The Greek poet Hesiod composed 'Works and Days,' which included the influential myth of the 'Five Ages of Man,' beginning with the Golden Age. In this myth, the first generation of humans lived like gods, without labor, sorrow, or old age. This concept of a primeval era of peace and plenty directly contrasted with his own Iron Age, a time of toil, strife, and metal-driven violence.

Hesiod's 'Golden Age' established the foundational trope in Western poetry of using precious metals (gold, silver, bronze, iron) to periodize human history and moral decline. This metallurgical schema profoundly influenced later Roman poets like Virgil (Eclogues) and Ovid (Metamorphoses), who mapped a geographical and historical decline from a golden past. The idea of a 'golden world' versus an 'iron age' of mining and war became a persistent metaphor for poets critiquing the moral costs of resource extraction and technological progress.