Deucalion and Pyrra Repeopling the Earth

Standing before the Temple of Themis with their heads veiled in piety, the couple casts stones—the 'bones' of Mother Earth—over their shoulders as commanded by an oracle. On the ground, these stones are shown in various stages of transformation, softening and taking the shapes of infants and young children. The rugged, coastal landscape in the background shows the receding floodwaters and the desolate state of the world they are tasked with rebuilding.

This scene from Ovid’s Metamorphoses was interpreted by Renaissance Neoplatonists as an allegory for the vivification of matter and the inherent vitality within the earth. The transformation of mineral stone into living flesh mirrors alchemical themes of transmutation and the restoration of life from a 'prima materia' after a period of dissolution.