In those very early times there was a man named Deucalion, and he was
the son of Prometheus. He was only a common man and not a Titan like his
great father, and yet he was known far and wide for his good deeds and
the uprightness of his life. His wife's name was Pyrrha, and she was one
of the fairest of the daughters of men.
After Jupiter had bound Prometheus on Mount Caucasus and had sent
diseases and cares into the world, men became very, very wicked. They no
longer built houses and tended their flocks and lived together in peace;
but every man was at war with his neighbor, and there was no law nor
safety in all the land. Things were in much worse case now than they had
been before Prometheus had come among men, and that was just what
Jupiter wanted. But as the world became wickeder and wickeder every day,
he began to grow weary of seeing so much bloodshed and of hearing the
cries of the oppressed and the poor.
"These men," he said to his mighty company, "are nothing but a source of
trouble. When they were good and happy, we felt afraid lest they should
become greater than ourselves; and now they are so terribly wicked that
we are in worse danger than before. There is only one thing to be done
with them, and that is to destroy them every one."
So he sent a great rain-storm upon the earth, and it rained day and
night for a long time; and the sea was filled to the brim, and the water
ran over the land and covered first the plains and then the forests and
then the hills. But men kept on fighting and robbing, even while the
rain was pouring down and the sea was coming up over the land.
No one but Deucalion, the son of Prometheus, was ready for such a storm.
He had never joined in any of the wrong doings of those around him, and
had often told them that unless they left off their evil ways there
would be a day of reckoning in the end. Once every year he had gone to
the land of the Caucasus to talk with his father, who was hanging
chained to the mountain peak.
"The day is coming," said Prometheus, "when Jupiter will send a flood to
destroy mankind from the earth. Be sure that you are ready for it, my
son."
And so when the rain began to fall, Deucalion drew from its shelter a
boat which he had built for just such a time. He called fair Pyrrha,
his wife, and the two sat in the boat and were floated safely on the
rising waters. Day and night, day and night, I cannot tell how long, the
boat drifted hither and thither. The tops of the trees were hidden by
the flood, and then the hills and then the mountains; and Deucalion and
Pyrrha could see nothing anywhere but water, water, water--and they knew
that all the people in the land had been drowned.
After a while the rain stopped falling, and the clouds cleared away, and
the blue sky and the golden sun came out overhead. Then the water began
to sink very fast and to run off the land towards the sea; and early the
very next day the boat was drifted high upon a mountain called
Parnassus, and Deucalion and Pyrrha stepped out upon the dry land. After
that, it was only a short time until the whole country was laid bare,
and the trees shook their leafy branches in the wind, and the fields
were carpeted with grass and flowers more beautiful than in the days
before the flood.
But Deucalion and Pyrrha were very sad, for they knew that they were the
only persons who were left alive in all the land. At last they started
to walk down the mountain side towards the plain, wondering what would
become of them now, all alone as they were in the wide world. While
they were talking and trying to think what they should do, they heard a
voice behind them. They turned and saw a noble young prince standing on
one of the rocks above them. He was very tall, with blue eyes and yellow
hair. There were wings on his shoes and on his cap, and in his hands he
bore a staff with golden serpents twined around it. They knew at once
that he was Mercury, the swift messenger of the Mighty Ones, and they
waited to hear what he would say.
"Is there anything that you wish?" he asked. "Tell me, and you shall
have whatever you desire."
"We should like, above all things," said Deucalion, "to see this land
full of people once more; for without neighbors and friends, the world
is a very lonely place indeed."
"Go on down the mountain," said Mercury, "and as you go, cast the bones
of your mother over your shoulders behind you;" and, with these words,
he leaped into the air and was seen no more.
"What did he mean?" asked Pyrrha.
"Surely I do not know," said Deucalion. "But let us think a moment. Who
is our mother, if it is not the Earth, from whom all living things have
sprung? And yet what could he mean by the bones of our mother?"
[Illustration: "AS THEY WALKED THEY PICKED UP THE LOOSE STONES IN THEIR
WAY."]
"Perhaps he meant the stones of the earth," said Pyrrha. "Let us go on
down the mountain, and as we go, let us pick up the stones in our path
and throw them over our shoulders behind us."
"It is rather a silly thing to do," said Deucalion; "and yet there can
be no harm in it, and we shall see what will happen."
And so they walked on, down the steep slope of Mount Parnassus, and as
they walked they picked up the loose stones in their way and cast them
over their shoulders; and strange to say, the stones which Deucalion
threw sprang up as full-grown men, strong, and handsome, and brave; and
the stones which Pyrrha threw sprang up as full-grown women, lovely and
fair. When at last they reached the plain they found themselves at the
head of a noble company of human beings, all eager to serve them.
So Deucalion became their king, and he set them in homes, and taught
them how to till the ground, and how to do many useful things; and the
land was filled with people who were happier and far better than those
who had dwelt there before the flood. And they named the country Hellas,
after Hellen, the son of Deucalion and Pyrrha; and the people are to
this day called Hellenes.
But we call the country GREECE.
[Illustration]