Hesiod. Works & Days, 11-26.

Listen, there is not a single species of Strife. On the earth there are actually two. The perceptive person would applaud one, but the other is reprehensible. Each has a spirit thoroughly distinct from the other. One always propagates evil war and battle, being merciless. No one has affection for this oppressive Strife, but compelled by the will of the gods, people honor her.   

Still, it was the other Strife dark Night birthed first. The son of Cronos, seated on high in the ether where he dwells, worked her into the roots of the earth. She’s the gentler one with mankind, and yet this Strife motivates even a totally good-for-nothing man to work. It’s on account of this Strife that when someone habitually sees a rich man who is still desirous of work–eager to plow and plant and set his house in order–then neighbor becomes envious of neighbor and hurries after riches of his own. 

Therefore, this Strife is good for mankind: potter begrudges potter; carpenter feels rancor toward carpenter; beggar envies beggar; and, singer is jealous of singer. 

οὐκ ἄρα μοῦνον ἔην Ἐρίδων γένος, ἀλλ᾽ ἐπὶ γαῖαν
εἰσὶ δύω: τὴν μέν κεν ἐπαινέσσειε νοήσας,
ἣ δ᾽ ἐπιμωμητή: διὰ δ᾽ ἄνδιχα θυμὸν ἔχουσιν.
ἣ μὲν γὰρ πόλεμόν τε κακὸν καὶ δῆριν ὀφέλλει,
15σχετλίη: οὔτις τήν γε φιλεῖ βροτός, ἀλλ᾽ ὑπ᾽ ἀνάγκης
ἀθανάτων βουλῇσιν Ἔριν τιμῶσι βαρεῖαν.
τὴν δ᾽ ἑτέρην προτέρην μὲν ἐγείνατο Νὺξ ἐρεβεννή,
θῆκε δέ μιν Κρονίδης ὑψίζυγος, αἰθέρι ναίων,
γαίης ἐν ῥίζῃσι, καὶ ἀνδράσι πολλὸν ἀμείνω:
20ἥτε καὶ ἀπάλαμόν περ ὁμῶς ἐπὶ ἔργον ἔγειρεν.
εἰς ἕτερον γάρ τίς τε ἰδὼν ἔργοιο χατίζει
πλούσιον, ὃς σπεύδει μὲν ἀρώμεναι ἠδὲ φυτεύειν
οἶκόν τ᾽ εὖ θέσθαι: ζηλοῖ δέ τε γείτονα γείτων
εἰς ἄφενος σπεύδοντ᾽: ἀγαθὴ δ᾽ Ἔρις ἥδε βροτοῖσιν.
25καὶ κεραμεὺς κεραμεῖ κοτέει καὶ τέκτονι τέκτων,
καὶ πτωχὸς πτωχῷ φθονέει καὶ ἀοιδὸς ἀοιδῷ.

Larry Benn has a B.A. in English Literature from Harvard College, an M.Phil in English Literature from Oxford University, and a J.D. from Yale Law School. Making amends for a working life misspent in finance, he’s now a hobbyist in ancient languages and blogs at featsofgreek.blogspot.com.

“You cannot step into the same river twice.” δὶς ἐς τὸν αὐτὸν ποταμὸν οὐκ ἂν ἐμβαίης.

– Heraclitus

Louis MacNeice, Variation on Heraclitus:

Even the walls are flowing, even the ceiling,

Nor only in terms of physics; the pictures

Bob on each picture rail like floats on a line

While the books on the shelves keep reeling

Their titles out into space and the carpet

Keeps flying away to Arabia nor can this be where I stood —

Where I shot the rapids I mean — when I signed

On a line that rippled away with a pen that melted

Nor can this now be the chair — the chairoplane of a chair —

That I sat in the day that I thought I had made up my mind

And as for that standard lamp it too keeps waltzing away

Down an unbridgeable Ganges where nothing is standard

And lights are but lit to be drowned in honour and spite of some dark

And vanishing goddess. No, whatever you say,

Reappearance presumes disappearance, it may not be nice

Or proper or easily analysed not to be static

But none of your slide snide rules can catch what is sliding so fast

And, all you advisers on this by the time it is that,

I just do not want your advice

Nor need you be troubled to pin me down in my room

Since the room and I will escape for I tell you flat:

One cannot live in the same room twice.