1 Introduction
In 1390 BC, during the 13th year of the reign of Erechtheus, the sixth king of Athens, a tsunami struck Eleusis and Megara, forcing the people to flee to Mount Gerania. [1]
A similar tsunami was recorded 30 years earlier, in 1420 BC, describing the state of Rhodes at that time. [2]
Records of the likely cause of this tsunami include a major eruption between Thera (now Santorini), approximately 110 km north of Crete, and Therasia, just northwest of it. The eruption lasted four days, and the lava that erupted formed an island approximately 2 km in circumference. [3]
This record is believed to be the testimony of people living on Thera at the time.
In 1425 BC, part of a colony led by Cadmus, son of Agenor, settled on Thera. [4]
The tsunami of 1420 BC affected people living on Rhodes, Crete, and Samothrace.
The tsunami of 1390 BC affected people living on Rhodes, Crete, Lesbos, Chios, Athens, Eleusis, Egypt, and Corinth.
2 Rhodes
In 1450 BC, Erysichthon of Prasus in eastern Crete led a group of immigrants to Telchinis (later Rhodes). [5]
The island was inhabited by the Telchines. [6]
Erysichthon married Rhodos, daughter of Halia, one of the Telchines, and had seven sons. A conflict subsequently arose between Telchines and Rhodos' sons, and Telchines, defeated in battle, left the island. [7]
2.1 The Great Tsunami of 1420 BC
Shortly after Telchines left the island in 1420 BC, a great tsunami struck the island. The people were forced to live in the swampy land, and plagues ravaged the people. [8]
The sons of Rhodos led the people through this. After the tsunami, worship of the sun, which transformed the island's swampy land into arable land, began at this time. The settlers from Prasus considered Rhodos' husband, Erysichthon, to be the sun god Helius, and called his sons the Heliadae. [9]
The island's name, Telchinis, was also changed to Rhodes. [10]
In 1415 BC, after a dispute among the Heliadae, Rhodos' son, Actis (or Auges, Atlas), emigrated to Egypt and founded Heliopolis. [11]
2.2 The Great Tsunami of 1390 BC
In 1390 BC, when Cercaphus, son of Rhodos, died and his sons took over, the island was once again struck by a massive tsunami. Cercaphus' three surviving sons, Lindus, Ialysus, and Cameirus, founded towns in Rhodes that bore their names. [12]
The Rhodians dominated the Aegean Sea and were the first to land on Thera after the great eruption. [13]
3 Crete
No lore has been found about tsunamis in Crete. However, a careful examination of the lore reveals the following migrations, likely caused by tsunamis:
3.1 The Great Tsunami of 1420 BC
In 1420 BC, a great tsunami struck Cydonia, northwest of Crete, killing Cydon, son of Tegeates.
His wife, Europa, the daughter of Phoenix, and his two sons, Minos and Cardys, survived.
Cydon emigrated from Tegea in Arcadia to Crete in 1450 BC and founded Cydonia. Cydon's migration was due to famine. [14]
Europa visited Cydonia as part of a colony led by Cadmus, son of Agenor, and married Cydon. [15]
After Cydon's death, Europa remarried Asterius, son of Tectamus, son of Dorus, who had led a colony from Peloponnesus, and they lived in Cnossus. [16]
When Asterius died without an heir, Europa's son Minos succeeded him to Cnossus.
3.2 The Great Tsunami of 1390 BC
In 1390 BC, a massive tsunami struck northern Crete, affecting Cnossus, where Minos lived. [17]
Minos sought refuge with Cardys in Cydonia, but Cardys was also affected by the tsunami.
Minos and Cardys joined a Telchine migration from neighboring Aptera, carrying refugees to Asia Minor, and emigrated to Trood. Cardys later returned to Cydonia. Minos settled near Dardanus, then ruled by Dardanus' son Erichthonius. [18]
Dardanus' nephew Corybas and his wife Thebe had a daughter, Ide, and Minos had a son, Lyctius.
Ide and Lyctius later married. Ide and Lyctius were of the same race, sharing a common ancestor, Lycaon, son of Pelasgus of Arcadia. [19]
The wealth of Priam in Troy came from the gold mines of Astyra, near Abydus, north-northeast of Ilium.
The people who migrated with Minos from Crete likely also played a role in the mining. Having amassed wealth, Minos' descendants returned to Crete, acquired numerous ships, and gained control of the Aegean Sea. [20]
4 Lesbos
In 1560 BC, the Pelasgians, led by Xanthus, son of Triopas, migrated to the island from Argos.
At the time, the island was uninhabited and called Issa, but it later became known as Pelasgia. [21]
In 1415 BC, Macar, son of Erysichthon, settled on Lesbos from Rhodes. [22]
In 1390 BC, Lesbos was hit by a massive tsunami, flooding the island and leaving it desolate. [23]
The inhabitants of Lesbos abandoned the desolate island and moved to the mainland. [24]
After the tsunami, Macareus, son of Aeolus of Olenus, northwest of the Peloponnesus, led a colony to Pelasgia. [25]
Macareus himself was an Aeolian, but his colony included Ionians and Pelasgians. [26]
Before Macareus settled there, the island, called Pelasgia, came to be called Macareus's home. [27]
In 1340 BC, Lesbos, son of Lapithes, Macareus' brother, moved to live with his uncle, and the island came to be called Lesbos. [28]
5 Chios
In 1390 BC, a massive tsunami struck Chios, off the coast of Lydia. Macareus gathered the survivors and founded a town called Karides on the opposite shore of the island. [29]
After that, Macareus moved his son from Lesbos to Chios. [30]
6 Samothrace
In 1420 BC, Samothrace was hit by a massive tsunami. [31]
Dardanus, his brother Iasion's wife Cybele, and her son Corybas survived.
However, Dardanus's wife Chryse and Iasion died. [32]
Dardanus had emigrated to Samothrace from Methydrium in Arcadia in 1430 BC. [33]
Before the tsunami, Dardanus's sister, Harmonia, married Cadmus, who had visited Samothrace, and emigrated from the island to Thracia. [34]
After the tsunami, Dardanus emigrated from Samothrace to Troad and lived with Teucrus, who lived in Teucris. [35]
Dardanus remarried Teucrus's daughter, Bateia, and became Teucrus' successor, the founder of the Trojan kingdom. [36]
Cybele and Corybas lived on Mount Ida, where Cybele was worshipped as a goddess. Corybas introduced the dance to those who celebrated her mother's rites, calling them Corybantes. [37]
Cybele's worship was primarily focused on Cabeiri, but as it spread to Asia, worship shifted to Cybele, the Mother of the Mountains herself. [38]
7 Thracia and Peloponnesus
7.1 The Great Tsunami of 1420 BC
In 1420 BC, a great tsunami struck Thracia. It affected the Thracians of Edoni, who lived downstream of the Strymon River, and the people led by Cadmus, son of Agenor, who lived on the coast near Mount Pangaeus. [39]
Groups of Thracians and Cadmus migrated south in search of new lands. Their migration triggered the migration of people living in Thessaly. Dorus, son of Hellen, who lived in northern Thessaly, migrated south and settled between Mounts Oeta and Parnassus. [40]
Achaeus, son of Xuthus, who lived in Melitaea in Thessaly, emigrated to the Peloponnesus. [41]
The Thracians, led by Tereus, settled near Daulis in Phocis. Tereus then settled near Pagae in Megara.[42]
7.2 The Great Tsunami of 1390 BC
In 1390 BC, a great tsunami washed away Halus, a town on the western coast of the Pagasetic Gulf. [43]
Halus was a town founded by Athamas, son of Aeolus, who migrated from Arne in Thessaly. [44]
The tsunami also struck the Pelasgians, a group living along the coast of Thessaly. Lost in their homes, the Pelasgians migrated inland en masse and attacked Itonus, near Halus.
Itonus was founded by Itonus, son of Amphictyon, son of Deucalion, son of Dorus, brother of Athamas's father, Aeolus. Itonus was married to Melanippe, daughter of Aeolus, son of Hippotes, son of Athamas' brother, Mimas. [45]
Itonus' wife, Melanippe, was taken as spoils by Dius, the leader of the Pelasgians. [46]
Itonus' father, Amphictyon, lived in Anthela, near Thermopylae in Locris, and was king of the surrounding Dorians. Amphictyon rallied his people and drove the Pelasgians out of Thessaly. [47]
Driven from Thessaly, the Pelasgians scattered, but a large group headed west and settled around Dodona. Some Pelasgians migrated to the Italian peninsula under the leadership of Janus, son of Nanas. [48]
Melanippe, daughter of Aeolus, was taken by Dius to Metapontium in southern Italy. [49]
When Melanippe's son Boeotus reached adulthood, he returned with his mother Melanippe from the Italian peninsula to Arne in Thessaly and succeeded his grandfather Aeolus. [50]
Furthermore, after the great tsunami, the Ionians and Pelasgians, led by Aeolus' son Macareus of Olenus in Achaia, migrated to Lesbos. [51]
8 Athens, Eleusis, Egypt, Corinth
In 1390 BC, a massive tsunami struck Archandropolis in the Nile Delta, Egypt. Archandropolis was a city founded by Archander, son of Achaeus, who migrated from Argos. [52]
Belus, the son of Archander and Scaea, daughter of Danaus, led the stricken people on a journey in search of a new home. Belus joined a group of immigrants led by Aeetes, son of Sisyphus, from Corinth, who were setting sail in search of a new home. Corinth, newly founded by Sisyphus, son of Aeolus, was also hit by the tsunami.
Aeetes and Archander shared a common ancestor, Hellen, son of Deucalion. [53]
Aeetes's group also included Boreas of Athens and Ceryx of Eleusis, who led the tsunami-affected people.
8.1 Migration of Ceryx
Ceryx, son of Eumolpus, settled in Thracia near Thasos from Eleusis. [54]
Ceryx married Chione, daughter of Boreas, who was among the immigrants, and had a son, Eumolpus. [55]
In 1352 BC, a battle broke out between Immaradus, son of Eumolpus of Eleusis, and Erechtheus, son of Pandion of Athens. [56]
Eumolpus, son of Chione, led the Thracians to Immaradus's aid in Eleusis. [57]
Immaradus was killed in battle, and the cult of Eleusis was succeeded by Eumolpus and the daughters of Celeus. Immaradus's brother, Ceryx, was invited from Thracia to succeed them. After Ceryx's death, his son Eumolpus migrated from Thracia to Eleusis and took over the cult.[58]
8.2 Migration of Boreas
Boreas was the son of Butes, the twin brother of Erechtheus, the sixth king of Athens, and a priest of Athens. Boreas married his cousin, Orithyia, daughter of Erechtheus. [59]
Boreas parted ways with the Aeetes colony near Samothrace. Boreas traveled up the Hebrus River in Thracia and its tributary, the Rheginia River, to find a suitable settlement. The Rheginia River, formerly called the Erigon River, was located at the foot of Mount Haemon, near the Sarpedon Rock. [60]
Boreas' settlement is believed to have been near present-day Ipsala in northwestern Turkey.
Boreas's colony was not an official expedition that departed from Prytaneum in Athens. [61]
The following marriage relationships among Boreas' children suggest that he migrated with Belus and Ceryx.
8.2.1 Cleopatra, daughter of Boreas
Cleopatra married Phineus of Salmydessus, near the source of the Rheginia River. [62]
Phineus was Belus' son, suggesting that Boreas and Belus continued to have contact with each other even after the settlement. [63]
8.2.2 Chione, daughter of Boreas
Chione married Ceryx and had a son, Eumolpus. [64]
Eumolpus married Daeira, daughter of Benthecyme, who lived in Belus' settlement. [65]
8.2.3 Zetes and Calais, twin sons of Boreas
In 1365 BC, Zetes and Calais, the twin sons of Boreas, migrated across the Propontis Sea to Peuce, located in the Ister River (now the Danube) on the west coast of the Black Sea. [66]
It was the land of the Hyperboreans, from which offerings were delivered to Delos. [67]
Herodotus's account of the Dodona route passed through Carystus in Euboea. [68]
Carystus was founded by Carystus, son of Scirus, father of Aegeus, who migrated from Salamis in 1280 BC. Zarex, the son of Petraeus, the son of Carystus, married Rhoeo (or Creousa), daughter of Staphylus, son of Ariadne, daughter of Minos, and had a son, Anius (or Anion), who became a priest of Delos. [69]
Pausanias also records a communication route from the Hyperboreans to Delos via Prasiae in Attica. [70]
In both cases, Athens was closely connected to the Hyperboreans and Delos.
Zetes and Calais migrated further north from their settlement in Boreas and became the ancestors of the Hyperboreans, who inhabited a fertile island with two harvests a year. [71]
The rulers and priests of the island which Hyperboreans lived were succeeded by the descendants of Boreas. [72]
The Hyperboreans, Athenians, and Delians had friendly relations. This is likely due in large part to the position of Boreas' father, Butes, as a priest in Athens. [73]
More than 150 years before Boreas, the Athenians held their cults in Delos.
[74]
The island inhabited by the Hyperboreans was later an island in the river where the Triballians fled when Alexander the Great attacked Thracia. The island was located 22 kilometers upstream from the Sacred Mouth, the largest of the seven mouths of the Ister River, which flows into the west coast of the Black Sea. The island was called Peuce. [75]
Even after establishing friendly relations with the Great, the Triballians refused to allow him to land on the island.
The island was a sacred place where the inhabitants could seek refuge and protection in times of crisis. [76]
8.3 Belus' Settlement
From the Aegean Sea, one passes through the Hellespontos Strait into the Propontis Sea. Following the shore, with land to the right, one comes to the mouth of the Aesepus River just before Cyzicus. Belus settled in the Aesepus River basin. The surrounding area was known as Ethiopia. Belus had two sons, Cepheus and Phineus. Cepheus succeeded his father, while Phineus migrated to the southwestern shore of the Black Sea and founded Salmydessus. [77]
Phineus was married to Idaea, daughter of Dardanus, before the migration, and married to Cleopatra, daughter of Boreas, after the migration. [78]
Phineus' marriage to Cleopatra suggests that Belus and Boreas were part of the same migration group.
8.3.1 Father of Belus
The following suggests that Belus' father was Archander, the son of Achaeus.
1) Belus's settlement was called Ethiopia, and Belus likely left Egypt.
2) In 1390 BC, the only Greeks living in Egypt was Archander who had migrated from Argos.
3) Genealogy suggests that Belus was one generation later than Archander.
8.4 Settlement of the Aeetes
The Aeetes settled in Colchis, near the Phasis River on the eastern shore of the Black Sea. [79]
The Aeetes colony included people who had set sail from Egypt with Belus.
Some of them may have known the sea route to Colchis.
In 1430 BC, some of the people who left Egypt with Danaus settled in Colchis. [80]
During Herodotus' time, the Colchians were believed to be Egyptians. [81]
Colchis was rich in gold and silver, and it is believed that Telchines led Aeetes on his journeys in search of mines. About 150 years after Aeetes' settlement, the name of Colchis as a land of gold became widespread, and the story of the Argonauts, a group of young men from all over Greece on a gold-seeking expedition, was born. [82]
9 Egypt
In 1390 BC, a massive tsunami struck Canopus, west of the Nile Delta, Egypt. [83]
Sardus, son of Maceris, led the affected inhabitants to Sardinia. Sardus's settlement is believed to have been in the southwestern part of the island, there, the temple of Sardus was built. [84]
End
