Golden Age (metaphor) - Evolution From Period To Metaphor

Evolution From Period To Metaphor

The term "Golden age" has always had a metaphoric element. A few centuries after Hesiod, Plato pointed out that the "Golden race" were not made from gold as such, but that the term should be understood metaphorically. The classical idea of the "metal ages" as actual historical periods held sway throughout the Greek and Roman periods. While supplemented by St. Augustine's "Six Ages of the World", the classical ideas never entirely eradicated, and it resurfaced to form the basis of division of time in early archaeology

At the birth of modern archaeology in the 18th century, the "Golden age" was associated with a pre-agricultural society. However, already in the 16th century, the term "Golden age" was replaced by "Stone age" in the three-age system. Still, Rousseau used the term for a loosely defined historical period characterized by the "State of nature" as late as the during the late 18th century. While the concept of an iron- and bronze age are still used by historians and archaeologists, the gold the "Golden age" of Hesiod was a purely mythical period, and has come to signify any period in history where the the state of affairs for a specific phenomenon appear to have been on their height, better than in the periods proceeding it and following the "Golden Age". It is sometimes still employed for the hunter-gatherer tribal societies of the Mesolithic, but only as a metaphor.