Hesiod gives in the Theogony and in the Works and Days an
account of the creation of the first woman, Pandora, yet does not explain
how man came to be, even though men are mentioned from the very beginning
in the Theogony. Apollodorus and Ovid tell how the world was
repopulated after the flood sent by Zeus / Juppiter in punishment for human
crimes. You may read [O] Apollodorus 1.7.2.
The creation of man: Apollodorus 1.7.1
[1] Prometheus moulded men out of
water and earth* and gave them also fire, which, unknown to Zeus,
he had hidden in a stalk of fennel.* But when Zeus learned
of it, he ordered Hephaestus to nail his body to Mount Caucasus, which
is a Scythian mountain. On it Prometheus was nailed and kept bound for
many years. Every day an eagle swooped on him and devoured the lobes of
his liver, which grew by night. That was the penalty that Prometheus paid
for the theft of fire until Hercules afterwards released him, as we shall
show in dealing with Hercules.*
[2] And Prometheus had a son Deucalion.*
He reigning in the regions about Phthia, married Pyrrha, the daughter of
Epimetheus and Pandora, the first woman fashioned by the gods.* And
when Zeus would destroy the men of the Bronze Age, Deucalion by the advice
of Prometheus constructed a chest,* and having stored it with provisions
he embarked in it with Pyrrha. But Zeus by pouring heavy rain from heaven
flooded the greater part of Greece, so that all men were destroyed, except
a few who fled to the high mountains in the neighborhood. It was then that
the mountains in Thessaly parted, and that all the world outside the Isthmus
and Peloponnese was overwhelmed. But Deucalion, floating in the chest over
the sea for nine days and as many nights, drifted to Parnassus, and there,
when the rain ceased, he landed and sacrificed to Zeus, the god of Escape.
And Zeus sent Hermes to him and allowed him to choose what he would, and
he chose to get men. And at the bidding of Zeus he took up stones and threw
them over his head, and the stones which Deucalion threw became men, and
the stones which Pyrrha threw became women
Pausanias on the creation of man: 10.4.4
[4] At Panopeus there is by the roadside a small building of unburnt brick, in which is an image of Pentelic marble, said by some to be Asclepius, by others Prometheus. The latter produce evidence of their contention. At the ravine there lie two stones, each of which is big enough to fill a cart. They have the color of clay, not earthy clay, but such as would be found in a ravine or sandy torrent, and they smell very like the skin of a man. They say that these are remains of the clay out of which the whole race of mankind was fashioned by Prometheus.
Ovid on the creation of man: Metamorphoses 1.5-1.533
In other cultures: