As seen in The Works and Days of Hesiod, Hesiod uses mythology to explain a fundamental question of life: the origin of human misery. Using mythology, Hesiod draws on human emotions to explain how human misery arose. Hesiod explores the concept of nostalgia by referring to the first divine generation and implies that a return to the “good old days” would erase human misery, but offers no rational solution to the problem. On the other hand, Plato uses philosophy to explain why human misery exists. Through the use of philosophy, Plato appeals to the intellect. Plato parallels objects in the story where they yield to real-world examples to rationally explain the origin of human misery. Through rational explanations, Plato emphasizes that democracy is based on persuasion rather than truthful knowledge. Due to democracy's basis in relativism, humans fail to make a decision based on truth, and rather make decisions based on persuasion. While these problems exist, through the use of philosophy Plato offers an intellectual insight into how to obtain the truth. Because of the distinction between mythology and philosophy, humanity can use both when exploring the fundamental questions of life. An essential element to fully understanding the fundamental questions of life is knowing how and why a situation occurs, which can be discovered by combining mythology and