— Ch. 1 · Lineage And Origins —
Deucalion.
~5 min read · Ch. 1 of 7
In the shadowed halls of ancient genealogies, a young man named Deucalion stood as son to Prometheus. Ancient sources name his mother variously as Clymene, Hesione, or Pronoia. The scholia to Odyssey 10.2 identifies Clymene as the commonly accepted mother alongside Hesione. Acusilaus cited in FGrH 2 F 34 supports this view. Hesiod called Deucalion's mother Pryneie or Prynoe according to Catalogue fr. 4. Dindorf believed these corrupt forms concealed Pronoea's true name. A. Casanova considered this emendation to have undeniable merit in his 1979 analysis of Pandora and Prometheus myths. Apollonius Rhodius wrote in Argonautica 3.1404-1408 that Deucalion was born from Prometheus alone. Some accounts suggest he had no mother at all, only a father figure. This variation in parentage reflects the fluid nature of early Greek mythic tradition.
The Great Deluge
Zeus ignited anger against Lycaon, king of Arcadia, after the ruler sacrificed a boy to him. Appalled by this offering, Zeus decided to end the Bronze Age with a deluge. Rivers ran in torrents while the sea flooded coastal plains. Spray engulfed foothills and washed everything clean during the catastrophic flood. Deucalion built a chest with aid from his father Prometheus. He provisioned it carefully without rescuing any animals. Nine days passed before waters receded enough for survival. The couple survived as the sole human pair remaining on earth. Their chest touched solid ground on Mount Parnassus or Mount Etna in Sicily. Other traditions place their landing on Mount Athos in Chalkidiki or Mount Othrys in Thessaly. Hyginus mentioned Hegesianax's opinion identifying Deucalion with Aquarius due to water pouring from sky. Such quantities created what became known as the great Flood.Repopulation Of Earth
Deucalion consulted an oracle of Themis about how to repopulate the earth once deluge ended. He was told to cover your head and throw bones of mother behind shoulder. Both understood that mother meant Gaia, mother of all living things. Bones referred to rocks scattered across the landscape. They threw stones behind shoulders and watched them form people. Pyrrha's stones became women while Deucalion's became men. These new people were later called Leleges who populated Locris region. Pindar recounted in Olympian Odes 9.43-46 how they came down from Parnassus. Without marriage-bed they founded unified race of stone offspring. Stones gave people their name according to this account. Lucian described a version where Deucalion took children and pairs of animals aboard ark. He built temple at Manbij in northern Syria over chasm receiving waters. Pilgrims brought vessels of sea water twice yearly from Arabia and Mesopotamia to commemorate event.