Great Flood Myths

Great Flood Myths

A great flood is sent by a god or goddess, or council of the gods, to destroy civilization in an act of divine retribution. One of the most common tells of a great flood that occurred in the distant past.  Many cultures have stories about a time when a great deluge overwhelmed the Earth, drowning most of humanity and leaving only a few survivors to generate a new and hopefully improved human race. 

Deucalion and Pyrrha and the Great Flood

In the Golden Age, humanity lived a simple, peaceful and innocent life, though in a rather childlike state.

In the Silver Age, people became more violent and warlike, but they were still noble and virtuous in their dealings with each other.

In the Bronze Age however, people became not only violent, but greedy, cruel and untrustworthy, obsessed with personal gain and caring little for love of family or common decency.

As the behavior of humanity worsened, Zeus, King of the Gods began to be concerned about their increasing depravity and lawlessness. Maybe if the he hadn’t given Pandora, the first woman, a box of evil and horror. Zeus was not satisfied with his punishment of the impious Lycaon. Arriving back at Mount Olympus, he called a council of all the Olympian deities and announced that due to the depravity of humanity that he had witnessed, he saw no alternative but to bring an end to humanity altogether.

While none of the other gods dared challenge Zeus' decision, they tentatively expressed regret that there would now be no mortals to offer them sacrifice. Zeus reassured them that a new human race would come into being through miraculous means to repopulate the earth. The other Olympians still warned their favorite mortals and oracles that Zeus’s deluge was coming.

Zeus' first thought was to simply wipe out humankind by blasting them with his thunderbolts, but then he feared that the earth and the very heavens might catch fire.

Instead, he resolved that all the peoples of the earth must perish by drowning. He called upon the South Wind who drove dark clouds swollen with rain across the sky releasing a huge downpour. The unrelenting rain destroyed all the farmers' crops in the field. Not yet satisfied, Zeus called on his brother the Sea God Poseidon to come to his aid. He summoned all his rivers and ordered them all to burst their banks and overflow. The waters rose and flooded the fields, villages and towns, swallowing them up. Most humans and animals were swept away and drowned. Birds flew searching for land before finally dropping into the sea from exhaustion. The whole land became one giant sea without a shore.

Deucalion was the son of Prometheus, Titan and his wife Pyrrha, the daughter of Epimetheus and Pandora. Deucalion was the most virtuous and god-fearing of men and Pyrrha the most pious and upright of women.

On Prometheus' advice, the couple took shelter from the flood in a giant chest or an ark and was tossed about on the waves for nine days and nights. Eventually, their ark came to ground on the high peak of Mount Parnassus, which broke the surface of the waves.

As soon as they emerged from the ark, the pious couple at once gave reverence to the local nymphs and forest gods and to Themis, the Titan Goddess of justice and giver of prophecies before that role was taken over by Apollo.

When Zeus saw that this god-fearing couple was the last two people on earth, he knew his work was done. He allowed Boreas, the North Wind, to blow the great rainclouds from the sky, while Poseidon calling on all the rivers to return to their banks. Bit by bit the waters receded, and the dry land appeared, with seaweed still clinging to the high branches of the trees. In answer to this need, Oracle of Delphi (Patron Themis) cryptically told them to throw the bones of their mother behind them. They interpreted this as meaning "throw stones over their shoulders onto Mother Earth," and did so. The stones Deucalion threw became men and those Pyrrha threw became women.

Unfortunately, the rumble of flood water mix with Gaea’s earth created the dread Python near Delphi. He later served Hera to pursue Leto and trying to devour her. More on him later.