Each nation has own myth about world’s creation and team of gods, spirits or other powers that control it. Some of them can sound really weird. For example, Scandinavian myths say the world was created from the body of a dead giant. More common mythologies have show less bloody ideas with own features. They depend not only up the culture and country, but up the author. This essay will compare Greek and Roman poet’s Hesiod and Ovid points of view. These cultures had similar pantheons of Gods, which differed mostly by names, like Venus and Aphrodite. However, author showed different styles of description of the worlds’ creation, its first years and relations between gods and humans.
Hesiod started from the “middle” of the story by the description of “Heliconian Muses, who possess Mount Helicon, high and holy Dance circling the altar of almighty Cronion” (Hesiod 131). Muses were Zeus’s daughters. They glorified other gods and supernatural creatures, like Athena and Cronos. The description of the world’s creation starts from the line 116 in the Hesiod’s poem. The author asks muses to tell him this story. According to it, Chaos was the first and only thing. Then Gaia the Earth appeared by herself and created the foundation for other future inhabitants. She gave birth to Ouranos who became Gaia’s lover and father of the Ocean and “Coios, Crios, Hyperion, Iapetos, Theia, Rheia, Themis, Mnemosyne, Gold-crowned Phoibe, and lovely Tethys” (Hesiod 135). Chaos became a source Erebos and Night. Hesiod also mentioned two other self-created creatures Eros and Tartaros. The author did not say more about people’s creation, but readers can mention that Zeus is the father for all kings and “singers and lyre players come from the Muses and far-shooting Apollo” (Hesiod 134).
Ovid gave more direct description of the world’s creation. His version started with the chaos where all nature elements fought one another. The world was not empty – there was land, water and air. But they were not appropriate for any living thing because of elements’ conflict. “Land impossible to walk, unnavigable water, lightless air; nothing held its shape” (Ovid b. 1 1). An unnamed god or superior nature decided to give balance to the world and put all elements to direct places. He or she formed earth and created climatic zones. The sky released stars and gods by itself; water and air environments also were divided between fishes and birds. Humans were made by Prometheus and got gods’ traits. Ovid divided world’s early history into four ages. The Golden age was the best, when people did not need to think about environment, food, shelter or relations in society. “Rivers flowed with milk, streams ran with nectar, and honey dripped tawny from the green holm oak” (Ovid b. 1 4). Conditions and people’s personalities started to become worse during Silver, Bronze and Iron ages – people developed fraud, greed and other negative traits. These changes made goods to decide to destroy humanity, and they fulfilled their plan with the flood. It killed almost all animals and humans in spite of Deucalion and Pyrrha. Jupiter mentioned their purity and returned water to its former place. Gods also helped to restore humans’ and animals’ population. Ovid ended this fragment of his story with the description of Python’s death and development of Pythian games. The giant snake, which appeared during the fauna’s renewal, was killed by Apollo’s bow.
Hesiod and Ovid have several similarities in their versions of world’s creation. For example, they both started stories with the Chaos, where one supernatural being started to create an order. Authors also did not cover all topics of world’s creation. For example, Ovid did not say about Prometheus’s appearance, and Hesiod did not describe human’s creation in details. However, both authors agreed that people had connections with gods. Poems have much more differences than similarities. Ovid wrote about the world’s creation in a chronological way, while Hesiod focused most part of this fragment on muses. He even added himself in the poem: “And they once taught Hesiod the art of singing verse, while he pastured his lambs on holy Helicon’s slopes. and this was the very first thing they told me” (Hesiod 132). Greek world did not have anything except Chaos or Abyss, while Roman version consisted of imbalanced earth, water and air. There is also difference in poems’ length. Hesiod’s work has around 135 lines, and in Ovid’s version there are about 470 lines. Greek author did not focus on human’s creation and their relations with gods. Roman poet covered this topic in more details. Most part of Ovid’s poem was focused on people’s development and their arrangements with supernatural beings. Ovid demonstrated both sides had similar personality traits that supported the statement humans were created in the image and likeness of gods. Supernatural beings were named as close relatives of humans – titans Prometheus and Epimetheus were mentioned as fathers of Deucalion and Pyrrha respectively. Gods did not hesitate to go down to earth and take part in its inhabitants’ lives. They used this ability to check the situation or make direct impact on the fate of one person or a group of people. The decision to start a flood was caused by people’s behavior. Jove was disgusted by Lycaon who decided to feed him with human’s meat and punished him. “Only one house has fallen, yet more than one has deserved perdition” (Ovid, b. 1 7). The poem showed close relations between humans and gods; Ovid used the same idea in his other myth like The Deification of Caesar & Epilogue.
This poem describes the murder of Caesar and his following fate. Rome’s ruler was Venus’s grandson. She found out Caesar’s enemies planed to kill him and tried to get support from other gods to save him. However, the murder was mans fate and they could not do anything direct to interrupt. Julius Caesar was chosen to become a father of great son, but he needed to be a god for that. Jupiter explained Venus the situation and stopped her attempts to save the man: “This descendant of yours you suffer over, Cytherean, has fulfilled his time, and the years he owes to earth are done. You, and Augustus, his ‘son’, will ensure that he ascends to heaven as a god, and is worshipped in the temples” (Ovid b. 15). Venus saves Caesar’s soul and he turns to god. The myth ends with the conclusion that sons often overcome fathers’ success. Caesar’s murder could be mentioned in the creation myth: “were mad to blot out Rome with Caesar’s blood” (Ovid b. 1 6). It also reflects Ovid’s idea that gods have many similar traits with humans. The situation refers not only to personality, but to the whole situation. Humans are ruled by gods, but they also can not make their decisions only by themselves. Venus wanted to save Caesar, but could not do anything against written fate.
Ancient authors had different attitudes to their gods and mythologies. Ovid showed they have both positive and negative personality traits like humans. In the Metamorphoses gods often made irrational decisions, like in the situation with the flood. Jupiter decided to clean the earth mostly because of actions of one man Lycaon. Hesiod’s poem looked more like a standard epic, while Ovid tried to create a different style that would not mimic other works like Homer’s Iliad. It was a traditional practice for both Ancient Greece and Rome to humanize gods and put them in close relations with people. Both Hesiod and Ovid showed gods can have different personality traits. For example, Gaia’s intercourse with her child Ouranos reflects immorality. Venus’s attempts to save Caesar demonstrate the true parental love. While Hesiod an Ovid used the same basis, Roman author described characters in more practical, a bit ironic way. He focused on negative traits more, like in the discussion of the flood, where gods carried more about amount of sacrifices than possible disaster’s victims.
Works Cited
Hesiod. “Theogony”. Anthology of Classical Myth: Primary Sources in Translation. Ed. And Trans. Trzaskoma, Stephen M, Smith, R. Scott, and Brunet Stephen. Cambridge: Hackett Publishing Company, Inc. 2004. p. 131-135. PDF.
Ovid. Metamorphoses: Book I. PDF.
---. “Metamorphoses: Book XV”. Ovid.lib.virginia.edu. Web. n. d. 25 March 2016. <http://ovid.lib.virginia.edu/trans/Metamorph15.htm#488378560>
