Human Ages and the Allegory of Metals

Jessica Scaciga – April 2024

Introduction

In Origins the author interprets the Hurrian Song of Silver as a testimony to the fact that the city in the 3^rd millennium was the “hub of power,” while the villages where the mines were located maintained their own pre-urban identity. Silver represents the meeting point, the “link” that existed between the mountain village and the city on the plains.

The use of metals, combined with the ability to “communicate” and “interact” between peoples, allowed the development of increasingly advanced techniques in every field, and consequently, an evolution of pre-urban societies took place. The use of metal (in an allegorical sense) in literature therefore testifies that the discovery of metals was fundamental for the development of societies. On a textual level, the topic of metals over time is treated in a different way. For example, in Homer, Iliad 6:146-149, the lineage of men is compared to leaves. Metal is evoked in the description of the weapons used by the protagonists in their battles. There is only one metaphor related to metal: that of the “iron heart” or “metal heart” that the author often uses in his works to indicate the hardness of feelings.

A comparison of a topos through the centuries

Metals have been often used in many ancient culteres as a metaphor to describe the history of humanity in remote times.

One example can be found in the Song of Silver, a portion of the Kumarbi Cycle.

This kind of metaphorical approach has been passed down over the centuries and can be retrieved in many text in both Latin and Greek literature, and even further.

For instance, Virgil, Ecl. 4:6-10 mentions a child whose arrival would indicate the end of the ‘age of the iron’ and the beginning of a prosperous era, known as the ‘golden age’:

“Iàm redit èt Virgò, redeùnt Satùrnia règna,
iàm nova prògeniès caelò demìttitur àlto.
Tù modo nàscentì puerò, quo fèrrea prìmum
dèsinet àc totò surgèt gens àurea mùndo,
càsta favè Lucìna: tuùs iam règnat Apòllo.”

It’s interesting to note a small similarity between this text and a section of the Song of Silver, known from a Hittite copy (see CTH 364 on H P M; English translation in Hoffner 1998 Myths), and labeled The Birth of Silver:

“§2.2 (...) [.... The first, second, third, and] fourth months passed; the fifth(?), [sixth, seventh, eighth, and ninth months passed; and the tenth month] arrives.^{Note 1}
§2.3 ... [His/her tears] flow [like streams]....”
(Hoffner 1998 Myths, p. 48 [text no. 16])

We can also compare this passage to the description of the puer at the end of Virgil’s fourth eclogue (Virgil, Ecl. 4:60-61):

“Ìncipe, pàrve puèr, risù cognòscere màtrem:
màtri lònga decèm tulerùnt fastìdia mènses.”

Both texts seem to describe the same experience, i.e. childbirth and there is also a specific emphasis on the ‘10^th month’ as a prelude to a new era.

The concept of categorization of mankind was introduced by Hesiod in his “Works and Days” (Hes., Op. 106-201), where he classified men into five categories equated to corresponding ages: gold, silver, bronze, heroes, and iron.

Ovid later reworked this idea in his Metamorphoses (Ov., Metamorphoses 1:76-150) and dividing men into four ‘aetates’ (ages), namely gold, silver, bronze, and iron.

Another interesting example of using the allegory of metals to identify different empires can be found in a biblical passage (Dan. 2:31-49); here, the prophet Daniel interprets the dream of king Nebuchadnezzar II, in which a huge statue is described as made of a head of gold, chest and arms of silver, belly and thighs of bronze, legs of iron, and feet partly of iron and partly of clay.

Dante Alighieri also refers to the same biblical passage in his Divina Commedia; in Inf. 14:103-120, he describes the statue mentioned in the biblical passage using the allegory of the “Veglio di Creta” (the “old man from Crete”) to explain the origin of the hell’s rivers.

Notes

Note 1: this is a very common topos in the Sumero-Akkadian literature; cf. for instance Atrahasis, Tablet I, 279-280 (Foster 2005 Before, p. 237; cf. extended excerpt in the dedicated page): “[At the] destined [time(?)], they summoned the tenth month. / The tenth month arrived” [note by M. De Pietri]. _{Back to text}