king of Thessaly. The flood said to have happened in his time (1500 B.C.), is supposed to have been only an inundation of that country, occasioned by heavy rains, and an earthquake that flooded the course of the river Peneus where it usually discharged itself into the sea. On these circumstances the fable of Deucalion's flood is founded.—According to the fable, he was the son of Prometheus. He governed his people with equity; but the rest of mankind being extremely wicked, were destroyed by a flood, while Deucalion and Pyrrha his queen saved themselves by ascending Mount Parnassus. When the waters were decreased, they went and consulted the oracle of Themis, on the means by which the earth was to be repeopled: when they were ordered to veil their heads and faces, to unloose their girdles, and throw behind their backs the bones of their great mother. At this advice Pyrrha was seized with horror; but Deucalion explained the mystery, by observing, that their great mother must mean the earth, and her bones the stones; when taking them up, those Deucalion threw over his head became men, and those thrown by Pyrrha, women.

Some have supposed that Deucalion, whom the Greeks have represented under a variety of characters, and concerning whom their poets have given many fabulous accounts, was the same with the patriarch Noah; and that Deucalion's flood in Thessaly, as well as that of Oggyes in Attica, and of Prometheus in Egypt, were the same with that of Noah recorded in scripture. Diodorus Siculus expressly says, that in the deluge which happened in the time of Deucalion almost all flesh died. Apollodorus having mentioned Deucalion ἐν ἀρχῇ, "confined to an ark," takes notice, upon his quitting it, of his offering up an immediate sacrifice, Διὸς θεῷ, "to the God who delivered him." As he was the father of mankind, the ancients have given him great dignity and universal monarchy; though sometimes he is reduced to a petty king. Deucalion king of Thessaly. Apollonius Rhodius makes him a native of Greece, and the son of Prometheus. We may learn, however, from their confused history, that the person represented was the first of men, through whom religious rites were renewed, cities built, and civil polity established in the world; none of which circumstances are applicable to any king of Greece. Philo affirms us, that the Grecians call the person Deucalion, but the Chaldeans style him Noe, in whose time there happened the great eruption of waters.

But as Lucian has given us the most particular history of the deluge, and that which comes nearest to the account given by Moses; and as he was a native of Samotata, a city of Commagene upon the Euphrates, a part of the world where memorials of the deluge were particularly preserved, and where an obvious reference to that history may be observed in the rites and worship of the country, we shall give the following extract of what he says on the subject. Having described Noah under the name of Deucalion, he says, that the present race of mankind are different from those who first existed; for those of the antediluvian world were all destroyed. The present world is peopled from the sons of Deucalion; having increased to so great a number from one person. In respect to the former brood, they were men of violence, and lawless in their dealings. They regarded not oaths, nor observed the rites of hospitality, nor showed mercy to those who sued for it. On this account they were doomed to destruction; and for this purpose there was a mighty eruption of waters from the earth, attended with heavy showers from above; so that the rivers swelled, and the sea overflowed, till the whole earth was covered with a flood, and all flesh drowned. Deucalion alone was preserved, to repeople the world. This mercy was shown to him on account of his justice and piety. His preservation was effected in this manner; he put all his family, both his sons and their wives, into a vast ark which he had provided, and he went into it himself. At the same time animals of every species, boars, horses, lions, serpents, whatever lived upon the face of the earth, followed him by pairs: all which he received into the ark, and experienced no evil from them; for there prevailed a wonderful harmony throughout by the immediate influence of the Deity. Thus were they waited with him as long as the flood endured. After this he proceeds to mention, that upon the disappearance of the waters Deucalion went forth from the ark, and raised an altar to God.

Dr Bryant produces a variety of monuments that bear an obvious reference to the deluge in the Gentile history, besides this account of Deucalion and his food. Analysis of Ancient Mythology, vol. ii. p. 193

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