Other Images

Deucalion and Pyrrha after the Flood

On this sarcophagus c. 270 A.D., Deucalion and Pyrrha appear at the far right, with Deucalion standing by a tree which Pyrrha is examining (perhaps influenced by the story of Adam, Eve and the Tree of Knowledge in the Christian tradition?). Hard at work to the left are the Cyclopes (not those of the Odyssey, but Hesiod’s gods of the forge, sons of Earth and Heaven, who made Zeus’ thunderbolts). Here they are creating a new generation of mankind to people the earth after the flood. Note that this scene departs from Ovid’s account!