The Iron Age - Where does the idea come from?

The age of Kali is popularly called "the iron age" in ISKCON circles. Satya is often called the "golden age". Where do these translations come from, particularly with the iron age? Some have extended the idea into Satya, Treta, Dvapara and Kali being Gold, Silver, Bronze and Iron ages respectively.

What about "plastic age", or "garbage age" even?

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As for the ages being described as iron, bronze, silver and gold, I believe this idea was taken from references to the development of western civilization. I just had a class in ancient civilizations and this idea came up, unfortunately I can't remember what particular civiliation was referenced for which metal.... maybe they were all described in the short history of one civilization, like the Greeks? sorry, can't remember.

I suspect that maybe you could trace ACBSP's description of the Hindu ages as gold, silver, etc. to his British education.

Yes, but there was no gold age or silver age out there as far as I know... Stone, bronze and iron age are the three common divisions for (pre)historic societies.

Oh yes, sheep and wolves embracing and all that, the golden age. There certainly are parallels there. And the return of the Golden Age in due course, following the advent of Caitanya, the Messiah. I'll say we have a sweet salad of traditions there.

Aurea prima sata'st aetas que vindice nullo
Sponte sua sine lege fidem rectumque colebat...

First was the Golden Age, when, without any law or judge, people our of their own will kept peace and order...

That would be the Romans, probably Ovidius...? But they seem to have gotten the idea from the Greeks.

The first chapter of Ovid's Metamorphoses describes these four ages.

This brings us to another interesting, more general question: How far can we incorporate terminology that has already been used in a certain, specific context in other cultures into our theology?

For example, a man who is very much into ladies might be called "casanova", but I would not use that in reference to Krishna no matter what the original Sanskrit expression were. I believe I've seen that used somewhere, where exactly it was escapes me at the moment.

I'm certain we could also find many parallel concepts drawn from the Christian world that might not be at all accurate or befitting when well examined.

Where does the idea of "holy name" come from, by the way? I have not really seen anything parallel in Sanskrit or Bengali literature, it generally just refers to "nAma", "name", or "harinAma", "God's name". tava nAma pavitraM pUjyatAm?

This is a good question that translators have to struggle with constantly. I certainly avoid terms like "Casanova" that are too culturally specific, especially when concerning our ishta-devatas, whose uniqueness should be preserved. Thus, I would avoid using comparisons to Greek or Roman mythology, even where there are parallels.

This can be quite a limitation to our choices. There is a fine line here--when does a term lose its cultural specificity?

On the other hand, some translators are far too timid and tend to use the Sanskrit terms without looking for English equivalents.

Just to digress a bit, what about using pronouns for bhagavat svarupas? Should one give a capital h for him or her because there in no such thing, as far as I know, the original writings, and the topic or the tattva speaks for itself; not only that but it can get confusing when refering to, for example Krsna and Madhumangal as They or they came along together. The whole idea of giving God, another strange word, the capitol pronoun, and tha jiva not, smacks a bit of western Christian ideology.

It seems to me to be about the value of the metal. Gold being the most valued, then silver, then bronze, then iron. Greek concepts, many of them, have been shown to have been imported from India. Mt Olympus and ambrosia=Mt.Meru and amrita, Hera=Hare, And the rest of the pantheon as well.

Bhakti Ananda Goswami goes into the deeper philosophical connections which he traces back to Rhodian culture. In their religious philosophy the highest realm is a bucolic paradise, which comes from boukolos, or cowherd. In that cowherd paradise, or para desha, lives Helios Kouros and his feminine aspect Rhoda or Kore, and his first expansion Dionysos, who is also the initiating aspect/hierophant. With them live the kouroi and korae, cowherd boys and girls, they engage in the the chorus kyklos i.e circle dance. Helios Kouros is ever youthfull and plays the flute etc. Kouros, the cowherd with the white cows and flute is the original form of Helios. Apollo and Zeus, are his expansions.

Yes, I'm certain the values of the metals were thought of when the Greeks presented the progression/hierarchy of the ages.

Do you have links to Bhakti Ananda's writings where the legend of Helios Kouros etc. is discussed?

Kouros Helios (Krishna) and Rhoda (Radha) on Rhodes
The Rasa-Lila Dance: Caroling the Hora - Part 1
Haryeh as Aryeh Yahu Tzabaoth, The Lion of Judah
Radha-Krishna and Sankarshana at the Heart of World Monotheism
Baladeva-Charaka
Balarama-Charaka as Jesus Christ - A Summary
The Bible as Veda, Genesis/Janus/Ganesha/Gnosis
Good Planets, the Heavenly Jerusalem and Paradise in the Judeo-Catholic Tradition
For all of his articles

The rest of his articles, especially his battles with Theosophists and his expose on Pure Land Buddhism make for great reading.

Tripurari uses the word casanova with reference to KRSNa here: "... dhira-lalita Krsna of Vraja, the playful Casanova ..." Another example is this website, which states that KRSNa is "the eternal prankster and the Casanova from amongst the Indian pantheon of Gods."

I mean, where do you draw the line with this? The Rasputin (rasa-pAThin) of Vraja? How about that? And Radha, what shall we have? The Marilyn Monroe (mAna-raya) of Vraja?

hagiasthêtô to onoma sou.