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576 CEEATION.
heroes of the fourth. The latter we might in Mosaic language
call sons of Elohim, and the former sons of men ; at the same
time, their origin from the ash would admit of their being placed
beside the first- created men of the Edda. The agreement of the
bestow the name of
myths would be more striking if we might
stone race on the third, and shift that of brazen, together with
stones being the natural
the creation from the ash, to the fourth ;
arms of giants. Apollodorus however informs us it was the
brazen race that Zeus intended to destroy in the great flood from
which Deucalion and Pyrrha were saved, and this fits in with the
Scandinavian overthrow of giants. The creation of Askr and
Embla has its parallel in the stone-throwing of the Greek myth,
and the race of heroes might also be called stone-created (see
SuppL).
It will be proper, before concluding, to cast a glance at the
Story of tlie Deluge : its diffusion among
the most diverse nations
of the earth gives a valuable insight into the nature of these
myths. 1
* From the sons of Grod having mingled with the daughters of
men sprang robbers and wrongdoers ; and it repented Jehovah
that he had made man, and he said he would destroy everything
on earth. But Noah found favour in his eyes, and he bade him
build a great ark, and enter therein with his household. Then
it began to rain, until the waters rose fifteen cubits above the
highest mountains, and all that had flesh and breath perished,
but the ark floated on the flood. Then Jehovah stayed the rain,
the waters returned from off the earth, and the ark rested on the
mountains of Ararat. But Noah let out first a raven, then a
dove, which found no rest for her foot and returned into the ark ;
and after seven days he again sent forth a dove, which came back
with an olive leaf in her mouth ; and after yet other seven days
he sent forth a dove, which returned not any more. 2 Then Noah
came out on the dry earth, and offered a clean burntoffering, and
1
Ulph. renders Kara/cXuoy^s by midjasveipdins, sveipan meaning no doubt the
same as K\veu>, to flush, rinse, conf. AS. swapan verrere. Diluvium is in OHGr.
unmezfluot or slnfluot (like sinwaki gurges, MHG. sinwage) ; not so good is the
OHG-. and MHG. smtvluot, and our siindfluth (s^-flood) is a blunder.
Sailors let birds fly, Pliny 6, 22. Three ravens fly as guides, Landnamabok 1, 2.