Rome, Villa Farnesina, The Hall of Perspectives: the ample frieze with mythological scenes inspired by the Ovid Metamorphoses. Detail of Deucalion and Pyrrha throwing stones.Frescoes by Baldassarre Peruzzi (1517-8). Once the deluge was over and the couple had given thanks to Zeus, Deucalion (said in several of the sources to have been aged 82 at the time) consulted an oracle of Themis about how to repopulate the earth. He was told to cover his head and throw the bones of your mother behind your shoulder. Deucalion and Pyrrha understood that "mother" is Gaia, the mother of all living things, and the "bones" to be rocks. They threw the rocks behind their shoulders and the stones formed people. Pyrrha's became women; Deucalion's became men.
