history of – Where does the “getting old backwards” trope originate?

Theopompus (c.380-315 BC) wrote a history of the reign of Philip II of Macedon, together with a digression regarding the fabulous island of Meropis. We do not have the full textual content of this work, however the Meropis fragment is preserved in the Varia Historia by Aelian, e-book 3, chapter 18.

On its far border is the land of Anostos (“no-return”) which has two rivers, Pleasure and Grief, with fruit timber rising alongside every. Consuming from the Grief timber will trigger you to have a depressing life after which die. The Pleasure fruits end in you getting old backwards.

The opposite Bushes which develop by the River of Pleasure produce fruit of a opposite nature, for who tasts thereof shall be eased from all his former needs : If he cherished any factor, he shall fairly overlook it ; and in a short while shall grow to be youthful, and dwell over once more his former years : he shall forged off outdated age, and return to the prime of his energy, changing into first a younger man, then a baby, lastly, an toddler, and so die.
(English translation by Thomas Stanley, 1665)

ὃς γὰρ ἂν γεύσηται τούτων, τῶν μὲν ἄλλων τῶν πρότερον ἐπιθυμιῶν παύεται, ἀλλὰ καὶ εἴ του ἤρα καὶ αὐτοῦ λαμβάνει λήθην, καὶ γίνεται κατὰ βραχὺ νεώτερος καὶ τὰς φθανούσας ἡλικίας καὶ τὰς ἤδη διελθούσας ἀναλαμβάνει ὀπίσω. τὸ μὲν γὰρ γῆρας ἀπορρίψας ἐπὶ τὴν ἀκμὴν ὑποστρέφει, εἶτα ἐπὶ τὴν τῶν μειρακίων ἡλικίαν ἀναχωρεῖ, εἶτα παῖς γίνεται, εἶτα βρέφος, καὶ ἐπὶ τούτοις ἐξαναλώθη.
(Greek textual content from Rudolf Hercher’s version, 1866)

The Meropis account is usually regarded as a parody of classical political utopia tales, particularly together with Plato’s model of the Atlantis legend. Theopompus was a pupil of Isocrates, Plato’s rival in Athens. It is attainable that the getting old-backwards bit is particularly riffing on Plato’s Statesman (Πολιτικός), which incorporates some cosmological concepts about occasional reverses in the movement of time.

In that dialogue, Socrates is joined by a kinsman, “younger Socrates”, and a Stranger (ξένος, presumed to be the similar character as in The Sophist). The Stranger explains that they’ve heard about two tales, the lengthy-in the past “age of Kronos” when individuals had been born spontaneously out of the earth; and that the current east-to-west movement of the solar is attributable to the kingship of Atreus. (From different sources, he’d requested Zeus to vary the heavens from their former reverse association with the intention to show divine sanction for his declare.)

He says that these are half of a bigger history, the place God will sometimes cease pushing time forwards, and that it’ll then movement backwards for some time earlier than God nudges it on once more. The moments of reversal are catastrophic. The backwards period will not be a precise repetition of the previous forwards period – pure processes occur in the reverse sense, however individuals nonetheless expertise causality as regular. For instance, individuals had been “born from the earth” in that the decomposition of corpses occurred backwards, inflicting aged human our bodies to spontaneously seem and are available to life; on awakening they might start to develop youthful, however would nonetheless eat, drink, and so on., in the regular approach.

An outline of what occurred when time began to go backwards:

The life of all animals first got here to a standstill, and the mortal nature ceased to be or look older, and was then reversed and grew younger and delicate; the white locks of the aged darkened once more, and the cheeks the bearded man grew to become easy, and recovered their former bloom; the our bodies of youths of their prime grew softer and smaller, frequently by day and evening returning and changing into assimilated to the nature of a newly-born youngster in thoughts in addition to physique; in the succeeding stage they wasted away and wholly disappeared. And the our bodies of those that died by violence at the moment rapidly handed via the like adjustments, and in a couple of days had been no extra seen.
(English translation by Benjamin Jowett, OUP, 1871)

ἣν ἡλικίαν ἕκαστον εἶχε τῶν ζῴων, αὕτη πρῶτον μὲν ἔστη πάντων, καὶ ἐπαύσατο πᾶν ὅσον ἦν θνητὸν ἐπὶ τὸ γεραίτερον ἰδεῖν πορευόμενον, μεταβάλλον δὲ πάλιν ἐπὶ τοὐναντίον οἷον νεώτερον καὶ ἁπαλώτερον ἐφύετο: καὶ τῶν μὲν πρεσβυτέρων αἱ λευκαὶ τρίχες ἐμελαίνοντο, τῶν δ᾽ αὖ γενειώντων αἱ παρειαὶ λεαινόμεναι πάλιν ἐπὶ τὴν παρελθοῦσαν ὥραν ἕκαστον καθίστασαν, τῶν δὲ ἡβώντων τὰ σώματα λεαινόμενα καὶ σμικρότερα καθ᾽ ἡμέραν καὶ νύκτα ἑκάστην γιγνόμενα πάλιν εἰς τὴν τοῦ νεογενοῦς παιδὸς φύσιν ἀπῄει, κατά τε τὴν ψυχὴν καὶ κατὰ τὸ σῶμα ἀφομοιούμενα: τὸ δ᾽ ἐντεῦθεν ἤδη μαραινόμενα κομιδῇ τὸ πάμπαν ἐξηφανίζετο. τῶν δ᾽ αὖ βιαίως τελευτώντων ἐν τῷ τότε χρόνῳ τὸ τοῦ νεκροῦ σῶμα τὰ αὐτὰ ταῦτα πάσχον παθήματα διὰ.
(Greek textual content from Platonis Opera, ed. John Burnet, OUP, 1903)

The “earth-born race” are mentioned to have been born sensible and joyful, as they had been totally mature and had no improper recollections. Forwards individuals, reminiscent of ourselves, should be taught expertise, create governments, and so on., and may do this badly. Thus we come again to Plato’s exploration of best governance.

I’d say that Theopompus is a barely higher origin level for people magically getting old backwards, since Plato’s model is about the whole world. In any case, they don’t seem to be too completely different in composition time from each other – the two authors had been contemporaries.

Erwin Rohde says in his monumental Der griechische Roman und seine Vorläufer that the Meropis story is the oldest “fountain of youth”-type story that he is aware of (and he cites the Statesman in relation); p222, footnote 1 in the 1914 version. In that connection, he additionally factors to the Vedic story of Chyavana, who was restored to youth after taking a dip in a specifically-ready pool. That’s an instantaneous change of age slightly than an instance of getting old backwards, per the point out in the Rig Veda (7.68) and full story in the Shatapatha Brahmana (4.1.5.12), which says merely “she took him right down to that pool, and he got here forth with the age he desired”. So though that is centuries older, I do not suppose it is the similar factor that this query is asking about.

Likewise, Herodotus (Histories 3.23) writes of a pool that provides prolonged life to those that swim in it, however whereas that is older than Plato it additionally is not backward getting old. It will probably have been often known as a narrative to Theopompus. One other affect on him would have been the Nostoi, an epic poem of a couple of centuries prior, which included a narrative the place Medea restored Jason’s father Aeson to youth. There are absolutely many different examples of rejuvenation in older mythology, however I’ve not discovered any older reference for step by step getting old in reverse, slightly than a reset to a youthful age.