Myths of the Golden Age in European Culture

Hesiod’s concept of a Golden Age, together with analogous myths – Babylonian, Egyptian, Hebrew, etc. – speak to the psychic appeal, perhaps even deep-rooted need, for humans to conceive alternate worlds free from the anguish, toil, and dangers of the one they inhabit. Classical poets and philosophers explored the myth; the Middle Ages imagined it as the land of Cockaigne; Early Modern dramatists incorporated it; Romantic poets and nineteenth-century writers imagined it in various guises. This vo