ABSTRACT
The implicit challenge of Quintilian’s satura quidem tota nostra est has often spurred classicists to seek out satiric elements in Greek literature. Aristophanes’ Clouds, for example, is satiric in the same sense that Petronius’ Satyricon is sometimes labeled picaresque. The relationship of Hesiod and Perses, viewed in this light, represents a fiction within the Works and Days which characterizes Frye’s ironic or satiric mode: Perses, supported by the corrupt judges, gains more than is rightfully his at the expense of Hesiod. The scheme of the Works and Days, which requires Hesiod to have the last laugh on Perses, elicits the same brand of sardonic humor from the audience. The Works and Days is of great interest nowadays to students of myth, comparative epic, and Greek literature. The poem anticipates many characteristics of formal satire, or, to borrow a term from the art historians, is satiric by “imminent design.”
