Myth of the Declining Ages

http://www.mythology.us/ovid_metamorphoses_book_1.htm

I posted this link primarily so that the class would have access to Ovid's "Myth of the Declining Ages" which we have seen referenced in Sidney's Essay, Frye, and frequently in class. However, a rereading of the following, the opening lines of Book 1 of Ovid's Metamorpheses, recalls Sexson's words in our class discussion this afternoon (or, I suppose that technically Sexson was recalling Ovid):

"I want to speak about bodies changed into new forms. You, gods, since you
are the ones who alter these, and all other things, inspire my attempt, and spin
out a continuous thread of words, from the world's first origins to my own
time."

This is, essentially, the idea that all poems are made out of other poems; all stories are a retelling; all literature is displaced myth: this is the assertion at the heart of Frye's theories on literary criticism. And lo and behold, it's Ovid! Amazing....

Check out the Myth of the declining ages, which recalls another part of our class discussion today, that of scripture and the religious interpretation of myth. Frye says that all literature is an extension of myth and you will see outlined in the myth of the declining ages the story of the fall of the man in the Bible (followed by Jupiter attempting to destroy the world with a flood. Biblical?)

And that's just the beginning...