Two Kinds of Eris (*Works and Days*)

Two Kinds of Eris (Works and Days)

Catalogue ID: 01-cosmogony-theogony/057-two-erides-works-and-days

Cycle: Cosmogony / Theogony — Hesiodic ethics / personified Strife

Version line: Hesiodic — *Works and Days* distinction of good and bad Eris

Sources: Hesiod, *Works and Days* 11–26; cf. *Theogony* 225–232 (Eris among Night’s children; offspring of Strife)

Source file: /workspace/greek-myth-catalogue/01-cosmogony-theogony/057-two-erides-works-and-days.md

Characters

Artemis — set the better Eris among mortals
Perses — Hesiod’s brother; addressee urged toward work, not lawsuits
Philotes — war-strife; quarrel; beloved of none
Potters, craftsmen, beggars, singers — examples of rivalrous labour

Places

Earth — where both Strifes operate among humankind

Themes

Narrative

Hesiod opens *Works and Days* by correcting the single Eris of the *Theogony*: there are two Strifes on earth, not one. The elder, harsh Eris fosters war and quarrel; no mortal loves her, yet by the gods’ will they honor grim Necessity and go to battle. The other Eris Zeus set in the roots of the earth as a kinder power: she stirs even the shiftless to work when a man sees his neighbour enriching himself—potter rivals potter, craftsman craftsman, beggar beggar, singer singer. Good Strife is the spur of competition and labour; bad Strife is the path of lawsuits and bloodshed that Perses is urged to shun. The passage reframes cosmogonic Eris as an ethical pair and grounds Hesiod’s advice to his brother. Catalogue it apart from Night’s genealogical brood and from the Trojan apple of Discord.