Ovid's Metamorphoses
a brief excerpt

Note: this small section from Book I of Metamorphoses after "The Flood" story. Deucalion and Pyrrha (similar to Noah and his family) have begged help from Thetis, and after the goddess creates (more) human life from stones (not quite the same as clay, but close), life in general comes back to the earth. Consider how the following description has one foot in myth and the other in scientific thinking:

Other forms
Of life came into being, generated
Out of the earth; the sun burnt off the dampness,
Heat made the slimy marshes swell; as seed
Swells in a mother's womb to shape and substance,
So new forms came to life. When the Nile river
Floods and reedes and the mud is warmed by sunshine,
Men, turning over the earth, find living things,
And some not living, but nearly so, imperfect,
On the verge of life, and often the same substance
Is part alive, part only clay. When moisture
Unites with heat, life is conceived; all things
Come from this union. Fire may fight with water,
But heat and moisture generate all things,
Their discord being productive. So when earth,
After the flood, stil muddy, took the heat,
Felt the warm fire of sunlight, she conceived,
Brought forth, after their fashion, all the creatures,
Some old, some strange and monstrous.

You might want to compare this to biology texts talking about life emerging from a Primordial Ooze.