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                    The Golden Age followed by Doomsday
                              a universal theme

   PARADISE
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                       The Garden of Earthly Delights
                                     by
                              Hieronymus Bosch

                                  DOOMSDAY
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   The two overarching motives of ancient civilizations were:
     * The yearning for paradise 
     * The fear of a world-destroying catastrophe 

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   Curiously, these two themes appear to be inseparably connected.
   Numerous accounts imply that the world-destroying catastrophe brought
   a golden age, or paradise on earth, to a violent conclusion.
   In the general tradition, the age of the gods begins with a period of
   cosmic harmony, a timeless epoch or eternal spring.  An age of peace
   and plenty, marked by the absence of human labor or suffering.
   Examples include the Greek Golden Age of Kronos, the Chinese Age of
   Perfect Virtue, the Hindu Krita Yuga, the Scandinavian Peace of
   Frodhi, the Egyptian Tep Zepi, the first time or golden age of Ra, and
   the Sumerian days of An, the days of abundance.
   In virtually all of the general traditions the paradisal epoch ends in
   sweeping disaster as the heavens fall out of control.

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