Ovid's Metamorphoses and Genesis

[rgprice]

Obviously there are many similarities between the opening of Ovid's Metamorphoses and the opening of Genesis. But of course Ovid wrote long after the Jewish scriptures had been in circulation. Yet, we are told that Ovid's work was based on prior Hellenistic models.

Wikipedia lists various lost Hellenistic works are sources used by Ovid. The two main influences cited there are from the 2nd century BCE.

It seems to me that the opening of Metamorphoses is so strikingly similar to Genesis that either Ovid was patterning his work on Genesis or his Hellenistic sources were remarkably similar to Genesis.

One of the major sources appears to be Nicander of Colophon, a 2nd century BCE Greek writer. But his work, Heteroeumena, is not extant.

Are there other examples of works from the 2nd century BCE and earlier that follow similar patterns? What other Greek, Babylonian, Persian, Egyptian, Latin, etc., work begin with an account of Creation followed by accounts of the development of civilization and law? Obviously work like Metamorphoses and The Aeneid are complete epics that cover vast expanses of time in a single flowing narrative. They seem to work from many prior shorter myths and incorporate them together into an overarching framework.

This is also what the works of Deuteronomistic history do, from Genesis to Kings. Clearly these types of narratives were popular during the Hellenistic era. What evidence do we have of comparable narratives from prior to the Hellenistic era?

[andrewcriddle]

The obvious parallel for Ovid here is Hesiod. See https://sites.psu.edu/tpd5097cams045/20 ... -theogony/ What are the parts of Ovid's creation story that are both post-Hesiod and paralleled in Genesis ?

Andrew Criddle

[rgprice]

Certainly Metamorphoses is far more similar to Genesis than Hesiod's Theogony.

Ye Gods, from whom these miracles did spring,
Inspire my numbers with coelestial heat;
'Till I my long laborious work compleat:
And add perpetual tenour to my rhimes,
Deduc'd from Nature's birth, to Caesar's times.
Before the seas, and this terrestrial ball,
And Heav'n's high canopy, that covers all,
One was the face of Nature; if a face:
Rather a rude and indigested mass:
A lifeless lump, unfashion'd, and unfram'd,
Of jarring seeds; and justly Chaos nam'd.
No sun was lighted up, the world to view;
No moon did yet her blunted horns renew:
Nor yet was Earth suspended in the sky,
Nor pois'd, did on her own foundations lye:
Nor seas about the shores their arms had thrown;
But earth, and air, and water, were in one.
Thus air was void of light, and earth unstable,
And water's dark abyss unnavigable.
No certain form on any was imprest;
All were confus'd, and each disturb'd the rest.
For hot and cold were in one body fixt;
And soft with hard, and light with heavy mixt.

But God, or Nature, while they thus contend,
To these intestine discords put an end:
Then earth from air, and seas from earth were driv'n,
And grosser air sunk from aetherial Heav'n.
Thus disembroil'd, they take their proper place;
The next of kin, contiguously embrace;
And foes are sunder'd, by a larger space.
The force of fire ascended first on high,
And took its dwelling in the vaulted sky:
Then air succeeds, in lightness next to fire;
Whose atoms from unactive earth retire.
Earth sinks beneath, and draws a num'rous throng
Of pondrous, thick, unwieldy seeds along.
About her coasts, unruly waters roar;
And rising, on a ridge, insult the shore.
Thus when the God, whatever God was he,
Had form'd the whole, and made the parts agree,
That no unequal portions might be found,
He moulded Earth into a spacious round:
Then with a breath, he gave the winds to blow;
And bad the congregated waters flow.
He adds the running springs, and standing lakes;
And bounding banks for winding rivers makes.
Some part, in Earth are swallow'd up, the most
In ample oceans, disembogu'd, are lost.
He shades the woods, the vallies he restrains
With rocky mountains, and extends the plains.

And as five zones th' aetherial regions bind,
Five, correspondent, are to Earth assign'd:
The sun with rays, directly darting down,
Fires all beneath, and fries the middle zone:
The two beneath the distant poles, complain
Of endless winter, and perpetual rain.
Betwixt th' extreams, two happier climates hold
The temper that partakes of hot, and cold.
The fields of liquid air, inclosing all,
Surround the compass of this earthly ball:
The lighter parts lye next the fires above;
The grosser near the watry surface move:
Thick clouds are spread, and storms engender there,
And thunder's voice, which wretched mortals fear,
And winds that on their wings cold winter bear.
Nor were those blustring brethren left at large,
On seas, and shores, their fury to discharge:
Bound as they are, and circumscrib'd in place,
They rend the world, resistless, where they pass;
And mighty marks of mischief leave behind;
Such is the rage of their tempestuous kind.
First Eurus to the rising morn is sent
(The regions of the balmy continent);
And Eastern realms, where early Persians run,
To greet the blest appearance of the sun.
Westward, the wanton Zephyr wings his flight;
Pleas'd with the remnants of departing light:
Fierce Boreas, with his off-spring, issues forth
T' invade the frozen waggon of the North.
While frowning Auster seeks the Southern sphere;
And rots, with endless rain, th' unwholsom year.

High o'er the clouds, and empty realms of wind,
The God a clearer space for Heav'n design'd;
Where fields of light, and liquid aether flow;
Purg'd from the pondrous dregs of Earth below.

Scarce had the Pow'r distinguish'd these, when streight
The stars, no longer overlaid with weight,
Exert their heads, from underneath the mass;
And upward shoot, and kindle as they pass,
And with diffusive light adorn their heav'nly place.
Then, every void of Nature to supply,
With forms of Gods he fills the vacant sky:
New herds of beasts he sends, the plains to share:
New colonies of birds, to people air:
And to their oozy beds, the finny fish repair.

A creature of a more exalted kind
Was wanting yet, and then was Man design'd:
Conscious of thought, of more capacious breast,
For empire form'd, and fit to rule the rest:
Whether with particles of heav'nly fire
The God of Nature did his soul inspire,
Or Earth, but new divided from the sky,
And, pliant, still retain'd th' aetherial energy:
Which wise Prometheus temper'd into paste,
And, mixt with living streams, the godlike image cast.

Thus, while the mute creation downward bend
Their sight, and to their earthly mother tend,
Man looks aloft; and with erected eyes
Beholds his own hereditary skies.
From such rude principles our form began;
And earth was metamorphos'd into Man.

Then of course follows the Golden Age, which resembles Eden, etc. Then we have a succession of ages in which the world becomes more corrupt. Then we arrive at:

Nor were the Gods themselves more safe above;
Against beleaguer'd Heav'n the giants move.
Hills pil'd on hills, on mountains mountains lie,
To make their mad approaches to the skie.
'Till Jove, no longer patient, took his time
T' avenge with thunder their audacious crime:
Red light'ning plaid along the firmament,
And their demolish'd works to pieces rent.
Sing'd with the flames, and with the bolts transfixt,
With native Earth, their blood the monsters mixt;
The blood, indu'd with animating heat,
Did in th' impregnant Earth new sons beget:
They, like the seed from which they sprung, accurst,
Against the Gods immortal hatred nurst,
An impious, arrogant, and cruel brood;
Expressing their original from blood.

This of course parallels the story of the Tower of Babel.

Then following this in Metamorphoses we have the flood. Deucalion and Pyrrha survive the flood by boat and then repopulate the earth.

So really, the opening of Metamorphoses is virtually identical to Genesis 1-12.

[rgprice]

So it seems to me that the opening of Metamorphoses is a response to Genesis or Metamorphoses and Genesis are both patterned on some common work, or both reflect some common format that was common at the time.

Given that Metamorphoses is a Latin work that was produced in the early 1st century, it easily could have been influenced by Genesis. But I have not seen any commentaries that call this out. I find it quite beyond belief that Genesis and Metamorphoses would have been written entirely independently, without any sort of shared influence at all.

[andrewcriddle]

The Golden age and the following in Ovid are from Hesiod Works and Days

First of all the deathless gods who dwell on Olympus made a golden race of mortal men who lived in the time of Cronos when he was reigning in heaven. And they lived like gods without sorrow of heart, remote and free from toil and grief: miserable age rested not on them; but with legs and arms never failing they made merry with feasting beyond the reach of all evils. When they died, it was as though they were overcome with sleep, and they had all good things; for the fruitful earth unforced bare them fruit abundantly and without stint. They dwelt in ease and peace upon their lands with many good things, rich in flocks and loved by the blessed gods.

etc.


The flood narrative in Ovid and Genesis ultimately go back to Sumerian, whatever the precise relationships.

Andrew Criddle

[rgprice]

Yes, but the first book of Metamorphoses resembles Genesis 1-12 far more than any other work. Genesis 1-12 and Metamorphoses look more like each other than they look like Hesiod, or Sumerian stories, etc. That's the point. Yes, those works do contain components of these accounts, but all of those components are assembled in the same way in Genesis and Metamorphoses.

Its like saying that Raphael wasn't influenced by the Mona Lisa:



Sure, one can argue that Raphael and Leonardo were both just painting women and this is just coincidence, but we know that the particular arrangement is copied from Leonardo by Raphael.

[StephenGoranson]

Comparing Leonardo and Raphael
is not quite like
comparing Sumer and Genesis and Hesiod and Ovid.

[John2]

... or both reflect some common format that was common at the time.

I can only guess, of course, but this still seems like the best option to me, when it comes to similarities between the OT and Greco-Roman writings.

[John2]

I just looked up Ovid's bio, and like Livy, he was educated in rhetoric.

... Ovid was educated in rhetoric in Rome ...


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ovid

Rhetoric has its origins in Mesopotamia ... Rhetoric thus evolved as an important art, one that provided the orator with the forms, means, and strategies for persuading an audience ...


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhetoric

[Russell Gmirkin]

Certainly Metamorphoses is far more similar to Genesis than Hesiod's Theogony.

Ye Gods, from whom these miracles did spring,
Inspire my numbers with coelestial heat;
'Till I my long laborious work compleat:
And add perpetual tenour to my rhimes,
Deduc'd from Nature's birth, to Caesar's times.
Before the seas, and this terrestrial ball,
And Heav'n's high canopy, that covers all,
One was the face of Nature; if a face:
Rather a rude and indigested mass:
A lifeless lump, unfashion'd, and unfram'd,
Of jarring seeds; and justly Chaos nam'd.
No sun was lighted up, the world to view;
No moon did yet her blunted horns renew:
Nor yet was Earth suspended in the sky,
Nor pois'd, did on her own foundations lye:
Nor seas about the shores their arms had thrown;
But earth, and air, and water, were in one.
Thus air was void of light, and earth unstable,
And water's dark abyss unnavigable.
No certain form on any was imprest;
All were confus'd, and each disturb'd the rest.
For hot and cold were in one body fixt;
And soft with hard, and light with heavy mixt.

But God, or Nature, while they thus contend,
To these intestine discords put an end:
Then earth from air, and seas from earth were driv'n,
And grosser air sunk from aetherial Heav'n.
Thus disembroil'd, they take their proper place;
The next of kin, contiguously embrace;
And foes are sunder'd, by a larger space.
The force of fire ascended first on high,
And took its dwelling in the vaulted sky:
Then air succeeds, in lightness next to fire;
Whose atoms from unactive earth retire.
Earth sinks beneath, and draws a num'rous throng
Of pondrous, thick, unwieldy seeds along.
About her coasts, unruly waters roar;
And rising, on a ridge, insult the shore.
Thus when the God, whatever God was he,
Had form'd the whole, and made the parts agree,
That no unequal portions might be found,
He moulded Earth into a spacious round:
Then with a breath, he gave the winds to blow;
And bad the congregated waters flow.
He adds the running springs, and standing lakes;
And bounding banks for winding rivers makes.
Some part, in Earth are swallow'd up, the most
In ample oceans, disembogu'd, are lost.
He shades the woods, the vallies he restrains
With rocky mountains, and extends the plains.[box]

The opening sections are heavily dependent on Plato's Timaeus with its description of the primordial chaos (the formless material Receptacle), and the subsequent separation of the four elements when the Demiurge began to order creation, and the earth, oceans, air and heavens took their present separate positions. See detailed discussion in Chapter 5 ("Genesis 1 as Science") in my 2022 Plato's Timaeus and the Biblical Creation Accounts.