Metamorphoses · Chapter
Iron Age explained
The chapter describes the Iron Age, the final and most corrupt age of humanity, where virtues have abandoned the earth, and mankind has become depraved.
What happens
The chapter describes the Iron Age, the final and most corrupt age of humanity, where virtues have abandoned the earth, and mankind has become depraved. Fraud, avarice, and force dominate; hospitality is violated, family bonds are broken, and justice returns to heaven.
Themes in this chapter
Mortality and Immortality
The Iron Age marks the final decline of humanity, where moral corruption leads to a world devoid of virtue, contrasting with the earlier ages' proximity to the divine.
Violence and Revenge
The chapter depicts a world where violence is rampant: guests are slain by hosts, family members murder each other, and betrayal is common.
Key passages
“Hard steel succeeded then, And stubborn as the metal were the men.”
The age of hard steel arrived, and people became as unyielding and harsh as the metal itself.
This line introduces the Iron Age, emphasizing the hardness and cruelty of humanity.
“Truth, modesty, and shame, the world forsook; Fraud, avarice, and force, their places took.”
Virtues like truth, modesty, and shame abandoned the world, replaced by fraud, greed, and violence.
Summarizes the moral decay of the Iron Age.
“Thus cursed steel, and more accursed gold, Gave mischief birth, and made that mischief bold;”
Cursed steel and even more cursed gold gave rise to evil and emboldened it.
Highlights the role of weapons and wealth in humanity's corruption.
“No rights of hospitality remain; The guest, by him who harbour'd him, is slain;”
The sacred laws of hospitality are broken; hosts murder their own guests.
Illustrates the breakdown of social and moral codes.
“Faith flies, and piety in exile mourns; And justice, here oppress'd, to heaven returns.”
Faith and piety are driven away, and justice, oppressed on earth, ascends back to the heavens.
Concludes the chapter with the complete abandonment of virtue and the departure of justice.