Deucalion and Pyhrra

Stones into People

 

After a great flood destroys the earth (sort of like the story of Noah in the Bible), only Deucalion and his wife Pyhrra are left. The couple goes to the temple of Themis to ask how to restore the human race. The goddess tells them to take their mother’s bones and throw them over their shoulders. Disgusted at the idea of digging up their parents’ graves, they sit and ponder what Themis might have meant.

 

At length Deucalion sooths his wife with words

Of cheering import: “Right, if I divine,

“No impious deed the deity desires:

“Earth is our mighty mother, and her bones

“The stony rocks within her;—these behind

“Our backs to cast, the oracle commands.”

With joy th' auspicious augury she hears,

But joy with doubt commingled, both so much

The heavenly words distrust; yet still they hope

The essay cannot harm. The temple left,

Their heads they cover, and their vests unbind;

And o'er their heads as order'd heave the stones.

The stones—(incredible! unless the fact

Tradition sanction'd doubtless) straight began

To lose their rugged firmness,—and anon,

To soften,—and when soft a form assume.

Next as they grew in size, they felt infus'd

A nature mild,—their form resembled man!

But incorrectly: marble so appears,

Rough hewn to form a statue, ere the hand

Completes the shape. What liquid was, and moist,

With earthy atoms mixt, soft flesh became;

Parts solid and unbending chang'd to bone;

In name unalter'd, veins the same remain'd.

Thus by the gods' beneficent decree,

And brief the change, the stones Deucalion threw,

A manly shape assum'd; but females sprung

From those by Pyrrha cast behind; and hence

A patient, hard, laborious race we prove,

And shew the source, by actions, whence we sprung.