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HESIOD'S PROVERBIAL PHILOSOPHY.
69
"What joy, what pain doth Dionysus give
To men who drink to excess. For wine to such
Acts insolently, binds them hand and foot,
Yea, tongue and mind withal, in bondage dire,
Ineffable! Sleep only stands their friend."—D.
To men who drink to excess. For wine to such
Acts insolently, binds them hand and foot,
Yea, tongue and mind withal, in bondage dire,
Ineffable! Sleep only stands their friend."—D.
The second is a curious relic of the ancient notions about comparative longevity:—
"Nine generations lives the babbling crow
Of old men's life; the lively stag outlasts
Four crow-lives, and the raven thrice the stag's.
Nine raven's terms the phoenix numbers out;
And we, the long-tressed nymphs, whose sire is Zeus,
By ten times more the phoenix life exceed."—D.
Of old men's life; the lively stag outlasts
Four crow-lives, and the raven thrice the stag's.
Nine raven's terms the phoenix numbers out;
And we, the long-tressed nymphs, whose sire is Zeus,
By ten times more the phoenix life exceed."—D.
Enough, however, has been set down of Hesiod's proverbial philosophy, to show that herein consists one of his titles to a principal place among didactic poets. A plain blunt man, and a poet of the people, he knew how and when to appeal with cogency to that "wisdom of many and wit of one," which has been styled by our own proverb-collector, James Howell, "the people's voice."
