In Metamorphoses the air, land, light and water (as humans know it) seems to form at one instant when "God, or kindlierNature, [settles] all"(549). In Genesis however, light; heaven; land andvegetation; stars, sun and moon; fish; animals and man are created on separatedays. Though these two writings are different in many respects, they arestrikingly similar as well. Both are great and beautiful poems that contiue tostand the test of time. They are also written for the purpose of explaining oranswering some question, whether that be who, what, or how time and existence,as it is known today, came to pass. Both poems give credit for creation to a supreme being or supernaturalbeings. Ovid states that "the gods, who [make] the changes, will help me--or Ihope so--with a poem"(548). Genesis 1:1 states, "In the beginning God [creates]the heavens and the earth." In both accounts, each describe a "shapelessness" and the earth being"formless and void"(549;1:2). There is also "no sun to light the universe,"(Ovid,549) so "darkness [is] over the surface of the deep"(Genesis 1:2). There isalso water, but "water, which no man [can] swim," in both accounts(Ovid, 549). In Genesis, the "Spirit of God [is] moving over the surface of the water,"before any of creation exists(1:2). Much like the stories of creation in the Bible and Metamorphoses, theaccounts of the flood in each are very similar while holding firmly to theirdifferences. Like the creation story in Metamorphoses, the flood story gives nospecific time frame for the length of the flood. However, Genesis gives adetailed time frame for this event. The rains last "forty days and fortynights"(7:12). When the rain stops, "the water [prevails] upon the earth forone hundred and fifty days"(7:24). After ten months, the mountain tops [become]visible(8:5). At the end of one year, one month, and twenty- seven days, Noah,his family, and the various animals exit the ark(8:13-18).