In the beginning, God created the Heavens and the Earth—the creation of the World is a problem naturally fitted to excite the liveliest interesting of man, its inhabitant. The ancient pagans, not having the information on the subject which we derive from the pages of Scripture, had their own way of telling the story, which is as follows: Before the Earth, and Sea, and Heaven were created, all things worse one aspect, to which we give the name of Chaos—a confused and shapeless mass, nothing but dead weight, in which however, slumbered the seeds of things. Earth, Sea, and Air were all mixed up together, so Earth was not solid, the sea was not fluid, and the air was not transparent. Now the Earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters. And God said, let there be an expanse between the waters to separate water from water. God and Nature at last interposed and out an end to this discord, separating Earth from the Sea, and Heaven from both. And God said, let there be light.  

The fiery part, being the lightest, sprang up and formed the skies; he separated the light from the darkness, God called the light day and the darkness he called night. The air was next in weight and place. The Earth, being heavier, sank below, and the water took the lowest place, and buoyed up the Earth. Here, some god—it is not known which—gave his good offices in arranging and disposing of the Earth. He appointed rivers and bays,  like the Rio Grande, which separates Mexico from the United States of America, and The Bay Area, in California their places, and raised mountains such as Chisos Mountains in Big Bend, which includes 800,000 acres. God also scooped out valleys not one of my favorites, but Sacramento Valley (the people are extremely immature and rude). Then God distributed woods such as the Olympic National Park in Washington, which has red-legged frogs, owls, 300 different types of bird, deer, glacier-capped mountains and rugged coastlines. He created fountains, such as the Kilauea Volcano, in Hawaii Volcanoes National Park, and fertile fields like the bush plane on Kahiltna Glacier, and stony plains like Denali in the Arctic National Park. The air being cleared, the stars began to appear, grizzly bears began foraging for food, salmon swam in nearby Brooks Falls and Lake Clark. A bush plain lands on Kahitlna Glacier at the 7,200-foot base camp of Mountain McKinley, which is 20,000 feet tall, North America’s tallest peak. And God saw that it was good.  

And God said, let the water teem with living creatures, and let bird fly above the Earth, across the expanse of the sky. So God created Glacier Bay with harbor seals. However, a nobler animal was wanted, and Man was made. God said, let us make man in our image, in the image of God, and he created him; male and female he created them. It is not known whether the Creator made him of divine materials, or whether in the Earth, so lately separated from Heaven, there lurked still some Heavenly seeds. Prometheus took some of this Earth, and kneading it up with water, made man in the image of the gods. He gave him an upright stature, so that while all other animals turn their faces downward and look to the Earth, he rises his to heaven and gazes on the stars. Prometheus was one of the Titans, a gigantic race, who inhabited the Earth before the creation of man. To him and his brother Epimetheus was committed the office of making man, and providing him and all other animals with the faculties necessary for their preservation. Epimetheus undertook to do this, and Prometheus was to overlook his work, when it was done. Epimetheus Theus accordingly proceeded to bestow upon the different animals the various gifts of courage, strength, swiftness, sagacity; wings to one, claws to another, a shelly covering to the third, etc.  Large flocks of roseate spoonbills, white pelicans, ibis and even the occasional flamingo can be seen in Everglades National Park, along with alligators, lurking in the water or sunning themselves just off the well-traveled path.  

Or you may see a grizzly bear cub walking through the tall grass by Brooks River. However, when man came to be provided for, who was to be superior to all other animals, Epimetheus had been so prodigal of his resources that he had nothing left to bestow upon him. In his perplexity he restored to his brother Prometheus, who with the help of Minerva, went up to Heaven, and lighted his torch at the chariot of the Sun and brought down fire to man,  and as a treat we were blessed with the Aurora borealis. With this gift, man was more than a match for all other animals. It enabled him to make weapons wherewith to subdue them; tools with which to cultivate the Earth; to warm his dwelling, so as to be comparatively independent of climate; and finally to introduce the arts and to coin money, the means of trade and commerce. Woman was not yet made. The story (absurd enough!) is that Jupiter made her and sent her to Prometheus and his brother, to punish them for their presumption in stealing fire from Heaven; and man, for accepting this gift. The first woman was named Pandora. She was made in Heaven, every god contributing something to perfect her. Venus gave her beauty, Mercury persuasion, Apollo music, etc. Thus equipped, she was conveyed to Earth and presented to Epimetheus, who gladly accepted her, though cautioned by his brother to beware of Jupiter and his gifts.  

Epimetheus had in his house a jar, in which were kept certain noxious articles, for which, in fitting man for his new abode, he had no occasion. Pandora was seized with an eager curiosity to know what this jar contained; and one day she slipped off the cover and looked in. Forthwith there escaped a multitude of plagues for hapless man—such as gout, rheumatism, and colic for his body, and envy, spite, and revenge for his mind—and scattered themselves far and wide. Pandora hastened to replace the lid; but, alas! The whole thing only excepted, which lay at the bottom, and that was hope. So we see at this day, whatever evils are aboard, hope never entirely leaves us; and while we have that, no number of other ills can make us completely wretched. Another story is that Pandora was sent in good faith, by Jupiter, to bless man; that she was furnished with a box, containing her marriage blessing. She opened the box incautiously, and all the blessings escaped, hope only excepted. Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God, as he was walking in the garden, in the cool of day, and they hid from the LORD God among the trees of the garden. However, the LORD God called to the man, “Where are you?” He answered, “I heard you in the garden and I was afraid because I was naked, so I hid.” And God said, “Who told you where naked? Have you opened that box I commanded you not to touch?”  

Then the man said, “The woman you put here with me—she gave me some fruit and I ate it.” Then the LORD God said to the woman, “What is this you have done?” The woman said, “The serpent aroused me, and I opened the box.” So the LORD God said to the serpent (man), because you have done this, cursed are you above all the livestock, and all the wild animals. You will crawl on your belly, and you will eat dust all the days of your life. And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel.  To the woman God said, I will greatly increase your pains in childbearing with pain you will give birth to children. Your desire will be for your husband, and he will rule over you. This story seems more probable then the former; for how could hope, so precious a jewel as it is, have been kept in a jar full of all manners of evils, as in the former statement? The World being thus furnished with inhabitants, the first age was an age of innocence and happiness, called the Golden Age. Truth and right prevailed, though not enforced by law, nor was there any magistrate to threaten or punish. The forest had not yet been robbed of its trees to furnish timbers for vessels, nor had men built fortifications round their towns.  There were no such things as swords, spears, or helmets. The Earth brought forth all things necessary for man, without his labor in ploughing or sowing. Perpetual spring reigned, flowers sprang up without seed, the rivers flowed with milk and wine, and yellow honey distilled from the oaks.   

Then succeeded the Silver Age, Jupiter shortened the spring and divided the year into seasons. God said because you listened to your wife, and ate from the box about which I commanded you to avoid at all costs, cursed is the ground because of you; through painful toil you will eat of it, all the days of your life. It will produce thorns and thistles for you, and you will eat the plants of the field. By the sweat of your brow, you will eat your food, until you return to the ground, since from it you were taken; for dust you are and to dust you will return. Then first, men had to endure the extremes of heat and cold, and houses became necessary. Caves were the first dwellings, and leafy coverts of the woods, and huts woven of twigs. Crops would no longer grow without planting. The farmer was obligated to sow the seed, and the toiling ox to draw the plough. Next came the Brazen Age, more savage of temper and readier to the strife of arms yet not altogether wicked. The hardest and worst was the Iron Age. Crime burst in like a tornado super outbreak. All hell broke loose. Modesty, truth, and honor fled. In their places came fraud and cunning, violence, and the wicked love of gain. Then seamen spread sails to the wind, and the trees were torn from the mountains to serve for keels to ships, and vex the face of the ocean. The Earth, which till now had been cultivated in common, began to be divided off into possessions.  

Men were not satisfied with what the surface had produced, but must dig into its bowels, and draw forth from thence the ores of metals. Mischievous irons, and more mischievous gold, were produced. War sprang up, using both as weapons; the guest was not safe in his friend’s house; and sons-in-law and fathers-in-law, brothers and sisters, husbands and wives could not trust one another. Sons wished their fathers dead, that they might come to the inheritance; family love lay prostrate. The Earth was wet with slaughter, and the gods abandoned it, one by one, till Astraea* alone was left, and finally she also took her departure. Jupiter, seeing this state of things, burned with anger. He summoned the gods to council. They obeyed the call and took the road to the palace of Heaven. The road, which anyone may see in a clear night, stretches across the face of the sky and is called the Milky Way. Along the road stand the palaces of the illustrious gods; the common people of the skies live apart, on either side. Jupiter addressed the assembly. He set forth the frightful condition of things on Earth and closed by announcing his intentions to destroy the whole of its inhabitants, and provide a new race, unlike the first, who would be more worthy of life and much better worshippers of the gods.  

So saying he took a thunderbolt, and was about to launch it at the World, and destroy it by burning; however, recollecting the danger that such a conflagration might set Heaven itself on fire, he changed his plan and resolved to drown it. The LORD saw how great man’s wickedness on the Earth had become, and that every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time. The LORD was grieved that he had made man on Earth, and his heart was filled with pain. So the LORD said, I will wipe mankind, who I have created, from the face of the Earth—men and animals and creatures that move along the ground, and birds of the air—for I am grieved that I have made them. The North wind, which scatters the clouds, was chained up; the South was sent out, and soon covered all the face of Heaven with a cloak of pitchy darkness. The clouds, driven together, resounded with a crash; torrents of rain fall; for forty days the flood kept coming on the Earth. The water rose greatly on the Earth, and all the high mountains under the entire Heavens were covered. The waters flooded the Earth for a hundred and fifty days. The year’s labor of the husbandman perishes in an hour. Jupiter, not satisfied with his own waters, calls on his brother Neptune to help him with his. He lets loose the rivers and pours them over the land. At the same time, he heaves the land with an Earthquake and brings in the reflux of the ocean over the shores. Flocks, herds, men and houses are swept away, and temples, with their sacred enclosures, profaned. If any edifice remained standing, it was overwhelmed, and its turrets lay hid beneath the waves.  

*The goddess of innocence and purity. After leaving Earth, she was placed among the stars, where she became the constellation Virgo—the Virgin. Themis (Justice) was the mother of Astraea. She is represented as holding aloft a pair of scales, in which she weighs the claims of opposing parties. It was a favorite idea of the old poets that these goddesses would one day return and bring back the Golden Age. Even in a Christian hymn, “The Messiah” of the Pope, this idea occurs. All crimes shall cease, and ancient fraud shall fail, Returning Justice lift aloft her scale, peace o’er the World her olive wand extend, and white-robed Innocence from Heaven descend. Meanwhile, now all was sea, sea without shore. Here and there an individual remained on a projecting hilltop, and a few, in boats, pulled the oar where they had lately driven the plough. The fishes swim among the treetops; the anchor of the ark was let down into a garden. Where the graceful lambs played, but now unwieldy sea calves’ gambol. The wolf swims among the sheep, the yellow lions and tigers struggle in the water. The strength of the wild boar serves him not, nor his swiftness the stag. The birds fall with weary wing into the water, having found no land for a resting place. These living beings whom the water spared fell a prey to hunger.  

Parnassus alone, of all the mountains, overtopped the waves; and there Deucalion, and his wife Pyrrha, of the race of Prometheus, found refuge—he a just man, and she a faithful worshipper of the gods. Jupiter, when he saw none left alive but this pair, and remembered their harmless lives and pious demeanor, ordered the North winds to drive away the clouds, and disclose the skies to Earth, and Earth to the skies. Neptune also directed Triton to blow on his shell and sound a retreat to the waters. The waters obeyed, and the sea returned to its shoes, and the rivers to their channels. Then Deucalion thus addressed Pyrrha: Oh, wife, only surviving woman, joined to me first by a common danger, would that we possessed the power of our ancestor Prometheus, and could renew the race as he made it. However, as we cannot, let us seek yonder temple, and inquire of the gods what remains for us to do. They entered the temple, deformed as it was with slime, and approached the altar, where no fire burned. There they fell on prostrate on the Earth and prayed the goddess to inform them how they might retrieve their miserable affairs.  

The oracle answered: Depart from the temple with head veiled and garments unbound, and cast behind you the bones of your mother. They heard the words with astonishment. Pyrrha first broke silence: We cannot obey; we dare not profane the remains of our parents. They sought the thickest shades of the wood, and resolved the oracle in their minds. At length Deucalion spoke: Either my sagacity deceives me, or the command is one we may obey without impiety. The Earth is the great parent of all; the stones are her bones; these we may cast behind us; and I think this is what the oracle means. At least, it will do no harm to try. You noticed the children as not so quick to sale out their parents like Isaac so willingly did in Genesis 22.2. So Pyrrha and Deucalion veiled their faces, unbound their garments, and picked up stones, and cast them behind them. The stones (wonderful to relate) began to grow soft, and assume shape. By degrees, they put on a rude resemblance to human form, like a block half finished, in the hands of the sculptor. The moisture and slime that were about them became flesh; the stony part became bones; the veins remained veins, retaining their name, only changing their use. Those thrown by the hand of the man became men, and those by the women became women. It was a hard race, and well adapted to labor, as we find ourselves to be at this day, giving plain indications of our origin.  

The comparison of Eve to Pandora is too obvious to have escaped detection. More lovely than Pandora, whom the gods Endowed with all their gifts; and O, too like in sad event, when to the unwiser son of Japhet brought by Hermes, she ensnared Mankind with her fair looks, to be avenged on him who had stole Jove’s authentic fire. Prometheus and Epimetheus were sons of Iapetus, which changes to Japhet. Prometheus has been a favorite subject with the poets. He is represented as the friend of mankind, who interposed in their behalf when Jove was incensed against them and who taught them civilization and the arts. However, as in doing so, he transgressed the will of Jupiter, he drew down on himself the anger of the ruler of gods and men. Jupiter had him chained to a rock on Mount Caucuses, where a vulture preyed on his liver, which was renewed as fast as devoured. This state of torment might have been brought to an end at any time by Prometheus, if he had been willing to submit to his oppressor; for he possessed a secret which involved the stability of Jove’s throne, and if he would have revealed it, he might have been at once taken into favor. However, that he disdained to do. He has therefore become the symbol of magnanimous endurance of unmerited suffering, and strength of will resisting oppression.  

Titan! To whose immortal eyes the suffering of mortality, seen in their sad reality, were not as things that gods despise, what was thy pity’s recompense? A silent suffering, and intense; the rock, the vulture, and the chain; all that the proud can feel of pain; the agony they do not show, the suffocating sense of woe. Thy godlike crime was to be kind; to render with the precepts less the sum of human wretchedness, and strengthen man with his own mind, and baffled as thou wert from high. Still, in the patient energy, in the endurance and repulse of thine impenetrable spirit, which Earth and Heaven could not convulse, a mighty lesson we inherit. Or, like the thief of fire from Heaven, Wilt thou withstand the shock? And share with him—the unforgiven—His vulture and his rock? After the last few chapters, I feel you are ready for more understanding, please watch “Queen of the Damned.” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bNXcXudqzv4