Note 1737 — Chapter V · THE VARIOUS PROCESSES OF AGRICULTURE.
Reading edition
Or perhaps wholly so when they happened to be inhabitants of the warm lowlands on the sea-shore and valleys. At least this is the opinion of Hesiod who counsels the husbandman, γυμνὸν σπείρειν, γυμνὸν δὲ βοωτεῖν, γυμνὸν δ᾽ ἀμάαν, εἴ χ’ ὥρια πάντ᾽ ἐθέλησθα ἔργα κομίζεσθαι Δημήτερος. Opp. et Dies, 391, sqq.
Aristophanes alludes to the same custom. Lysist. 1175.
Ἥδη γεωργεῖν γυμνὸς, ἀποδὺς βούλομαι. And Virgil. “Nudus ara, sere nudus,” Georg, i. 299, upon which Servius remarks: “Non dicit nudum esse debere, quasi aliter non oporteat aut possit; sed sub tanta serenitate dicit hæc agenda, ut et amictus possit contemni.” Be this, however, as it may, the precept of Hesiod and Virgil is literally observed in Egypt, where the rustics often perform their labour stark naked.