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Michael Perry
ENG 303
Dr. Moulton
DATE
Title
When it comes to creation myths, there are often many similarities that can be found
between two distinctly different stories. Such is the case with Metamorphoses and The Bible,
which give very different accounts of the creation myth, but yet have striking similarities
between them, such as the actual creation of the world, the creation of mankind, and a purging of
unworthy people to try and start again.
According to Ovid's Metamorphoses, Earth was created through the order and balance of
chaos. Prior to the forming of Earth, all the elements were a shapeless, formless chaos, and a god
had "separate[ed] earth from heaven… sea from earth," thus separating and taming the elements
into a sort of balance, allowing the Earth to form (Metamorphoses, Book I 1-30). This formation
holds some distinct similarities with the creation myth in Genesis, where the earth was without
form, and God gave it form. He started by creating light, and separated light from dark, and thus
strikes a balance between opposing forces, similar to the creation myth in Metamorphoses.
Some striking similarities between The Bible and Metamorphoses (of which I have read
further than the required amount) are that man first lived in a peaceful place of bounty before
being sent into harsh conditions (Metamorphoses' Golden Age and The Bible's Garden of Eden).
Both stories talk about giants and the fact that man became evil or wicked, decide to drown the
world in a flood created by unceasing rain and flooding from the waters of the earth. Then at the
end of the flood, the only human seen to be faithful to God/the gods was landed/found on a
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mountaintop. Both myths also proclaim man to be made in the image of God/the gods, and both
are created from the earth (The Bible from the dust of the ground, and Metamorphoses from
rocks that the survivors of the flood threw behind them).
One distinct difference in the order of creation between the two would be the fact that in
the Bible, the sea was created first, then land came forth from it, while as in Metamorphoses, the
seas enveloped the land (Metamorphoses, Book I 39-40). In addition, the first creation of man in
Metamorphoses use water and air-infused earth to create mankind, not just earth like in The
Bible. In Metamorphoses, mankind was re-created by the gods in their image through the rocks
that the survivors of the flood threw behind them, which is quite different from the story of Noah
in The Bible, who was seen as a man of God before the flood and was given warning, as opposed
to the couple who survived on their own in Metamorphoses and were allowed to live.
While there are some distinct differences between the Ovidian account of creation and
the Christian account, there are some amazingly similar accounts, especially with the story of the
world being flooded over. It is quite interesting that both would mention this specific event in
their creation myth. This is why, when studied objectively, it is so easy to see the many
similarities between two supposedly different religions. If you brought a strong believer in the
actual words of The Bible into the conversation, they would most likely denounce the similarities
and proclaim that those who believed in the polytheistic views of the ancient Greeks were surely
sent to hell. But one must wonder at the almost completely similar story of creation between the
two.
