Zeus himself came down from his throne to see their way and
their doings. . . . Then Zeus returned to his home on Olympos,
and he gave the word that a flood of waters should be let
loose upon the earth, that the sons of men might die for their
great wickedness. So the west wind rose in its might, and the
dark rain-clouds veiled the whole heaven, for the winds of the
north which drive away the mists and vapors were shut up in
their prison house. On hill and valley burst the merciless
rain, and the rivers, loosened from their courses, rushed over
the whole plains and up the mountain-side. From his home on
the highlands of Phthia, Deukalion looked forth on the angry
sky, and, when he saw the waters swelling in the valleys
beneath, he called Pyrrha, his wife, and said to her: 'The
time has come of which my father, the wise Prometheus,
forewarned me. Make ready, therefore, the ark which I have
built, and place in it all that we may need for food while the
flood of waters is out upon the earth.' . . . Then Pyrrha
hastened to make all things ready, and they waited till the
waters rose up to the highlands of Phthia and floated away the
ark of Deukalion. The fishes swam amidst the old elm-groves,
and twined amongst the gnarled boughs on the oaks, while on
the face of the waters were tossed the bodies of men; and
Deukalion looked on the dead faces of stalwart warriors, of
maidens, and of babes, as they rose and fell upon the heavy
waves."

When the flood began to abate, the ark rested on Mount Parnassus, and
Deucalion, with his wife Pyrrha, stepped forth upon the desolate earth.
They then immediately constructed an altar, and offered up thanks to
Zeus, the mighty being who sent the flood and saved them from its
waters.[26:3]

According to Ovid (a Grecian writer born 43 B. C.), Deucalion does not
venture out of the ark until a dove which he sent out returns to him
with an olive branch.[26:4]

It was at one time extensively believed, even by intelligent scholars,
that the myth of Deucalion was a corrupted tradition of the Noachian
deluge, _but this untenable opinion is now all but universally
abandoned_.[27:1]

The legend was found in the West among the Kelts. They believed that a
great deluge overwhelmed the world and drowned all men except Drayan and
Droyvach, who escaped in a boat, and colonized Britai