EPISODE 45

IN THE COURSE OF WHICH A GREAT FLOOD COVERS THE EARTH

Previously: Zeus has allowed men one last chance. Yet he came upon the palace of Lycaon, a savage king who tried to make him eat human flesh! He is preparing a terrible revenge.

A voice is calling in the night. It is the voice of Prometheus, chained upon his rock. He calls, groans, he knows that men, his children, are under threat. He has given them life; he cannot bear to see them disappear. For he has guessed that Zeus intends to eliminate them all from the face of the earth. And this is why the chained Titan cries out for the very first time.

“Deucalion! Deucalion!” He is calling his favourite son. And his voice steals through the night, it reaches the ears of the sleeping Deucalion. “Deucalion, my son, wake up,” says the voice. “Build a great wooden crate, pile up in that crate as many provisions as possible, get your wife on board, and sit next to her yourself. Do as I tell you and you shall be saved. But above all, make haste!”

Deucalion peered wide-eyed into the darkness.

“Father? Is that you?”

He had of course recognized Prometheus’ voice. Yet Prometheus no longer answered. There was nothing around him except the silence of the night. The words of Prometheus’ message were still ringing in Deucalion’s head. He got out of bed, woke up his wife Pyrrha and immediately began to obey his father’s voice. He cut wood, sawed and hammered nails all night long, while Pyrrha prepared bags of food. At daybreak the crate was finished. Deucalion and Pyrrha climbed inside, then they waited.

As soon as he was back on Mount Olympus, Zeus had summoned his brother Poseidon, the god of the Seas. Since that time they had been closeted together in the council hall of the gods. Hermes wandered around the palace passageways, trying to guess what was being prepared. At last, the two great gods came stern-faced out of the hall. They advanced towards the palace terrace and observed the earth in silence. Zeus then said to Poseidon:

“Come, you go first!”

And so the god of the Seas raised his arms and began to command the tides:

“O sea, oceans and lakes, overflow and spread across the earth! And you rivers and streams, come out of your beds!”

Hermes shuddered as he listened to his uncle’s cavernous voice. He craned his neck down towards the earth and he was left aghast by what he saw. A flowing tide was sprawling everywhere. The seaside villages, the hamlets which had been built along a river, all these had already been drowned under great masses of water. Driven mad with fear, human beings were trying to escape the tidal wave. They ran and ran till they were out of breath. Some climbed on trees, others tried to seek refuge on the mountain tops. Terror and dismay reigned on earth.

At that instant, Zeus seized his thunderbolt and made it crack several times in the sky. He cried: “Now, black clouds, burst and empty yourselves upon the earth!” Immediately, a terrible thunderstorm broke out. The sky was streaked with violent flashes of lightning and torrential rain came crashing down on the earth—a continuous rain, which fell brutally and joined the tidal wave already engulfing everything. Before this raging sky, Zeus’ face remained immobile. The blinding flashes of lightning did not even make him blink. Hermes watched in turn this unleashing of violence in the sky and his father’s impassive face. He admired his father’s power. The punishment meted out to mankind was terrible, but their crime had been immense. They had forgotten the laws of the gods, they no longer knew how to welcome strangers. They had no respect for one another, they had become barbarians. Satisfied with the flood they had unleashed, Zeus and Poseidon separated. The rain continued to fall incessantly in this way for nine days and nine nights. By the end of the ninth day, when the water stopped trickling down the sky, it had engulfed the entire earth. There was nothing left except a vast area of water. Hermes looked down with sadness and observed this boundless sea, which by now covered the entire earth. His eyes searched desperately for some sign of the presence of a living creature. Everything seemed dead down below. The messenger of the gods could not believe that this was the end of mankind. He descended from Olympus and flew above the liquid mass, still hoping to find some sign of life. Yet nothing troubled the smooth surface of the water. “Have all men drowned, then?” Hermes asked himself, devastated.

 

To be continued…