instructive) epic. In an era of disruption of ancient social relations, Hesiod acts as a poet of peasant labor, a teacher of life, a moralist and a systematizer of mythological legends.

Two poems survive from Hesiod: Theogony (The Origin of the Gods) and Works and Days (Works and Days).

The reason for writing the poem “Works and Days” was the trial of Hesiod with his brother Persian over the division of land after the death of his father. The poet considered himself offended by the judges from the family nobility; at the beginning of the poem he complains about the corruption of these “kings”, “devourers of gifts”

...glorify the gift-eating kings,

Our dispute with you was fully resolved as you wished.

In the main part, Hesiod describes the work of the farmer during the year; he calls on the ruined brother Persian to honest work, which alone can give wealth. The poem ends with a list of “happy and unlucky days.” Hesiod is distinguished by great powers of observation; he introduces vivid descriptions of nature, genre paintings, and knows how to attract the reader’s attention with vivid images.

Particular attention in the poem should be paid to the myth of the five centuries. According to Hesiod, all world history is divided into five periods: the Golden Age, the Silver Age, the Copper Age, the Heroic Age and the Iron Age.

The immortal gods living on bright Olympus created the first human race happy; This was golden age. God Kron ruled then in heaven. Like blessed gods, people lived in those days, knowing neither care, nor labor, nor sadness. They also did not know frail old age; Their legs and arms were always strong and strong. Their painless and happy life was an eternal feast. Death, which came after their long life, was like a calm, quiet sleep. During their lifetime they had everything in abundance. The land itself gave them rich fruits, and they did not have to waste labor on cultivating fields and gardens. Their herds were numerous, and they grazed calmly on rich pastures. The people of the golden age lived serenely. The gods themselves came to them for advice. But the golden age on earth ended, and none of the people of this generation remained. After death, people of the golden age became spirits, patrons of people of new generations. Shrouded in fog, they rush across the earth, defending truth and punishing evil. This is how Zeus rewarded them after their death.
The second human race and the second century were no longer as happy as the first. It was silver Age. The people of the Silver Age were not equal in strength or intelligence to the people of the Golden Age. For a hundred years they grew up foolish in the houses of their mothers, only when they matured did they leave them. Their life in adulthood was short, and since they were unreasonable, they saw many misfortunes and grief in life. The people of the Silver Age were rebellious. They did not obey the immortal gods and did not want to burn sacrifices for them on the altars; the Great Son of Cronos Zeus destroyed their family on earth. He was angry with them because they did not obey the gods living on bright Olympus. Zeus settled them in the underground dark kingdom. There they live, knowing neither joy nor sorrow; people also pay homage to them.
Father Zeus created the third generation and the third age - copper age. It doesn't look like silver. From the shaft of the spear Zeus created people - terrible and powerful. The people of the Copper Age loved pride and war, abundant in groans. They did not know agriculture and did not eat the fruits of the earth that gardens and arable land provide. Zeus gave them enormous growth and indestructible strength. Their hearts were indomitable and courageous and their hands irresistible. Their weapons were forged from copper, their houses were made of copper, and they worked with copper tools. They didn’t know dark iron back in those days. The people of the Copper Age destroyed each other with their own hands. They quickly descended into the dark kingdom of the terrible Hades. No matter how strong they were, yet the black death kidnapped them, and they left the clear light of the sun.

As soon as this race descended into the kingdom of shadows, immediately the great Zeus created on the earth that feeds everyone the fourth century and a new human race, a nobler, more just race equal to the gods demigod heroes. And they all died in evil wars and terrible bloody battles. Some died at the seven-gate Thebes, in the country of Cadmus, fighting for the legacy of Oedipus. Others fell at Troy, where they came for the beautiful-haired Helen, and sailed across the wide sea in ships. When death snatched them all away, Zeus the Thunderer settled them on the edge of the earth, far from living people. The demigod heroes live a happy, carefree life on the islands of the blessed near the stormy waters of the Ocean. There, the fertile land gives them fruits three times a year, sweet as honey.
The last, fifth century and the human race - iron. It continues now on earth. Night and day, without ceasing, sorrow and exhausting work destroy people. The gods send people difficult worries. True, gods and good are mixed with evil, but still there is more evil, it reigns everywhere. Children do not honor their parents; a friend is not faithful to a friend; the guest does not find hospitality; there is no love between brothers. People do not observe this oath, they do not value truth and goodness. They are destroying each other's cities. Violence reigns everywhere. Only pride and strength are valued. The goddesses Conscience and Justice left people. In their white robes they flew up to high Olympus to the immortal gods, but people were left with only grave troubles, and they had no protection from evil.

From a socio-historical point of view, this passage is extremely important, as it depicts the disintegration of family ties and the beginning of a class society, where everyone really is each other’s enemies.

The picture of the change of centuries has absolutely exceptional significance in world literature. The poet for the first time captured in it the idea of antiquity about continuous regression in the spiritual and material spheres. It is a development of more general worldly wisdom in Homer (Od. II, 276):

Rarely are sons like their fathers, but for the most part

Parts are all worse than fathers, only a few are better.

The transfer of a state of earthly perfection to distant, immemorial antiquity - the doctrine of the “golden age” - is characteristic of popular ideas and is known among many peoples (ethnologist Fritz Graebner notes it, for example, among the Indians of Central America). It should also include the biblical teaching about an earthly paradise, based on Babylonian myths. Similar points are found in Indian philosophy. But this general idea was developed by Hesiod into a whole system of the stepwise fall of humanity. Later literary formulations of the same idea are found, for example, in the Metamorphoses of Ovid, a Roman poet who lived from 43 BC. to 18 AD

Ovid presents four centuries: golden, silver, copper and iron. A golden age in which people lived without judges. There were no wars. No one sought to conquer foreign lands. There was no need to work - the land brought everything itself. It was spring forever. Rivers of milk and nectar flowed.

Then came the Silver Age, when Saturn was overthrown and Jupiter took over the world. Summer, winter and autumn appeared. Houses appeared, people began to work to earn food for themselves. Then came the Copper Age

He was more severe in spirit, more prone to terrible abuse,

But not criminal yet. The last one is all made of iron.

Instead of shame, truth and loyalty, deception and deceit, intrigues, violence and a passion for possession appeared. People began to travel to foreign lands. They began to divide the land and fight with each other. Everyone began to fear each other: guest - host, husband - wife, brother - brother, son-in-law - father-in-law, etc.

However, there are differences between the ideas of Ovid and Hesiod: in Ovid there is a continuous decline, figuratively expressed in a decrease in the value of the metal that denotes “age”: gold, silver, copper, iron. In Hesiod, the descent is temporarily delayed: the fourth generation is the heroes, the heroes of the Trojan and Theban wars; The lifespan of this generation is not determined by any metal. The scheme itself is certainly older than the time of Hesiod. Heroes are outside of it. This complication is probably a tribute to the authority of the heroic epic, although the opposition of the class to which Hesiod belongs is directed against its ideology. The authority of Homer's heroes forced the author to take them beyond the gloomy picture of the third (“copper”) generation.

Also in ancient literature we find a legend about the change of centuries, in addition to Ovid, in Aratus, partly in Hergilius, Horace, Juvenal and Babrius.

List of used literature:

1. THEM. Tronsky. History of Ancient Literature. Leningrad 1951

2. N.F. Deratani, N.A. Timofeeva. Reader on Ancient Literature. Volume I. Moscow 1958

3. Losev A.F., Takho-Godi A.A. and others. Ancient literature: Textbook for higher school. Moscow 1997.

4. ON THE. Kun. Legends and myths of Ancient Greece. Kaliningrad 2000

5. History of Greek Literature, vol.1. Epic, lyric, drama of the classical period. M.–L., 1947.

6. Hesiod. Works and days. Per V. Veresaeva. 1940

Based on Hesiod's poem "Works and Days".

The immortal gods living on bright Olympus created the first human race happy; it was a golden age. God Kron ruled then in heaven. Like blessed gods, people lived in those days, knowing neither care, nor labor, nor sadness. They also did not know frail old age; Their legs and arms were always strong and strong. Their painless and happy life was an eternal feast. Death, which came after their long life, was like a calm, quiet sleep. During their lifetime they had everything in abundance. The land itself gave them rich fruits, and they did not have to waste labor on cultivating fields and gardens. Their herds were numerous, and they grazed calmly on rich pastures. The people of the golden age lived serenely. The gods themselves came to them for advice. But the golden age on earth ended, and none of the people of this generation remained. After death, people of the golden age became spirits, patrons of people of new generations. Shrouded in fog, they rush across the earth, defending truth and punishing evil. This is how Zeus rewarded them after their death.
The second human race and the second century were no longer as happy as the first. It was the Silver Age. The people of the Silver Age were not equal in strength or intelligence to the people of the Golden Age. For a hundred years they grew up foolish in the houses of their mothers, only when they matured did they leave them. Their life in adulthood was short, and since they were unreasonable, they saw a lot of misfortune and grief in life. The people of the Silver Age were rebellious. They did not obey the immortal gods and did not want to burn sacrifices to them on the altars. The great son of Cronos, Zeus destroyed their race

1 The poet Hesiod tells how the Greeks of his time looked at the origin of man and the change of centuries. In ancient times everything was better, but life on earth was constantly getting worse, and life was worst during the time of Hesiod. This is understandable for Hesiod, a representative of the peasantry and small landowners. During Hesiod's time, class stratification deepened and the exploitation of the poor by the rich intensified, so the poor peasantry really lived poorly under the yoke of rich large landowners. Of course, even after Hesiod, the life of the poor in Greece did not become any better; they were still exploited by the rich.

85

on the ground. He was angry with them because they did not obey the gods living on bright Olympus. Zeus settled them in the underground dark kingdom. There they live, knowing neither joys nor sorrows; people also pay homage to them.
Father Zeus created the third generation and the third age - the Copper Age. It doesn't look like silver. From the shaft of the spear Zeus created people - terrible and powerful. The people of the Copper Age loved pride and war, abundant in groans. They did not know agriculture and did not eat the fruits of the earth that gardens and arable land provide. Zeus gave them enormous growth and indestructible strength. Their hearts were indomitable and courageous and their hands irresistible. Their weapons were forged from copper, their houses were made of copper, and they worked with copper tools. They didn’t know dark iron back in those days. The people of the Copper Age destroyed each other with their own hands. They quickly descended into the dark kingdom of the terrible Hades. No matter how strong they were, yet the black death kidnapped them, and they left the clear light of the sun.
As soon as this race descended into the kingdom of shadows, the great Zeus immediately created on the earth that feeds everyone the fourth century and a new human race, a nobler, more just race of demigod heroes equal to the gods. And they all died in evil wars and terrible bloody battles. Some died at the seven-gate Thebes, in the country of Cadmus, fighting for the legacy of Oedipus. Others fell at Troy, where they came for the beautiful-haired Helen, having sailed across the wide sea in ships. When death snatched them all away, Zeus the Thunderer settled them on the edge of the earth, far from living people. The demigod heroes live a happy, carefree life on the islands of the blessed near the stormy waters of the Ocean. There, the fertile land gives them fruits three times a year, sweet as honey.
The last, fifth century and the human race is iron. It continues now on earth. Night and day, without ceasing, sorrow and exhausting work destroy people. The gods send people difficult worries. True, gods and good are mixed with evil, but still there is more evil, it reigns everywhere. Children do not honor their parents; a friend is not faithful to a friend; the guest does not find hospitality; there is no love between brothers. People do not observe this oath, they do not value truth and goodness. People destroy each other's cities. Violence reigns everywhere. Only pride and strength are valued. The goddesses Conscience and Justice left people. In their white robes they flew up to high Olympus to the immortal gods, but people were left with only grave troubles, and they had no protection from evil.

Prepared according to the edition:

Kun N.A.
Legends and myths of ancient Greece. M.: State educational and pedagogical publishing house of the Ministry of Education of the RSFSR, 1954.