ABSTRACT
The myth of the Golden Age – also called the Reign of Kronos, for the Greeks, or the Reign of Saturn, for the Romans – is one of the most ancient and widespread in the various pre-modern cultures. It tells of an original state where goods abounded and were obtained without miserable menial labour, thus guaranteeing men a peaceful, happy life. For some reason that original state of plenty and peace degenerated, and man fell into his present state of scarcity, of painful labour and of discord. This myth seems to be so deeply rooted in the history of the culture that ethologists refer to ‘that nostalgia from time immemorial that pushes civilized man towards the lost paradise of nature in the wild’.1
