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Pyrrha (ancient Greek Πύρρα) is a character in ancient Greek mythology, daughter of Epimetheus and Pandora, wife of Deucalion. Only she and her husband survived after the Deucalion flood and created a new people, throwing stones behind their backs. Pyrrha became the mother of the eponym of the Hellenes. She appears in a number of literary, musical and pictorial works created during the modern era.
In mythology
The name Pyrrhus / Pyrrha (Πύρρος / Πύρρα) is derived from the ancient Greek Πύρρος - "red, fiery" [1]. The earliest form of this name (pu-wa, Purwa) is found in the Mycenaean texts [2].
In ancient sources, Pyrrha has no independent meaning: it is just a character in genealogies and companion of Deucalion [3] [4]. Ancient authors call her the daughter of the titanide Epimetheus and Pandora - the first woman created by Zeus. Pyrrha became the wife of her cousin Deucalion, son of Prometheus; according to Pseudo-Apollodorus, the couple lived in Phthiotida [5], and according to the Paros Chronicle, on Mount Parnassus. When Zeus planned to destroy the people of the "copper age", he made an exception for Pyrrha and her husband. God ordered Deucalion in advance to build an ark and prepare supplies there for the long voyage. All humanity perished because of the flood sent by Zeus. Deucalion and Pyrrha sailed on the sea for nine days, and when the terrible downpour stopped, they landed on the shore. Most sources claim that this happened on the slope of Parnassus, but there are opinions in favor of one of the mountains of Phthiotida and Mount Etna in Sicily [6] [3] [7] [4].
Pyrrha and Deucalion did not want to be the only people on earth. Therefore, they asked Zeus to revive the human race and received advice: to throw the "bones of the foremother of the Earth" over the head. Deucalion guessed that it was about stones. He and Pyrrha started throwing stones, and they immediately turned into people (thrown by Deucalion at men, by Pyrrhus at women) [8]. Thus a new people arose, ruled by Deucalion [7]. The spouses spent the rest of their lives, according to some sources, in Opunta Locrii, according to others - in the seaside town of Kinos in Locrid [3] [4].
Pyrrha bore many children to her husband. These were, according to various sources, Ellin (the eponym of the Hellenes, whom some authors considered the son of Zeus), Amphictyon, Oresteus, Kandib, Protogena (she gave birth to the hero Aeflius from Zeus), Phia, Pandora, Melanfo or Melanfey [3] [4] ...
Memory
In historical times, travelers in Kinos were shown the tomb of Pyrrha [9]. According to Strabo, in ancient times, all Thessaly was called Pyrrhaea in honor of the wife of Deucalion [10], and off the coast of Phthiotida there were two islands called Pyrrha and Deucalion [11]. In general, Pyrrha was considered an eponym for many settlements and localities, which in reality, apparently, got their name from the reddish color of the earth [3].
The first author to write about the transformation of stones into people after the flood was a logographer of the 6th century BC. e. Akusilai. Presumably, he started from the similarity of the Greek words meaning "stone" and "people." This plot was used in a number of comedies (in particular in Epicharmus) [12], none of which survived, as well as in Ovid's Metamorphoses [3]. The Parian Chronicle dates the Deucalion flood to 1528 BC. e., early Christian historians in their chronological calculations placed it between the Ogygov flood and the Dardanus and attributed it to the time after Noah's flood; however, only the latter was considered universal [12].
The myth of Pyrrha and Deucalion gained relative popularity during the modern era. Plays by Heinrich Leopold Wagner and Hans Reyfisch (both titled Deucalion), operas by Luigi Bernasconi, Pierre Montand Burton, Giuseppe Sarti (all titled Deucalion and Pyrrha), relief by Antonio Filarete on the gates of St. Peter's Basilica in Rome, are dedicated to him. fresco by Baldassare Peruzzi and other works of art [7].
An asteroid discovered in 1907 named after Pyrrha
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