Wine Lunacy

Written in Boeotia around 700 B.C., Works and Days is a didactic poem composed by Hesiod and addressed to his idle brother, Perses, instructing him in the rhythms of the farmer’s year, the gods’ expectations of honest labor, and the correct ordering of a life close to the soil. It is also among the oldest wine-making instruction manuals in the Western tradition. “When Orion and Sirius come into mid-heaven,” Hesiod directs, “then set about cutting off all the grape clusters for home.” Sun them ten days, cover them five, and on the sixth day “draw merry Dionysus’ gift off into jars.” Specific days of the lunar month govern when to farm or when to open wine jars. “Pay due attention to the days which come from Zeus,” Hesiod warns.