Greek mythology describes various great floods throughout ancient history. Differing sources refer to the flood ofOgyges, the flood ofDeucalion, and the flood ofDardanus, though often with similar or even contradictory details. Like mostflood myths, these stories often involve themes of divine retribution, the savior of aculture hero, and the birth of a nation or nations. In addition to these floods, Greek mythology also says the world was periodically destroyed by fire, such as in the myth ofPhaëton.
| "Many great deluges have taken place during the nine thousand years, for that is the number of years which have elapsed since the time of which I am speaking; and during all of this time and through so many changes, there has never been any considerable accumulation of the soil coming down from the mountains, as in other places, but the earth has fallen away all round and sunk out of sight. The consequence is, that in comparison of what then was, there are remaining only the bones of the wasted body, as they may be called, as in the case of small islands, all the richer and softer parts of the soil having fallen away, and the mere skeleton of the land being left." |
| Plato'sCritias (111b)[1] |
Plato makes reference to great floods in several of his dialogues, includingTimaeus,Critias, andLaws. InTimaeus (22) and inCritias (111–112) he describes the "great deluge of all", specifying the one survived by Deucalion and Pyrrha, as having been preceded by 9,000 years of history before the time ofSolon, during the10th millennium BCE. InLaws, Book III,[2] argues that a great flood had occurred ten thousand years[3] before his time, as opposed to only "one or two thousand years that have elapsed" since the discovery of music, and other inventions. Plato also alludes to a well-known event of great destruction, inStatesman (270), where "only a small part of the human race survives",[4] presumably also referring to the flood of Deucalion.[2] In addition, the texts report that "many great deluges have taken place during the nine thousand years" since Athens andAtlantis were preeminent.[5]
The Ogygian flood is so called because it occurred in the time ofOgyges,[6] a mythical king ofAttica. The wordsOgyges andOgygian are synonymous with "primeval", "primal" and "earliest dawn". Others say he was the founder and king ofThebes. In many traditions the Ogygian flood is said to have covered the whole world and was so devastating that Attica remained without kings until the reign ofCecrops.[7]
TheDeucalion legend as told by theBibliotheca has some similarity to otherdeluge myths such as theEpic of Gilgamesh (which Stephanie West writes was likely the source of this myth[8]); the story ofNoah's Ark in theJudeo-Christian telling; and the story ofManu's ark in theHindu, Buddhist and Jain religions. TheTitanPrometheus advised his son Deucalion to build a chest. All other men perished except for a few who escaped to high mountains. The mountains inThessaly were parted, and all the world beyond the Isthmus and Peloponnese was overwhelmed. Deucalion and his wifePyrrha, after floating in the chest for nine days and nights, landed onParnassus. An older version of the story told byHellanicus has Deucalion's "ark" landing onMount Othrys inThessaly. Another account has him landing on a peak, probably Phouka, inArgolis, later calledNemea. When the rains ceased, he sacrificed toZeus. Then, at the bidding of Zeus, he threw stones behind him, and they became men, and the stones Pyrrha threw became women. TheBibliotheca gives this as anetymology for GreekLaos (λᾱός, 'people') as derived fromlaas ('stone').[9] TheMegarians told that Megarus, son of Zeus and a Sithnid nymph, escaped Deucalion's flood by swimming to the top of Mount Gerania, guided by the cries ofcranes.[10]
According to the theogony of theBibliotheca, Prometheus moulded men out of water and earth and gave them fire which, unknown to Zeus, he had hidden in a stalk of fennel. When Zeus learned of it, he ordered Hephaestus to nail Prometheus to Mount Caucasus, a Scythian mountain. Prometheus was nailed to the mountain and kept bound for many years. Every day an eagle swooped on him and devoured the lobes of his liver, which grew by night. That was the penalty that Prometheus paid for the theft of fire until Heracles afterwards released him.
Prometheus had a son Deucalion. He, reigning in the regions about Phthia, marriedPyrrha, the daughter ofEpimetheus (the brother of Prometheus) andPandora (the first woman fashioned by the gods). And when Zeus would destroy the men of the Bronze Age, Deucalion, by the advice of Prometheus, constructed a chest. Having stocked it with provisions, he embarked in it with Pyrrha. Zeus, by pouring heavy rain from heaven, flooded the greater part of Greece, so that all men were destroyed, except a few who fled to the high mountains in the neighbourhood as Peloponnesus was overwhelmed. But Deucalion, floating in the chest over the sea for nine days and as many nights, drifted to Parnassus, and there, when the rain ceased, he landed and made a sacrifice to Zeus, the god of Escape. And Zeus sent Hermes to him and allowed him to choose what he would, and he chose to get men.
At the bidding of Zeus he took up stones and threw them over his head, and the stones Deucalion threw became men, and the stones Pyrrha threw became women. Hence people were called metaphorically people (Laos) from laas, "a stone." And Deucalion had children by Pyrrha, firstHellen, whose father some say was Zeus, and secondAmphictyon, who reigned over Attica afterCranaus, and third a daughter Protogonia, who became the mother ofAethlius by Zeus. Hellen had Dorus,Xuthus, andAeolus by a nymph Orseis. Those who were called Greeks he namedHellenes (Ἕλληνες) after himself, and divided the country among his sons. Xuthus received Peloponnese and begatAchaeus andIon byCreusa, daughter ofErechtheus, and from Achaeus and Ion the Achaeans and Ionians derive their names. Dorus received the country over against Peloponnese and called the settlers Dorians after himself.
Aeolus reigned over the regions about Thessaly and named the inhabitants Aeolians. He marriedEnarete, daughter ofDeimachus, and begat seven sons,Cretheus,Sisyphus,Athamas,Salmoneus, Deion,Magnes,Perieres, and five daughters,Canace,Alcyone,Pisidice,Calyce,Perimede. Perimede hadHippodamas andOrestes by Achelous; and Pisidice hadAntiphus and Actor by Myrmidon. Alcyone was married toCeyx (son ofEosphorus), and both are described by several sources as having been transformed intohalcyon birds, giving rise to the termhalcyon days.
The motif of aweather deity who headed the pantheon causing the great flood and then the trickster whocreated men from clay saving man is also present inSumerian Mythology, asEnlil, instead ofZeus, causes the flood, andEnki, rather thanPrometheus, saves man. Stephanie West has written that this is perhaps due to the Greeks borrowing stories from the Near East.[8]
Nannacus was a legendary king ofPhrygia before the Flood of Deucalion. Nannacus predicted the Flood and had organized public prayers to avert this disaster. After Nannacus died, whom his subjects greatly mourned, came the Deluge of Deucalion.[11]
This one has the same basic story line.According toDionysius of Halicarnassus,Dardanus leftPheneus inArcadia to colonize a land in the North-EastAegean Sea. When Dardanus' deluge occurred, the land was flooded and the mountain where he and his family survived formed the island ofSamothrace. He left Samothrace on an inflated skin to the opposite shores ofAsia Minor and settled onMount Ida. Due to the fear of another flood, they refrained from building a city and lived in the open for fifty years. His grandsonTros eventually moved from the highlands down to a large plain, on a hill that had many rivers flowing down from Ida above. There he built a city, which was namedTroy after him.[12] Today, we call the area "theDardanelles" (formerly known asHellespont), a narrow strait in northwesternTurkey that connects theAegean Sea to theSea of Marmara. The name is derived fromDardanus, an ancient city on the Asian shore of the strait, whose name was mythologized as deriving from Dardanus, the son ofZeus andElectra.
