__NOTOC__ The "Megala Erga" ( grc, Μέγαλα Ἔργα), or "Great Works", is a now fragmentary

didactic Didacticism is a philosophy that emphasizes instructional and informative qualities in literature, art, and design. In art, design, architecture, and landscape, didacticism is an emerging conceptual approach that is driven by the urgent need to ...

poem that was attributed to the

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

oral poet

Hesiod Hesiod (; grc-gre, Ἡσίοδος ''Hēsíodos'') was an ancient Greek poet generally thought to have been active between 750 and 650 BC, around the same time as Homer. He is generally regarded by western authors as 'the first written poet i ...

during antiquity. Only two brief direct quotations can be attributed to the work with certainty, but it was likely similar to the Hesiodic ''

Works and Days ''Works and Days'' ( grc, Ἔργα καὶ Ἡμέραι, Érga kaì Hēmérai)The ''Works and Days'' is sometimes called by the Latin translation of the title, ''Opera et Dies''. Common abbreviations are ''WD'' and ''Op''. for ''Opera''. is a ...

'', with the "''Megala''", "great", of the title implying that it was longer than the extant poem. As such, the ''Megala Erga'' would appear to have the same relation to the ''Works and Days'' as does the ''

Megalai Ehoiai The ''Megalai Ehoiai'' ( grc, Μεγάλαι Ἠοῖαι, ), or ''Great Ehoiai'', is a fragmentary Greek epic poem that was popularly, though not universally, attributed to Hesiod during antiquity. Like the more widely read Hesiodic ''Catalogue o ...

'' to the ''

Catalogue of Women The ''Catalogue of Women'' ( grc, Γυναικῶν Κατάλογος, Gunaikôn Katálogos)—also known as the ''Ehoiai '' ( grc, Ἠοῖαι, Ēoîai, )The Latin transliterations ''Eoeae'' and ''Ehoeae'' are also used (e.g. , ); see Title ...

''., . Although the remains of the poem found in other ancient authors are meager, it can be said that the ''Megala Erga'' appears to have been concerned with both morality and the conveyance of more-or-less practical information like the extant Hesiodic poem upon which its title drew. The

scholia Scholia (singular scholium or scholion, from grc, σχόλιον, "comment, interpretation") are grammatical, critical, or explanatory comments – original or copied from prior commentaries – which are inserted in the margin of th ...

to the

Myth of the Ages Myth is a folklore genre consisting of narratives that play a fundamental role in a society, such as foundational tales or origin myths. Since "myth" is widely used to imply that a story is not objectively true, the identification of a narrati ...

in the ''Works and Days'', à propos of the Race of Silver (''WD'' 128), reports that in the ''Megala Erga'' a genealogy for silver was given: it was a descendant of

Gaia In Greek mythology, Gaia (; from Ancient Greek , a poetical form of , 'land' or 'earth'),, , . also spelled Gaea , is the personification of the Earth and one of the Greek primordial deities. Gaia is the ancestral mother—sometimes parthenog ...

. The other securely attributed fragment resembles many of the gnomic utterances that characterize the ''Works and Days'': Other fragments that have been tentatively assigned to the poem concern the strengths man possesses at different points in his life (fr. 321), religious practices (fr. 322) and

filial piety In Confucianism, Chinese Buddhism, and Daoist ethics, filial piety (, ''xiào'') (Latin: pietas) is a virtue of respect for one's parents, elders, and ancestors. The Confucian ''Classic of Filial Piety'', thought to be written around the late W ...

(fr. 323)."To your father you must

lacuna Lacuna (plural lacunas or lacunae) may refer to: Related to the meaning "gap" * Lacuna (manuscripts), a gap in a manuscript, inscription, text, painting, or musical work **Great Lacuna, a lacuna of eight leaves where there was heroic Old Norse po ...

'' ] be obedient." For the attribution of these fragments to the ''Megala Erga'' see .

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Bibliography