takes up his parable against women, and likens them to the drones,
Of others' labour,"—
—E. 797, 798.
Hesiod has in his mind's eye that ancient proverb touching "one sowing and another reaping," which Callimachus gives as follows in his hymn to Ceres (137)—
"And those who ploughed the field shall reap the corn"—
but which, in some shape or other, must have existed previously even to Hesiod's date. In most modern languages it has its counterpart; and it was recognised and applied by our Lord, and His apostle St Paul.[1] Earlier in the poem, the saw that "Blest is he whom the Muses love" is probably pre-Hesiodian; but it is too obviously a commonplace of poets in general to deserve commemoration as a proverb. We cannot cite any adages from 'The Shield,' and an examination of 'The Fragments' adds but few to the total of Hesiod's stock. These few are chiefly from the 'Maxims of Chiron,' supposed to have been dictated by that philosophic Centaur to his pupil Achilles. One of these, preserved by Harpocration from an oration of Hyperides, may be thus translated:—
The old may best in vows and prayers engage."
Another savours of the philosophy of the 'Works and Days:'—
