When first the earth was born, it was a Golden Age, when people did not have to work.

All the food they needed grew on trees or in fields all year long, and the weather was so nice that nobody needed homes or warm clothing.

But this era did not last.

Next came the Silver Age, and the beginnings of winter. People had to learn to farm, and to build homes and to spin and weave so that they would have food, shelter and warm clothing. But it was still a pleasant time, without conflict or wars. Alas, the Silver Age, too, passed away.

The Bronze Age followed.

Now land was divided among people, and some got a lot and some only got a little, and there was jealousy and greed. People learned to distrust each other, and life was not so nice as it had been before.

Last came the Iron Age, and by this time, people had become so wicked that the gods and goddesses were disgusted with them. Jupiter called a meeting, and, while nobody was happy about the decision, the immortals agreed that the earth must be wiped clean.

At first, Jupiter planned to hurl thunderbolts at the earth until he had destroyed everything on it. Then he thought that so much thunder and lightning might set the heavens on fire.

Instead, he had the North Wind, which helps to scatter the clouds, locked up in a cave, and let the South Wind free to bring the storms to the earth.

And Juno had her messenger, colourful Iris, bring moisture up to the clouds so they could rain even more.

Jupiter called upon his brother for help, and Neptune ordered the rivers to let loose all their waters, and he drove his trident into the earth, opening the banks so that the waters raced out across the land.

At last, you could not tell the earth from the seas, for everything was water.

The Nereids were surprised in the watery depths, to find themselves swimming among villages, and dolphins swam and played in the branches of orchards.

There was no play for the lions and wolves who swam alongside the sheep and cattle, however. Everyone was struggling to stay alive, and men climbed mountains only to find the waters rising over the summits. Jupiter looked down and saw that the earth was entirely under water, and that nothing which had walked on its surface before survived. Except for one small boat.

In that boat, he saw Deucalion and Pyrrha, a couple who were well known to the gods and goddesses for their goodness.

Jupiter paused as he watched them. Then he called for the cave of the winds to be opened, so that the North Wind could come and blow back the clouds and disperse the water. Neptune sent Triton to the surface of the waters. He put his coiled horn to his lips and blew, ordering the rivers back to their banks.

The waters fell and the earth emerged from beneath the waves, and Deucalion and Pyrrha’s boat came to rest on the slopes of Mount Parnassus.

They climbed from the boat and gave thanks to the gods for sparing their lives. Then they looked around at what was left of the earth, and they wept.

“How can we live like this, alone on the earth?” Deucalion asked his wife.

Pyrrha shook her head sadly. But as they walked around, they found a temple, covered with green algae and mud from the waters.

Deucalion and Pyrrha lay on their faces on the temple steps and prayed to Themis, the daughter of Gaea and the aunt of mighty Jupiter.

“Please, goddess, have mercy on us. If there is anything we can do to repair the damage that has been done to our people, tell us, and we shall do it,” they prayed.

Themis felt sorry for them, and spoke aloud: “Go cover your heads, and throw the bones of your mother behind you,” she said.

Deucalion and Pyrrha didn’t know what to say to each other. They went and sat under a tree, and at last Pyrrha spoke up.

“I don’t think I can do that,” she said. “It would dishonour my mother to disturb her grave. I would rather we lived alone for the rest of our time than to do what we were told.”

They sat a while longer, and at last Deucalion spoke. “It seems to me,” he said, “that the goddess would not tell us to do something that would dishonour us.”

He sat forward and dug in the mud for a moment. “Our mother is the earth,” he said, and pulled out a stone from the dirt. “I think maybe this is one of her bones.”

Pyrrha took the stone from his hand and held it a moment, then smiled. “I think you must certainly be right,” she said.

They stood, and covered their heads with their cloaks as the goddess had commanded. They picked up stones from the mud and walked along together, tossing the stones over their shoulders.

Behind them, the stones that Pyrrha tossed gradually changed their shapes, and grew, and looked first like stone statues of women. Then each of them became soft and colourful, and then breathed and moved and became a real woman.

And the stones that Deucalion tossed behind himself grew in the same way into men.

The gods and goddesses watched the couple, and decided to join in repairing the earth, recreating the animals that once had lived there, so that they crawled out of the mud as if they were hatching from eggs.

And so the earth was once more populated.