Abstract
The structure of Hesiod's Works and Days has long puzzled classical scholars, in part because the poem is not held together by an overarching narrative, but instead is composed of a single speech. In this paper I find an explanation for the structure of Works and Days in the arrangements of several angry speeches in the Homeric epics, in particular Menelaus' speech to Euphorbus (Il. 17.18-32), and I argue that this structure serves a particular rhetorical purpose, which is to persuade the external audience to side with Hesiod in his dispute with his brother and the kings of Ascra.
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