What was Hesiod’s view on the mankind’s past and future? Hesiod was a Greek poet. One of the poems that Hesiod wrote is called the Theogony. This poem tells about all of the Greek gods. Another poem is called Work and Days. In this poem Hesiod’s father just died and he’s trying to get his brother Perses to share the land that he got from their father with Hesiod. There are two parts to this poem. In the first part Hesiod gives his brother advise on how humans should live their lives. The second part gives advice on how humans should practically live. This poem is meant to get Perses to share his land with Hesiod, but in it Hesiod writes down his view on mankind’s past and future. 

Hesiod believed that there were five ages of the earth. The first age was the golden age where everything was peaceful and man lived like gods. The second poem was the silver age where man started having to work for their food. And they did not grow up until they were one hundred years old. The third age was the bronze age. In this age all the animals, plants, people, everything was made of bronze. The fourth age was the age of hero’s. In this age there were demigods. The demigods are not man and not gods, but are somewhere in between. Fifth was the iron age where the world is now. Hesiod believed that in the future of the iron age the Zeus the king of gods would destroy mankind forever. 

Even though Hesiod believed this would all happen he still thought you should appease Zeus and rely on him to help you. Hesiod believed that being man all your life was is hard work, appease the gods, then die. Apparently to Hesiod the future for humans had death all over it. 

According to Hesiod you needed to please the gods or else. You needed to pray to Zeus and hope he was pleased. If he was pleased he would tell you how to live your life. If you didn.t pray or make sacrifices to Zeus then he would give you terrible sanctions. If you could please Zeus then he would give you small rewards on earth. Hesiod basically believed that you needed to appease Zeus, hope he will give you good sanctions, then when Zeus is tired with you then you die and that’s it. In Hesiod’s mind mankind’s future was only darkness and death.