I: Iamblichos to Izanagi and Izanami 145
argues for a common source. In both the Chinese and Greek versions, the divine
founders are twins, while a prosperous, formerly upstanding people degenerate
into selfishness and are punished with the inundation of their island kingdom. In
most flood myths around the world, only a patriarch with his family and followers
survive, because he believed a warning of some kind that was scorned by others.
So too, the deluge hero becomes the founding father of a civilization, people, or
dynasty, whose descendants assert their legitimacy by tracing their unbroken
lineage to him.Iopus
In Virgil’s Aeneid, “long-haired Iopus, pupil of mighty Atlas,” was a
Carthaginian leader who learned from the Titan about astronomy; comets (“the
fires of heaven”); human origins; meteorology; and the Hyades, daughters of
Atlas and, therefore, “Atlantises.” These studies are preeminently Atlantean, even
suggestive of the final destruction. Iopus represented the scientific and cultural
legacy of lost Atlantis subsequently inherited by the Phoenicians, who used such
knowledge to become the foremost mariners of classical times.
(See Hyades)The Ipurina Flood Story
Indians of the Upper Amazon’s Rio Purus describe a deluge of fiery water
which long ago burned up the entire rain forest: “On Earth, all was dark as night,
and the sun and moon were hidden.”
(See Asteroid Theory)Iraghdadakh
Literally “the Old man,” a deluge hero of the Aleut Indians of the Aleutian
Archipelago, who repopulated the world after it was devastated by a great flood,
by casting stones on the Earth. This was the same method used by the Greek
Deucalion and dozens of other flood heroes around the globe, and it points to a
common, pre-Christian missionary experience.
(See Deucalion)Irin Mage
In the Tupi-Guarani story of the creation, early humanity was virtually wiped
out by a terrible fire from heaven. It was sent from the supreme god, Monan,
in punishment for the sins of the world. But a powerful magician, Irin Mage,
appeared at the last moment and summoned a worldwide deluge to extinguish
the flames.