Hesiod And Roman Mythology

Greek and Roman Mythology are filled with multiple interpretations of how the creator, whether it is the gods themselves or nature, gave our world its shape and form. These stories draw the background to the base of the gods and goddesses who govern much of classical mythology. Ovid’s Metamorphoses and Hesiod’s Theogony are two pieces of work that account r how our universe came to be. There are clear distinctions and similarities between how these authors portrayed their deities and their role in the universe. Hesiod’s creation story consisted of deities having an omnipresent, powerful role that was meant to exercise control and order. In contrast to Ovid’s creation stories, in which humans play a vital role alongside the deities in the formation of the world. These distinctions and comparisons can be …show more content…
Additionally, Ovid has two separate accounts of how the world came to be demonstrated by “Either the Architect of All, the author of the universe in order to beget a better world, created man from seed divine—or else Prometheus, son of Iapetus, made man by mixing new-made earth with fresh rainwater.”(Ovid, 6) A significant difference between these mythologies is the importance of man and god. Ovid demonstrates man to have a greater significance on earth than the gods. Whereas, Hesiod depicts god (Olympian gods) to dictate the occurrences Hesiod and Ovid also share their interpretations of the Ages of Man. In Hesiod’s The Five Ages he, compiled his version of the Ages of Man, which were allotted into five distant phases—the Golden, Silver, Bronze, Heroes, and the Iron Age. In contrast, Ovid’s poetry only has four different phases- Golden, Silver, Bronze, and Iron Age. The gods created the Golden Age and was the representation of a life without any sorrows, even the deaths were painless and all in all people lived happily as accounted in both Hesiod’s and Ovid’s