gluadys said:They are natural. But people still want to explain them. That is what this story does. It gives a meaning to pain, toil and death by providing a mythico-theological reason for them.
I have to disagree. Some of these "mythological writings" tell of the same thing:
References to the Age of Kronos in the ancient lore are very numerous.(1) Hesiod tells ofA golden race of mortal men who lived in the time of Kronos when he was reigning in heaven. And they lived like gods without sorrow of heart, remote and free from toil: miserable age rested not on them . . . The fruitful earth unforced bare them fruit abundantly and without stint. They dwelt in ease and peace upon their lands with many good things. . . .(2)Similarly writes Ovid in the sixth book of his Metamorphoses:
In the beginning was the Golden Age, when men of their own accord, without threat of punishment, without laws, maintained good faith and did what was right. . . . The earth itself, without compulsion, untouched by the hoe, unfurrowed by any share, produced all things spontaneously. . . . It was a season of everlasting spring.(3)Rabbinical sources recount that men lived under very favorable conditions before the Deluge, and that these contributed to their sinfulness: They knew neither toil nor care and as a consequence of their extraordinary prosperity they grew insolent. (4)
To automatically assume that because these "myths" are relaying something outside of our present day experience or ability to imagine, does not make them non-factual. It is significant when they line up so well with each other, even when the cultures are thousands of miles apart from each other.
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