Latin Pyrrha is from the Greek word fire πῦρ/adjective πυρρός, ή, όν meaning flame colored, yellowish red, of persons with red hair (Liddell and Scott). The story of Pyrrha and her husband Deucalion is that of "The Great Flood", often equated with Noah's Ark-- flood myths, however, are not uncommon in the ancient world. They usually involve a god or gods who wish to purify the earth of its lack luster inhabitants, doing so with a giant flood.
Pyrrha is the daughter of Pandora and Epimetheus. She married Deucalion, the son of Prometheus and Clymene. The stories of Prometheus, Epimetheus and Pandora are well known from Hesiod's Theogony and Works and Days, the earliest written account of Pyrrha, however, comes down to us from Pindar:
"But lend your tongue to the city of Protogeneia, where, by the ordinance of Zeus with the flashing thunderbolt, Pyrrha and Deucalion came down from Parnassus and made their first home, and without the marriage-bed [45] they founded a unified race of stone offspring, and the stones gave the people their name. Arouse for them a clear-sounding path of song; praise wine that is old, but praise the flowers of songs that are new. They tell, indeed, [50] how the strength of the waters overwhelmed the dark earth; but by the skills of Zeus the ebbing tide suddenly drained off the flood. From these were descended your ancestors..."
Olympian 9: For Epharmostus of Opus Wrestling-Match 466 B. C.
Odes. Pindar. Diane Arnson Svarlien. 1990. http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.01.0162:book=O.:poem=9
The most complete account of Pyrrha, Deucalion and the great flood is in Book 1 of Ovid's Metamorphosis. Book 1, which has many parallels with the Theogony, begins with the creation myth-- god made all from chaos etc. Then it continues onto the "four ages". First, when Saturn was "king of the gods", the Golden Age-- no punishment, no wars, lots of fruit. Second, under Jupiter's reign, the Silver Age-- not as great as the Golden Age, but pretty good. Third, the Bronze age-- pretty bad. According to Ovid, there lived an Acadian king named Lycaon, who tried to trick Jupiter into consuming human flesh. As punishment, Lycaon was turned into a wolf, but because Jupiter felt that the Bronze Age as a whole was evil and disastrous he concluded that the earth must be wiped clean of man by means of a great flood.
Deucalion and Pyrrha arrived in Phocis to worship the Corycian nymphs on Mt. Parnassus and to consult the oracle, Themis... despite the horrific flood happening around them (?)... When Jupiter saw the sole survivors worshipping on Parnassus, he took pity upon them and stopped the flood. Realizing that they are the only two humans on earth, Deucalion and Pyrrha wept and decided to go ahead and consult Themis on what to do. She told them to throw the bones of their mother behind them as they leave. Understanding "mother" to be the earth, Gaia, as Deucalion and Pyrrha walk away, they threw stones behind them-- each one thrown by Deucalion turned into man and those thrown by Pyrrha turned into women. Thus, new humans. (Ovid, Metamorphoses, 1.163-415)
According to Apollodorus, it was Prometheus who instructed Deucalion to make a larnax for himself and Pyrrha ahead of the great flood. For nine days and nine nights, they floated from Thessaly to Mt. Parnassus. Upon arrival, Deucalion made a sacrifice to Zeus and was granted a wish-- his wish being to create man, which they did by casting stones (again those casted by Deucalion turned into men, those by Pyrrha, turned into women). Later, Deucalion and Pyrrha bore two sons, Hellen and Amphictyon, and a daughter, Protogenia. Those known as the Greeks were thus named after Hellen. (Apollodorus, The Library, 1.VII.1-3)
Liddell and Scott. An Intermediate Greek-English Lexicon. Oxford. Clarendon Press. 1889.
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