The Five Ages of Man

satyrs, for example, were half goat and half man. The dryads were tree nymphs and the nereids were sea nymphs. Perhaps you remember the one-eyed cyclops or the part-bull minotaur? These were a few other Greek creatures.

The Ancient Greeks did not have a specific creation myth. Instead, different cults had their own idea of how the earth was created. Hesiod wrote his own version in which there was only one deity in the beginning of the world called Chaos. Out of Chaos came the gods of Eros, Tartarus, and Gaia. More gods call the Titans were created who gave birth to the Olympians.

Greek mythology evolved overtime as more was added to this and the later Roman mythology. Most likely, the mythology of the Greeks began in an oral tradition but was then written down in poetic form, such as the Iliad and the Odyssey, or plays that people went to theaters to see. In Europe, it remained popular two read this poetry and attend plays that were written by ancient Greeks.

When we look further at Greek mythology, you will see that there is a great deal of morality written into the works. The Greeks were fearful of committing hubris. Hubris could mean a lot of things, including murder, desecrating a dead body, or rape. Pride and vanity were things not considered sinful, but we're meant to be enjoyed in moderation. Eating and drinking in excess were also not sinful but were not considered proper. Athletics were important to the Greeks as well as intelligence, so the competitions they had included both of these features.

THE FIVE AGES OF MAN

It is nearly impossible to have an accurate depiction of history described within Greek mythology. Many things are just guesses or were written down on a limited basis. The five ages of man were written in poetic form by Hesiod, who was a farmer or shepherd. The earliest written word on ancient Greek mythology came from Hesiod and Homer, who worked on his own poetry at about the same time – in the 8th century BCE. It is believed that one or both of these men based their poetry on legends from Mesopotamia or possibly Egypt.

Legend tells us that Hesiod was tending his sheep and met the Greek muses. There were nine muses who were the daughters of Zeus and memory, who was called Mnemosyne. These 9 muses were divine women who inspired all Greek poetry and are always invoked at the beginning of any epic Greek poem.

On the day in question, the muses were said to have inspired Hesiod to write a poem called Works and Days, which was an 800-line piece of epic poetic work. There are three separate myths within this body of work. There is the story of Prometheus, the tale of Pandora's box, and the five ages of man. These five ages of men trace the different lineages or races throughout history from the beginning of time to the current time in Hesiod's era. it is helpful to keep this succession in mind as we talk about the different myths within Greek mythology. Let's look at them in succession:

• The Golden Age - this was the first period of mankind. This was when the

Titans ruled and when people were formed by titan called Cronus. Cronus is the same as Saturn in Roman mythology. Mortal humans lived in idyllic life and never died tragically. No individual had to work and death simply meant falling asleep. It was spring eternally in this time and people actually aged backward, becoming demons at the time of death. This age ended when Zeus defeated the

Titans. Interestingly, because gold was significant to the Greeks and meant good fortune or blessedness, this fits with what this age was called. It is also related to the sun.

• Silver Age – this was the age of the Olympians, where the Olympic god, Zeus, primarily ruled over the time. Men were no longer glorious and were far inferior to the gods, who had much more wisdom than mankind. Now there were Four

Seasons and the need to work for grain and to seek some type of shelter. On the other hand, a child could be a child for at least 100 years before they grew up.

Because people did not always honor the gods, Zeus destroy them and made them spirits of the Underworld. The metal silver was considered to be related to the moon.

• Bronze Age – this was the third age of man. Zeus created men out of trees, particularly ash trees, which were used at that time to make Spears. Men of this

age were warring individuals who were not very nice. They wore armor made out of bronze and subsisted on meat rather than bread. Because these men were considered terrible, they were destroyed by a large flood. They also went to the Underworld after death. The use of the word bronze is likely related to the Babylonians and to the fact that some individuals used bronze as part of weapons and warfare.

• The Age of Heroes – this is the only age not named after a metal. The age of heroes referred to the Myceneans and to the stories that Homer told about them.

This was a time of brave men who were demigods, heroic, brave, altruistic, and strong. This was also a time of great wars. Some men who died in these wars went to the Underworld, while others landed on the Islands of the Blessed Ones after death.

• The Iron Age – the Iron Age was the time of Hesiod and of modern man. It was said that all of these modern men were made by Zeus and were filled with sorrow and weariness as well as selfishness and a strong capability to be evil. There were a few virtues among mankind and so the gods left the earth in abandonment.

According to Hesiod, Zeus will come back someday and destroy this lesser race of man. Iron is considered a very hard metal forged in fire, which fits with this particular time of man.

Notice that Hesiod is describing a continuing degeneration of mankind and of people who began life innocent and full of springtime and degenerated into evil. Only the age of heroes described good and virtuous men. He also describes some type of end-time when Zeus will destroy mankind.

In these next few chapters, we will go through these times of man in more detail as you learn about the different gods, their specific features, and how mankind existed during the different ages. You will learn about Homer and his contribution to Greek mythology as well.