ukalion pondered his
words, till the wisdom of his father, Prometheus, showed him that his
mother was the earth, and that they were to cast the stones behind
them as they went down from Parnassos. Then they did each as they were
bidden, and the stones which Deukalion threw were turned into men, but
those which were thrown by Pyrrha became women, and the people which
knew neither father nor mother went forth to their toil throughout the
wide earth. The sun shone brightly in the heaven and dried up the
slime beneath them; yet was their toil but a weary labor, and so hath
it been until this day--a struggle hard as the stones from which they
have been taken.

But as the years passed on, there were children born to Pyrrha and
Deukalion, and the old race of men still lived on the heights of
Phthia. From Helen their son, sprang the mighty tribes of the
Hellenes, and from Protogeneia, their daughter, was born Aethlios, the
man of toil and suffering, the father of Endymion, the fair, who
sleeps on the hill of Latmos.

POSEIDON AND ATHENE.

Near the banks of the stream Kephisos, Erechtheus had built a city in
a rocky and thin-soiled land. He was the father of a free and brave
people, and though his city was small and humble, yet Zeus, by his
wisdom, foresaw that one day it would become the noblest of all cities
throughout the wide earth. And there was a strife between Poseidon,
the lord of the sea, and Athene, the virgin child of Zeus, to see by
whose name the city of Erechtheus should be called. So Zeus appointed
a day in which he would judge between them in presence of the great
gods who dwell on high Olympos.

When the day was come, the gods sat each on his golden throne, on the
banks of the stream Kephisos. High above all was the throne of Zeus,
the great father of gods and men, and by his side sat Here, the
Queen. This day even the sons of men might gaze upon them, for Zeus
had laid aside his lightnings, and all the gods had come down in peace
to listen to his judgment between Poseidon and Athene. There sat
Phoebus Apollo with his golden harp in his hand. His face glistened
for the brightness of his beauty, but there was no anger in his
gleaming eye, and idle by his side lay the unerring spear, with which
he smites all who deal falsely and speak lies. There, beside him, sat
Artemis, his sister, whose days were spent in chasing the beasts of
the earth and in sporting with the nymphs on the reedy banks of
Eurotas. Ther