THE METAMORPHOSES OF PUBLIUS OVIDIUS NASO

FABULA IV.
ARGENTEA
In the second, or Silver ago, the year is divided into four seasons. Men begin
to know good and evil. They cultivate the earth, and build houses.
EXPLICATIO.
This Fable has a reference to the true God, as he existed antecedent
and subsequent to Creation, and his manifestation to man in Eden to the
Fall, and its consequences, and to the introduction of a Mediator. Saturn
is said to be the son of Heawen and Earth, and is the same as Time. The
Deity, who had been before the God of eternity, and the inhabitant of
heaven, when the earth was created, became its inhabitant, and was
known as the god of Time. The Golden Age of the ancients not only
is the first age of the world, but, in its characteristics, corresponds pre
cisely to the age of innocence and felicity in Paradise. As God the
Father then held converse with man, face to face, the reign of Saturn in
the GoMen Age is a tradition of that event, and the succession of Jupiter
to the throne adumbrates the reign of God the Son, into, whose mediatorial
hands the world passed, when God the Father, offended by the transgres
sion of Adam, withdrew from the earth. By an observation of the notes
upon Saturn and Jupiter, in this Fable, it will be seen, by extracts from
heathen writers, that ' the most holy God,' Saturn, and Kronos, are all
one and the same being, and that Jupiter is a mediator. Having a tra
ditional account that the Deity had removed from earth, because of the
sins of man, it was natural to suppose he had retired to the remotest star.
Hence he was said to be in the planet Saturn, in former times regarded
the farthest distant. Jupiter, who is evidently here the Messiah, after
wards revealed, in succeeding his father, is fabled to dethrone him. In
relation to the swallowing of the stone Baithul (Bethel), there is some
confusion, the fable appearing to have reference to Adam, as well as the
Mediator who assumed his penalty. Instead of swallowing and destroy
ing his son, he swallows in his stead a stone called Bethel. That is, he
accepts sacrifice offered at the gate of Paradise, upon the rude stone altar
Bethel, instituted by himself in view of the great atonement, when he
clothed our sinful first parents with the skins of the animals that were
offered ; this seems the more evident, as pai^, from which the word is
derived, signifies « coat or covering of skins. When, owing to the incle
mency of the air, man required shelter, skins were probably formed into
a tent ; and thus, in time, peujn? (Beth), a coat or covering, came to sig
nify tabernacle or tent, and eventually house. The Tabernacle (Bi-th-el,
house of God) had a covering of skins. Exod. xxxv. 23. The labor,
toil, vicissitudes of seasons, sickness and death, of the reign of Jupiter, all
agree with the state of the world after the fall of man, when the ground
and the elements were cursed for his sake, and hard necessity gave rise
to the various inventions.
44
OSTQUAM, Saturno tencbrosa in Tartara misso, 1 i. Postqnnm,
, , , ... , Saturno nns-
Sub Jove munuus erat; subnt argentea proles, so , tenep
Auro dt-terior, lulvo pretiosior tore. 1'aT^mmT.TiS
Jupiter antiqui contraxit tempera veris: craiaubJuv-cj
NOTTE.
1. Saturno Saturn was the son of Corlua nnd Terra (Heaven and
Earth). He obtained the empire ot the world on the condition that
he brought up no male children. He determined to devour any that
were born. On the birth of Jupiter, his wile, Rhea, presented him
with a stone, named #im.Xos , or /JmSuXos (Bui'//,«Z«s), which he swal
lowed, instead of Jupiter. lie was afterwards dclhroned by his son,
end confined in Tnrtarus, which means the profundity of the carlh, or
of the air. Lucian, in his treatise on Astronomy, thinks he passed
into the planet Saturn, and is said to be bound in chains, as this planet
moves so slow.
By Saturn, they mean llmt which comprehends the course and revolution!
of times nnd seasons; the Greek name of which deity implies as much, for ho
is called Kpdpuf, or \p6vos. that is, u space of time- CICERO OK THE GODS.
The Most Holy God is nnmed, by the Assyrians, from that particular star ol
the seven by which mankind arc governed, which is moved in the highest
orb. TACITUS.
Ilus, or Ulns, (il or ul), who is called Saturn.
Kronos was the same tlie Phenicians call II.
SAKCIIONIATHO.
The Syrian VN (il or ul), and the He
brew SN (el, Cod} is the same, and as ai
in Greek corresponds to IP., or long e; (thus
ailher is enlher, or ellur). Bailhul, the stone
which Saturn swallowed, is precisely Beth
el, ihe stone which Jacob set up where
the angels appeared to him, and upon
which he offered sacrifice. Baith-ul, there
fore, as used by the Syrians, means Saturn's
luiuse; the IToly God's /mine; just as Beth
el, in Hebrew, means God's house.
Thus by my counsels.
In the deep dark Tartarean tjulf inclosed,
Old Saturn lies. I'BOMETHEDS CHAINED.
2. Tenelirnsa Tnrtara: gloomy Tartarus.
It refers here to the profundity of the air.
In the infernal regions, the place set apart
for I he punishment of criminals guilty ol
the greatest impicly. was railed "Tartarus.
It was supposed by Plato, and many of the
ancients, to be siluntcd in the centre of the
earth. Thus in Fab. II. of Book II.
Diesilit omne solum; penelratque in Tartara.
OVID.
With tin's the damned phosls he governcth,
And furies rules, and Tartarc tempereth.
SPBNUR.
2. Argenlea proles: the silver race.