48 HESIOD.

And now the poet turns to vine-dressing. He dates the early spring by the rising of Arcturus, sixty days after the winter solstice (February 1 9), which is soon followed by the advent of the swallow. This is the season for vine-trimming ; but when the snail (which Hesiod characteristically, and in language resembling that used in oracular responses, designates as " house- carrier") quits the earth and climbs the trees, to shelter itself from the Pleiads, then vine-culture must give place (about the middle of May) to the early harvest. Then must men rise betimes : " Lo ! the third portion of thy labour's cares The early morn anticipating shares : In early morn the labour swiftly wastes, In early morn the speeded journey hastes, The time when many a traveller tracks the plain, And the yoked oxen bend them to the wain." E. 801-806. A brief and picturesque episode follows about the permissible rest and enjoyment of the summer season, when artichokes flower, and the " cicala " (as Hesiod accurately puts it) pours forth " song from its wings " the result of friction or vibration. "Then," he says, u fat kids, mellow wine, and gay maidens are fair relaxation for the sun-scorched rustic," who, however, is supposed to make merry with temperate cups, and to enjoy the cool shade and trickling rill quite as much as the grape-juice. Hesiod prescribes three cups of water to one of wine ; and, as Cratinus's question in Athenaeus " Will it bear three