InGreek mythology,Ponos orPonus (Ancient Greek:Πόνος,romanized: Pónos,lit. 'Toil, Labor, Hardship')^[1] is the personification of toil and stress.^[2] According to Hesiod'sTheogony, "painful" Ponos was the son ofEris (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 wordlabor as the offspring ofErebus andNight (Erebo et Nocte).^[5] Although Ponos has a negative connotation in Hesiod, in a poem ofLucian (2nd century AD), he is seen as having the positive aspect of leading to a virtuous life.^[6]

• 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. Diggleet al, Cambridge University Press, 2021ISBN 978-0-521-82680-8.
• Cartledge, Paul,s.v. industry, Greek and Roman, published online 07 March 2016, in theOxford Classical Dictionary, edited byTim Whitmarsh, digital ed, New York, Oxford University Press.ISBN 978-0-19-938113-5.
• Cicero, Marcus Tullius,De Natura Deorum inCicero: 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 theOxford Classical Dictionary, edited byTim 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 inSophocles: Antigone. The Women of Trachis. Philoctetes. Oedipus at Colonus Edited and translated byHugh 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, inBrill’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.

• Greek gods
• Personifications in Greek mythology
• Children of Eris (mythology)

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• Articles containing Ancient Greek (to 1453)-language text