Comparing The Holy Bible And Virgil's Metamorphoses

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The Problems Humans Encountered After They Lost Their Innocence Including extracts from Genesis, Georgics, Metamorphoses, and The Consolation of Philosophy It is natural for people to ask questions about the origins of humankind and the events that led to the current state of society. Thus, many written examples appeared to give answers to those questions. The Holy Bible, Virgil’s Georgics, and Ovid’s Metamorphoses are all vivid illustrations of how life started and what our role was back then. All of these aetiological texts have both similarities and differences, especially on the accounts of Earth’s creation, the following age of innocence or Golden Age, and the progress people made after the “Fall.” The…show more content…
That is because the ideas in the three texts follow the same pattern – first there is the creation of the Earth and humankind, then follows a time of bliss during which there are no difficulties for those who inhabit the newly created land, finally for some reason their peaceful existence is interrupted. The cause of this “Fall” reveals the most significant difference between the Hebraic and Greco-Roman versions. Therefore, the prelapsarian period may be to some degree identical in the three texts, but different explanations of human reactions, relations, and activities after it show the reader various possibilities for living during the Iron…show more content…
V) and “no threatening words to be read” (Metamorphoses I, The Golden Age). Even Virgil, who is the only one criticizing the age before the “Fall” admits that it is better for humans to stay “away from the clash of armies” (Georgics II, The Joys of The True Life). However, that peaceful existence did dot go on forever and people had to start working hard for getting what they needed. Unfortunately, with that responsibility harmful consequences followed. People became more blood and wealth-thirsty. They engaged in wars to get the precious commodities they thought useful. In both Hebraic and Greco-Roman accounts, as well as in Boethius, the reader discerns the same negative features of the postlapsarian period. That new world is full of people who are lamenting for riches and power. Moreover, human relations declined and “friend was not safe with friend, relative with relative” (Metamorphoses I, The Bronze
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