Abstract

The origins of life have been the subject of mythology, which tends to focus on the origins of gods and humans rather than animals. Animals in myth are often derived from humans. That humans are animals is a very common theme in ancient texts. Examples of accounts of the origins of gods and humans are Homer’s Iliad, Hesiod’s Theogony and Works and Days, and Plato’s Protagoras. Evidence from ancient times about the origin of species that invokes the gradual evolution of one species into another is scarce, with Plato’s Timaeus providing the only account of devolution. In contrast, scientific explanations of the origins of life are based on the idea of the spontaneous generation of life.