fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air,
and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.']

[Footnote 27: _Framed him from divine elements._--Ver. 78. We have
here strong grounds for contending that the ancient philosophers,
and after them the poets, in their account of the creation of the
world followed a tradition that had been copied from the Books of
Moses. The formation of man, in Ovid, as well as in the Book of
Genesis, is the last work of the Creator, and was, for the same
purpose, that man might have dominion over the other animated
works of the creation.]

EXPLANATION.

According to Ovid, as in the book of Genesis, man is the last work of
the Creator. The information derived from Holy Writ is here presented
to us, in a disfigured form. Prometheus, who tempers the earth, and
Minerva, who animates his workmanship, is God, who formed man, and
'breathed into his nostrils the breath of life.'

Some writers have labored to prove that this Prometheus, of the
heathen Mythology, was a Scriptural character. Bochart believes him to
have been the same with Magog, mentioned in the book of Genesis.
Prometheus was the son of Iapetus, and Magog was the son of Japhet,
who, according to that learned writer, was identical with Iapetus. He
says, that as Magog went to settle in Scythia, so did Prometheus; as
Magog either invented, or improved, the art of founding metals, and
forging iron, so, according to the heathen poets, did Prometheus.
Diodorus Siculus asserts that Prometheus was the first to teach
mankind how to produce fire from the flint and steel.

The fable of Prometheus being devoured by an eagle, according to some,
is founded on the name of Magog, which signifies 'a man devoured by
sorrow.' Le Clerc, in his notes on Hesiod, says, that Epimetheus, the
brother of Prometheus, was the same with the Gog of Scripture, the
brother of Magog. Some writers, again, have exerted their ingenuity to
prove that Prometheus is identical with the patriarch Noah.

FABLE III. [I.89-112]

The formation of man is followed by a succession of the four ages of
the world. The first is the Golden Age, during which Innocence and
Justice alone govern the world.

The Golden Age was first founded, which, without any avenger, of its own
accord, without laws, practised both faith and rectitude. Punishment,
and the fear {of it}, did not exist, a