Ancient Greece - The Four World Ages
The position of Hesiod was always paramount, and the influence of Hesiod upon theFour World Ages is very much the same as was the influence of Homer upon the form and content of Greek Literature. The account of the Ages which is found in his Works and Days (109-201) is the earliest classical authority upon the subject. It is, also, to a remarkable extent, the center and ultimate source of the later development. There were several other accounts of the early history of man, and some of them were evidently folk-legends of a high antiquity. A few have contributed a detail here and there to the development of the Hesiodio norm, but most of them languish in comparative obscurity.
In the Hesiodic poetry (Theogony, 535 ff., Works and Days, 47 ff.) the myth of Prometheus is detailed at length, but curiously interwoven with ethical ideas and overlaid with additions made with evident design. Prometheus, brother of the blundering Epimetheus, sought, in the division of a sacrificial ox, to deceive the mind of Zeus. The human race, by a crime against Deity (for Prometheus fancies himself wiser than Zeus), brings on itself divine retribution, and therewith all the pain and misery of life. In penalty, fire was withheld from mankind. But Prometheus, friendly to man, outwitted Zeus, aud stole the fire's far-flashing brightness in a hollow tinder-stalk. Prometheus, as a warning that Zeus's mind is not to be deceived, was bound to a pillar by chains riveted through its middle. Zeus sent an eagle which devoured Prometheus's imperishable liver; there grew each night as much as the bird had consumed by day.
In retribution for this, Zeus sends to Epimetheus the woman Pandora, endowed by all the gods with manifold gifts. Epimetheus receives her against the express warnings of his brother, and knows not the evil till it is upon him. For till then the generations of men upon earth had lived free from pain and heavy sorrow, and free from deadly disease. But the woman lifted the lid from the jar, and all sicknesses and sorrows flew forth and spread over land and sea. Only Hope remained [possibly the evil of illulsory hope].
In illustrating the necessity of labor by the myth of Prometheus the origin of evils is of necessity introduced. This point is further developed in the myth of the World-Ages which follows. The two myths are different in that the one represents man as having fallen by transgression at once from an Eden state to the present condition of crime and misery, while the other represents him as having come to his present condition by gradual stages of deterioration. The popular conception that man was originally good and in a state of blessedness, whereas now the imagination of his heart is evil from his youth, is contained in both. The inclination to look on the past as better than the present is too well known to need illustration.
The conception of world ages and the gradual degeneration of man occurs first in Classical Literature in Hesiod and there in its most elaborate form. In fact all succeeding versions except that of Plato are based on his and there is practically no material existing to show its source, development, or original form.
One of the most notable and, doubtless, one of the most ancient features of the legend is the significant association of it with the great dynastic change of Olympus. The Golden Age was under the sway of Kronos. Since then [and surely after the Silver Age], his son Zeus ruled the world. On this basis, the Four Ages are sometimes reduced to two, the Age of Kronos and the Age of Zeus, the old regime and the new, the happy past and the unhappy present. This may well be an older and a simpler version. But it occurs only in the later writers.
The Golden Age is a time of ideal happiness in the remote past, when men were fresh from the hand of the creator and still unsullied by terrestrial influences, as Genesis 2-3 and Works 109-119. These men lived when Kronos was king in heaven. They fared like the gods themselves, always making merry, and untroubled by toil or care, for the teeming earth bore of its own accord an abundance of all good things, and there was no old age. Even death itself, when at last it came, stole upon these men like a pleasant slumber. When this race passed away, Zeus made them the good spirits that live above the earth arid are the invisible guardians and helpers of mortal man. It is also a dislant place where chosen persons live in bliss, as the Elysium of Od. IV 561-9, or the Islands of the Blest in Works 167-173. It might also be a purely ideal conception without reference to place or time of what the just and contented may enjoy, as Hesiod, Works 225-237. The general characteristics of such a place and time are: The gods still associate with men, and either bear rule themselves or the rule is in the hands of just princes, so that laws and penalties are unknown. An ideal climate prevails with serene sky, soft breezes and no extremes of heat, cold or rain. The earth of her own accord produces abundantly and there is a life of ease and plenty with feasting and enjoyment. Diseases do not exist, and there is peace and prosperity, and in a state of primitive contentment men have not yet presumed to brave the seas in ships.
This happy state appears in the Odyssey, where (VI 42-6) Olympus, the abode of the gods, is described as being without wind, rain or snow, but the sun is always bright and the sky cloudless. Then the Phaeacians (VI 203) are said to be very dear to the immortals, and the gods (VII 201-3) appear visibly to them and banquet with them; and again (VII 82-132) the golden palace of Alcinous is described as gleaming like the sun, where the leaders of the Phaeacians eat and drink in abundance, and without were all manner of trees with never-failing fruits.
Among the various bits of specific theory imported into the Golden Age by the philosophers, one of the oldest and most important was the doctrine of vegetarianism. This doctrine doubtless goes back to the elder Orphics, but the most prominent representatives of it in antiquity were the Pythagoreans. The earliest reference to it now surviving is a fragment of Empedocles, and the most complete discussion of it in connexion with the Golden Age is Ovid. In this famous passage Ovid introduces Pythagoras himself as the expounder of his own doctrine. The essence of it is that, in the Golden Age, men lived upon the fruits of the earth, and that the degeneration of later Ages is marked by the departure from this rule.
Nothing was more certain than that the Golden Age and the race who had lived in those happier days still existed somewhere, and that a mere mortal man might be able to find them again. This was not felt to be utterly beyond the bounds of possibility. Odysseus had returned alive from Hades, and it is a well-known historical fact - according the Plutarch - that the gallant Sertorius was, at one time, actually on the eve of setting sail for the Fortunate Isles in the Western Ocean [Sertorius, who was assasinated in 73 BC, had led the great rebellion by which Spain had been nearly torn from the hands of the Roman government], just as, many centuries later, Ponce de Leon took the same direction in his search for the Fountain of Youth. The same association of ideas is clearly seen in Hesiod's account.
The god Cronos / Kronos [Saturn] ruled during the golden age. Cronos and Rhea have six children—Vesta, Demeter, Hera, Hades, Poseidon, Zeus — who are swallowed down by their sire as soon as born, all except Zeus, who is saved by the device of Rhea and Gea and reared to maturity in Crete, when he forced his father to disgorge the rest of his offspring. Then followed the conflict between the gods and Titans, in which Zeus with the aid of the hundredhanded giants hurled the latter down to Tartarus and bound them in hard bonds. Cronos seems to have been a god of an older race who gave way to Zeus, and whether he was a divinity of vegetation who sent up blessings to men from the earth, while the story of the Titanomachy and fall of the Titans arose from the conflict of the old religion with the new and the decline of the former; or his role as king of the golden age arose regardless of his previous character, because that age was conceived as ante-dating the present age in which Zeus reigns and imposes hardships upon men; it is clear that the Cronos of the Works and Days is the god of the popular religion, in whose honor the harvest feast of the Cronia at Athens and the Saturnalia at Rome was celebrated, during which all business was suspended; rich and poor, bond and free feasted together and there was a general season of generosity and merrymaking. In Ovid (Met. I 113-4) the reign of Saturn ends with the golden and that of Zeus begins with the silver age, and generally the golden age ends with the dethronement of Cronos by Zeus.
The Silver Age was constructed on the model of the golden. Certainly their creation by the same gods and their nearly parallel condition after death, little as they deserved it, support this view. The silver race seems to be identified with the Titans by their refusal to give honor to the gods of Olympus, a trait quite characteristic of them both in the Theogony and in Aeschylus, by the fact that Zeus in his wrath concealed them as divinities beneath the earth, and then apparently with full control created the bronze race. Hesiod evidently marks the gradual declination of mankind by the progressive abridgement of theirterm of existence. Thus, by a comparative figure, he mentions it as a characteristic of the iron age, that they grew gray soon after their birth. The poet means to say, that although the silver age was deteriorated from the golden, it was yet better than those which succeeded it; as in the silver age a boy was a hundred years arriving at manhood. It is amere fact of longevity,and has no relation whatever to education. It isa trace of ancient and true tradition.
The Bronze Age marks for Hesiod [unlike the later Ovid] the start of the reign of Zeus, while the golden and silver ages had belonged to the old dynasty. After a mighty conflict, Zeus overthrew the dynasty of the old gods Gods - the Gods of mere Nature - and took possession of the throne and dominion of Cronus. He was then supreme. the men of the Brazen Age. They were sprung from the ash-trees, and were strong; and terrible, eating no com, lovers of war and violence, and knowing nought of pity. Their weapons and their houses were of bronze, and they wrought in bronze. There was no iron. TheBe men, too, fell by the work of their own hands and fared to Hades, nameless and unbonored. Mighty they were, but dark death laid hold of them, and they left the bright light of the sun. It is altogether probable that this account was suggested by the tradition of the early warlike people who lived before the use of iron, perhaps the Cyclops, Centaurs and Lapithae.
The Heroic Age was a fourth race made by Zeus, better and more Just. These were the Heroes of the elder days, such as fought at Troy and at Thebes. They were called the Demigods. And when they perished, Zeus gave them a life and an abiding-place at the ends of the earth. There they dwell in careless ease in the Isles of the Blest, hard by the deep-eddying stream of Ocean, and thrice a year the earth bears them fair fruit.
The race of heroes is not found in any other version of the myth and interrupts the process of deterioration which the myth was evidently intended to illustrate; but whether it is a part of the original poem or a later interpolation, it seems to have been introduced because the race of heroes who fought at Thebes and Troy was considered too real and important to be omitted. The principal difficulty with Hesiod's account arises from the fact that there was no place in the old four-fold scheme for the Heroic Age. As a matter of fact, the Heroic Age belongs to another and a different account of the development of mankind. Neither of these accounts, however, could be neglected, and in Hesiod is seen the first known attempt to combine and harmonize the two.
The deduction upon which it was based seems tolerably clear. According to the old four-fold system, the Brazen Age immediately preceded the last. On the other hand, it was also generally accepted that the Heroic Age immediately preceded the last. Consequently, the Heroic Age of the one scheme ought to coincide with the Brazen Age of the other. This, however, is impossible, as may be seen by comparing the two. Hesiod, therefore, inserted the Heroic Age between the Brazen and the Iron Ages of the old scheme, and re-numbered accordingly. The result was a system of five Ages, the inconsistency of which was usually clear enough to the ancient critics themselves.
The Iron Age of Hesiod is a pessimistic description of the evils of an age by no means primitive by one who cannot see any virtue in his own time. And it is becoming worse, and will continue to do so till scruple to do wrong and indignation at wrong-doing shall leave the earth and there shall be no escape from evil. Never by day shall they cease from weariness and woe, nor by night from wasting away, and the gods shall give them grevious cares — a condition just the opposite to the ease and contentment of the golden age and very like the nervous rush of modern life. It is not an age of violence and war like the bronze age, or the iron age of Ovid, nor is emphasis laid on irreverence as in the silver age, or on greed for gain as in the iron age of Ovid, but it is marked by a complete collapse of all bonds of relationship and justice among men. Family ties are loose, guest-friendship and companionship are no longer sacred, nor are brothers friendly as formerly. Children no longer respect their parents, but reproach them with bitter words and refuse to support their old age. There is no regard for the good or just man nor for the man of his oath, but the evildoer is in honor; might is right and no one scruples to do wrong. The bad man wrongs the good, lying and swearing that he is telling the truth.
The inconsistencies in this account were perceived by the ancients themselves, and in modern times an extensive literature has gathered about the subject. It is enough to say that these inconsistencies are due to the fact that Hesiod's version is a composite structure, the main support of which is an ancient division of the history of mankind into four Ages.
There are many remarkable coincidences between the Mosaic account and the Hesiodic cosmogony. Both speak of the world as formed out of chaos, and of light and darkness as subsequent creations. An ancient and universal tradition appears to have been, that the peaceful order of the universe was first interrupted by a rebellion or apostasy among the higher order of primeval beings. Inexplicable as this is to us (unless on the theory that the notion was suggested by the sight of falling stars and meteors), it is very difficult to separate it from the Scriptural doctrine of Satan and the Fallen Angels; and the same idea is contained in the Hesiodic rebellion of Cronus against Uranus, Zeus against Cronus, and the hurling of Cronus (the archrebel), Typhoeus, the great Serpent, and the Titans their compeers, into Tartarus (hell).
The Hindus believe that they lived in the last and worst of four periods or Yugs, corresponding to the golden, silvern, brazen and iron ages. The golden and silver ages of Hesiod represent man in a state of primitive innocence; the immense duration of human life, which Scripture assigns to the first patriarchs, is described by the infancy of a hundred *~ years1; the absence of pain and death, by the passing away of this race from the world " as if subdued by sleep.2" The voluntary production of fruit and crops from the primeval earth, without the labour of the farmer; the gradual growth of wickedness and irreligion among degenerate men ; the doctrine of angels or good spirits invisibly accompanying human beings on earth; the suggestion of rebellion first made by the female (Rhea); the formation of the first woman Pandora (like Adam) from the dust of the earth; lastly, the destruction of mankind, and their annihilation from earth at an early stage of their existence, in punishment for their impiety, — all these statements seemed to some to be too well marked to be regarded as mere casual resemblances.
It is probable that the Hindu and Greek myths are different developments of the same idea without being directly connected. While ths colors of the one —light, red, yellow, black—correspond to the metals of the other—gold, silver, bronze, iron—in the case of the former there is a gradual and unbroken detarioration and the ages repeat themselves in endless cycles, while in the case of the Classic myth so well defined a doctrine was never developed.
The version of the Ages by Aratus, the famous Alexandrian poet of the 3rd century BC, was one of the best known in the ancient world, and undoubted traces of its influence are to be found in most of the later accounts. Briefly described, it is a revision of Hesiod under Stoic influence. The object of the author was not only to reconcile the discrepancies of the old version, but also to remove whatever was irrelevant to a theme which he proposed to treat not as an independent account, as Hesiod had done, but as a rhetorical episode. The Golden Age of Aratus is really an idealization of the agricultural and pastoral stage of human society - a theme which always comes to the front in any period of overcultivation, as soon as men begin to stagger under the burden of their own inventions.
The Epicureans denied the account of Hesiod in toto, and replaced it by their own view, which is the nearest approach in antiquity to the modern theory of evolution. This denial, which lies implicit in the famous passage of Lucretius (v. 925 f), is stated positively, for example, by Diodorus, who (i. 8f.) describes the theory of Epicurus upon this point, and (v. 66 f.) implies that the Golden Age was a mere invention of the Cretans.
In Classic Literature the four world ages named from the metals are frequently referred to, but the most elaborate treatment after Hesiod is found in Ovid [ (BC 43-17 AD)]. The general scheme (Met. I 89-150) is taken from Hesiod. the age of heroes being omitted. The differences are such as could be expected with the lapse of time and from the fact that Ovid was the poet of imperial Rome.
As to the golden age, but one idea is common to Hesiod and Ovid, that of the spontaneous abundance of the earth. The god.like freedom from care and ill of Hesiod becomes in Ovid a universal peace (cf. Works 228.9). The reign of right without laws, judges and penalties may have been sugggested by Virgil (Aen. VII 203-4), where the race of Saturn is spoken of. The absence of ships and the perils of the deep begin with Hesiod (Works 236). The conception of mild and unchangeable weather is common, but that it was perpetual spring seems to have arisen in Virgil (Georg. II 338), where after a description of spring the poet goes on to say that such were the days at the beginning of the world. The honey dripping from the oak begins with Works 233, where the top of the oak bears acorns and the middle bees, but Ovid is following the figurative conception of Virgil in Ed. IV 30.
The only similarity between the silver age of Hesiod and that of Ovid is the name. In the former the end of the race seems to coincide with the fall of the Titans and mark the beginning of the reign of Zeus, while in the latter the silver race comes after Saturn has been hurled to Tartarus and the world is under Jove. The perpetual spring of the previous age gives way to the four seasons with extremes of heat and cold and the resulting need of shelter, while earth no longer yields her spontaneous abundance and agriculture begins. The bronze age of Ovid is simply that of Hesiod in brief: fierce in disposition and prone to arms, but not criminaI.
The iron age is described at length and is based largely on Hesiod. It is an age of selfishness and greed for gain, when all scruple and fidelity have given place to insidious plots and open violence. Men sail the sea in quest of fortune; and land which was once common property like air and sunlight is carefully measured off by the surveyor. The earth is not simply taxed for crops, but iron and gold are dug from her depths to incite men to evil, and war shakes rattling arms with bloody hand. Guest is not safe from host and all bonds of relationship are broken up. All sense of duty is gone and the Virgin Astraea, the last of the celestials, leaves the earth reeking with blood. While neither bloodshed nor greed for gain is emphasized in Hesiod, they are the prominent features in Ovid and reflect all too well the Roman spirit.
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