called Saturn (we shall also see later on the cult of Saturn).
Mortals lived like gods, never knowing pain or work; when
they died, it was as if they were falling asleep. No one worked
or became unhappy. Spring never ended. It is even described
as a period when people age backwards. When they died, they
became daimons (a Greek word that later became "demons")
who roamed the earth. When Zeus defeated the Titans, the
Golden Age ended. According to the poet Pindar ( 517 - 438 BC),
to the Greek mind, gold had an allegorical meaning, i.e. the
radiance of light, good fortune, blessing and all that was most
beautiful and best. In Babylon, gold was the metal of the sun.
Silver and Bronze Ages. During Hesiod's Silver Age, the
Olympian god Zeus was in charge. Zeus had this generation of
men created as far inferior to the gods in appearance and
wisdom. He divided the year into four seasons. Man had to
work, plant grain and seek shelter, but a child could play for
100 years before growing up. People would not honour the
gods, so Zeus had them destroyed. When they died, they
became "blessed spirits of the underworld". In Mesopotamia,
silver was the metal of the moon. Silver is softer with a fainter
lustre than gold.
The Third Age of Hesiod was bronze. Zeus created men
from ash trees, a hard wood used to make spears. The men of
the Bronze Age were terrible, strong and warlike. Their armour
and houses were made of bronze; and they ate no bread, living
mainly on meat. It was this generation of men that was
destroyed by the flood in the days of Prometheus' son,
Deucalion and Pyrrha. When the bronze men died, they went
to the Underworld. Copper (chalkos) and a bronze component
is the metal of Ishtar in Babylon. In the most ancient Greek
myths, bronze was related to weapons, war, their armour and
their houses.
