The Great Flood [Greek Mythology]

 

But there came a time, as the years rolled on and the centuries stretched themselves in the past, when the people grew so selfish and cruel, and avaricious towards each other, and so unmindful of the gods who worked with them and watched over them from Mt. Olympus, that Zeus, grieved that they should forget the innocent and happy Age that had once made earth so beautiful and their own lives so joyous, called the gods together in his great cloud palace.

*O gods and goddesses,” said Zeus, when at his command all had hastened up the nebulous shining path of heaven which the earth people called. the Milky Way; “O gods and goddesses, who so long have loved these people, have dwelt among them and have labored with them in all the time since first the earth was made, behold now the grievous state into which they have fallen. There is no love among them ; they seek only to slay one another; greed and selfishness have destroyed their happiness and have shut them out from great Olympus.”

“Let them be destroyed by fire,” said Hephaestus, whose great forges groaned and bellowed in the mountains, and sent their lurid flames high up in the heavens.

“Let them be destroyed by water,” said Neptune who dwelt in the depths of the dark green ocean.

And while they counselled thus together, Astraea, the goddess of justice, who even when Zeus called, had lingered among the earth people, still hoping they might turn to her and hear her plea, came slowly up the arch of heaven and laid her scales, with which so long she had weighed the claims of right and wrong, down at the feet of Zeus.

“Let the waters,” said she, “rather than fire, destroy the wrong that has turned the peaceful earth to one of war and sorrow; for then shall the earth itself be unharmed; the grass shall spring forth again; the trees shall send forth their leaves, and the flowers, nourished by the floods, shall brighten the hills and plains again.”

So Zeus called to the South Wind to bring its rains, and the sweet West Wind, and the fierce North Wind he chained into dungeons deep, that they might scatter not the heavy-laden clouds South Wind should bring.

Then Neptune lashed the seas in fury, and the waves rose mountains high; the rivers loosed their floods; the snows in the mountains melted, and the whole earth was covered with water.

Among the tree-tops the fishes swam; and there was no living thing upon the face of the earth — so the South Wind and Neptune believed;

But it was not the will of Zeus that there should be complete destruction of life upon the earth; and he sent Hermes to find the bravest, truest man and the bravest, truest woman, into whose ears he should whisper words of warning, and should lead them in safety to the top of Mt. Parnassus, far beyond the reach of wind and wave.

And there, safe in the shelter of a mighty cave, the Sun-god found them, when, after many days the water had subsided and the clouds had rolled away.

Joyously Deucalion and Pyrra greeted the coming of the Sun’s rays; and with hearts filled with hope, they raised their hands towards the rainbow arch, when it shone out in the eastern sky, a token to them that the wrath of Zeus had passed away, and that Hera had sent to them her own loving Iris with messages of hope and courage.