MYTHS  OF  CREATION

18.   But Who's Counting?

Above all other distinctions to be found, the exact count of World Ages preceding our own also differed from people to people and from tradition to tradition.

While Four periods or stages figured most frequently (the Golden, Silver, Bronze, and Iron Ages, and the like), quantities ranging from Three to Seven were also commonly attested.

In other places, however, these longer sequences were reduced to a more simple binary contrast: Before and After; Then and Now; the old Golden Age of Saturn and the new present time of Jupiter. 

We also find, furthermore, a number of discrepancies regarding the specific sequence of cosmogonic destructions out of which new creations unfolded. 

In addition, the basic sum totals of the catastrophic events falling between the Ages recalled by different peoples were also at variance — with some cultures citing only One or Two events while others asserted Several regularly reoccurring episodes. 

— Disasters in which a great Flood formed a more or less prominent part, for example, more often than not accounted for Three of the specific intervening ‘Breaking Points’ between these Ages — although some cultures testified to more, or less.  . . . 

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