Abstract
The Garden of Eden narrative in Genesis and the Golden Age story of the Greek poet Hesiod are perhaps the two best-known accounts of a primordial paradise. But the idea of an original, perfect society - one of peace and plenty, devoid of disease or death, and in which humanity communed freely with their God or gods - is found in many forms around the globe. For all their variations in form and focus, these traditions relate remarkably similar circumstances.