everal theories of how mankind came into existence are on offer. The question is as puzzling as the beginning of the world, and of the gods themselves. One theory suggests that human beings were as old as the gods, that they appeared at, or around about the same time. Another view is that mankind was produced from objects, and fashioned by the forces and elements of nature, in other words they grew from stones and trees, and were issued from oceans and rivers. Finally, of course, there is the god that may have brought mankind into the world, Prometheus, the fire-bringer who made mankind from earth and water.

However, Hesiod tells us that the new world was a place where people could live in some comfort and security, without having to fear the sudden appearance of a Titan or a Giant. The earth was believed to be a round disk, divided into two equal parts by the Sea, as the Greeks called it, - what we now know as the Mediterranean, - and by what we call the Black Sea. Around the earth, flowed the great river, Ocean, never troubled by wind or storm. On the farther bank of Ocean lived a mysterious people, whom few on earth ever found their way to. The Cimmerians lived there, but in the North, East, South or West, nobody knew. It was a land  cloud-wrapped and misty, where the light of day was never seen; upon which the shining sun never fell, endless night was spread over the land and its melancholy people.

Except for this one country, all those who lived across Ocean were exceedingly fortunate. In the remotest North, so far away it was at the back of the North Wind, was a blissful land where the Hyperboreans lived. Only a few stranger, great heroes, had ever visited it. Not by ship, nor yet of foot might this land be found. But The Muses lived not far from them, such were their ways On Ocean's bank, too, was the abode of the blessed dead. In that land, there was no snowfall nor much winter nor any storm of rain; but from Ocean the West Wind sang soft and thrillingly to refresh the souls of men. This place was the place that all men who kept themselves pure from all wrong cam after leaving the mortal earth.

One account of the creation of mankind follows the thoughts that it was Zeus (the gods themselves) that created mankind in five stages - The Five Ages of Man, the other account of the creation of mankind follows that of Prometheus and Epimetheus.

The two stories may differ in their accounts, but they do agree on one single point. For a long time, certainly throughout the happy Golden Age, only men were upon the earth; no women. Zeus created these later (Pandora), in his anger at Prometheus caring so much for men.

The Destruction of Mankind. Gradually man became so brazen and wicked, that Zeus decided to destroy the whole of mankind, and start again. This destruction was to take the form of a vast immeasurabe flood, all but a few of mankind would be spared....

The only child of Prometheus, Deucalion and his wife Pyrrha, the daughter of Epimetheus, were told by Prometheus to build themselves an ark and to stock it well with provisions. The Zeus sent down a tremendous rain that flooded the land to the heights of the mountains, leaving only the top of Mount Parnassus dry. For nine days and nine nights the ark of Deucalion drifted until it landed on Parnassus. When the rain ceased Deucalion stepped forth on the mountain and mad sacrifice to Zeus for the safe delivery of his wife and the ark to dry land. Zeus sent Hermes to ask Deucalion what his desire was. Deucalion replied that he wished the earth to be replenished with men. Zeus then directed the pair to cast stones behind them; the stones which Deucalion cast became men, and those that his wife cast became women.

Deucalion and Pyrrah were the parents of Hellen, one of the primitive ancestors of all of the Greeks, after whom they were known as the Hellenes, and from whom the word Hellenic comes. Hellen was the father of Dorus, Aeolus and Xuthus; Xuthus had two sons, Achaeus and Ion. From these names we derive some of the familliar names for the Greeks, such as as Dorians and Achaeans, as well as such adjectives as Doric and Ionic. It will readily be seen that these primitive heroic figures are of geographic significance. Among their descendants are the famous heroes of Greek legend.