e sea, came to the assistance of his brother
Jupiter in the work of destruction. He called all the rivers together
and said, "Give full rein to your torrents; enter houses; break
through all dams!"

They followed his command, and Neptune himself struck the earth with
his trident and let the flood enter. Then the waters streamed over the
open meadows, covered the fields, dislodged trees, temples and houses.
Wherever a palace stood, its gables were soon covered with water and
the highest turrets were hidden in the torrent. Sea and earth were no
longer divided; all was flood--an unbroken stretch of water.

Men tried to save themselves as best they could; some climbed the high
mountains; others entered boats and rowed, now over the roofs of the
fallen houses, now over the hills of their ruined vineyards. Fish swam
among the branches of the highest trees; the wild boar was caught in
the flood; people were swept away by the water and those whom the
flood spared died of hunger on the barren mountains.

[Illustration: DEUCALION AND PYRRHA CASTING THE BONES OF THEIR MOTHER
BEHIND THEM]

One high mountain in the country of Phocis still raised two peaks
above the surrounding waters. It was the great Mount Parnassus. Toward
this floated a boat containing Deucalion, the son of Prometheus,
and his wife Pyrrha. No man, no woman, had ever been found who
surpassed these in righteousness and piety. When, therefore, Jupiter,
looking down from heaven upon the earth, saw that only a single pair
of mortals remained of the many thousand times a thousand, both
blameless, both devoted servants of the gods, he sent forth the North
Wind, recalled the clouds, and once again separated the earth from the
heavens and the heavens from the earth.

Even Neptune, lord of the sea, laid down his trident and calmed the
flood. The ocean resumed its banks; the rivers returned to their beds;
forests stretched their slime-covered tree-tops out of the deep; hills
followed; finally stretches of level land appeared and the earth was
as before.

Deucalion looked around him. The country was laid waste; it was
wrapped in the silence of the grave. Tears rolled down his cheeks and
he said to his wife, Pyrrha, "Beloved, solitary companion of my life,
as far as I can see through all the surrounding country, I can
discover no living creature. We two must people the earth; all the
rest have been drowned by the flood. But even we are not yet certain
of our lives. Ev