The Deluge in Greek Myth: Deucalion and Pyrrha

Record summary

The Deucalion and Pyrrha deluge tradition, preserved in sources including Ovid’s Metamorphoses and Greek mythographic writing, remained a standard comparative case in mid-century studies of flood narratives. It describes a catastrophic inundation followed by renewal through the surviving couple’s “stone” generation of humanity. The lead matters because versions differ in divine motive, geography and chronology, allowing comparison of literary adaptation rather than presumed historical memory. Classical sources are mythic and poetic texts, and their chronology does not establish a datable regional flood.