Hesiod's Ages of Man and the Theory of Decline

This week I’ve been discussing the alternative idea that the world goes through gold, silver, bronze, and iron ages corresponding to declining moral perfection. This idea derives most explicitly from Hesiod in the Works and Days, which alternative authors like Walter Cruttenden cite as their source. I thought it was worth pointing out that what Hesiod wrote bares very little resemblance to alternative authors’ presentation of it. Let’s begin by looking at Hesiod’s rather lengthy discussion in a standard translation:

(ll. 109-120) First of all the deathless gods who dwell on Olympus made a golden race of mortal men who lived in the time of Cronos when he was reigning in heaven. And they lived like gods without sorrow of heart, remote and free from toil and grief: miserable age rested not on them; but with legs and arms never failing they made merry with feasting beyond the reach of all evils. When they died, it was as though they were overcome with sleep, and they had all good things; for the fruitful earth unforced bare them fruit abundantly and without stint. They dwelt in ease and peace upon their lands with many good things, rich in flocks and loved by the blessed gods.

(ll. 121-139) But after earth had covered this generation—they are called pure spirits dwelling on the earth, and are kindly, delivering from harm, and guardians of mortal men; for they roam everywhere over the earth, clothed in mist and keep watch on judgements and cruel deeds, givers of wealth; for this royal right also they received;—then they who dwell on Olympus made a second generation which was of silver and less noble by far. It was like the golden race neither in body nor in spirit. A child was brought up at his good mother's side an hundred years, an utter simpleton, playing childishly in his own home. But when they were full grown and were come to the full measure of their prime, they lived only a little time in sorrow because of their foolishness, for they could not keep from sinning and from wronging one another, nor would they serve the immortals, nor sacrifice on the holy altars of the blessed ones as it is right for men to do wherever they dwell. Then Zeus the son of Cronos was angry and put them away, because they would not give honour to the blessed gods who live on Olympus.

(ll. 140-155) But when earth had covered this generation also—they are called blessed spirits of the underworld by men, and, though they are of second order, yet honour attends them also—Zeus the Father made a third generation of mortal men, a brazen race, sprung from ash-trees (4); and it was in no way equal to the silver age, but was terrible and strong. They loved the lamentable works of Ares and deeds of violence; they ate no bread, but were hard of heart like adamant, fearful men. Great was their strength and unconquerable the arms which grew from their shoulders on their strong limbs. Their armour was of bronze, and their houses of bronze, and of bronze were their implements: there was no black iron. These were destroyed by their own hands and passed to the dank house of chill Hades, and left no name: terrible though they were, black Death seized them, and they left the bright light of the sun.

(ll. 156-169b) But when earth had covered this generation also, Zeus the son of Cronos made yet another, the fourth, upon the fruitful earth, which was nobler and more righteous, a god-like race of hero-men who are called demi-gods, the race before our own, throughout the boundless earth. Grim war and dread battle destroyed a part of them, some in the land of Cadmus at seven-gated Thebe when they fought for the flocks of Oedipus, and some, when it had brought them in ships over the great sea gulf to Troy for rich-haired Helen's sake: there death's end enshrouded a part of them. But to the others father Zeus the son of Cronos gave a living and an abode apart from men, and made them dwell at the ends of earth. And they live untouched by sorrow in the islands of the blessed along the shore of deep swirling Ocean, happy heroes for whom the grain-giving earth bears honey-sweet fruit flourishing thrice a year, far from the deathless gods, and Cronos rules over them (5); for the father of men and gods released him from his bonds. And these last equally have honour and glory.

(ll. 169c-169d) And again far-seeing Zeus made yet another generation, the fifth, of men who are upon the bounteous earth.

(ll. 170-201) Thereafter, would that I were not among the men of the fifth generation, but either had died before or been born afterwards. For now truly is a race of iron, and men never rest from labour and sorrow by day, and from perishing by night; and the gods shall lay sore trouble upon them. But, notwithstanding, even these shall have some good mingled with their evils. And Zeus will destroy this race of mortal men also when they come to have grey hair on the temples at their birth (6). The father will not agree with his children, nor the children with their father, nor guest with his host, nor comrade with comrade; nor will brother be dear to brother as aforetime. Men will dishonour their parents as they grow quickly old, and will carp at them, chiding them with bitter words, hard-hearted they, not knowing the fear of the gods. They will not repay their aged parents the cost their nurture, for might shall be their right: and one man will sack another's city. There will be no favour for the man who keeps his oath or for the just or for the good; but rather men will praise the evil-doer and his violent dealing. Strength will be right and reverence will cease to be; and the wicked will hurt the worthy man, speaking false words against him, and will swear an oath upon them. Envy, foul-mouthed, delighting in evil, with scowling face, will go along with wretched men one and all. And then Aidos and Nemesis (7), with their sweet forms wrapped in white robes, will go from the wide-pathed earth and forsake mankind to join the company of the deathless gods: and bitter sorrows will be left for mortal men, and there will be no help against evil.

There are a few points to note. First, and most importantly, although the gold, silver, and bronze races represented decay, Hesiod was quite clear that the fourth generation—the demigods—were more noble than the preceding race, and, indeed, share much with the golden race, in contradistinction to the brutal and terrible men of bronze. From the noble heroes, the iron race (ours) degenerated. Note that alternative theorists elide the heroic race of demigods because (a) they are not assigned a metal, messing up the scheme; and (b) they are not degenerate, calling into question the linear decline of humanity from gold to iron.

Second, the ancients were unclear what Hesiod meant in assigning metals to the races. Were they represented by the metals, or made from them? In myth, Talos was ascribed the role of the last of the bronze men. Some authors thought this meant he was the last giant from the Bronze Age, while others thought he was actually made of bronze, complete with rivets and markings from the lost-wax casting technique. So great was the confusion that it fell to Plato to decide that Hesiod meant it as a metaphor. In Cratylus (397e), he has Socrates say “I suppose that he [Hesiod] means by the golden men, not men literally made of gold, but good and noble; and I am convinced of this, because he further says that we are the iron race.” But if we are meant to take the ancients literally, how can we distinguish between the two competing schools, of apparently equal antiquity?

Note: The Bronze Age angry giants were destroyed by the Great Flood when Zeus destroyed the bronze race for its hubris. These violent giants are therefore the same as the giants, the “mighty men which were of old, men of renown” from Genesis 6:4, otherwise known as the sons of the fallen angels whose sinfulness led to Noah’s Flood. This demonstrates the Near Eastern influence on Greece during this period, which is confirmed by Hesiod’s adoption of a parallel to the Hittite succession of the gods in his Theogony.

So, in sum, Hesiod’s Ages of Man fails to support the linear decline model because one of its five ages notably improves upon those which preceded it. Instead, alternative authors unwittingly follow Ovid, who in Metamorphoses 1.89-150 gives the Ages of Man only in metals, omitting the noble heroic race. His version is much more linear in its contrast between moral decline and technological advancement. This declining version of history became widespread in the Middle Ages because it was in Latin in an age that could no longer read Greek. Dante echoes it in The Divine Comedy (Inferno 14.103-116), adapting Daniel 2:31-45, where King Nebuchadnezzar dreams of a statue: “The head of the statue was made of pure gold, its chest and arms of silver, its belly and thighs of bronze, its legs of iron, its feet partly of iron and partly of baked clay.” Daniel interprets this dream as referencing a succession of kingdoms, each stronger than the last but increasingly coarse and blunt, until God destroys them all with a kingdom of stone. A similar dream appears in Persian literature with a tree of four metals.

Scholars debate the mutual influences among Persian, Hebrew, and Greek sources, but the consensus is that the various versions are not independent developments.