Ancient Environment

7/30/2019 Ancient Environment

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CLS 826-C

Assignment 02

Jean du Plessis: 34890963

Environment: Classical Perspectives

Write an essay on the classical views- whether, philosophical, scientific or literary-

on the creation, structure and function of the universe that have made the deepest

impression on you, and debate their possible relevance in modern terms.

A classical literary view on the creation, structure and function of the universe.

The oldest archaic Greek views on the creation of the universe, its function and its

structure may be found in the realm of mythic literature such as the works of the poets

Homer, Hesoid and Ovid.

It is important to realise that the ancient Greeks perception of the universe was

influenced by the idea of divinity. The gods and goddesses were present in nature and

in human destiny. It was understood that all order in the universe was created and

governed by some order of the divine. This can clearly be seen in the Homeric epics

of the eights century BC. These works had a profound effect on later generations and

formed the basis for the understanding of the universe. These ideas of the Homeric

epics were systemised by the poet Hesoid in his Theogony. This mythological

structure and understanding of the universe explains the cultural outlook of the

ancient Greeks on how the universe was created, its structure and its function. From

Hesoids Theogony we can see that the cosmos and the order in it was created by the

various divinities. They have created from chaos the structured and ordered basis for

nature and human society.


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At the head of this divine order of gods and goddesses we find the almighty Zeus who

as ruler of both man and gods administers order through divine justice.

The Theogony thus gave an intellectual quality to nature. It explained natural disasters

such as volcanoes and earthquakes as divine justice or as monsters and giants

imprisoned beneath the earth.

Even though today we might see such explanations as far fetched or even ludicrous, it

was the first step to attempt to explain our environment and would eventually lead to

our modern natural studies of the universe.

By reviewing Hesoids Theogony we find in lines 116-133 an explanation of the

creation and structure of the universe:

Chaos was the first creation. Earth and the nether realm, Tartarus followed. Out of

Chaos came Night and Erebos. Night and Erebos then gave birth to Day and pure Air.

Earth conceived Heaven which was her equal and the home of the gods.

Earth then gave birth to the mountains and hills that became the homes of the

demigods known as Nymphs. She gave birth to the seas and finally gave birth to the

Ocean when she lay with Heaven.

This concept of the mythological structure of the universe had a wide influence and

spread over into the Roman culture, giving the Romans the same cultural outlook on

the universe as that of the Greeks. This is evident in the Roman poet Ovid highly

influential work, The Metamorphoses. Hesoids influence can clearly be seen in the

works of Ovid. The Metamorphoses, like its Greek counterpart is an explanation of


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the creation of the universe in mythical terms and had a profound influence on later

cosmological interpretations.

According to The Metamorphoses, before anything else came into existence there was

Chaos which was an undivided mass of different elements that were at odds with one

another, a lifeless bulk without order. Then a divine being came and separated these

elements. By doing so, this god created the earth, oceans, heavenly bodies and the

sky. Ovid does not name this god and states that it is not know which god preformed

the creation. Ovid then describes the god making the earth even on every side and

forming it in a mighty sphere. He then creates the fountains, rivers, shores and all

within it and the different climate zones in different areas. The god then establishes

the order of the winds, not giving them chaotic freedom but limited them to the four

directions of east, south, west and north and so keeping them from destroying the

world. He then created the stars in the heaven and a home for the gods and goddesses.

The god then brought forms of life to the earth; he created fish for the sea, beasts for

the land and birds for the sky.

After that he created man whom Ovid considers the most holy of creatures. Man was

created with more intelligence and to be master of all other creatures. They were

created in the gods image from earth mixed with water.

It is clear that the mythological structure of the universe portrays the natural

phenomena as all the major gods. All the natural phenomena were personified into

gods and goddesses. The ocean was personified in the god Poseidon or Neptune as his

Roman counterpart was know. Thunder and lightning was a phenomenon which was


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identified with Zeus or Jupiter, while the Earth was seen in mythological terms as the

goddess Ge or Gaia. Gaia was seen as the source and sustaining force of all living

things. As one of the elder gods, known as the Titans, she was even the mother of

almost all the Olympian gods (with the exception of Athena and some of the

Olympian offspring), even of the mighty Zeus who was the ruler of all the gods and

responsible for the order of the universe.

In a Homeric hymn she is described as the source of children and of the harvests and

that she has the power of life and death over mortals. Here we find an example of the

order that has been created, Gaia serves as an equilibrium; her power over life and

death finds balance in her nurturing aspects.

Another example of universal order can be seen in the goddess Artemis or Diana, as

her Roman counterpart is known. She is the goddess of the hunt but at the same time

the protector of the wild animals. She was also the virgin goddess but on the other

hand seen as a fertility goddess to man and beast at the same time. Here again we find

equilibrium.

It thus becomes clear that the classical view of the universe in the sense of the

mythological structure was influenced by the divine. All nature, from the oceans to

rivers, mountains to valleys and forests were considered to contain an element of the

divine. Therefore all natural phenomena could be an act of divine will and should be

treated with awe and respect and that one could expect punishment if ones view of

nature lacked the necessary respect.


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By reviewing the above poem it becomes clear that the universe was created by a

divine force, an unknown god. Both poems describe that the universe was already

there but in a chaotic form with no life forms on it. The unknown god then created the

earth, sky, oceans etc. who themselves were considered to be gods. The mythological

structure of the universe has its basis in the divine. Its creator was divine, the earth,

sky, oceans, all was considered divine or had a divine connection. Its function was

thus also divine. Fertility came from the earth goddess Gaia for example. Natural

disasters were seen to have divine influence as punishment from the gods. Therefore

the creation, structure and function of the universe were all based on the divine.

Another literary piece from antiquity which concerns the creation, structure and

function of the universe is the dialogue called Timaeusby the renowned philosopher

Plato, a student of the Athenian philosopher Socrates.

Again we find that the idea that the world was not created out of nothing, but as in the

poem by Ovid, it was already in existence but was in a disorderly and discordant state.

As in the mythological structure we find a first divine force, which Plato names the

World Artificer, which shapes all inexistence from disorder into a universe of order.

In order to create a functioning universe from a chaotic state the World Artificer or

demiurge he constructed reason within soul and soul within body as He fashioned

the All and thus the universe or cosmos which he created was a living creature in its

own right, with a soul and reason of its own.

The elements out of what the world was created, were fire, earth, water and air. The

four elements were composed of invisible particles and each elements particles had


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its own geometrical shape. It was through the breakdown of the particles that the

elements could be transformed. The main masses however were arranged in

concentric spheres. Earth was at the centre which was surrounded by water then air

which was in its turn surrounded by fire which was the chief component of the

heavenly bodies.

Platos theory of gravity explained that the falling of bodies was due to the fact the

objects that consisted of the same element attracted one another, almost like a

magnetic field. Fire would travel up towards the heavenly bodies and a rock will

always fall back to the earth.

The Timaeus explains the movement of the heavenly bodies through the fact that the

universe is in a spherical shape it would perform an eternal informal rotation in a

circular path around a fixed centre. This type of movement could be seen in the daily

rotation of the stars. The planets again, moved in its own sphere in different velocities

which would explain their movements in the sky. Plato believed that these spheres

each add its own soul, provided by the World-Artificerand that this soul and

intelligence was the source of its movement.

Thus, from Platos Cosmology we again see the divine influence in the creation of the

world. His divinities might not have taken as much of a personified role as in the

poems by Ovid and Hesoid but the divine played a major role none the less.

There are many other literary pieces on the creation of the universe such as the

Cosmology of Aristotle and many works of the different philosophers but it would


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take many more pages to work them into an essay and therefore chose to focus on

these three works.

When we compare these ancient views of cosmology with that of modern works we

do find many similarities and contradictions.

Today, as in the ancient times, we have different views on the creation of the

universe. Since a large part of the worlds population is Christian, of Islamic or

Judean faith, it is believed by them that the universe was created by a divine God.

This view has its similarity with that of the ancient works of Ovid and Hesoid.

However there are major differences in the actual creation methods.

The poems present natural phenomena as major gods. Thus earth, the sea and sky

being individual gods differs from the modern religious view of our major faiths as

there is only one God who created the world and no other gods exists.

We also have a more scientific view which rejects the influence of the divine in the

creation of the universe which claims the universe came into existence through

evolution.

The Platonic theory of the Universe and the theory of elements of the same substance

attract also differs from our main view today. Today we know how gravity works and

that the attraction of the same element does not exist.

Both, the more scientific and the modern theories in the creation of the universe

would reject Platos theory that all heavenly bodies exist in spheres and that these


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spheres contains its own soul. The scientific view, rejecting the idea of a soul and the

theological view, rejecting the idea of any soul other than that of the human soul.

It is clear that as far back as the 8th and 7th century BC mankind was concerned with

the creation of the universe, its structure and how the universe functioned. When we

compare the ideas of the ancients with our modern knowledge and ideas, their theories

seem very primitive, but it is thanks to their first steps to discover the secrets of the

universe that we were able to construct our knowledge. Even though they might not

have understood the universe to the extent that we do today, they paved the road for

us to walk on and laid the first foundations for understanding the universe and for that

we are forever grateful to them.

Ancient Environment

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