THE METAMORPHOSES OF PUBLIUS OVIDIUS NASO

TABULA IX.
DILUVIUM.
Having res'.ved to dejtroy Uis race of men by a delude, Jupiter sends
the rain in totcntc. Ai .1 all Ci» Luarens. The s a as Jt.. with its auxiliai
waters ; the inur ial. n c- rrar! j, r.r.d the Wv,rl:j of men perish, till the wbole
surface of the earl .1 it .,u:i.i:; i an- every living thing ia destroyed, ex
cept Deucalion ar'I Pyrrha.
EXFLICATIO.
The ancients gu e accounts of several floods that happened, some of
which have been confounded u ith the great Noachic deluge. The flood
described as that of Deucalion, lock place in Tlicssaly, according t) the
Arundelian marbles, B. C. 1503, and was occasioned by the choking up cf
the channels of the Pencils ami ether rivers, and the bursting of the sen
through the Cyanean Straits and the Hellespont. The flood of Ogygcs,
another king of Thessaly, is described as still more ancient, and sub
merged all Greece But as Deucalion was the son of Prometheus, who
is said to have created the first man, and as Ogyges was the son of Terra,
or the Earth, it is very easy to perceive that Noah is the personage
represented by these different princes, and that accounts of partial inun
dations of the Grecian territory have been blended with the great diluvian
catastrophe of the \\ orld. The name Ogygian, as applied to the deluge,
would indicate Noah's flood, for it means the ancient. It is thus used by
Hesiod in his Theogony, when speaking of the Ogygian water of the
Styx, which is believed to be the waters of the internal abyss that assisted
in the destruction of the world, " when the fountains of th«' great deep
were broken up."
But it is expressly stated by the Greeks themselves, that the names of
Barbarians were rendered in their language and in others, so ns to pre
serve their original meaning, and that Noah was the original of the names
Noach, Sisithrus, Xisithrus, Ogygcs, and Deucalion. Besides this, there
are so many striking coincidences between the description of Noah's
flood, as given by Moses, and the different heathen accounts of a general
inundation, that no doubt can exist that they all relate to the same occur
rence. In the first place, it was designed as a punishment of the world
for its wickedness, and was general. The waters of heaven, of the sea,
and of the internal abyss, united to effect its destruction. The only man
preserved, with his family, was noted for justice, and had been warned
by Saturn (Jehovah) to prepare an ark for the preservation of himself,
and the beasts, and birds, and creeping things. He entered the ark with
these, and was borne in safety over the waters, and in time sent forth dif
ferent birds, and at length the dove, to ascertain if the waters were dried
up from the face of the earth. He learned, by these, that the flood had
abated. He was carried to a mountain, disembarked in safety, and wor
shipped the gods. These different heathen accounts, which, in illustra
tion of the te\t of the poet, I have given with the Biblical parallelisms,
will show they all relate to a common catastrophe, and are the traditions
of the great Flood that occurred in the days of Noah.
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^ CCID1T una domus ; sed non domus una penre 1
_ Digna fuit: qua terra patct, fera regnat Erinnys.
In (acinus jurasse pirtes. Dent ociiis omnes,
' ns?ent ' 7 lllls' m J«vena.,
works, there in none ll.ut iloetli goort. PSALM vi., trnincs imjilet numfrog, performs
xiv. 1
all her parts. The poet evidently makes
3. In facivns jurasse : that they hud { reference to the Roman senate, in which
sworn to comniit sin. Jnrasse is put, by thc principal senators, those elected by the
eyncope, for juravisse.
censor or other magistrate, had the privi
4. Sic slat snifrntia : so stand: Is my .. , reso- lege of speaking and of voting, while the
lution. My determination is unalterably Pcdnrii, or those occupying seats by right
fixed.
of former offices among the people, after
5. Pars wee: a part with voice applaud tre senators of the majorum gi-nlmm had
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