I don't like the fifth days

"Avoid fifth days: they are unkindly and terrible. On a fifth day, they say, the Erinyes assisted at the birth of Horkos whom Eris bare to trouble the forsworn." -- Hesiod, Works and Days (802-804)

Yesterday was one of those days; you know the type, when you know the second you get out of bed that you should have stayed in it for the rest of the day. I'm probably one of the most optimistic, gentile, people you will ever meet, but I went through the entire day with my claws out. I don't like myself when I'm that way, but then again, Hesiod did warned us about the fifth days.

I wrote about the auspicious days of Hesiod before; the special days in a month where things should or should not be done. The fifth, fifteenth, and twenty-fifth day after the new moon are unkindly days, days where staying in bed is probably advisable. Strife (Eris, Ἔρις) bore the daímōn Oath (Horkos, Ὁρκος) on a fifth day, and it's easy to get caught up in angry words and false promises on these day.

After my transition into Hellenismos, I started noticing that the fifth days of the month were--indeed--never my friend. Some where merely neutral, but most were days I would have loved to take back and do over (with my head under a pillow). Do the fifth days bother you as much as they do me? I'm just happy the day is over. Artemis--whom we honor on the sixth, sixteenth and twenty-sixth day--always graciously evens out the crazy of the fifth. Offering Her libations of sweet, red, wine is something I do gladly--thankfully--every month.