WD.423
ὄλμον μὲν τριπόδην τάμνειν, ὕπερον δὲ τρίπηχυν,WD.424
ἄξονα δ' ἑπταπόδην: μάλα γάρ νύ τοι ἄρμενον οὕτω:WD.425
εἰ δέ κεν ὀκταπόδην, ἀπὸ καὶ σφῦράν κε τάμοιο.WD.427 πόλλ' ἐπικαμπύλα κᾶλα: φέρειν δὲ γύην, ὅτ' ἂν εὕρῃς,
WD.427 And in the fields for a holm-oak, strongest for ploughing with oxen,
WD.428 εἰς οἶκον, κατ' ὄρος διζήμενος ἢ κατ' ἄρουραν, WD.429 WD.430 WD.431 WD.432 WD.433 WD.434 WD.435 WD.436 WD.437 WD.438 WD.439 WD.440 WD.441 WD.442 WD.443 WD.444 WD.445 WD.446 WD.447 WD.449 WD.450 WD.451
WD.428 (blank line)
WD.429 (blank line)
WD.430 After some hand of Athena's has fastened it tight to the plough share,
WD.431 Pegging the business end to the handle. So keep in the house two
WD.432 Ploughs you are working on, one with a natural; bent and the other
WD.433 Joined artificially, for that scheme is undoubtedly better:
WD.434 If you should break one plough you can yoke up the ox to the other.
WD.435 Handles of laurel and elm are most likely totally worm-free,
WD.436 So is a plough-share of oak as well as a plough-tree of holm-oak.
WD.437 Get two oxen, two bulls about nine years of age, when their strength is
WD.438 Still at its peak in the prime of their age: such are excellent workers
WD.439 Nor will they fight one another in ploughland, smashing the plough to
WD.440 Pieces, and bringing your hard agricultural labour to nothing.
WD.441 Let them be followed by some energetic farm-worker of forty
WD.442 Years, who has broken his fast with a quarter-loaf of eight sections,
WD.443 And will attend to his work white driving the straightest of furrows,
WD.444 Having no time for glancing askance at his comrades; he keeps his
WD.445 Mind on his work, for better by far a grown man as a partner,
WD.446 Better at scattering seeds and keeping from scattering double;
WD.447 While immature young men are too often intrigued with each other,
WD.448
WD.448 Every year when you hear the shrill din of the cranes from the clouds,
WD.449 Note, for it signals the season to plough, indicating the rainy
WD.450 Wintertime, gnawing the heart of the man who possesses no oxen.
WD.451 (blank line)