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The Five Ages of Man of Greek Mythology

According to the Ancient Greek poet, Hesiod, there were five ages of man:

1. Gold
2. Silver
3. Brass or Bronze
4. Heroic
5. Iron [the current era]

He wrote, "The race of men that the immortals who dwell on Olympus made first of all was of gold.  They were in the time of Kronos, when he was kind in heaven; and they lived like gods, with carefree heart, remote from toil and misery...

"A second race after that, much inferior, the dwellers on Olympus made of silver.  It resembled the golden one neither in body nor in disposition...

"Then Zeus the father made yet a third race of men, of bronze, not like silver in anything.  Out of ash-trees he made them, a terrible and fierce race, occupied with the woeful works of Ares and with acts of violence, no eaters of corn, their stern hearts being of adamant...

"After the earth covered up this race too, Zeus son of Kronos made yet a fourth one upon the rich-pastured earth, a more righteous and noble one, the godly race of the heroes who are called demigods, our predecessors on the boundless earth...

"Would that I were not then among the fifth men, but either dead earlier or born later!  For now it is a race of iron; and they will never cease from toil and misery by day or night, in constant distress, and the gods will give them harsh troubles."—Hesiod, M.L. West, trans. Theogony and Works and Days.  (Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 1988), pp. 40-2.

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