of the world induced Zeus to punish it by
a deluge; a terrible rain laid the whole of Greece under water, except a
few mountain tops. Deucalion was saved in an ark, or chest, which he had
been forewarned to construct. After floating nine days, he landed on the
summit of Mount Parnassus. Issuing from his ark, he found no inhabitants,
they having been destroyed by the deluge. Instructed, however, by Zeus, he
and his wife, Pyrrha, threw stones over their heads, and those which he
threw became men, and those thrown by his wife became women. Thus does
mythology account for the new settlement of the country--a tradition
doubtless derived from the remote ages through the children of Japhet,
from whom the Greeks descended, and who, after many wanderings and
migrations, settled in Greece.

(M325) Deucalion and Pyrrha had two sons, Hellen and Amphictyon. The
eldest, Hellen, by a nymph was the father of Dorus, AEolus, and Xuthus, and
he gave his name to the nation--Hellenas. In dividing the country among his
sons, AEolus received Thessaly; Xuthus, Peloponnesus; and Dorus, the
country lying opposite, on the northern side of the Corinthian Gulf, as
has been already mentioned in the preceding chapter. Substitute Deucalion
for Noah, Greece for Armenia, and Dorus, AEolus, and Xuthus for Shem, Ham,
and Japhet, and we see a reproduction of the Mosaic account of the second
settlement of mankind.

As it is natural for men to trace their origin to illustrious progenitors,
so the Greeks, in their various settlements, cherished the legends which
represented themselves as sprung from gods and heroes--those great
benefactors, whose exploits occupy the heroic ages. As Hercules was the
Argine hero of the Peloponnesus, so AEolus was the father of heroes sacred
in the history of the AEolians, who inhabited the largest part of Greece.
AEolus reigned in Thessaly, the original seat of the Hellenes.

(M326) Among his sons was Salmoneus, whose daughter, Tyro, became enamored
of the river Eneipus, and frequenting its banks, the god Poseidon fell in
love with her. The fruits of this alliance were the twin brothers, Pelias
and Neleus, who quarreled respecting the possession of Iolchos, situated
at the foot of Mount Pelion, celebrated afterward as the residence of
Jason. Pelias prevailed, and Neleus returned into Peloponnesus and founded
the kingdom of Pylos. His beautiful daughter, Pero, was sought in marriage
by princes from all the neighboring countrie