Pyrrha - Your Art History Reference Guide!

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Pyrrha

In Greek mythology, Pyrrha was the daughter of Epimetheus and Pandora and wife of Deucalion.

When Zeus decided to end the Golden Age with the great deluge, Deucalion and his wife, Pyrrha, were the only survivors. Prometheus told his son, Deucalion, to build an ark and, thus, they survived. During the flood, they landed on Mount Parnassus, the only place spared by the flood.

Once the deluge was over and the couple were on land again, Deucalion consulted an oracle of Themis about how to repopulate the earth. He was told to throw the bones of his mother behind his shoulder. Deucalion and Pyrrha understood the "mother" to be Gaia, the mother of all living things, and the "bones" to be rocks. They threw the rocks behind their shoulders, which soon began to lose their hardness and change form. Their mass grew greater, and the beginnings of human form emerged. The parts that were soft and moist became skin, the veins of the rock became people's veins, and the hardest parts of the rocks became bones. The stones thrown by Pyrrha became women; Those thrown by Deucalion became men.

Deucalion and Pyrrha had at least one son, Hellen, and possibly a second, Amphictyon (who is autochthonous in other traditions).

Last updated: 01-04-2007 01:18:57
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