Metamorphoses

Reading Metamorphoses Book 1 is an interesting departure from the previous two creation myths and flood stories. It is definitely different in the sense that the narrative as a whole does not follow the actions of one hero or group of people. In Book 1, there is a conglomeration of many smaller stories, including the creation of the earth, the flooding of the earth by Jove, the transformation of Daphne into a laurel, the transformation of Io into a heifer, and so on. The common theme of all the stories is, of course, metamorphosis. In the creation story, chaos transforms into an ordered world and in the flood story, the world full of cruel, unrighteous people transforms into a fresh, clean world inhabited by the two most righteous people. I found the creation story fascinating in the respect that it didn't discuss any god, but stressed Nature being the orderer. This seems like a pretty advanced concept for that period in time, and definitely looks like the precursor to the modern theory of evolution.