`Only tell me this thing that I ask:  How many Achaeans went to Ilium with the sons of Atreus?’

Homer answered in a mathematical problem, thus: 

`There were fifty hearths, and at each hearth were fifty spits, and on each spit were fifty carcases, and there were thrice three hundred Achaeans to each joint.’

This is found to be an incredible number; for as there were fifty hearths, the number of spits is two thousand five hundred; and of carcasses, one hundred and twenty thousand...

Homer, then, having the advantage on every point, Hesiod was jealous and began again: 

`Homer, son of Meles, if indeed the Muses, daughters of great Zeus the most high, honour you as it is said, tell me a standard that is both best and worst for mortal-men; for I long to know it.’  Homer replied:  `Hesiod, son of Dius, I am willing to tell you what you command, and very readily will I answer you.  For each man to be a standard will I answer you.  For each man to be a standard to himself is most excellent for the good, but for the bad it is the worst of all things.  And now ask me whatever else your heart desires.’

HESIOD:  `How would men best dwell in cities, and with what observances?’

HOMER:  `By scorning to get unclean gain and if the good were honoured, but justice fell upon the unjust.’

HESIOD:  `What is the best thing of all for a man to ask of the gods in prayer?’

HOMER:  `That he may be always at peace with himself continually.’

HESIOD:  `Can you tell me in briefest space what is best of all?’

HOMER:  `A sound mind in a manly body, as I believe.’

HESIOD:  `Of what effect are righteousness and courage?’

HOMER:  `To advance the common good by private pains.’

HESIOD:  `What is the mark of wisdom among men?’

HOMER:  `To read aright the present, and to march with the occasion.’

HESIOD:  `In what kind of matter is it right to trust in men?’

HOMER:  `Where danger itself follows the action close.’

HESIOD:  `What do men mean by happiness?’

HOMER:  `Death after a life of least pain and greatest pleasure.’

After these verses had been spoken, all the Hellenes called for Homer to be crowned.  But King Paneides bade each of them recite the finest passage from his own poems.  Hesiod, therefore, began as follows: 

`When the Pleiads, the daughters of Atlas, begin to rise begin the harvest, and begin ploughing ere they set.  For forty nights and days they are hidden, but appear again as the year wears round, when first the sickle is sharpened.  This is the law of the plains and for those who dwell near the sea or live in the rich-soiled valleys, far from the wave-tossed deep:  strip to sow, and strip to plough, and strip to reap when all things are in season.’ (3)

Then Homer: