Before and After Deucalion's Cataclysm

Hellenes started observing and speculating about the origin of things and the order of the Universe since the time of Telchines who lived during the Age of Gods. According to Strabo they first came from Crete to Cyprus and then to Rhodes, they were excellent craftsmen and they fabricated the scythe for Cronos. Diodorus Sikeliotis says that it was to them that Rhea gave Poseidon to be brought up and the Knowledge they possessed was very useful to humans because they had got involved in Astronomy and taught it before Deucalion's Cataclysm. Apollodorus, on the other hand, says that the civilization before Deucalion's Cataclysm (certainly before 10.000 B.C.) was similar to that of the Bronze Age. According to the Egyptian Tradition, the Greek Actis, Helius' son -who lived in those inconceivable times- came to Egypt where he built a town and gave it the name of Helioupolis after his father's name (Helius=Sun) and Polis (=town). While he was there he taught Egyptians everything he knew about Astronomy (Diodorus Sikeliotis Book V, p.57). However, most of the information about the Pre-cataclysm civilization can be derived from "Critias" and "Timaeus" by Plato.

The Age of Heroes which succeeded the Age of Gods was marked by a retrogression of the civilization to Neolithic conditions caused by Deucalion's Cataclysm. After that devastating catastrophe - before that other big floods ( Ogygius' Flood ) and earthquakes had also stricken the region where Hellenes lived ("Critias", "Timaeus") - many people moved to other places taking with them their high knowledge, too. One of these new places was Egypt where part of the pre-cataclysm (before Deucalion's Cataclysm) civilization was preserved mainly among Egyptian priests ("Timaeus"). In Hellas, on the other hand, not all memories of the pre-cataclysm civilization were lost. Sparks of that Light were preserved in the Mysteries (Orpheas-Orphism) and among priests or certain people who were charged with the task of carrying the torch of that immemorial civilization to the later generations.

(File cosmo1.doc) last update:4/5/96


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Research by Roula Papageorgiou-Haska (vhaskas@zenon.logos.cy.net) V.Haskas HTML Author. Last modified on 06/05/96.