6
Well, if I have to come to grips with the charge, and make a clear-cut defence, read my Works and Days, my man. You will see how much, like a real seer and prophet, I foretold in that poem, predicting the outcome of right and timely action and the penalties of neglect. Remember my“you will carry it in a basket, and few there’ll be to admire” Works and Days, 482; i.e., “your harvest will be poor.” and again the blessings that follow right farming—this should be thought a prophecy most useful for living.
7
In that, my admirable Hesiod, there speaks the true shepherd; Cf. Hesiod, Theogony, 26. you seem to be justifying the story that the Muses inspired you, since you cannot even defend your poetry as your own. But this is not the prophecy we expected from you and the Muses. In that sort of thing the farmers are much better prophets than you poets. They can foretell such things excellently to us: for instance, that after rain the crops will flourish, while in the time of drought when the fields are thirsty, you can do nothing to prevent famine following their thirst; that you must not plough in the middle of summer; that it is no good scattering seed at random or cutting the corn when it is still green, or you will find the ear empty. Nor is there any need whatever to prophesy this, that unless you cover up the seed and your man pulls soil over with a hoe, down will fly the birds and eat up all your summer’s hope in advance.
