Ponos

In Greek mythology, Ponos or Ponus (Ancient Greek: Πόνος, romanized: Pónos, lit. 'Toil, Labor, Hardship')^[1] is the personification of toil and stress.^[2] According to Hesiod's Theogony, "painful" Ponos was the son of Eris (Strife), with no father mentioned.^[3] 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.^[4]

Cicero has the equivalent personification of the meaning of the Latin word labor as the offspring of Erebus and Night (Erebo et Nocte).^[5] 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.^[6]

Notes

^ 'Ponos' is variously translated as 'Toil' (The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, s.v. πόνος 6; Most, p. 21; Hard, p. 31), 'Labor' (Gantz, p. 10), or 'Hardship' (Caldwell, p. 42 on 212–232). In ancient Greek the word ponos which meant 'hard work' could also mean 'hardship, 'suffering', 'distress' or 'trouble', see The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, s.v. πόνος 1, 3; compare LSJ, s.v. πόνος. For the ancient Greeks' negative associations regarding ponos, see Millett, s.v. labour; Cartledge, s.v. industry, Greek and Roman.
^ Thurmann, s.v. Ponos.
^ Hesiod, Theogony 226 (Caldwell, p. 43).
^ Hard, p. 31; Gantz, p. 10.
^ Thurmann, s.v. Ponos; Cicero, De Natura Deorum 3.44; compare Sophocles, The Women of Trachis 29–30.
^ Thurmann, s.v. Ponos; Lucian, Timon 31–33.

References

Caldwell, Richard, Hesiod's Theogony, Focus Publishing/R. Pullins Company (June 1, 1987). ISBN 978-0-941051-00-2. Internet Archive.
The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, edited by J. Diggle et al, Cambridge University Press, 2021 ISBN 978-0-521-82680-8.
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. ISBN 978-0-19-938113-5.
Cicero, Marcus Tullius, De Natura Deorum in Cicero: On the Nature of the Gods. Academics, translated by H. Rackham, Loeb Classical Library No. 268, Cambridge, Massachusetts, Harvard University Press, first published 1933, revised 1951. ISBN 978-0-674-99296-2. 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: ISBN 978-0-8018-5360-9 (Vol. 1), ISBN 978-0-8018-5362-3 (Vol. 2).
Hard, Robin, The Routledge Handbook of Greek Mythology: Based on H.J. Rose's "Handbook of Greek Mythology", Psychology Press, 2004, ISBN 9780415186360. Google Books.
Liddell, Henry George, Robert Scott, A Greek-English Lexicon, 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. ISBN 978-0-674-99060-9. 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. ISBN 978-0-19-938113-5.
Most, G.W., Hesiod, Theogony, Works and Days, Testimonia, Edited and translated by Glenn W. Most, Loeb Classical Library No. 57, Cambridge, Massachusetts, Harvard University Press, 2018. ISBN 978-0-674-99720-2. Online version at Harvard University Press.
Sophocles, 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 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, in 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.