Chapter XVIII.—Errors of the Greeks About the Deluge.

For Plato, as we said above, when he had demonstrated that a deluge had happened, said that it extended not over the whole earth, but only over the plains, and that those who fled to the highest hills saved themselves. But others say that there existed Deucalion and Pyrrha, and that they were preserved in a chest; and that Deucalion, after he came out of the chest, flung stones behind him, and that men were produced from the stones; from which circumstance they say that men in the mass are named “people.”151    λαός, from λᾶας, stone. Others, again, say that Clymenus existed in a second flood. From what has already been said, it is evident that they who wrote such things and philosophized to so little purpose are miserable, and very profane and senseless persons. But Moses, our prophet and the servant of God, in giving an account of the genesis of the world, related in what manner the flood came upon the earth, telling us, besides, how the details of the flood came about, and relating no fable of Pyrrha nor of Deucalion or Clymenus; nor, forsooth, that only the plains were submerged, and that those only who escaped to the mountains were saved.

Πλάτων γάρ, ὡς προειρήκαμεν, δηλώσας κατακλυσμὸν γεγενῆσθαι, ἔφη μὴ πάσης τῆς γῆς ἀλλὰ τῶν πεδίων μόνον γεγενῆσθαι, καὶ τοὺς διαφυγόντας ἐπὶ τοῖς ὑψηλοτάτοις ὄρεσιν αὐτοὺς διασεσῶσθαι. ἕτεροι δὲ λέγουσι γεγονέναι ∆ευκαλίωνα καὶ Πύρραν, καὶ τούτους ἐν λάρνακι διασεσῶσθαι καὶ τὸν ∆ευκαλίωνα μετὰ τὸ ἐλθεῖν ἐκ τῆς λάρνακος λίθους εἰς τὰ ὀπίσω πεπομφέναι καὶ ἀνθρώπους ἐκ τῶν λίθων γεγενῆσθαι· ὅθεν φασὶν λαοὺς προσαγορεύεσθαι τὸ πλῆθος ἀνθρώπων. ἄλλοι δ' αὖ Κλύμενον εἶπον ἐν δευτέρῳ κατακλυσμῷ γεγονέναι. Ὅτι μὲν οὖν ἄθλιοι καὶ πάνυ δυσσεβεῖς καὶ ἀνόητοι εὑρίσκονται οἱ τὰ τοιαῦτα συγγράψαντες καὶ φιλοσοφήσαντες ματαίως, ἐκ τῶν προειρημένων δῆλόν ἐστιν. ὁ δὲ ἡμέτερος προφήτης καὶ θεράπων τοῦ θεοῦ Μωσῆς περὶ τῆς γενέσεως τοῦ κόσμου ἐξιστορῶν διηγήσατο τίνι τρόπῳ γεγένηται ὁ κατακλυσμὸς ἐπὶ τῆς γῆς, οὐ μὴν ἀλλὰ καὶ τὰ τοῦ κατακλυσμοῦ ᾧ τρόπῳ γέγονεν, οὐ Πύρραν οὔτε ∆ευκαλίωνα ἢ Κλύμενον μυθεύων, οὐδὲ μὴν τὰ πεδία μόνον κατακεκλύσθαι, καὶ τοὺς διαφυγόντας ἐπὶ τοῖς ὄρεσι μόνους διασεσῶσθαι.