Blog post Ovid’s Metamorphoses #003/111: “Ages of God, Silver, Bronze, and Iron”

What this project is about.  

This one is from Book 1.

How long it took to read this (aloud): 10 mins

What it’s “about”: The descent towards where we are now – everything was peachy under Saturn – permanent global spring time. Then came Jove, who brought seasons. Then came the age of Bronze – and men in bronze were quick with sword and spear.

Lots of stuff about a golden age, everything in harmony…

Words I didn’t know: none

Quotable quotes: so much!

My thunderbolt struck the king’s house to ruins,

And he, wild master, ran like beast to field

Crying his terror which cannot utter words

But howls in fear, his foaming lips and jaws,

Quick with the thought of bloody, harry the sheep,

His cloak turned into bristling hair, his arms

Were forelegs of a wolf, yet he resembled

Himself, what he had been…

How it lands to my eco-sensibility: xx

Obvious allusions, ways it was used (that I am aware of already) : xx

What I know I didn’t ‘get’: The Lycaeus stuff – this him?

In Greek mythology, Lycaon (/laɪˈkeɪɒn/; Attic Greek: Λυκάων, romanized: Lukáōn, Attic Greek: [ly.kǎː.ɔːn]) was a king of Arcadia who, in the most popular version of the myth, killed and cooked his son Nyctimus and served him to Zeus, to see whether the god was sufficiently all-knowing to recognize human flesh. Disgusted, Zeus transformed Lycaon into a wolf, while Nyctimus was restored to life.

Though notorious for his horrific deed, Lycaon was also remembered as a culture hero. He was believed to have founded the city Lycosura, to have established a cult of Zeus Lycaeus and to have started the tradition of the Lycaean Games, which Pausanias thinks were older than the Panathenaic Games.[1] According to Gaius Julius Hyginus (d. AD 17), Lycaon dedicated the first temple to Hermes of Cyllene.[2]

To my knowledge, who’s used it why/how (RACC): xx

Further research questions: Presumably Milton was cribbing for Paradise Lost?

Anything else: xx

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