Defkalyon: The Ancient Greek Version of Noa (and his ark)

Sacred texts show that the story of a flood wiping out all of corrupt humanity is essential in a civilization's history. Just as the Sumerians and the Jews/Christians have a flood story in their history (bordering on mythology), so did the ancient Greeks. The Sumerians had Atrahasi build a boat as instructed by the god Enki, the Jews had Noa build an ark as instructed by God and the Greeks had Defkalyon build a boat as instructed by his immortal Titan father, Prometheus. And all of this happened to destroy the majority of mankind. But first, lets see the story of its creation...

The 3 Ages of Man and Their Creation

When the titan god Kronos reigned, he created a race of mankind - this is the first and golden age - which was happy and good. No one worked and they all lived on the earth in harmony (does this remind anyone else of the Garden of Eden?). When they died, they roamed the earth as daimones or spirits. However, this age ended when Kronos died and Zeus took over.

The second age is known as the silver age, during which Prometheus was instructed by Zeus to create the next "batch" of men, who were uglier and inferior in intelligence. The four seasons were created and men had to seek shelter and grow food.

The third age is the bronze age and this is the time of naturally-born humans, descendants of the silver age humans and nymphs. The problem with the bronze age humans is that they started to get greedy, corrupt and impious, failing to honor the gods. This angered Zeus, who decided to destroy them with a flood that would cover the earth.

Read the rest of the article at allthegreeks.com.

Sources:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atra-Hasis

http://www.theoi.com/Heros/Deukalion.html

http://el.wikipedia.org/wiki/Κατακλυσμός_του_Δευκαλίωνα

http://ancienthistory.about.com/cs/grecoromanmyth1/a/hesiodagesofman.htm

When the Gods Take Revenge

The Ancient Greeks managed to create a diety system of gods that were so "human" in their personal stories and traits, that is truly impressive. Their gods loved and hated with a passion, they would get jealous and they sought revenge. Especially the latter, they must have enjoyed. Here are a few cases of wrath felt by the gods as revenge:

Prometheus

This titan suffered the most terrible punishment from the gods of Olympus. Prometheus (which in Greek means forethought) was entrusted by Zeus to create humankind out of clay. Because he wanted to help his creations survive, he gave humans fire against the will of Zeus. When Zeus found out, he chained Prometheus on the top of mount Caucasus and sent an eagle every day to feast on his liver. The torture would continue for eternity every day, because Prometheus's liver regenerated at night, so that the eagle could eat it again the next day. Finally, decades later, Hercules saved him (with Zeus's compliance, of course).

Pandora

Pandora was a woman created by the god of fire Iphestos and "adorned" by Athena with all the beautiful characteristics and traits that a woman of charm should have. Pandora was meant to be Zeus second revenge on Prometheus and his creations (the humans). So, after Zeus chained Prometheus to the mountain, he sent Pandora with a box to Prometheus's brother, Epimetheus (afterthought). The woman was beautiful, so Epimetheus accepted this gift from the gods, although his brother had warned him not to accept any gifts from Olympus. Pandora brought a box with her, which she was instructed never to open, for any reason. Of course the gods counted on Pandora's curiosity, who they knew would eventually open the box. When she finally did open the box secretly, sorrow, famine, death and every other possible ailment were released into the world onto men. She managed to close the box right before hope escaped from inside...

Read about: Atlas, Odysseus, Pasiphae, Niobe