In
Greek mythologyGreek mythology is the body of myths and legends belonging to the ancient Greeks concerning their gods and heroes, the nature of the world, and the origins and significance of their own cult and ritual practices. They were a part of religion in ancient Greece...
,
Pyrrha was the daughter of
EpimetheusIn Greek mythology, Epimetheus was the brother of Prometheus , a pair of Titans who "acted as representatives of mankind"...
and
PandoraIn Greek mythology, Pandora was the first woman. As Hesiod related it, each god helped create her by giving her unique gifts...
and wife of
DeucalionIn Greek mythology, Deucalion was a son of Prometheus and Pronoia. When the anger of Zeus was ignited against the hubris of the Pelasgians, Zeus decided to put an end to the Bronze Age with the Deluge. For Lycaon, the king of Arcadia had sacrificed a boy to Zeus. Zeus was appalled to this cannibal...
.
When
ZeusIn Greek mythology, Zeus is the king of the gods, the ruler of Mount Olympus and the god of the sky and thunder. His symbols are the thunderbolt, eagle, bull, and oak. In addition to his Indo-European inheritance, the classical "cloud-gatherer" also derives certain iconographic traits from the...
decided to end the
Bronze AgeThe Bronze Age of a culture is the period when the most advanced metalworking in that culture utilised bronze. This could either have been based on the local smelting of copper and tin from ores, or trading for bronze from production areas elsewhere...
with the great
delugeA deluge is a large downpour of rain, or a flood.Mythical and prehistoric floods* Deluge myth, mythic floods in general, involving Gilgamesh, and others* Deluge , prehistoric great floods, some of which may have inspired deluge myths...
, Deucalion and his wife, Pyrrha, were the only survivors. Even though he was imprisoned, Prometheus who could see the future and had foreseen the coming of this flood told his son, Deucalion, to build an ark and, thus, they survived. During the flood, they landed on
Mount ParnassusMount Parnassus is a mountain of limestone in central Greece that towers above Delphi, north of the Gulf of Corinth, and offers scenic views of the surrounding olive groves and countryside. According to Greek mythology, this mountain was sacred to Apollo and the Corycian nymphs, and the home of the...
, the only place spared by the flood.
Once the deluge was over and the couple were on land again, Deucalion consulted an
oracleAn oracle is a person or agency considered to be a source of wise counsel or prophetic opinion. It may also be a revealed prediction or precognition of the future, from deities, that is spoken through another object or life-form ....
of
ThemisThemis is an ancient Greek goddess. She is described as "of good counsel", and is the embodiment of divine order, law, and custom. Themis means "law of nature" rather than human ordinance, literally "that which is put in place", from the verb τίθημι, títhēmi, "to put"...
about how to repopulate the earth.
In
Greek mythologyGreek mythology is the body of myths and legends belonging to the ancient Greeks concerning their gods and heroes, the nature of the world, and the origins and significance of their own cult and ritual practices. They were a part of religion in ancient Greece...
,
Pyrrha was the daughter of
EpimetheusIn Greek mythology, Epimetheus was the brother of Prometheus , a pair of Titans who "acted as representatives of mankind"...
and
PandoraIn Greek mythology, Pandora was the first woman. As Hesiod related it, each god helped create her by giving her unique gifts...
and wife of
DeucalionIn Greek mythology, Deucalion was a son of Prometheus and Pronoia. When the anger of Zeus was ignited against the hubris of the Pelasgians, Zeus decided to put an end to the Bronze Age with the Deluge. For Lycaon, the king of Arcadia had sacrificed a boy to Zeus. Zeus was appalled to this cannibal...
.
When
ZeusIn Greek mythology, Zeus is the king of the gods, the ruler of Mount Olympus and the god of the sky and thunder. His symbols are the thunderbolt, eagle, bull, and oak. In addition to his Indo-European inheritance, the classical "cloud-gatherer" also derives certain iconographic traits from the...
decided to end the
Bronze AgeThe Bronze Age of a culture is the period when the most advanced metalworking in that culture utilised bronze. This could either have been based on the local smelting of copper and tin from ores, or trading for bronze from production areas elsewhere...
with the great
delugeA deluge is a large downpour of rain, or a flood.Mythical and prehistoric floods* Deluge myth, mythic floods in general, involving Gilgamesh, and others* Deluge , prehistoric great floods, some of which may have inspired deluge myths...
, Deucalion and his wife, Pyrrha, were the only survivors. Even though he was imprisoned, Prometheus who could see the future and had foreseen the coming of this flood told his son, Deucalion, to build an ark and, thus, they survived. During the flood, they landed on
Mount ParnassusMount Parnassus is a mountain of limestone in central Greece that towers above Delphi, north of the Gulf of Corinth, and offers scenic views of the surrounding olive groves and countryside. According to Greek mythology, this mountain was sacred to Apollo and the Corycian nymphs, and the home of the...
, the only place spared by the flood.
Once the deluge was over and the couple were on land again, Deucalion consulted an
oracleAn oracle is a person or agency considered to be a source of wise counsel or prophetic opinion. It may also be a revealed prediction or precognition of the future, from deities, that is spoken through another object or life-form ....
of
ThemisThemis is an ancient Greek goddess. She is described as "of good counsel", and is the embodiment of divine order, law, and custom. Themis means "law of nature" rather than human ordinance, literally "that which is put in place", from the verb τίθημι, títhēmi, "to put"...
about how to repopulate the earth. He was told to throw the bones of his mother behind his shoulder.
DeucalionIn Greek mythology, Deucalion was a son of Prometheus and Pronoia. When the anger of Zeus was ignited against the hubris of the Pelasgians, Zeus decided to put an end to the Bronze Age with the Deluge. For Lycaon, the king of Arcadia had sacrificed a boy to Zeus. Zeus was appalled to this cannibal...
and Pyrrha understood the "mother" to be
GaiaGaia Gaia Gaia ( or ; "land" or "earth", from the Ancient Greek Γαῖα; also Gæa or Gea (Koine and Modern Greek Γῆ) is the primal Greek goddess personifying the Earth....
, the mother of all living things, and the "bones" to be rocks. They threw the rocks behind their shoulders, which soon began to lose their hardness and change form. Their mass grew greater, and the beginnings of human form emerged. The parts that were soft and moist became skin, the veins of the rock became people's veins, and the hardest parts of the rocks became bones. The stones thrown by Pyrrha became women; Those thrown by Deucalion became men.
Deucalion and Pyrrha had three sons,
HellenHellen Hellen Hellen (Ancient Greek: ; Katharevousa: was the mythological patriarch of the Hellenes (Greek: Έλληνες), the son of Deucalion (or sometimes Zeus) and Pyrrha, brother of Amphictyon and father of Aeolus, Xuthus, and Dorus...
,
AmphictyonAmphictyon , in Greek mythology, was the second son of Deucalion and Pyrrha, although there was also a tradition that he was autochthonous . Amphictyon was king of Thermopylae and married a daughter of Cranaus of Athens. He then deposed Cranaus, proclaiming himself king of Athens...
,
OrestheusOrestheus, in Greek mythology, was a name attributed to two individuals.*Orestheus, a son of Deucalion and Pyrra, was king of the Ozolian Locrians in Aetolia. His dog was said to have given birth to a piece of wood, which Orestheus concealed in the earth...
and three daughters
ProtogeneiaProtogeneia was a daughter of Deucalion and Pyrrha, the progenitors in Greek mythology.-References:**...
,
Pandora IIPandora II was a daughter of Deucalion and Pyrra. She was the mother of Graecus by Zeus.-References:*...
and
ThyiaAccording to Hesiod's Eoiae or Catalogue of Women, Thyia was the daughter of Deucalion and Pyrrha and mother of Magnes and Makednos by Zeus....
.
"Pyrrha" was, possibly, the name used by
AchillesIn Greek mythology, Achilles was a Greek hero of the Trojan War, the central character and the greatest warrior of Homer's Iliad.Achilles also has the attributes of being the most handsome of the heroes assembled against Troy....
while hiding among the king of Skyros' daughters.