52 HESIOD.

of fives" (i.e., your five fingers*) at a feast after sacri- fice, lifting the can above the bowl at a banquet, all these acts of commission and omission provoke, says Hesiod, the wrath of the gods. Some of his precepts have a substratum of common sense, but generally they can only be explained by his not desiring to con- travene the authority of custom; and, in fact, he finishes his second part with a reason for the observ- ance of such rules and cautions : " Thus do, and shun the ill report of men. Light to take up, it brings the bearer pain, And is not lightly shaken off ; nor dies The rumour that from many lips doth rise, But, like a god, all end of time defies." D. And now comes the closing portion of the poem, designated by Chapman "Hesiod's Book of Days," and, in point of fact, a calendar of the lucky and unlucky days of the lunar month, apparently as con- nected with the various worships celebrated on those days. The poet divides the month of thirty days, as was the use at Athens much later, into three decades. The thirtieth of the month is the best day for overlook- ing farm-work done, and allotting the rations for the month coming on ; and it is a holiday, too, in the law- courts. The seventh of the month is specially lucky as Apollo's birthday ; the sixth unlucky for birth or mar- riage of girls, probably because the birthday of the virgin Artemis, his sister. The fifth is very unlucky, because on it Horcus, the genius who punishes per-

• "A slang term for the fists, in use among pugilists." See

Paley's note on v. 742.