Editing Deucalion (section)

=== Deluge accounts ===
The flood in the time of Deucalion was caused by the anger of [[Zeus]], ignited by the [[hubris]] of [[Lycaon (king of Arcadia)|Lycaon]] and his sons, descendants of [[Pelasgus]]. According to this story, King Lycaon of [[Arcadia (ancient region)|Arcadia]] had sacrificed a boy to Zeus, who, appalled by this offering, decided to put an end to the [[Ages of Man|"Bronze" Age]] by unleashing a deluge. During this catastrophic flood, the rivers ran in torrents and the sea flooded the coastal plain, engulfing the foothills with spray, and washing everything clean.

Deucalion, with the aid of his father Prometheus, was saved from this deluge by building a chest.<ref name="When the Great Abyss Opened">{{cite book|title=When the great abyss opened : classic and contemporary readings of Noah's flood|last=Pleins|first=J. David|publisher=Oxford University Press|year=2010|isbn=978-0-19-973363-7|edition=[Online-Ausg.].|location=New York|page=110}}</ref> Like the biblical [[Noah]] and the Mesopotamian counterpart [[Utnapishtim]], he used this device to survive the [[Flood myth|great flood]] with his wife, Pyrrha.

The most complete accounts are given by [[Ovid]], in his ''[[Metamorphoses]]'' (late 1 BCE to early 1 CE), and by the mythographer [[Bibliotheca (Pseudo-Apollodorus)|Apollodorus]] (1st or 2nd century CE).<ref name=":1" /> Deucalion, who reigned over the region of [[Phthia]],<ref>[[Strabo]], [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Strab.+9.5.6&fromdoc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0198:boo=0:chapter=0&highlight=Deucalion 9.5.6]</ref> had been forewarned of the flood by his father Prometheus. Deucalion was to build a chest and provision it carefully (no animals are rescued in this version of the flood myth), so that when the waters receded after nine days, he and his wife [[Pyrrha]], daughter of [[Epimetheus (mythology)|Epimetheus]], were the one surviving pair of humans. Their chest touched solid ground on [[Mount Parnassus]],<ref>[[Pindar]], ''Olympian Odes'' [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Pind.+O.+9&fromdoc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0162:boo=0:chapter=0&highlight=Deucalion 9.43]; cf. [[Ovid]], ''[[Metamorphoses]]'' [http://www.mythology.us/ovid_metamorphoses_book_1.htm I.313–347]</ref> or [[Mount Etna]] in [[Sicily]],<ref>Hyginus, ''Fabulae'' [https://topostext.org/work/206#153 153]</ref> or [[Mount Athos]] in [[Chalkidiki]],<ref>[[Maurus Servius Honoratus|Servius']] commentary on Virgil's ''[[Bucolics]]'' 6.41</ref> or [[Mount Othrys]] in Thessaly.<ref>[[Hellanicus of Lesbos|Hellanicus]], ''[[Fragmente der griechischen Historiker|FGrH]]'' 4F117, quoted by the [[scholia]] to Pindar, ''Olympia'' 9.62b: "Hellanicus says that the chest didn't touch down on Parnassus, but by Othrys in Thessaly.</ref>

[[Gaius Julius Hyginus|Hyginus]] mentioned the opinion of a [[Hegesianax]] that Deucalion is to be identified with [[Aquarius (astrology)|Aquarius]], "because during his reign such quantities of water poured from the sky that the great Flood resulted."<ref>Hyginus, [[De astronomia|''De'' a''stronomica'']] [https://topostext.org/work/207#2.29.1 2.29.1]</ref>

Once the deluge was over and the couple had given thanks to Zeus, Deucalion (said in several of the sources to have been aged 82 at the time) consulted an [[oracle]] of [[Themis]] about how to repopulate the earth. He was told to "cover your head and throw the bones of your mother behind your shoulder". Deucalion and Pyrrha understood that "mother" was [[Gaia (mythology)|Gaia]], the mother of all living things, and the "bones" to be rocks. They threw the rocks behind their shoulders and the stones formed people. Pyrrha's became women; Deucalion's became men.<ref>{{cite book|editor1-last=Parker|editor1-first=Janet|editor2-last=Stanton|editor2-first=Julie|year=2008|orig-year=2003|chapter=Greek and Roman Mythology|title=Mythology: Myths, Legends, & Fantasies|edition=Reprinted|publisher=[[The Quarto Group#Imprints|Global Book Publishing]]|location=Lane Cove, NSW, Australia|pages=32–35|isbn=978-1-74048-091-8}}</ref> These people were later called the [[Leleges]] who populated [[Locris]].<ref>[[Hesiod]], ''[[Catalogue of Women|Ehoiai]]'' fr. 234; Strabo, [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Strab.+7.7.2&fromdoc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0198:boo=0:chapter=0&highlight=Deucalion 7.7.2]</ref> This can be related to [[Pindar]]'s account that recounted "Pyrrha and Deucalion came down from Parnassus and made their first home, and without the marriage-bed they founded a unified race of stone offspring, and the stones gave the people their name."<ref>Pindar, ''Olympian Odes'' [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Pind.+O.+9&fromdoc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0162:boo=0:chapter=0&highlight=Deucalion 9.43–46]</ref>

The 2nd-century AD writer [[Lucian]] gave an account of the Greek Deucalion in ''[[De Dea Syria]]'' that seems to refer more to the Near Eastern flood legends: in his version, Deucalion (whom he also calls ''Sisythus'')<ref>The manuscripts transmit scythea, "Scythian", rather than Sisythus, which is conjectural.</ref> took his children, their wives, and pairs of animals with him on the ark, and later built a great temple in [[Manbij]] (northern Syria), on the site of the chasm that received all the waters; he further describes how pilgrims brought vessels of sea water to this place twice a year, from as far as Arabia and Mesopotamia, to commemorate this event.<ref>[[Lucian]], ''[[On the Syrian Goddess|De Dea Syria]]'' [https://topostext.org/work/340#12 12]–[https://topostext.org/work/340#13 13]; [[Herbert Strong (philologist)|H. Strong]] & [[John Garstang|J. Garstang]], [https://archive.org/details/syriangoddessbei00luciuoft/page/50/mode/2up?q=deukalion p. 50–51]</ref>