Silver age
Encyclopedia
A silver age is a name often given to a particular period within a history, typically as a lesser and later successor to a golden age
, the metal silver
generally being valuable, but less so than gold
.
" described by the ancient poet Hesiod
in his poem Works and Days
, following the Golden age
and preceding the Bronze age. These people lived for one hundred years as children without growing up, then suddenly aged and died. Zeus destroyed these people because of their impiety, in the Ogygian Deluge.
After Kronos was exiled, the world was ruled by Zeus. The Olympians made a second generation of men and the age was called silver because the race of man was less noble than the race of the Golden Age.
In the silver age Zeus reduced the spring, and reconstructed the year into four seasons, so that men for the first time sought the shelter of houses and had to labor to supply their food.
The first seeds of grain were placed in the ground since now man had to gather their own food. A child grew up at his mother's side a hundred years, but adulthood lasted a short time. Being less noble than the Golden Age, humanity could not keep from fighting with one another, nor would they properly honor and or serve the immortals. The actions of the second generation infuriated Zeus, so in punishment he destroyed them.
Golden Age (metaphor)
A golden age is a period in a field of endeavour when great tasks were accomplished. The term originated from early Greek and Roman poets who used to refer to a time when mankind lived in a better time and was pure .-Golden Age in society:...
, the metal silver
Silver
Silver is a metallic chemical element with the chemical symbol Ag and atomic number 47. A soft, white, lustrous transition metal, it has the highest electrical conductivity of any element and the highest thermal conductivity of any metal...
generally being valuable, but less so than gold
Gold
Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au and an atomic number of 79. Gold is a dense, soft, shiny, malleable and ductile metal. Pure gold has a bright yellow color and luster traditionally considered attractive, which it maintains without oxidizing in air or water. Chemically, gold is a...
.
Greek myth
The original silver age (Αργυρόν Γένος) was the second of the five "Ages of ManAges of Man
The Ages of Man are the stages of human existence on the Earth according to Greek mythology. Two classical authors in particular offer accounts of the successive ages of mankind, which tend to progress from an original, long-gone age in which humans enjoyed a nearly divine existence to the current...
" described by the ancient poet Hesiod
Hesiod
Hesiod was a Greek oral poet generally thought by scholars to have been active between 750 and 650 BC, around the same time as Homer. His is the first European poetry in which the poet regards himself as a topic, an individual with a distinctive role to play. Ancient authors credited him and...
in his poem Works and Days
Works and Days
Works and Days is a didactic poem of some 800 verses written by the ancient Greek poet Hesiod around 700 BC. At its center, the Works and Days is a farmer's almanac in which Hesiod instructs his brother Perses in the agricultural arts...
, following the Golden age
Golden Age
The term Golden Age comes from Greek mythology and legend and refers to the first in a sequence of four or five Ages of Man, in which the Golden Age is first, followed in sequence, by the Silver, Bronze, and Iron Ages, and then the present, a period of decline...
and preceding the Bronze age. These people lived for one hundred years as children without growing up, then suddenly aged and died. Zeus destroyed these people because of their impiety, in the Ogygian Deluge.
After Kronos was exiled, the world was ruled by Zeus. The Olympians made a second generation of men and the age was called silver because the race of man was less noble than the race of the Golden Age.
In the silver age Zeus reduced the spring, and reconstructed the year into four seasons, so that men for the first time sought the shelter of houses and had to labor to supply their food.
The first seeds of grain were placed in the ground since now man had to gather their own food. A child grew up at his mother's side a hundred years, but adulthood lasted a short time. Being less noble than the Golden Age, humanity could not keep from fighting with one another, nor would they properly honor and or serve the immortals. The actions of the second generation infuriated Zeus, so in punishment he destroyed them.
Other silver ages
The term has been applied to a number of other periods following a "Golden Age", including:- The Silver Age of Latin literature
- The Silver Age of Comic BooksSilver Age of Comic BooksThe Silver Age of Comic Books was a period of artistic advancement and commercial success in mainstream American comic books, predominantly those in the superhero genre. Following the Golden Age of Comic Books and an interregnum in the early to mid-1950s, the Silver Age is considered to cover the...
, the 2000 DC Comics series Silver Age was named after the period - The Silver Age of Russian PoetrySilver Age of Russian PoetrySilver Age is a term traditionally applied by Russian philologists to the first two decades of the 20th century. It was an exceptionally creative period in the history of Russian poetry, on par with the Golden Age a century earlier...
- The Silver Age of AlpinismSilver age of alpinismThe silver age of alpinism is the name given to the era in mountaineering that began after Edward Whymper and party's ascent of the Matterhorn in 1865 and ended with W. W...