Mythology 101: The Creation of Humans and Ages of Man in Roman Myth (Series 1, Episode 4)

Ovid's Metamorphoses is the single most important source of Roman mythology, and in Book 1 he tells the story of the creation of human beings; their existence in the paradise of the Golden Age; their descent into wickedness in the Age of Iron; and the ultimate act of evil committed by King Lycaon of Arcadia which brought about the near-destruction of humanity. This is a series of lectures on "creation myths" in Greek and Roman culture, and this is Episode 4: The Creation of Humans. This is Meaning and Myth. I used to be a professor at a major public university, where students paid thousands of $$$ to register in my courses. But I don't believe that human knowledge belongs behind a paywall, so now I'm putting my old classes online, where anyone can watch them for free. These videos are just like going to the mythology lectures I used to teach: low-tech, packed with stories, history, and culture from ancient Greece and Rome, and the occasional dumb joke. There's just no tuition fees, and no exam. If you want to read the text I talk about in this video, you can find a free (and slightly old-fashioned) translation in the Theoi Classical Texts Library: https://www.theoi.com/Text/OvidMetamo... -- but I'm not affiliated with this site, and that English text is different from the one on my screen, because I'm actively translating from the Latin source as I record these videos. You can also read any published text of Ovid: they're all good in their own way. 0:00 Reading and translation of Ovid Metamorphoses Book 1, lines 5-7 0:23 Introduction 2:23 The creation of the world from Chaos 4:49 The creation of human beings 6:15 The mutable nature of myth 7:14 The "Ages of Man" myth 14:09 The Feast of Lycaon myth 20:22 Coming up next time...