Ovid continues: 

“Three times had Neptune ventured with stern countenance to thrust his arms out of the water; three times he was unable to endure the scorching heat of the air.”

This is no doubt a reminiscence of those human beings who sought safety in the water, retreating downward into the deep as the heat reduced its level, occasionally lifting up their heads to breathe the torrid and tainted air.

“However, the genial Earth, as she was surrounded by the sea, amid the waters of the main” (the ocean); “the springs dried up on every side which had hidden themselves in the bowels of their cavernous parent, burnt up, lifted up her all-productive face as far as her neck, and

[1.  “Science and Genesis,” p. 125.]

{p. 161}

placed her hand to her forehead, and, shaking all things with a vast trembling, she sank down a little and retired below the spot where she is wont to be.”

Here we are reminded of the bridge Bifrost, spoken of in the last chapter, which, as I have shown, was probably a prolongation of land reaching from Atlantis to Europe, and which the Norse legends tell us sank down under the feet of the forces of Muspelheim, in the day of Ragnarok: 

“And thus she spoke with a parched voice:  ’O sovereign of the gods, if thou approvest of this, if I have deserved it, why do thy lightnings linger?  Let me, if doomed to perish by the force of fire, perish by thy flames; and alleviate my misfortune by being the author of it.  With difficulty, indeed, do I open my mouth for these very words.  Behold my scorched hair, and such a quantity of ashes over my eyes’ (the Drift-deposits), ’so much, too, over my features.  And dost thou give this as my recompense?  This as the reward of my fertility and my duty, in that I endure wounds from the crooked plow and harrows, and am harassed all the year through, in that I supply green leaves for the cattle, and corn, a wholesome food, for mankind, and frankincense for yourselves.

“’But still, suppose I am deserving of destruction, why have the waves deserved this?  Why has thy brother’ (Neptune) ’deserved it?  Why do the seas delivered to him by lot decrease, and why do they recede still farther from the sky? But if regard neither for thy brother nor myself influences thee, still have consideration for thy own skies; look around on either side, see how each pole is smoking; if the fire shall injure them, thy palace will fall in ruins.  See!  Atlas himself is struggling, and hardly can he bear the glowing heavens on his shoulders.

“’If the sea, if the earth, if the palace of heaven, perish, we are then jumbled into the old chaos again.  Save it from the flames, if aught still survives, and provide for the preservation of the universe.’

{p. 162}

“Thus spoke the Earth; nor, indeed, could she any longer endure the vapor, nor say more, and she withdrew her face within herself, and the caverns neighboring to the shades below.