Tuesday, August 10, 2010

Myths and Legends: Deucalion and Pyrrha

Deucalion and Pyrrha. To find out more about the great Flood, see this Wikipedia article: link; for information about the image: image source.

Today's image depicts the creation of humankind by Deucalion and Pyrrha, his wife. After surviving the great Flood, they found themselves alone in the world. An oracle told them to cover their heads and throw the bones of their mother behind their shoulders. They concluded that their mother was Gaia, the earth, and her bones must be stones, so they hefted up stones and threw them over their shoulders. The stones thrown by Pyrrha gave rise to women, and those thrown by Deucalion gave rise to men.

You can also find more myths and legends for the week of August 5 - August 11 here. For more information and links to the actual javascript code, see the Myths & Legends Widget Reference Page.