Hesiod, Works and Days 760-764

ὧδ’ ἔρδειν· δεινὴν δὲ βροτῶν ὑπαλεύεο φήμην.
φήμη γάρ τε κακὴ πέλεται, κούφη μὲν ἀεῖραι
ῥεῖα μάλ’, ἀργαλέη δὲ φέρειν, χαλεπὴ δ’ ἀποθέσθαι.
φήμη δ’ οὔτις πάμπαν ἀπόλλυται, ἥν τινα πολλοὶ
λαοὶ φημίξωσι· θεός νύ τίς ἐστι καὶ αὐτή.

Act in this way; and avoid gossip, which is terrible for mortals. For gossip is bad; it’s light and all too easy to start up, but vexatious to put up with, and difficult to get rid of. A bit of gossip is never quite killed off once many people voice it; gossip is even a kind of god these days.

Hesiod, Works and Days 376-380

So, Hesiod, how many children should we have?

μουνογενὴς δὲ πάις εἴη πατρώιον οἶκον
φερβέμεν ὣς γὰρ πλοῦτος ἀέξεται ἐν μεγάροισιν.
γηραιὸς δὲ θάνοις ἕτερον παῖδ’ ἐγκαταλείπων.
ῥεῖα δέ κεν πλεόνεσσι πόροι Ζεὺς ἄσπετον ὄλβον.
πλείων μὲν πλεόνων μελέτη, μείζων δ’ ἐπιθήκη.

There should be an only son to nourish the ancestral house, for so will wealth increase in the halls – but if you leave a second son you should die old. Yet Zeus can easily give huge wealth to a bigger number: from more people come more work and more increase.

Hesiod, Theogony 24-28

τόνδε δέ με πρώτιστα θεαὶ πρὸς μῦθον ἔειπον,
Μοῦσαι Ὀλυμπιάδες, κοῦραι Διὸς αἰγιόχοιο·
“ποιμένες ἄγραυλοι, κάκ’ ἐλέγχεα, γαστέρες οἶον,
ἴδμεν ψεύδεα πολλὰ λέγειν ἐτύμοισιν ὁμοῖα,
ἴδμεν δ’, εὖτ’ ἐθέλωμεν, ἀληθέα γηρύσασθαι.”

These words did the Olympian Muses, daughters of Zeus who holds the aegis, first say to me: ‘Shepherds who dwell in the fields, you evil reproaches, naught but bellies, we know how to speak many falsehoods as though they were true, but we know, when we wish it, how to speak truths.’

Hesiod, fr. dub. 357

A fragment attributed to Hesiod, using the metaphor of ‘stitching’ for poetic composition.

ἐν Δήλῳ τότε πρῶτον ἐγὼ καὶ Ὅμηρος ἀοιδοὶ
μέλπομεν, ἐν νεαροῖς ὕμνοις ῥαψαντες ἀοιδήν.

Then in Delos for the first time we bards sang, Homer and I, stitching song in new hymns.