The rising flood of Jove and the other gods killed both man and beast. The orchards and planted fields that once thrived were washed away with the water. The crashing waves collapsed the houses and other buildings. The places that had no shores were covered with water and sunk further down. In this article, you will learn what happened after the great flood.
The temples and sacred images also fell victim to the waves of water. The birds tried to outlast the waters, but their wings were too tired from trying to continuously fly everywhere. In the end, the only thing that survived above water were the twin summits of Mount Parnassus. The only people to survive the flood were Deucalion and his wife Pyrrha, who were in a small boat during the flood.
Jove saw that only one man and woman survived the flood and remained on earth. He was pleased that they were husband and wife, and that they were people full of virtue. They were true worshippers of the gods. Jove released the North Wind so that the storms and clouds would recede. Neptune then called for Triton to help with bringing back the waves and tides. The god used his conch shell as a trumpet to signal the waters away.
Earth was soon restored, but it was lifeless and empty. When Deucalion and Pyrrha saw that they were the only living things on earth, they traveled to the Waters of Cephissus to ask for guidance. They sprinkled themselves with the holy water from this site and entered the temple. The pair asked for assistance and an oracle delivered an answer. The solution was to exit the temple and scatter the bones of their mothers behind them.
Deucalion wasn’t sure if what he heard was the right thing to do and Pyrrha exclaimed that she would never dishonor her mother’s spirit by interrupting the final resting place of her bones. Deucalion thought harder and concluded that the words of the oracle needed a little more interpretation and wasn’t supposed to be taken so literally. He believed that the mother mentioned was not a human mother, but the mother earth instead. He said that the bones the oracle spoke of should be stones from the body of mother earth.
Deucalion and Pyrrha started to scatter the stones from the earth. The ancient creation myth goes on to state that the tossed stones lost their hardness and started to take the shape of humans. The stones that Decualion scattered became men and the ones that Pyrrha scattered turned into females. This is how the earth became repopulated with men and women.
Natural processes started to increase and the earth started to gain back its warmth and moisture. The lower animals were also reborn during this time. Fire and water became part of the picture as the moist heat was the source of all living things.
Then through the natural process of warmth and moisture and earth reacting with one another the lower animals were reborn as well. Yes, fire and water are opposites, but moist heat is the source of all living things. Creation comes about through the resolution of opposing forces.