Laudator Temporis Acti

Hesiod, Works and Days 225-237 (tr. M.L. West):

As for those who give straight judgments to visitors and to their own people and do not deviate from what is just, their community flourishes, and the people blooms in it. Peace is about the land, fostering the young, and wide-seeing Zeus never marks out grievous war as their portion. Neither does Famine attend straight-judging men, nor Blight, and they feast on the crops they tend. For them Earth bears plentiful food, and on the mountains the oak carries acorns at its surface and bees at its centre. The fleecy sheep are laden down with wool; the womenfolk bear children that resemble their parents; they enjoy a continual sufficiency of good things. Nor do they ply on ships, but the grain-giving ploughland bears them fruit.

οἳ δὲ δίκας ξείνοισι καὶ ἐνδήμοισι διδοῦσιν        225
ἰθείας καὶ μή τι παρεκβαίνουσι δικαίου,
τοῖσι τέθηλε πόλις, λαοὶ δ᾿ ἀνθέουσιν ἐν αὐτῇ·
Εἰρήνη δ᾿ ἀνὰ γῆν κουροτρόφος, οὐδέ ποτ᾿ αὐτοῖς
ἀργαλέον πόλεμον τεκμαίρεται εὐρύοπα Ζεύς·
οὐδέ ποτ᾿ ἰθυδίκῃσι μετ᾿ ἀνδράσι λιμὸς ὀπηδεῖ        230
οὐδ᾿ ἄτη, θαλίῃς δὲ μεμηλότα ἔργα νέμονται.
τοῖσι φέρει μὲν γαῖα πολὺν βίον, οὔρεσι δὲ δρῦς
ἄκρη μέν τε φέρει βαλάνους, μέσση δὲ μελίσσας·
εἰροπόκοι δ᾿ ὄιες μαλλοῖς καταβεβρίθασι·
τίκτουσιν δὲ γυναῖκες ἐοικότα τέκνα γονεῦσιν·        235
θάλλουσιν δ᾿ ἀγαθοῖσι διαμπερές· οὐδ᾿ ἐπὶ νηῶν
νίσονται, καρπὸν δὲ φέρει ζείδωρος ἄρουρα.

West's commentary ad loc.: