Ancient History, Greek and Roman through Late Antiquity Commons^™

The Knife Between Despair And Delusion: Tragically Beautiful Hope Living On The Blade In Hesiod’S Works And Days, Grant Braught

CMC Senior Theses

Hope’s interpretation within Works and Days is a nuanced and particular issue on whether Hesiod portrays Hope as good or evil. This paper examines the arguments from the ongoing scholarly debate on whether Hope should be interpreted as good or bad and introduces why Hesiod’s portrayal of Hope is a lesson on its use for his audience. The previous scholarship argues for both interpretations of Hope but does not dive further into why Hesiod discusses it nor how he wanted humankind to interact with it. In short, the importance of Hope to a reader of Works and Days. …