During the Bronze age, the humans committed many sins which the angered many gods especially Zeus, the god of the sky and thunder. Zeus wanted to wipe out man kind because of their awful behavior by causing a flood. By doing this he would need the help of his brother Neptune, the god of fresh water and the sea. A couple by the names of Deucalion and Pyrra were spared by the gods because of their righteousness from the other humans. Deucalion was also warned by his father that Neptune would strike the earth the cause a flood. As Neptune struck the earth and caused the flood to wipe out the sinful humans who lived on land. The couple built a boat which would keep them from drowning like the other humans that will die. They boarded the boat which they sailed for more than a week until they landed on Mount Parnassus. On Mt. Parnassus they were the starting human of the new age where they needed to reproduce the next era of humans. Deucalion and Pyrra were asked to throw stones behind them which spawn either a man or woman. Which would repopulate the next upcoming human race for the next age.
This myth conveys the common theme of man committing some kind of crime against the gods and the gods punishing them. However we see that they're is a couple who decided to follow the god's righteous path and they were able to overcome the chaotic punishment. In many of these myths it is obvious that the purpose was to make sure that the people who would be reading these myths do not stray from the righteous path. Lastly at the end of these cosmic myths there tends to be a theme of rebirth and regrowth and within this myth specifically we see this couple create men and women by tossing stones behind them.
ReplyDelete