01The wrath of Zeus
When Zeus would destroy the men of the Bronze Age, he loosed the rains of heaven. In Ovid's telling the last offence was Lycaon's impious table — a king who served human flesh to a god and was turned into a wolf.
THE GREAT FLOOD
Κατακλυσμός
Zeus resolved to destroy the men of the Bronze Age beneath the waters. One chest rode the flood, carrying Deucalion and Pyrrha — and from the stones they cast over their shoulders a new human race was born.
The tale
02The chest on the waters
By the advice of his father Prometheus, Deucalion built a chest, stored it with provisions, and embarked with Pyrrha. Nine days and nine nights he drifted over the drowned world before grounding on the heights of Parnassus.
03The bones of the mother
Bidden by the oracle to cast the bones of their mother behind them, they understood: the stones of the earth. Those Deucalion threw became men, those Pyrrha threw became women — and their son Hellen gave his name to the Hellenes.
Cast
Told in
- Pseudo-Apollodorus — The Library1.7.2
- Ovid — Metamorphoses1.163-415
- Hyginus — Fabulae153