4.10: The Five Ages of Humanity

Works and Days addresses the history of humanity classified by eras of precious metals which decline in value as mortals become more flawed, and more human. As is common, the earliest age, that which is most distant from memory, is idealized as the Age of Gold. In this age men exist alongside Kronos and his contemporaries in a purely masculine, ageless paradise. Women, not yet present, arrive at the hand of Zeus in a later generation, leaving these bachelors carefree and joyful, knowing no discord. This race lives in harmony with the land, receiving its bounty and enjoying the freedom to feast without recourse. Even their deaths are rewarding, as they slip into a sleep-like expiration before becoming magnanimous spirits who offer guidance and care for future generations.

In this age Hesiod doesn’t reference the creation of man, possibly because he considered them indigenous, original to the land, and in that assumption it wasn’t necessary to state the obvious. Other creation epics cite Prometheus as the creator of man; however Hesoid’s preference for Zeus and contempt for Prometheus' challenge to Zeus' authority might resolve the exclusion.

The glory that was the Age of Gold is greatly diluted in the Age of Silver, an age dominated by shorter, more painful lifespans. This generation owed their existence to the Olympians, who extended their childhood to 100 years–perhaps a reference to their childish impulses–but because of their egotistical and bellicose ways, their adult lives were full of misery. While the men of the Age of Gold enjoyed a prosperous existence, the Age of Silver ignores their duty to worship the gods, and suffers for it. Hesiod appears to moralize here, disappointed at the generation’s affinity for Eris’s influence and ignorance of the good Strife. This race, too, is covered by the earth, exterminated by Zeus for their failings.

The Age of Bronze finds itself even further devolved from the Silver. Created by Zeus, perhaps out of ash trees, they are distinguished by their ashen spears and their allegiance to the rageful Ares and his propensity to bloodshed. Their era is defined by their use of bronze for their speartips, shields and other implements of war, as well as for their homes which must’ve made them impossibly hot. Hesiod notes that the race doesn’t eat, an odd characteristic which distinctly separates them from the feasting Age of Gold, and might infer that they instead feast at the table of battle. This race is killed off by a plague-like death, a fate even the most terrifying of men cannot escape. Notably, this is the first race to enter the dank, chill halls of Hades, a death more final and more ignoble than the previous races earned.

The Age of Heroes represents Zeus' third attempt at crafting a respectable generation. This time, their warlike tendencies are tempered by honor and justness, influenced by their semi-divine heritage. This age includes the heroes from familiar myths, The Oedipus Rex cycle and the Iliad, and because Zeus is the father of many he provides a special paradise for the most valiant in their afterlife, the “Islands of the Blessed,” where they exist in fields of plenty akin to the Golden Aged men. Though this age is the shortest-lived, Hesiod praises their fidelity to Kronos, whom Zeus in his generosity has freed.

Notably, the Age of Heroes interrupts the continuity of the metallic ages, a mark scholars have attributed to Hesiod’s structuring of the narrative both as a social history and social commentary. Scholars are aligned in the sourcing of Hesiod’s four metal ages due to parallels between his and biblical episodes, specifically Daniel 7. Though Works and Days predates the Book of Daniel, the texts share a common source in Near Eastern texts which serves as parent-text to the subsequent texts. In the book of Daniel, a consensus of interpreters agree upon Persian sources, pointing to a description of a tree composed of branches of differing metals: gold, silver, bronze, the fourth consisting of a mix of iron and steel. The biblical author of Daniel aligns the golden age with the reign of King Nebuchadnezzar, whose dream serves as a historical prophecy that humanity will inevitably decline, but will rise again with the potential to reattain another golden age, Edenic perfection. Where scholars disagree is in the number of ages recorded in Daniel, some fixed on the four described (gold, silver, bronze and iron) and others finding evidence of a fifth age, an “anticipated [and] unending divine reign–that inverts the decline which has led up to the present in Daniel” (Crabbe 155).

Inserting the Age of Heroes offers Hesiod an opportunity to graft into the tradition his own optimistic concept that the apparent inexorable descent of man can be reversed. For an author often fixed in pessimistic perspectives, here Hesiod echos the last element left in Pandora’s jar, hope as the balm for humanity’s decline.

The Age of Iron concludes Hesiod’s examination of human history, finding the Iron Age men even more diluted versions of the prior generations. The poet’s lens narrows on the base behavior of men reflected in the base metal they use. This is Hesiod’s and his audiences’ age, and his unwavering disappointment emerges through the descriptions of the petty iron-hearted people who reward evil conduct and delight in the discord caused by familial strife. The race is fated to be destroyed by Zeus as soon as the signs of the apocalypse appear: babies born stressed, having grayed hair at birth, fated to grow old quickly and painfully as the societal bonds of family honor dissolve; elderly parents cursed rather than honored; and neighboring cities sacking each other. The gods have no mercy or blessings for this race, though they make way for some good amongst the evil conduct, but even this only creates more rancor as arrogance and ugliness triumphs over goodness. Qualities meant to temper the worser conduct, such as shame, presented as the goddess Aidos [EH-dthāhs], and divine retribution, presented as the goddess Nemesis, even turn from this most degenerate race.

This race finds no honor or respite in death as even the cold vaults of Hades are closed to them.

Given the fatalistic vision of Hesiod’s Iron Age, it’s easy to assume the poet holds no hope for his generation to survive, much less to improve. Yet, the ensuing stanzas of the poem offer detailed and exhaustive advice for Perses and the larger audience for paying proper homage to the gods, specifications for planting, farming and harvesting, advice for marriage and managing a household and for living a virtuous life. Each stanza, framed with fealty to Zeus' unending power and supremacy, indicates Hesiod’s underlying goal to philosophize on the ability of men to recognize, own, and replace their hubris with actual humanity and in doing so to return to the idealized golden age.

Figure \(\PageIndex{1}\): Roman tile mosaic of Hesiod. (TimeTravelRome, CC BY 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons)