Ovid Creation Story Comparison Contrast

A modern translation of this verse begins as:

This conflict was ended by a god and a greater order of nature...1

It is just as sensible to translate it as:

A god and a greater order of nature terminated this conflict

or, preferably:

A God and Nature of a Superior Order separated this strife:

The Latin deus means god and is the same as the Greek word for a god, or God:

with the Greek theos having been derived from a root meaning to arrange or to dispose. The idea that a god is an arranger or disposes of matters in the Greek sense was carried through in the Latin. The distinction of the order of a god or goddess and his or her attributes was signified by the given name. Moral agency was then invested in people without accountability to one supreme God, but to the particular god or goddess under whose province a certain action or words would activate him or her to action as an arranger or disposer of things and to a particular aspect of nature that might be affected. The idea of moral agency left accountability squarely upon the shoulders of each individual with room for the possibility of negotiations with a god or goddess.

The ancients regarded matter as eternal, did not consider God as the Creator of the Universe, but the Architect. They believed in two eternal principles, the one active, and the other passive; mind and matter. This doctrine, first taught by Hermes Trimegistus,

The beginning of all things which exist is God, or mind, and nature, or matter

was adopted by the Stoics and some other sects of philosophers. How much more sublime is the idea of God presented in the Bible, Who by the Word of His Power spoke into existence the material out of which he formed the universe. The mind being the active principle with matter as the passive naturally needed interlocutors and operants. The mind and matter suggest god not as a person, but mind as part of the same sphere that in dwells nature. Although the Roman and Greek god as mind arranged things and nature as matter separated things there was no being that reconciled these two "gods" and therefore could act independently with the possibility of intramural conflict. Here again, the clean-up squad of gods and goddesses becomes necessary.

In the fragment from Proclus, on the Alcibiades of Plato, he is designated:

Jupiter, the foundation of the earth and starry heavens; Jupiter, the fountain of the sea; Jupiter, the first progenitor of all.

Jupiter then is a foundation and the force by which the sea came about, and from whom all was born but the idea is naturalistic and he is confined to time, space, and matter. The god of mind and matter then is part of creation. One might be sure to notice that the Jewish idea of God as a person that talks to a human in person was at variance because of this key difference. It would take a lot for the Greek or Roman to overcome the declaration that God created everything with nature being part of what was created, that God is separate from His Creation and is Eternity, and yet shows up at a bush and talks to Moses to reveal Himself to all of mankind. In drawing out the distinction between the god and Nature of the Romans and God the picture is ameliorated by a view more familiar to us.

Deus et Natura: god and nature as a hendiadys God and Nature.

As a hendiadys Deus et Natura refers to two principles, mind and matter. We may consider the force of the particle et as expositive; God and Nature-even Nature; or by the figure (of speech) hendiadys- the God of Nature. Still the same ends up being true of this God of Nature, as He (or she) ends up being part of the Creation, leaving us to look for Deus Creator omnium—God Creator of All. God and Nature were considered synonymous in actual conceptualization but there is another factor that matters here. The hendiadys is a bifurcation or the unification of two things. The Christian revelation of God is that He is tripartite, triune, and therefore three distinct persons with then being the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The ancients come to something similar in how they viewed what to them was the result of logic and objective reality.

God was that Mind which formed all things out of water.

Thales

Thales is credtited with being the founder of Greek philosophy, geometry, and abstract astronomy and lived from circa 624 B.C to circa 546. He maintained that matter is composed of water.3 Thales then saw a god as Mind which made all things, but was a little off the mark with the water idea. Others postulated the idea of the atom as a building block of the universe. Still, the god that Thales envisioned had some ready material to work with and everything came about as he reordered it. The idea of Mind comes close to being Spirit, but no cigar. The power which fashioned the universe Aristotle called "Nature" as opposed to Plato and Anaxagoras who called it "Mind". The Roman might agree with Deus optimus—God most excellent or Dominus Deus noster—The Lord our God; but that Deus does not transcend the Creation, our universe and that Deus is therefore limited by time, space, and matter. This difference allowed the Caesar to demand worship and claiming that he was a god. Christians and Jews balked at this, refusing to worship him as a god because Yahweh admonished against this practice. Although a lot of people were eaten by lions or ended up as party lights for the Caesar burning slowly and painfully at night, Christians knew that giving up the One True God was a worse choice. The question of where one draws the line was drawn for the Christian and the Jew by the revelation of Yahweh to us. It is interesting that this difference of which many millions have died in order to observe its truth in their personal lives is the key thing under attack in the United States and Europe today. The ACLU and judges are fine with people not murdering other people and words to that effect, yet they are ending people's careers and livelihoods where possible while ridding the United States of our ability to legally observe worshipping only our God Yahweh. It is especially interesting that the one thing that gave men the power over others in absolute terms by which men ruled and not laws is the thing that is most earnestly sought after to re-establish and that is the possibility that men will be able to demand and receive worship upon pain of death by law. In other words the state will once again become god or men will once again become gods. Here is the protection that is being sought to be abolished:

Thou shalt have none other gods before me. Thou shalt not make thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the waters beneath the earth: Thou shalt not bow down thyself unto them, nor serve them: for I the LORD thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me, And shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me and keep my commandments.

Deuteronomy 6:7-10

God is supremely intelligent over all and if there were no other revelation than this it would be proof enough. Worldview matters and Ovid saw no fault in his, nor did Plato. Alexander the Great was a student of Aristotle and had conquered much of the world. He brought scientists along on his military campaigns to collect specimens and record all that they saw. He was brilliant and a great leader. He ended up having his best friend put to death because he adopted the oriental practice of making his men worship him and the friend would not do it. Soon after Alexander the Great died at a young age. The teaching of Aristotle did nothing to warn Alexander the Great away from demanding worship.

Julius Caesar was murdered in 44 B.C. because the it was feared that he wanted to establish a monarchy after being given a mandate by the people to rule as dictator for life. It is ironic that his successor, Octavian, better known as Augustus, was the first monarch of Rome. This idea of bloodline where men rule as gods was not new and the fact that there was a Roman Senate did little to stop abuse of power. Ovid died in 17 A.D. and Tiberius had become became the second Emperor of Rome in 14 A.D. Caligula became Emperor in 37 A.D. and was known for his vice and depravity. Claudius I became Emperor of Rome in 41 A.D. after Caligula was murdered. As an indication of his ability to make a mockery of justice and the law, he made his horse a Senator less than a decade after the crucifixion of Christ. Claudius I was poisoned by his wife and her son Nero was made Emperor of Rome. His tenure was marked by excess as well. The worship of men is bad enough, but the practical side of things is that men who are gods tend to degrade and corrupt to unusual lows with depravity and vice the hallmarks of their reign over men. Today, Christians are seeing the possibility of the return to men having the power over others based on caprice as guaranteed by law. Seemingly a small distinction and a matter of philosophy it soon becomes apparent in how things turn out that what we think and what we say based on belief results in peace or strife.

Nam cÏlo terras: he divided the earth and heaven. CÏlo here evidently includes the aër and ather. The description corresponds with the first act of Deity in Genesis; for, doubtless, when he formed the light, it was by separating the atmosphere from the heavier bodies, and causing the gaseous vapors to ignite, for as yet the sun was not formed.

Earth first produced the Heavens

Hesiod

And God said, let the waters under the heaven be gathered together into one place, and let the dry land appear

Genesis

Then with Heaven consorting, Ocean from her bosom burst,

With its deep eddying waters

Hesiod

Liquidum cÏlum: the clear heaven, CÏlum is here restricted to the æther.

Quæ postquam evolvit: which after he extricated

Cæco acervo: a confused mass. Literally, a blind mass. Cæcum is used pervasively by the poet because the chaos was dark and could not be seen distinctly.

The Chaos was dark as night, in which darkness all things under the sky were involved

Orpheus

Dissociata locis: The elements were now disunited in place, but concordant in spirit.

Concordia pace: This state of concord is an agreeable change from the strife of the pristine chaos. In some of the ancient cosmogonies, the birth of Love, or Harmony, is represented as one of the first occurrences.

In the opening of the poem then, Ovid was in the main recording the thought of his contemporaries.

1 Source Ovid - The Metamorphoses, translated by A. S. Kline, ©Copyright 2000 A. S. Kline, All Rights Reserved, This work MAY be FREELY reproduced, stored and transmitted, electronically or otherwise, for any NON-COMMERCIAL purpose.

3 Excerpted from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Third Edition © 1996 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Electronic version licensed from INSO Corporation; further reproduction and distribution in accordance with the Copyright Law of the United States. All rights reserved.