Saturday, August 09, 2008

Friday is for Ad Fontes

I have to say that reading Book One of Ovid's Metamorphoses was most illuminating. It is, in the opening verses, a Graeco-Roman account of creation with many similarities to Genesis 1. History is also divided up into certain ages (Golden, Silver, Brazen, Iron). The god Saturn is driven to tartarus (cf. 2 Pet. 2.4; Jude 13 ), the giant Argus had a head with a hundred eyes (Zech. 4.10; Rev. 5.6), and the seating of the gods in a heavenly council reminds me Dan. 7.9:

"And he, their father, had assum'd the throne, Upon his iv'ry sceptre first he leant, Then shook his head, that shook the firmament: Air, Earth, and seas, obey'd th' almighty nod; And, with a gen'ral fear, confess'd the God. At length, with indignation, thus he broke His awful silence, and the Pow'rs bespoke."

A synopsis of the Metamorphoses is available here.

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