Chapter IV: Deucalion and Pyrrha

After disease and care had come into the world, men became unkind and unfriendly; instead of peace there was now constant war, and murder and theft were more common every day. The gods were much displeased at these crimes, and Zeus said he would destroy the whole race of men by a great flood. There were, however, one man and one woman, Deucalion and Pyrrha, who took no part in the crimes that were committed, but who lived peacefully and uprightly, fearing the gods. Deucalion was the son of Prometheus, who knew everything that the gods had resolved upon though he was chained to Mount Caucasus, and when the great flood was about to take place, he advised Deucalion to provide against it by building a chest that could float on the water, so that when the flood began, he and his wife might take shelter in it.

Then a mighty rain poured down from heaven which lasted for nine days and nine nights. The valleys were soon filled with water, and the people fled for safety to the tops of the highest mountains; but the flood rose higher and higher till at last the waves washed right over the mountains, so that the people perished miserably in the water. The great chest {14} floated about on the top of the waves, and Deucalion and Pyrrha who were safely shut up inside it, could hear the pouring rain and the cries of the drowning people. When they were all drowned, the rain ceased and the waters began to abate, and on the next day the bottom of the chest grated against dry land. Then Deucalion burst it open, and he and Pyrrha came out into the sunshine, but all they could see was a wide stretch of sea with only the tops of the highest mountains standing out above it. The mountain where the chest had stranded was called Parnassus, and was specially dedicated to the gods. Before this time Zeus had once wanted to know where the middle of the earth was, and had let fly two doves at the same moment from the two ends of the world to see where they would meet: they met on Mount Parnassus, and thus it was proved beyond a doubt, that this mountain must be the centre of the earth.

Deucalion and Pyrrha were now the only ones remaining of the whole human race, and it was on account of their piety that Zeus had allowed them to save themselves instead of destroying them with the others. The waters abated until they no longer covered the earth, and then the grass and flowers and trees bloomed forth again as they do in spring, and Zeus sent Hermes, the messenger of the gods, to tell Deucalion and Pyrrha that they might ask for anything they pleased, and he would grant it. They determined to ask that there might again be men on the earth, and Hermes told them to go into the valley where there were a great many stones lying, and to take up the stones and throw them over their shoulders. They did {15} so, and this was what happened: every stone that Deucalion threw became a man, and every stone that Pyrrha threw became a woman. Deucalion was their king, and he taught them to cultivate the land, and many other useful arts. And after some time had passed the whole earth was filled with people as before, and no one would have known that the great Flood had ever taken place.

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