THE SURFACE OF THE GLOBE. 93 



Every Greek colony which had preserved any isolated traditions, 

 began then with their own particular deluge, because each of them 

 had some recollection of the universal deluge, which had been common 

 to all ; and when, in the sequel, they wished to bring their different 

 traditions to one common epoch, different events were supposed to 

 have happened, because dates quite uncertain, and perhaps entirely in- 

 correct, but each in its own colony regarded as authentic, did not 

 coincide with one another. Thus, in the same way that the Helle- 

 nians had a deluge of Deucalion, because they regarded him as their 

 first parent, the Autochtones of Attica had a deluge of Ogyges, be- 

 cause it was from him that they derived their origin. The Pelasgi of 

 Arcadia had that which, according to later authors, compelled Darda- 

 nus to betake himself towards the Hellespont*. The isle of Samo- 

 thracia, one in which a succession of priests was the earliest established 

 and also a more regular form of worship and connected traditions, had 

 also its deluge, which was thought the most ancient of all f , and which 

 they attributed to the rupture of the Bosphorus and Hellespont. They 

 preserved the idea of some similar event in Asia Minor I, and in Syria §, 

 and eventually the Greeks gave the name of Deucalion to the whole of 

 them II . 



But none of these traditions places this cataclysm very remote ; 



none of them is incapable of explanation, either as to its date or any 



other circumstances, by the changes which tradition must undergo, to 



which no precise date has been assigned by any written document. 



The very Remote Ardiquity attributed to some Nations is not 



historically true. 



Those who are desirous of assigning a very remote antiquity to the 



event, much higher and more extended than they have since been, it is needless to 

 occupy ourselves in detailing ; since it has been ascertained by the observations of 

 M. Olivier, that if the Black Sea had been as high as is supposed, there would have 

 been many channels for its waters, by hills and plains not so high as the present 

 shores of the Bosphorus ; and by those of M. le Comte Andreossy, that had it fallen 

 any day by this new opening, in the manner of a cascade, the small quantity of water 

 which could flow at one time through so confined an opening, would not only be spread 

 over the vast extent of the Mediterranean, without causing a tide of a few fathoms, 

 but that the simple, natural inclination necessary for the flowing of the waters, would 

 have reduced to nothing the excess of height above the banks of Attica. 



For other particulars on this subject, see a note that I have published at the head 

 of the third volume of Ovid, in M. Lemaire's collection. 



* Dion. Halicar. Antiq. Rom. lib. i. cap. Ixi. 



f Diodor. Sicul. lib. v, cap. 47. 



X Stephen of Byzantium Iconium ; Zenodotus, Prov. cent, vi. No. 10, and Suidas 

 Nannacus. 



§ Lucian de Dea Syra. 



II Arnobus contra Gent. lib. v, from 158, speaks of a rock in Phrygia, whence he 

 pretends that Deucalion and Pyrrha took their stones. 



