In
Greek mythology
Greek mythology is the body of myths originally told by the Ancient Greece, ancient Greeks, and a genre of ancient Greek folklore, today absorbed alongside Roman mythology into the broader designation of classical mythology. These stories conc ...
, Ponos or Ponus () is the personification of toil and stress. According to Hesiod's ''
Theogony'', "painful" Ponos was the son of
Eris (Strife), with no father mentioned. Like all of the children of Eris given by Hesiod, Ponos is a personified abstraction, allegorizing the meaning of his name, and representing one of the many harmful things which might be thought to result from discord and strife, with no other identity.
Cicero
Marcus Tullius Cicero ( ; ; 3 January 106 BC – 7 December 43 BC) was a Roman statesman, lawyer, scholar, philosopher, orator, writer and Academic skeptic, who tried to uphold optimate principles during the political crises tha ...
has the equivalent personification of the meaning of the Latin word ''labor'' as the offspring of
Erebus and
Night
Night, or nighttime, is the period of darkness when the Sun is below the horizon. Sunlight illuminates one side of the Earth, leaving the other in darkness. The opposite of nighttime is daytime. Earth's rotation causes the appearance of ...
(''Erebo et Nocte''). Although Ponos has a negative connotation in Hesiod, in a poem of
Lucian (2nd century AD), he is seen as having the positive aspect of leading to a virtuous life.
[Thurmann]
s.v. Ponos
Lucian, ''Timon'
31–33
Notes
References
* Caldwell, Richard, ''Hesiod's Theogony'', Focus Publishing/R. Pullins Company (June 1, 1987).
Internet Archive
* ''
The Cambridge Greek Lexicon'', edited by J. Diggle ''et al'', Cambridge University Press, 2021 .
* Cartledge, Paul
s.v. industry, Greek and Roman published online 07 March 2016, in the
Oxford Classical Dictionary', edited by
Tim Whitmarsh, digital ed, New York, Oxford University Press. .
*
Cicero, Marcus Tullius, ''
De Natura Deorum'' in ''Cicero: On the Nature of the Gods. Academics'', translated by H. Rackham,
Loeb Classical Library
The Loeb Classical Library (LCL; named after James Loeb; , ) is a monographic series of books originally published by Heinemann and since 1934 by Harvard University Press. It has bilingual editions of ancient Greek and Latin literature, ...
No. 268, Cambridge, Massachusetts,
Harvard University Press, first published 1933, revised 1951.
Online version at Harvard University Press Internet Archive
* Gantz, Timothy, ''Early Greek Myth: A Guide to Literary and Artistic Sources'', Johns Hopkins University Press, 1996, Two volumes: (Vol. 1), (Vol. 2).
* Hard, Robin, ''The Routledge Handbook of Greek Mythology: Based on H.J. Rose's "Handbook of Greek Mythology"'', Psychology Press, 2004,
Google Books
* Liddell, Henry George, Robert Scott, ''A Greek-English Lexicon
A, or a, is the first letter and the first vowel letter of the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, and others worldwide. Its name in English is '' a'' (pronounced ), plural ''aes''.
It is similar in shape to the Ancient ...
'', revised and augmented throughout by Sir Henry Stuart Jones with the assistance of Roderick McKenzie, Clarendon Press Oxford, 1940
Online version at the Perseus Digital Library
* Lucian, ''The Downward Journey or The Tyrant. Zeus Catechized. Zeus Rants. The Dream or The Cock. Prometheus. Icaromenippus or The Sky-man. Timon or The Misanthrope. Charon or The Inspectors. Philosophies for Sale'', translated by A. M. Harmon. Loeb Classical Library No. 54. Cambridge, Massachusetts, Harvard University Press, 1915.
Online version at Harvard University Press
* Millett, Paul C.
s.v. labour
published online 30 July 2015, in the
Oxford Classical Dictionary
', edited by Tim Whitmarsh, digital ed, New York, Oxford University Press. .
* Most, G.W., ''Hesiod, Theogony, Works and Days, Testimonia,'' Edited and translated by Glenn W. Most, Loeb Classical Library
The Loeb Classical Library (LCL; named after James Loeb; , ) is a monographic series of books originally published by Heinemann and since 1934 by Harvard University Press. It has bilingual editions of ancient Greek and Latin literature, ...
No. 57, Cambridge, Massachusetts, Harvard University Press, 2018.
Online version at Harvard University Press
* Sophocles
Sophocles ( 497/496 – winter 406/405 BC)Sommerstein (2002), p. 41. was an ancient Greek tragedian known as one of three from whom at least two plays have survived in full. His first plays were written later than, or contemporary with, those ...
, ''The Women of Trachis'' in ''Sophocles: Antigone. The Women of Trachis. Philoctetes. Oedipus at Colonus'' Edited and translated by Hugh Lloyd-Jones, Loeb Classical Library
The Loeb Classical Library (LCL; named after James Loeb; , ) is a monographic series of books originally published by Heinemann and since 1934 by Harvard University Press. It has bilingual editions of ancient Greek and Latin literature, ...
No. 21, Cambridge, Massachusetts, Harvard University Press, 1994. {{ISBN, 978-0-674-99558-1
Online version at Harvard University Press
* Thurmann, Stephanie
s.v. Ponos
i
''Brill’s New Pauly Online''
Antiquity volumes edited by: Hubert Cancik and, Helmuth Schneider, English Edition by: Christine F. Salazar, Classical Tradition volumes edited by: Manfred Landfester, English Edition by: Francis G. Gentry, published online: 2006.
Greek gods
Personifications in Greek mythology
Children of Eris (mythology)