Ovid's Metamorphoses

[…] DE DURO EST ULTIMA FERRO.

PROTINUS INRUPIT VENAE PEIORIS IN AEVUM

OMNE NEFAS; FUGERE PUDOR VERUMQUE FIDESQUE,

IN QUORUM SUBIERE LOCUM FRAUDESQUE DOLIQUE

INSIDIAEQUE ET VIS ET AMOR SCELERATUS HABENDI.

VELA DABAT VENTIS (NEC ADHUC BENE NOVERAT ILLOS)

NAVITA, QUAEQUE DIU STETERANT IN MONTIBUS ALTIS

FLUCTIBUS IGNOTIS EXSULTAVERE CARINAE;

COMMUNEMQUE PRIUS CEU LUMINA SOLIS ET AURAS

CAUTUS HUMUM LONGO SIGNAVIT LIMITE MENSOR.

NEC TANTUM SEGETES ALIMENTAQUE DEBITA DIVES

POSCEBATUR HUMUS, SED ITUM EST IN VISCERA TERRAE

QUASQUE RECONDIDERAT STYGIISQUE ADMOVERAT UMBRIS

EFFODIUNTUR OPES, INRITAMENTA MALORUM.

IAMQUE NOCENS FERRUM FERROQUE NOCENTIUS AURUM

PRODIERAT; PRODIT BELLUM, QUOD PUGNAT UTROQUE,

SANGUINEAQUE MANU CREPITANTIA CONCUTIT ARMA.

VIVITUR EX RAPTO. NON HOSPES AB HOSPITE TUTUS,

NON SOCER A GENERO; FRATRUM QUOQUE GRATIA RARA EST.

IMMINET EXITIO VIR CONIUGIS, ILLA MARITI;

LURIDA TERRIBILES MISCENT ACONITA NOVERCAE;

FILIUS ANTE DIEM PATRIOS INQUIRIT IN ANNOS;

VICTA IACET PIETAS, ET VIRGO CAEDE MADENTES

ULTIMA CAELESTUM TERRAS ASTRAEA RELIQUIT.

[…] THE LAST AGE IS OF HARD IRON.

EVER EVIL RUSHED HEADLONG INTO THE AGE OF WORSE METAL*;

TRUTH, MODESTY AND FAITH FLED,

IN WHOSE PLACE CAME FRAUD, CRIME,

TREACHERY, VIOLENCE AND MATERIALISM**.

THE SAILOR GIVES SAILS TO THE WIND (BEFORE, HE HAD NOT KNOWN THEM WELL),

AND [TREES] THAT HAD LONG STOOD ON THE HIGH MOUNTAINS,

AS PROWS, BOUNCE ALONG UNKNOWN WAVES;

AND THE GROUND, WHICH BEFORE WAS COMMON PROPERTY, LIKE SUNLIGHT AND AIR

IS CARVED UP INTO PROPERTIES BY THE METICULOUS SURVEYOR.

NOR ARE GRAINS AND THE FOOD IT OWES THE ONLY WEALTH

DEMANDED OF THE GROUND, BUT A WAY IS MADE INTO THE BOWELS OF THE EARTH,

AND WHAT WEALTH SHE HAD HIDDEN THERE AND MOVED INTO THE STYGIAN GLOOM,

IS DUG UP, AND IT IS AN INSPIRATION FOR EVILS.

AND NOW HARMFUL IRON, AND GOLD – MORE HARMFUL THAN IRON –

APPEAR; WAR APPEARS, WHICH RAGES ON ALL SIDES,

AND THE BLOODIED HAND CLASHES WITH THE RATTLING SABRES.

A LIVING IS MADE OFF PLUNDER. THE GUEST IS NOT SAFE FROM HIS HOST,

NOR THE FATHER-IN-LAW FROM HIS SON-IN-LAW; KINDNESS IS RARE AMONG BROTHERS.

A MAN ATTENDS TO HIS WIFE’S DEMISE, AND SHE HER HUSBAND’S;

TERRIBLE STEP-MOTHERS MIX UP GHASTLY POISONS;

THE SON INQUIRES ABOUT HIS FATHER’S YEARS BEFORE THE [APPROPRIATE] DAY;***

PIETY LIES VANQUISHED, AND THE LAST OF THE GODS,

THE VIRGIN ASTRAEA, LEAVES THE GORE-SOAKED EARTH.

(Sorry for the late update, y’all.  I just got back from a thrilling conference on the Emperor Augustus at the University of Lisbon, and have some catching up to do…)

Murder?  Check.  Treachery?  Check.  Hate; malice?  Check, check.  Violence, war, plunder, greed, fraud? Check, check, check, check aaaaaand check.  Yup, the Iron Age is the one-stop-shop for all your evil needs!  I personally think it’s a fascinating insight into Ovid’s poetic morality.  To be sure, a number of these evils are what we call tropes, that is, situations that a poet can (and sometimes has to repeat) just because it’s the done thing in his poetic context.****  The free land versus private property part is one of these – Vergil (Georgics 1.125), Tibullus (1.3 and 43) also did it when drawing distinctions between the civilised modern world and the barbaric past.  Ovid is innovative, though, and adds his own sentiments in places.  For instance, he makes private property a decidedly bad thing (I’ll leave it up to HUAC to decide whether he’s a commie or not†).  He has another anti-materialist message in the clever play with gold, which is “more harmful than iron” at line 141.  Barchiesi points out the irony in mentioning gold here in Iron Age, as those ages are specifically contrasted.  The imagery here again recalls the Ars Amatoria lines I quoted a couple weeks ago (Ars 2.227-8, “now it is truly a golden age: honour and even love can be bought for gold!”).  By invoking the Golden Age in the evils that came after it, Ovid at once establishes a clear dichotomy between the two, but also cynically implies the sad inevitability of evil.

Evil does indeed seem at times to be inevitable in the Metamorphoses.  The Myth of Ages is the last part of the cosmological opening to the poem and we are about to enter the poem proper.  We have seen the world progress from Chaos to perfect creation, to a din of evil.  Without wishing to spoil, this is a pattern that will repeat itself over and over again.  Although Ovid will not place his own modern world in the Iron Age, the crimes depicted in this passage can be found through the poem, all the way up to the last books.  Moreover, few would deny that these crimes happen today in the real world, and that they sometimes touch even our own lives.  Here we see a myth of ages past that reflects our own world all too well.  Hesiod, who painted a similarly grim picture of the Iron Age, compounded it with the affirmation that he himself was of this age (a fact he strongly laments).  Ovid will have more ages (not meaning to spoil, sorry), since, as we discussed last week, he needs to set the Age of Heroes after the Myth of Ages.  Nevertheless, he is equally aware as Hesiod was that his own world was full of serious crimes, trials and tribulations.  The quip about the Golden Age in the Ars Amatoria illustrates this by implying a dichotomy.  The Golden Age is reflected here in the Iron Age because it is precisely everything the modern world is not and can never be.  We see the progress of the world into evil – led there by Jupiter’s calendar reforms, the constraints of nature, and men’s own curiosity and greed – to help us understand the cynical reality of our situation.  It is a nasty revelation, but one Ovid wants you to understand as you progress through his poem; you need to be a little pessimistic to understand the story he wants to tell.  If you are gripped by a sudden despair, however, never fear!  We are a long way from the end, and Ovid has many more tricks up his sleave.  The end of the ages is merely the beginning of great changes to come.

This page is a little complicated, partially because of the densely packed actions in these lines, and partially due to my own structuring of it.  Like most of the ages, the concepts are free-floating, and you don’t lose much by reading them out of order.  However, for the sake of my un-dying loyalty to the poem, I have included little number badges on the text boxes to show you the original order from the poem itself.  Feel free to read it as you please.

*Barchiesi points out that this term is actually ambiguous: the Latin could mean “of worse metal”, making the same kind of comparison seen between the Silver and Golden Ages at Met. 1.115, or “of worse character”, describing the nature of the men of this age.  The ambiguity is surely purposeful.

**Literally,”the wicked love of having [things]”.  I find this wording funny for some reason.  In all seriousness, it is surprising that Ovid would use his beloved amor (the word used for “love” in the Latin) in such a negative context.  Then again, he did understand that love itself was a double-edged sword.

†The decision process will probably go: throw all the copies of the Metamorphoses into a lake; if they get wet and are destroyed, then Ovid’s not a communist; if they stay dry, then he is a commie (and a witch), so his books need to be burned; repeat as necessary with all world literature.