(ORDO NEWS) — In more recent times, our notions of the end of the world have ranged from the rather serious threat of a climate crisis and nuclear war to the notion of artificial intelligence consuming and replacing humanity.
Before that, there were biblical stories of angels pouring out their entrails on the Earth, turning the seas into blood, and the Norse Ragnarok. But before that, what did the ancient Greeks think about the end of the world?
For many ancient Greeks, including the philosophers Plato and Aristotle, the end of the world did not come, but was cyclical, and Plato believed that the survivors would always recover from the catastrophe.
Many believed in Ekpyrosis, the periodic destruction of the cosmos every 36,000 years, according to Plato before a new cycle begins again.
Instead of focusing on the end of humanity and the world, Greek mythology and philosophy spoke more about the gods and catastrophes of the past.
However, there are some descriptions of past and future apocalypses in ancient writings.
The Greek poet, philosopher-economist, contemporary of Homer and sometimes chronicler of history, Hesiod, did indeed write about a kind of apocalypse, when the gods destroy humanity.
In Hesiod’s epic poem Works and Days (700 BC), he divided the five periods of human history into different eras.
Five periods – Golden, Silver, Bronze, Heroic and Iron Ages – describe the development of humanity through the prism of Greek mythology.
First there was the Golden Age, just after “the immortal gods dwelling on Olympus created the golden race of mortal men.”
Then came “the second generation, which was silver and much less noble.” Then came the Bronze Age, the third generation, which was “terrible and strong” and committed to violence.
“They were destroyed by their own hands and sent to the damp house of cold Hades, leaving no name,” he wrote.
“However terrible they were, the black Death took possession of them, and they left the bright light of the sun.”
In some versions of the tale, Zeus sends a flood to kill the people of the Bronze Age.
Thereafter, Zeus created a “god-like race of male heroes” when most Greek mythological heroes, including Perseus, Odysseus, and Achilles, were supposed to have lived.
Hesiod lamented that he was born not in the era of heroes, but in the next era.
“For now there truly is a race of iron, and men never rest from toil and sorrow by day, and from death by night; and the gods will lay heavy burdens on them.”
Hesiod believed that this “bitter” and “hard-hearted” age would be the last.
“But despite this, even they will have some good mixed with their evil.
And Zeus will destroy this race of mortal men also when they have white hair on their temples at birth.”
Hesiod describes this age in more detail, seeing it as a time when evildoers are praised for their cruel deeds and humanity enjoys evil.
“And then Eidos and Nemesis, with their sweet forms wrapped in white robes, will leave the wide earth and leave humanity to join the company of the immortal gods: and there will be bitter sorrows for mortal people, and there will be no help against evil.”
With that said, we’d better hope this world is cyclical because it doesn’t sound all that optimistic.
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