2. The Deucalionids

Prometheus and early man

¹After he had fashioned men* from water and earth, Prometheus

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also gave them fire, which he had hidden in a fennel* stalk in secret from Zeus. But when Zeus learned of it, he ordered Hephaistos to nail his body to Mount Caucasos (a mountain that lies in Scythia). So Prometheus was nailed to it and held fast there for a good many years; and each day, an eagle swooped down to feed on the lobes of his liver, which grew again by night. Such was the punishment suffered by Prometheus for having stolen the fire, until Heracles later released him, as we will show* in our account of Heracles.

Deucalion, Pyrrha, and the great flood

²Prometheus had a son, Deucalion, who ruled the area around Phthia, and married Pyrrha, the daughter of Epimetheus and of Pandora, whom the gods had fashioned as the first woman.* When Zeus wanted to eliminate the race of bronze,* Deucalion, on the advice of Prometheus, built a chest, and after storing it with provisions, climbed into it with Pyrrha. Zeus poured an abundance of rain from heaven to flood the greater part of Greece, causing all human beings to be destroyed, apart from those few who took refuge in the lofty mountains nearby. It was then that the mountains of Thessaly drew apart and all the lands outside the Isthmus and the Peloponnese were submerged. But Deucalion was carried across the sea in his chest for nine days and as many nights until he was washed ashore at Parnassos; and there, when the rain stopped, he disembarked, and offered a sacrifice to Zeus, God of Escape. Zeus sent Hermes to him and allowed him the choice of whatever he wished; and Deucalion chose to have people. On the orders of Zeus, he picked up stones and threw them over his head; and the stones that Deucalion threw became men, and those that Pyrrha threw became women. That was how people came to be called laoi, by metaphor from the word laas, a stone.*

The immediate descendants of Deucalion

Deucalion had two sons by Pyrrha, first Hellen (though some describe him as a son of Zeus), and secondly Amphictyon, who became king of Attica after Cranaos; he also had a daughter, Protogeneia, who later bore Aethlios to Zeus.

³Hellen had three sons, Doros, Xouthos, and Aiolos, by a nymph, Orseis; and those who were called the Graicoi he named Hellenes* after himself. And he divided the land amongst his sons. Xouthos received the Peloponnese, and by Creousa, daughter of Erechtheus, he had two sons, Achaios and Ion, after whom the Achaeans and the Ionians were named. Doros received the country opposite the Peloponnese* and named its inhabitants the Dorians after himself. Aiolos became king of the lands around Thessaly and named their inhabitants the Aeolians. He married Enarete, daughter of Deimachos, and became the father of seven sons, Cretheus, Sisyphos, Athamas, Salmoneus, Deion, Magnes, and Perieres, and five daughters, Canace, Alcyone, Peisidice, Calyce, and Perimede.

Ceux and Alcyone; the Aloads; Endymion

Perimede bore Hippodamas and Orestes to Acheloos; and Peisidice bore Antiphos and Actor to Myrmidon. ⁴Alcyone became the wife of Ceux, son of Heosphoros. Both of them died because of their arrogance: for Ceux said that his wife was Hera, and Alcyone that her husband was Zeus, and Zeus changed them into birds, making her a halcyon*and him a sea-swallow*

Canace bore Hopleus, Nireus, Epopeus, Aloeus, and Triops to Poseidon. Aloeus married Iphimedeia, daughter of Triops, but she fell in love with Poseidon, and went down to the sea again and again, where she would scoop water from the waves with her hands and pour it into her lap. Poseidon had intercourse with her and fathered two sons, Otos and Ephialtes, who are known as the Aloads.* They grew a cubit broader every year and a fathom* higher; and when they were nine years old, and nine cubits across and nine fathoms in height, they resolved to fight against the gods. They piled Ossa on Olympos and Pelion* on Ossa, and threatened to use these mountains to climb up to heaven; and they said that by filling the sea with mountains they would turn the sea into dry land and the dry land into sea. And Ephialtes sought to win Hera, and Otos to win Artemis; they also imprisoned Ares.* But Hermes freed him surreptitiously, and the Aloads met their death on Naxos* as the result of a subterfuge by Artemis; for she changed herself into a deer and leapt between them, and in their desire to hit the beast they struck one another with their javelins.

⁵Calyce and Aethlios had a son, Endymion, who led the Aeolians out of Thessaly and founded Elis. It is said by some, however, that Endymion was a son of Zeus. Because of his exceptional beauty the Moon fell in love with him; and when Zeus allowed him the choice of whatever he wished, he chose to sleep for ever and so remain untouched by either age or death.

Early Aetolian genealogies; Evenos and Marpessa

⁶By a naiad nymph, or according to some, by Iphianassa, Endymion had a son, Aitolos, who killed Apis, son of Phoroneus,* and fled to the land of the Curetes.* There he killed the sons of Phthia and Apollo who had welcomed him, namely, Doros, Laodocos, and Polypoites, and called the country Aetolia after himself.

⁷By Pronoe, daughter of Phorbos, Aitolos had two sons, Pleuron and Calydon, after whom the two cities in Aetolia were named. Pleuron married Xanthippe, daughter of Doros, and had a son, Agenor, and three daughters, Sterope, Stratonice, and Laophonte. To Calydon and Aiolia, daughter of Amy-thaon, were born two daughters, Epicaste and Protogeneia, who bore Oxylos to Ares. Pleuron’s son Agenor married Epicaste, daughter of Calydon, and fathered Porthaon and a daughter, Demonice, who bore Evenos, Molos, Pylos, and Thestios to Ares.

⁸Evenos had a daughter, Marpessa, who, while she was being courted by Apollo, was carried off by Idas, son of Aphareus, in a winged chariot which he had received from Poseidon. Chasing after him* in a chariot, Evenos went as far as the River Lycormas, but finding it impossible to catch up with Idas, he slaughtered his horses and hurled himself into the river, which is now named the Evenos after him. ⁹Idas went on to Messene,* where Apollo happened to meet him and tried to take the girl away from him. As they were fighting for her hand, Zeus separated them and allowed the girl herself to choose which of them she preferred to live with; and Marpessa, fearing that Apollo might leave her when she grew old, selected Idas for her husband.

¹⁰By Eurythemis, daughter of Cleoboia, Thestios had three daughters, Althaia, Leda, and Hypermnestra, and four sons, Iphiclos, Evippos, Plexippos, and Eurypylos.

By Euryte, daughter of Hippodamas, Porthaon had five sons, Oineus, Agrios, Alcathoos, Melas, and Leucopeus, and a daughter, Sterope, who is said to have borne the Sirens to Acheloos.*

Oineus, Meleager, and the hunt for the Calydonian boar

¹Oineus, the king of Calydon, was the first to receive a vine

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plant from Dionysos.* He married Althaia, daughter of Thestios, and fathered Toxeus—who was put to death by Oineus himself for jumping over the ditch*—and two further sons, Thyreus and Clymenos. He also had a daughter, Gorge, who became the wife of Andraimon, and another daughter, Deianeira, who is said to have been Althaia’s child by Dionysos. Deianeira drove a chariot and practised the arts of war; and Heracles wrestled with Acheloos to gain her hand.