Page:The Remains of Hesiod the Ascraean, including the Shield of Hercules - Elton (1815).djvu/121

That Ceres blest, with spiky garland crown'd,
Greet thee with love and bid thy barns abound.
Still on the sluggard hungry want attends,^[1]
The scorn of man, the hate of heaven impends:

however, the testimony of Ephorus, as recorded by Plutarch, that Dius was the father of Hesiod; and a copyist might easily have mistaken a υ for a ν. The author of the "Contest of Homer and Hesiod" seems to have read Διου γενος, as he makes Homer address his competitor,

Ησιοδ' εκγονη Διου—
Oh Hesiod! Dius' son!


The reading is recommended by the Abbé Sevin in the "Histoire de l'Académie des Inscriptions," and by Villoison; and is adopted by Brunck in his "Gnomici Poetæ Græci." The herma of Hesiod exhibited by Bellorio in his "Veterûm Poetarûm Imagines" has the inscription, Ησιοδου Διου Ασκραιος, Ascræan Hesiod the son of Dios.
1. Still on the sluggard hungry want attends.] He that gathereth in summer is a wise son; but he that sleepeth in harvest is a son that causeth shame. Proverbs, x. 5.
   He that tilleth his land shall have plenty of bread: but he that followeth after vain persons shall have poverty enough. Ch. xxviii. 19.
   Hate not laborious work; neither husbandry: which the Most High has ordained. Wisdom of Jesus the Son of Sirach, vii. 15.
   He becometh poor that dealeth with a slack hand: but the hand of the diligent maketh rich. Proverbs, x. 4.
   The desire of the slothful killeth him; for his hands refuse to labour: he coveteth greedily all the day long: but the righteous giveth and spareth not. Ch. xxi. 25.