The Relationship Between Nature and Architecture

The Relationship Between Nature and Architecture What has landscape architecture and industrialized society to learn from indigenous cultures and their symbiotic relationships with nature? ‘Despite nature’s many earlier warnings, the pollution and destruction of the natural environment has gone on, intensively and extensively, without awakening a sufficient reaction; it is only during the last century that any systematic effort has been made to determine what constitutes a balanced and self-renewing environment, containing all the ingredient’s necessary for man’s biological prosperity, social cooperation and spiritual stimulation.’ (Ian McHarg, Design With Nature) At the dawn of the twenty-first century it becomes clearer and clearer daily to scientists, environmentalists, and landscape architects alike, what massive climatic and ecological devastation has been caused by one-hundred-and-fifty years of human industrial activity. Mankind can no longer avert its eyes from environmental catastrophe by pretending that the science behind such doom-full asseverations is unsound, that the results are ambiguous, that the evidence is dubious. As these delusions are blown away by ever more certain evidence, there appear in their place the horrific spectre of rivers and oceans sated with pollution and filth, rainforests ravaged by deforestation, deserts extending at unnatural speeds, and   the atmosphere a toxic and noxious fog filled by the vast emissions of our industrial societies. In less than two centuries, man’s industrial and technological acceleration has brought him to the brink of environmental collapse. It is now evident to all but the most blinkered or obstinate governments that comprehensive action is needed urgently to prevent our follies from going past the environmental ‘tipping-point’ that we have neared and whereafter we risk permanent and irreparable devastation. There have been   myriad suggestions from environmentalists as to which solutions must be implemented to reverse this damage of the past two centuries; there have likewise been many summits, conferences and treaties convened to discuss these issues – the most recent major one being the Kyoto Agreement ratified by all countries except the United States. This essay however examines what landscape architects and conservationists may learn from the relationship with nature and the environment known by indigenous peoples for tens of thousands of years. It looks, in particular, at what may be understood from the ‘ways of life’ of the Bushmen of the Kalahari in Botswana and Namibia in particular, and also the aborigine peoples of Australia, the indigenous Indians of the Brazilian rainforest and the nomads of the Mongolian steppes. These peoples have lived in many instances, in a near perfectly harmonious and undisturbed relationship with nature for thousands of years in the case of the Kalahari Bushmen for over ten thousand years! The philosophies and mythologies of these peoples reveal how they understand and rejoice in the benevolence and fecundity of nature and the profound generosity of the gifts that she has continually bestowed upon them. Universally amongst these peoples there is an intense respect and gratefulness for nature and for what, in McHarg’s phrase, is the ‘glorious bounty’ that she provides. It seems almost too simple and too obvious to say that modern man, who has wreaked enormous damage in fifteen decades, might have a great deal to learn from peoples who lived without any such damage for more than one thousand decades!   In this essay’s analysis the term ‘symbiotic’ will be a key criteria of investigation; the notion of two organisms (man and nature) feeding from each other and using each other for mutual benefit. After a section of historical reflection where it glances at the seminal and pioneering ideas of Ian McHarg and J.B. Jackson, this essay goes on to explore how the knowledge of indigenous cultures about the environment might be fused with modern technology to create an ideal, sustainable and environmentally-friendly form of landscape design and city-planning. Moreover, the essay studies the notion of ‘collective consciousness’ amongst society as to the planet we inhabit and our collective responsibilities towards it. Throughout these last sections references are made to modern examples of the themes under discussion, as well as contemporary designers such as James Corner, Mark Treib and Sebastian Marot.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   It is vital for students of landscape architecture to know something of the genesis of the theory and practice of landscape architecture; this historical orientation informs the student as to how landscape architecture can be a medium through which the understanding of nature by indigenous peoples may be fused with the technological advances of our own societies to form and develop environmentally friendly and sustainable sites for the future. Within this history, perhaps no one’s ideas are more seminal than those of the father of the discipline: Ian McHarg.  Ã‚  Ã‚   Before the 1970’s mankind did not possess a comprehensive or total understanding of his relationship with nature and his environment; his knowledge was splinted and fragmented and so unification of environmental theories and ideas was a very rare event. Moreover, no detailed and systematic philosophy of environmental design had yet been conceived. The creation of this philosophy fell, above all, to Ian McHarg. Lewis Mumford’s eloquently tells us of the significance of McHarg’s, the ‘inspired ecologist’, for environmental studies and landscape architecture. Mumford says:   ‘. . . his is a mind that not only looks at all nature and human activity from the external vantage point of ecology, but likewise sees the world from within, and a participant and as an actor, bringing to the cold dry colourless world of science the special contribution that differentiates the higher mammals, above all human beings, from all other animate things: vivid colo ur and passion, insatiable curiosity, and a genius for creativity’. McHarg’s work was vital because he showed that man must conceive of his environment as a totality and respond to that totality with a dedication and awakened consciousness yet unparalleled in human history. McHarg opened man’s eyes to the destructive capabilities and tendencies of man with respect to his environment; he showed ‘. . . the way in which modern technology, through its hasty and unthinking application of scientific knowledge or technical facility, has been defacing the environment and lowering its habitability.’ McHarg nurtured a nascent consciousness amongst environmentalists and academics as to the threat of pesticides, herbicides, green-house gases etc; and his epoch-making book Design With Nature established the fundamental principles of a philosophy of landscape architecture and city-design that is harmonious with nature and seeks to benefit from nature’s gen erous fruits without consuming them exhaustively. McHarg’s philosophy had and has a practical aspect and a tremendous efficacy upon environmental renewal if people are willing to implement its advice. This knowledge must ‘. . . be applied to actual environments, to caring for natural areas, like swamps, lakes and rivers, to choosing sites for further urban settlements, to re-establishing human norms and life-furthering in metropolitan conurbations’. McHarg imbued landscape design and city-planning with a distinctive and previously all-together lacking moral and ethical dimension, and swung round the aesthetic sensibilities of these disciplines to exalt and revere the principle of harmonious inter-action and inter-dependence with the environment. In Mumford’s words, again: ‘McHarg’s emphasis is not on either design or nature herself, but upon the preposition with, which implies human cooperation and biological partnership’. By this philo sophy a design is not imposed upon nature and does not therefore run the risk of being unsuccessful due to its incompatibility with the environment; but instead a design emerges out of the natural features of the landscape. By this approach, the meeting of design upon environment will be a natural and harmonious fit. To use a medical metaphor: the landscape will not reject the organ that is transplanted within it: the two are intimately joined. Perhaps, at bottom, there emerges out of the work and philosophy of McHarg, Jackson, Rachel Carson and all who have come after them, the conviction, that if done in the correct way and with the correct attitude, man can even ‘improve or ‘perfect’ nature by adding the element of himself to it.   For more than ten thousand years the Bushmen of the Kalahari Desert, a vast 500,000 kilometre square area of southern Africa, have lived a lifestyle that has changed nearly nothing for this entire period. The Kalahari Desert appears to the softened Western observer as a barren, inhospitable and intolerably difficult place to survive – yet alone live continually! But the Bushmen have not only lived here amongst the dunes, plains and brush for countless millennia, but they have prospered also. At the heart of this ancient way of living is the harmonious and balanced relationship that the tribes of the Kalahari share with the environment that supports them. This is a ‘symbiotic’ relationship where man takes what he needs from nature, but only enough, so that nature in return profits by being treated respectfully. A useful analogy is the one Courtlander makes between the shark and the little fish that clean it: the shark is cleaned by these fish as they remove its parasites and in return the fish are fed by the parasites of the shark. The relationship between the Bushmen and nature is similar: the Bushmen feed from nature’s bounty and then nature benefits also to the extent that she is treated respectfully. This relationship is symbolised in the abodes and dwelling places of the Bushmen: their huts are made of materials taken from the immediate environment: grass, wood, animal skin, earth. These products are all used with maximum efficiency so that nothing is wasted and nothing in nature is harmed; these features are elaborated in the sacred places of worship of the Bushmen (mounds, mountains, watering-holes) where these materials are used more extensively. Klaus has shown in his three-volume work The Sacred Rituals and Magical Practices of the Bushmen of the Kalahari the Bushmen’s celebration of nature by way of numerous religious rituals and magical practices. Other cultures that share an such an intimate and delicate relatio nship, and such a direct reflection of this the style of their dwelling places, include the aborigine peoples of Australia who live a very similar lifestyle to the bushmen and venerate Ayres rock as the acme of nature’s munificence – as has been well documented by Kama’eleiwiha in Native Land and Foreign Desires; also, the myriad indigenous tribes of the Amazon basin in South America as recorded by Davies in his Indigenous Tribes of Brazil; and the nomadic peoples of the Mongolian steppes. What then has the modern landscape architect to learn from the symbiotic relationship of indigenous peoples with nature? Landscape architects of 2005, often working on sites at the derelict fringes of society, on industrial waste-grounds, the edges of motorways, close to airports and so on are often forced to work with sites that are sated with pollution, toxins, scrap materials and waste products. The rejuvenation of sites as these by landscape architects must be in accordance with principles of sustainability and environmental balance. The Bushmen of the Kalahari, the aborigines of Australia and so on have, above all, a certain ‘control’ about the way they occupy and use their environment. The Bushmen will only kill as many animals as suffice to satisfy their hunger; by not hunting to excess the Bushmen ensure the stability of the livestock populations and the other species that depend upon them. The aborigines of Australia and the nomads of Mongolia are intimately awa re of the maximum amount that they can take from nature without forcing deprivation upon her; there is a ‘collective consciousness amongst these peoples as to their responsibility towards nature and as to what the relationship is between nature and society. For an aborigine or South American Indian to do damage to or pollute his environment is tantamount to an act of self-harm and self-destruction; and as such acts of mass pollution are undocumented amongst such peoples. Landscape architects must adopt a similar collective consciousness and try to emit this through their designs so that their audiences and users come to take up a similar consciousness. Landscape architects must also learn something of the ‘control’ exhibited by indigenous peoples towards the environments, and do this by building their landscape creations with the same centrality of control. This has been shown particularly by the work of Martha Schwartz in the United State and the Schouwburgplein in Rotterdam.   Instead of vast landfill sites that forever plant more toxins and pollutants in the soil, designs must embrace the technologies of recycling, bioengineering and so on. Notable examples of attempts as such design include the, the Evergreen Estate in Chicago, USA, the BMW building in Berlin, and, less well-known but perhaps most persuasively of all, in the Plaza de Paz in Bogota, Colombia. In each of these designs the materials used for construction are environmentally friendly and were produced in an environmentally friendly manner; the energy used by these places is clean and comes from renewable sources. Every aspect of these designs is intended to foster harmony and equilibrium between man and his environment, and to promote amongst users of these sites a deeper environmental consciousness that they might then extend to their families and colleagues and thus, eventually, force the governments who represent them to take up similar attitudes also. It is almost need less to say, that future opportunities for such design are endless.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   In the final analysis, landscape architects of the twenty-first find that they have an immense amount to learn about their discipline from the ways of life and symbiotic relationship with nature that have been known and practised by indigenous and nomadic peoples for several millennia. A landscape architect might indeed conclude that buried within this intimate and intricate relationship with nature are the ideal principles with which to compensate the rapacious appetite for and consumption of the environment by modern industrial society. At the heart of the indigenous and nomadic attitude to nature are the concepts of ‘balance’ and ‘equilibrium’: it is by these principles that mankind may continue to enjoy the bountiful fruits of nature without exhausting her ability to produce them. It is this exhaustive, relentless and apparently inexorable ‘taking from nature’ by our economies and cultures without returning anything to nature that has distur bed the delicate balance cherished by indigenous and nomadic peoples. Nonetheless, it is impossible for our age to dispense with the sophisticated technologies and industries that we have developed and to return to a state of indigenous lifestyle; what is needed is to create an architectural philosophy of design that fuses the simplicity and balance of the indigenous relationship with nature, with the technological advances of our own age. The duty and responsibility of the twenty-first century landscape architect is to produce designs and structures that bring these two philosophies together. It is therefore essential that landscape architects work intimately with scientists, ecologists, botanists, businessmen and others so as to bring the greatest amount of environmental consideration and reflection to the development of a particular site or project. By convening all of the particular parties interested in a site in this way, a dialogue may be opened between them and therefore the greatest hope arises that action will be implemented to guarantee the environmental health of a site. It must always be in his mind that as the world races towards the environmental ‘tipping-point’ of no return, that this responsibility upon the landscape architect is a heavy one. The realization of such ambitious landscape architecture has begun with the works of James Corner, Sebastian Marot and Mark Treib. BIBLIOGRAPHY Academic Books, Journals Articles Bachelard, Gaston (1994) The Poetics of Space; Beacon Press, Boston. Casey, Edward (1993) Getting back into place towards a new understanding ofthe place world; Indiana University Press Courtlander, H. (1996). A Treasure of African Folklore. Marlowe Company, New York. Ed: Corney, James (1999) Recovering Landscape; Princetown Davies, P. (1971). The Indigenous Tribes of Brazil. Farenheit Press, Preston.   Heidegger, Martin (1977) Building/Dwelling/Thinking; New York, ed: Krell   Heizer, Michael (1999) Effigy Tumuli; New York, Harry N. Abrams Heizer, Michael (1997) Cities Natural Process; London New York, Routledge. Jackson. J.B. (1994) A Sense of Place, a Sense of Time; Yale. Kame’eleiwiha, L. (1992). Native Land and Foreign Desires. Frontham Books, Sydney London. Klaus, Walter. (1951). The Sacred Rituals and Magical Practices of the Bushmen of the Kalahari. Ford Books, Edinburgh. Ford Books. Mathur, Anuradha, da Cunha, Dilip (2001) Mississippi Floods: Designing aShifting Landscape; Yale Univ. Press McHarg, Ian L. (1971) Design with Nature; Doubleday/ Natural History Press Mumford,L. ‘Introduction’ in McHarg, M.L. (1971). Design With Nature. Doubleday, Natural History Press. Roy, Arundhati (1999) The Cost of Living; Flamingo Smithson, Robert (1996) The Collected Writings; California Press Ed: Swaffield, Simon (2002) Theory in Landscape Architecture A Reader; Univ. of Penn Press Weilacher, Udo (1996) Between Landscape, Architecture Land Art; Birkhaà ¼ser

Knowledge Management in the Pharmaceutical Industry Essay

The study of Knowledge Management is a process that has been researched for centuries by western philosophers and traditional theorists, however it is only until recently that knowledge management has been the main focus for many organisations. Many have said that it was the publishing of Karl Wiig’s, â€Å"knowledge management foundations† (1993), that sparked the huge interest in knowledge management and nearly two decades on KM is now considered as an essential tool for companies to improve their performance and adaptability. 1] Not only this but the concept of knowledge has been regarded as a businesses most precious asset and highly critical in keeping a firm competitive. [2] This study will look at the knowledge management of one of the most Knowledge intensive industries in the world, the pharmaceutical industry, looking at, comparing and criticising the different strategies that are used within the industry. The pharmaceutical industry is rapidly growing and rap idly evolving , with organisations constantly investing in their research and development departments for the development of new and valuable explicit information. In 2007 â‚ ¬6,525 million was spent on R+D in the UK for the pharmaceutical market, showing that firms invest large sums of money in this knowledge intensive industry. [3] Pharmacy as an enterprise system The Pharmaceutical Industry is sort of like a â€Å"community of practice† (CoP) where all the organisations share a common interest in medicine, working together to promote the acquisition and sharing of knowledge, with a common goal of providing the â€Å"best practice† for the public. [4] It is clear that the industry is heavily dependent on using IT in storing and accessing information. Since the introduction web 2. 0 there has been a rapid increase in the use of enterprise systems across the industry. An enterprise system allows for data to be identified, captured and embedded in software to be accessed by all organisations within the industry. [5] A clear example of this comes from a professional body called the department of health, this body stores explicit data on the internet in a PDF called the â€Å"green book†, this can be accessed by any member of the public, as well as any organisation. The book provides the latest information on vaccines and vaccination procedures for all vaccine preventable diseases. [6] Not only is the book accessible via the web but also a hard copy of the book has been distributed to immunisation health professionals around the country, making it very easy for any pharmacy to find the information it needs. What makes this store of information so reliable and valuable to organisations is that it updates itself with new editions from information shared between different pharmacists, adding new vaccines etc. This type of knowledge management system is effective for this industry and can be better explained using Dalkir’s knowledge management cycle: [7] As it shows, knowledge is captured by different organisations through the use of research and development, this knowledge is then assessed and shared with organisations and pharmacies all over the country via the use of the â€Å"green book†. Pharmacy’s then use this knowledge to purchase the right medicine and vaccinations to sell to the public. The update part of the life cycle comes in the introduction of new editions brining new information. There is a sense of a â€Å"mini community† within this management system, where the role of culture is valued quite highly as a knowledge sharing environment is created and designed so firms and organisations can share their information. [8] However one of the main drawbacks that comes with this knowledge management system is that it does hinder competitiveness. Larry Prusak (1996) said â€Å"The only thing that gives an organization a competitive edge – the only thing that is sustainable – is what it knows, how it uses what it knows, & how fast it can know something new! † [9] The introduction of the green book meant every pharmacy in Britain has access to the same information, making it difficult for organisations to get ahead in terms of knowledge. However it is important to note that pharmacy’s are not entirely profit orientated, but also aimed at providing the best possible medicine and vaccinations to the public. The General Pharmaceutical Council and its implications Continued professional development is vital in the pharmacy profession as it allows for individuals and organisations to reflect back on their practice and then create plans to upgrade and improve. There is a professional body dedicated entirely to this system called the General Pharmaceutical Council (GDP), [10] this body provides a particular framework for individuals and organisations to set targets based on their previous practices. The CDP offers a cycle for firms to reflect on their previous practices and then plan on ways to improve practices on the future based on experiences and knowledge they have acquired. Another aspect of the CDP is something called Continued Professional Development (CPD) [11] This is a set of standards that are universal to all companies in the industry and which they must all comply with. What makes this so effective is the CPD is applied to all pharmacists and failure to meet the standards would result in the pharmacy losing their registration. The CPD expects each pharmacist to make a minimum of 9 entries a year, based on the knowledge acquired to update their own practices. This is a huge incentive for all firms to get involved as failure to do so would result in losing their registration. Although this is a good strategy in attempting to engage organisations in learning, there is a key fundamental drawback. Although the system allows for storage of explicit data from each organisation, it does not allow for pharmacies to access information from other pharmacies therefore stopping any sharing of information or data. However it is clear there are other professional bodies available for this. The effect of IT The internet for many may have made the storage of knowledge much easier, however there is a negative associated with heavy reliance on IT. The effect may be that members from departments and organisations no longer need to confer with each other as the information can be taken from a directory from any enterprise system. This will reduce â€Å"face to face† conversations between specialists which spark new ideas resulting in a lack of new information coming in. The availability and easy access of knowledge will act as a disincentive for individuals to search for new information. Conclusion Knowledge management is now considered essential, with many agreeing the knowledge a business has is one of it’s most precious assets. Overall it is quite evident that the pharmaceutical industry is heavily reliant on the use of IT to process, store and share knowledge. The professional bodies mentioned above are only a few of the number of enterprise systems dedicated to allowing organisations to update their knowledge of the profession and maintain a high level of customer satisfaction. The use of a universal framework to engage pharmacists in assessing their own practices is an essential tool in making firms acknowledge their own level of knowledge as well as keeping them up to date with the most recent information. The fact that there is still competition and huge sums of money invested into R+D shows that all across the industry people are still challenging new ideas, however one thing is for certain, each organisation relies on each other for new information and knowledge in this ever changing industry.

Telemachus s Development Of The Odyssey - 1797 Words

Name: Instructor: Course: Date: The development of the character Telemachus in the Odyssey All through the major books of The Odyssey, it nearly seems as if Telemachus is the dominant character because his father s introduction does not emanate until when Telemachus experiences an arousal to his accountabilities. The reader observes his struggles and fights with those suitors who have occupied his father s fortress-palace and with the support of Athena; he lastly starts to take charge of the circumstances. Even though Telemachus certainly never fairly had a match with his father Odysseus in matters of humor, strength, swiftness, and other abilities right for a hero, he experiences a significant growth all through the text. However, The Odyssey is fundamentally a work regarding Odysseus; it is not possible to disregard the assistances Telemachus offers, most importantly in the winding up of The Odyssey. The person who reads is given an unusual intuition into the growth and development of Odysseus’ son by bestowing him as weary and powerless in the start, only to have him kill one of his oppressors in the conclusion and see his mother together with his father happily reunified (Lombardo 120). Telemachus at first affirms himself by calling a gathering of Ithaca s leaders to dissent the suitors exercises. Despite that he talks well at the gathering and owe a portion of the senior citizens, the main suitors (Antinous and Eurymachus) demonstrate no appreciation forShow MoreRelatedThe Odyssey - Telemachus Journey1219 Words   |  5 Pagesdoes a boy become a man? This rite of passage is explored in Robert Fagles translation of Homer s epic poem, The Odyssey. Odysseus (king of Ithaca) fought in the Trojan War for ten years and after the fall of Troy he spent the next ten years trying to get home. He left behind an infant son, Telemachus, and a devoted wife, Penelope. 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Five Ages of Man in Greek Mythology According to Hesiod

The classic Greek Five Ages of Man were first written down in an 8th century BCE poem written by a shepherd named Hesiod, who along with Homer was one of the earliest of Greek epic poets. He likely based his work on an unidentified older legend, possibly from Mesopotamia or Egypt. An Epic Inspiration According to Greek legend, Hesiod was a farmer from the Boeotian region of Greece who was out tending his sheep one day when he met the Nine Muses. The Nine Muses were the daughters of Zeus and Mnemosyne (Memory), divine beings who inspired creators of all kinds, including poets, speakers, and artists. By convention, the Muses were always invoked at the beginning of an epic poem. On this day, the Muses inspired Hesiod to write the 800-line epic poem called Works and Days. In it, Hesiod tells three myths: the story of Prometheus theft of fire, the tale of Pandora and her box of ills, and the five ages of man. The five ages of man is a Greek creation story that traces the lineage of mankind through five successive ages or races including the Golden Age, the Silver Age, the Bronze Age, the Age of Heroes, and the present (to Hesiod) Iron Age. The Golden Age The Golden Age was the mythical first period of man. The people of the Golden Age were formed by or for the Titan Cronus, whom the Romans called Saturn. Mortals lived like gods, never knowing sorrow or toil; when they died, it as if they were falling asleep. No one worked or grew unhappy. Spring never ended. It is even described as a period in which people aged backward. When they died, they became daimones  (a Greek word only later converted to demons) who roamed the earth. When Zeus overcame the Titans, the Golden Age ended. According to the poet Pindar (517–438 BCE), to the Greek mind gold has an allegorical significance, meaning the radiance of light, good fortune, blessedness, and all the fairest and the best. In Babylonia, gold was the metal of the sun. Silver and Bronze Ages During Hesiods Silver Age, the Olympian god Zeus was in charge. Zeus caused this generation of man to be created as vastly inferior to the gods in appearance and wisdom. He divided the year into four seasons. Man had to work—plant grain and seek shelter—but a child could play for 100 years before growing up. The people wouldnt honor the gods, so Zeus caused them to be destroyed. When they died, they became blessed spirits of the underworld. In Mesopotamia, silver was the metal of the moon. Silver is softer with a dimmer luster than gold. Hesiods Third Age was of bronze. Zeus created men from ash trees—a hard wood used in spears. The men of the Bronze Age were terrible and strong and warlike. Their armor and houses were made of bronze; and they did not eat bread, living mainly on meat. It was this generation of men that was destroyed by the flood in the days of Prometheus son Deucalion and Pyrrha. When the bronze men died, they went to the Underworld.  Copper (chalkos) and a component of bronze is the metal of Ishtar in Babylon. In Greek and older myths, bronze was connected to weapons, war, and warfare, and their armor and houses were made of bronze. The Age of Heroes and the Iron Age For the fourth age, Hesiod dropped the metallurgical metaphor and instead called it the Age of Heroes. The Age of Heroes was a historical period to Hesiod, referring to the Mycenaean age and the stories told by Hesiods fellow poet Homer. The Age of Heroes was a better and more just time when the men called Henitheoi were demigods, strong, brave, and heroic. many were destroyed by the great wars of Greek legend. After death, some went to the Underworld; others to the Islands of the Blessed ones. The fifth age was the Iron Age, Hesiods name for his own time, and in it, all modern men were created by Zeus as evil and selfish, burdened with weariness and sorrow. All manner of evils came into being during this age. Piety and other virtues disappeared and most of the gods who were left on Earth abandoned it. Hesiod predicted that Zeus would destroy this race some day. Iron is the hardest metal and the most troublesome to work, forged in fire and hammered. Hesiods Message The Five Ages of Man is a long passage of continuous degeneration, tracing the lives of men as descending from a state of primitive innocence to evil, with a single exception for the Age of Heroes. Some scholars have noted that Hesiod wove the mythic and the realistic together, creating a blended story based on an ancient tale that could be referenced and learned from. Sources: Fontenrose, Joseph. Work, Justice, and Hesiods Five Ages. Classical Philology 69.1 (1974): 1-16. Print.Ganz T. 1996. Early Greek Myth. Johns Hopkins University Press: Baltimore.Griffiths JG. 1956. Archaeology and Hesiods Five Ages. Journal of the History of Ideas 17(1):109–119.