Dinosaurs

In 1676, a professor at Oxford University presented part of a femur that was described as belonging to a human giant.  No one could wrap their minds around the notion that this bone belonged to an extinct race of huge reptiles that lived millions of years ago.  Back then, the whole idea of “dinosaurs” did not exist, and the best explanation was that these giant bones belonged to giant men. 

Well…it just so happens that more than two thousand years ago, Ovid wrote of lizard-footed giants who dominated this earth. 

“As gods assembled at Jove’s throne in state

He stood above them leaning on his scepter,

Shook heavy locks three times and once again

As land, sea, sky rocked with his weighted gesture;

Then lips grown thick with rage began to speak:

“We live in danger greater than the hour

When lizard-footed giants climbed the hills.”

Coincidence?  No such thing. 

Ovid’s Metamorphoses was written as history book, not as a work of fiction.  Look no further than his account of dinosaurs.  How did he know these giants were lizard-footed?  The account back then is more accurate and descriptive than that of an Oxford professor in the 1600s, who merely described the bone as belonging to a giant man. 

These “primitive” people and their stories do not get as much credit as they deserve.