Towards the end of the Age of Bronze the human world became very cruel.Men grew hungry, impolite and ungodly（邪恶的） . Neither right nor law was respected any longer, and the rule of hospitality was forgotten. Dressed up in human form, Zeus visited Arcadia and Thessaly, and disliked the deadly wrongs of men. He decided to clear the earth of them all. Without hesitation he released the rainy south wind and called upon the heartless Poseidon to help. Soon the whole world sank in a vast ocean, and the entire humanrace disappeared in the unheard of（前所未闻的） flood, all but two poor Thessalians.
These were an old childless couple, kind and faithful and contented with life. The man was called Deucalion and his wife Pyrrha. Son of Prometheus, Deucalion had been warned beforehand by his father of the coming flood.
He made himself a huge chest. When the roaring flood came the couple hid themselves in it and floated for nine days until it touched land again on Mt Parnassus.
The once active world presented a frightening sight. It was all death and ruin. Feeling lonely and unsafe, the old couple prayed to the gods for help. A sage（圣人） instructed them to cast the bones of their mother about. The son of the wise Titan, having guessed the true meaning of the mysterious command, started throwing stones behind him.
A miracle occurred. The stones that the man cast became men, the stones that the woman threwturned into women. Since then, people appeared on the land again. The Heroic Age had begun.
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