1 Introduction
In 1390 BC, in the 13th year of the reign of Erechtheus, the 6th king of Athens, Eleusis and Megara were hit by a tsunami, and the people fled to Mount Gerania. [1]
A major tsunami was recorded to have occurred 30 years earlier, in 1420 BC, and historical sources tell of the state of Rhodes at that time. [2]
There are records left that seem to be the cause of this massive tsunami. According to the report, a large eruption occurred between Thera (now Santorini), about 110 km north of Crete, and Therasia Island, just to the northwest. The eruption lasted for four days, and the lava that spewed out formed an island with a circumference of approximately 2 km. [3]
The details were recorded because of the testimonies of people living in Thera at the time.
In 1425 BC, a group of settlers led by Cadmus, son of Agenor, remained on Thera and lived on the island, with Membliarus, son of Poeciles, as their leader. [4]
The tsunami in 1420 BC affected Rhodes, Crete, and Samothrace.
The tsunami in 1390 BC affected Rhodes, Crete, Lesbos, Chios, Athens, Eleusis, Egypt, and Corinth.
2 Rhodes
In 1456 BC, Erysichthon of Prasus in eastern Crete led a group of immigrants to Rhodes. Erysichthon married Rhodos, daughter of Halia the Telchines, who lived on the island, and they had seven sons. Afterwards, conflicts arose between the Telchines, who had previously lived on the island, and the settlers, and the sons of Rhodos drove the Telchines from the island. [5]
In 1420 BC, shortly after the Telchines left the island, a massive tsunami hit the island, forcing those who escaped death to higher ground to live in what had become a swamp for a long time. After that, a plague struck the people. [6]
The sons of Rhodos led the people at this time. This is when the worship of the sun began, which transformed the island's swampy land into arable land after the tsunami. The settlers from Prasus regarded Erysichthon, the husband of Rhodos, as the sun god Helius and called his descendants Heliadae. [7]
The island's name also changed from Telchinis to Rhodes. [8]
One of the Heliadae, Actis (or Auges, Atlas), son of Rhodos, migrated to Egypt and founded Heliopolis. [9]
In 1390 BC, when Rhodos' son Cercaphus died and was succeeded by his sons, the island was again struck by a great tsunami. The three surviving sons of Cercaphus, Lindus, Ialysus, and Cameirus, founded a town in Rhodes that they named after themselves. [10]
The Rhodians ruled the Aegean Sea and were the first to land on the island after the great eruption of Thera. [11]
3 Crete
There is no historical record of a tsunami in Crete, near Thera.
Crete is said to have built towns quite far from the sea until the 8th century BC.
It seems that the memory of the disaster caused by the massive tsunami remained in people's memories for a long time. [12]
Phoenix's daughter Europa and her son Minos are also believed to have been affected by the tsunami.
3.1 The great tsunami of 1420 BC
In 1420 BC, a great tsunami struck Cydonia in northwest Crete, killing Tegeates' son Cydon.
His wife Phoenix's daughter Europa and two sons, Minos and Cardys, survived.
Cydon led people from Tegea in Arcadia to migrate to Crete and found Cydonia in 1430 BC.
The cause of Cydon's migration was the outbreak of famine due to abnormal weather. [13]
Europa joined an emigrant group led by Agenor's son Cadmus in 1425 BC, visited Cydonia, and married Cydon. [14]
Afterwards, Europa remarried Asterius, son of Tectamus, son of Dorus, who had led a group of immigrants from Peloponnesus, and lived in Cnossus. [15]
When Asterius died without an heir, Europa's son Minos succeeded Cnossus.
3.2 The huge tsunami of 1390 BC
In 1390 BC, a huge tsunami hit northern Crete, and Cnossus, home of Minos, was also affected. [16]
Minos takes refuge with Cardys, who lives in Cydonia, but Cardys has also been affected by the tsunami.
Minos and Cardys moved to the Troas region, joining a group of Telchines heading for Asia Minor, picking up victims from neighboring Aptera. Cardys returned to Cydonia a little later. Minos settled near Dardanus, which was then ruled by Dardanus' son Erichthonius. [17]
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 members of the same tribe, whose common ancestor was Lycaon, son of Pelasgus, of Arcadia. [18]
King Priam of Troy's wealth came from the gold mines of Astyra, near Abydus, north-northeast of Ilium.
People who migrated from Crete with Minos are also thought to have been involved in mining. The wealthy descendants of Minos returned to Crete, acquired numerous ships, and gained control of the Aegean Sea by exterminating the pirate-like inhabitants of the islands that were threatening maritime traffic at the time. [19]
4 Lesbos
In 1390 BC, a huge tsunami hit Lesbos.
Earlier, in 1560 BC, the Pelasgians, led by Xanthus, son of Triopas, migrated from Argos and lived on the island. At the time of Xanthus' settlement, the island was uninhabited and was called Issa, but it became known as Pelasgia. [20]
Later, in 1415 BC, Erysichthon's son Macar settled in Lesbos from Rhodes. [21]
After being hit by a huge tsunami, the island was submerged in seawater and left in ruins. [22]
The inhabitants of Lesbos abandoned the desolate island and crossed to the mainland on the other side. [23]
During the Trojan War, a large tribe of Pelasgians lived around the Hermus River, opposite Lesbos. [24]
After the huge tsunami, Macareus, son of Aeolus of Olenus, in the northwestern part of the Peloponnesus peninsula, led a colony that migrated to Pelasgia. [25]
Macareus himself was an Aeolis, but his colonists also included Ionians and Pelasgians. [26]
The island, which was known as Pelasgia before Macareus settled there, became known as Macareus' home. [27]
Later Lesbos, son of Macareus' brother Lapithes, came to live with his uncle, and the island became known as Lesbos. [28]
5 Chios
In 1390 BC, a huge tsunami struck Chios off the coast of Lydia. Macareus, son of Aeolus, gathered the survivors and founded Karides on the other side of the island. [29]
Macareus then moved his son from Lesbos to Chios. [30]
6 Samothrace
In 1420 BC, Samothrace was hit by a huge tsunami. [31]
Dardanus and his brother Iasion's wife Cybele and her son Corybas survive.
But Dardanus' wive Chryse and Iasion died. [32]
Dardanus had migrated to Samothrace from Methydrium in Arcadia in 1430 BC. [33]
Dardanus' sister Harmonia also migrated and lived on the island, but she married Cadmus who visited the island and moved from the island to Thracia. [34]
After the tsunami, Dardanus left the island and went to the mainland, where he founded Dardanus at the foot of Mount Ida in the Troas region. [35]
The region of Troas was inhabited by the Teucrians (or Gergis), Teucros, who had migrated from Crete some time before Dardanus. Dardanus remarried Teucros' daughter Bateia, became Teucros' successor, and the founder of the kingdom of Troy. [36]
Cybele and Corybas lived on Mount Ida, Cybele was worshiped as a goddess, and Corybas introduced a dance to those who celebrated her mother's rituals, calling them Corybantes. [37]
The object of Cybele's faith was Cabeiri, but when it spread to Asia, the object of her faith became Cybele, the mother of the mountains herself. [38]
7 Thracia and Peloponnesus
7.1 The huge tsunami of 1420 BC
In 1420 BC, a huge tsunami hit Thracia. Those led by the Thracians Edoni, who lived in the lower reaches of the Strymon River, and Cadmus, the son of Agenor, who lived on the coast near Mount Pangaeus, were affected. [39]
Thracians and group of Cadmus moved south in search of new lands. Their migration influenced Hellen's son Dorus, who lived in northern Thessaly. Dorus moved south and settled in the region of Dryopis between Mount Oeta and Mount Parnassus. [40]
After Cadmus' passage, chaos descended within Thessaly. Achaeus, son of Xuthus, who had returned to the region of Phthiotis from which his father had been exiled, emigrated again to Peloponnesus. [41]
The Thracians, led by Tereus of Edoni, settled near Daulis in Phocis. Tereus then settled near Pagae in Megara. [42]
7.2 The huge tsunami of 1390 BC
In 1390 BC, a huge tsunami washed away Halus on the west coast of the Pagasetic Gulf. [43]
Halus was a town founded by Athamas, son of Aeolus, who emigrated from Arne of Thessaly. [44]
The tsunami also hit the Pelasgians settlement on the coast of Thessaly. Displaced, the Pelasgians moved inland en masse and raided Itonus on the west coast of the Pagasetic Gulf in Thessaly.
Itonus was a city founded by Itonus, son of Amphictyon, son of Deucalion, son of Dorus, brother of Aeolus, the father of Athamas. Itonus took as his wife Melanippe, the daughter of Aeolus, the son of Hippotes, the son of Mimas, the brother of Athamas, and lived with him. [45]
Melanippe, the wife of Itonus, was taken away as the spoil of Dius of the Pelasgians. [46]
Amphictyon, the father of Itonus, lived in Anthela, near Thermopylae, in Locris, and was king of the Dorians in the vicinity. Amphictyon rallied his people and drove the Pelasgians from Thessaly. [47]
Driven from Thessaly, the Pelasgians scattered, but large groups continued westward and remained around Dodona. Some Pelasgians migrated to the Italian peninsula, led by Janus, son of Nanas. [48]
Melanippe, daughter of Aeolus, was taken by Dius of the Pelasgians to Metapontium in the southern part of the Italian peninsula. [49]
When Melanippe's son Boeotus came of age, he and his mother Melanippe returned from the Italian peninsula to Arne of Thessaly, where they succeeded his grandfather Aeolus. [50]
Also, after the huge tsunami, the Ionians and Pelasgians, led by Macareus, son of Aeolus, of Olenus in Achaia, migrated to Lesbos. [51]
8 Athens, Eleusis, Egypt, Corinth
In 1390 BC, a huge tsunami struck Archandropolis in the NileDelta of Egypt. Archandropolis was a city founded by Archander, son of Achaeus, who migrated from Argos. [52]
Belus, the son of Archander and Scaea, the daughter of Danaus, led the stricken people on a journey to find a new world. Belus joined the emigrant band of Aeetes, son of Sisyphus of Corinth, who was setting sail in search of a place to settle. Corinth, which had just been founded by Sisyphus, son of Aeolus, was also attacked by a tsunami.
Aeetes and Archander were a kindred spirit whose common ancestor was Hellen, son of Deucalion. [53]
The Aeetes emigrant group also included Boreas of Athens and Ceryx of Eleusis, who led those affected by the tsunami.
The Aeetes emigrants moved north through the Aegean Sea, and Ceryx settled in Thracia, on the opposite shore of Thasos.
Boreas moved up the river Hebrus (modern Maritsa) on the other side of the Samothrace, and settled further up the tributary river Rheginia (modern Ergene).
Aeetes and Belus passed through the Strait of Hellespontos and entered the Propontis Sea. Belus, who led a group of Egyptian immigrants, found a suitable location in the Aesepus River basin, just before Cyzicus, and settled there. The Aeetes sailed through the Bosporos Strait into the Pontus Sea, keeping their eyes on the shore to their right, and sailing as far as the eastern end, finding a suitable site at the mouth of the Phasis River, they settled in Colchis. [54]
8.1 Emigration of Ceryx
Ceryx, son of Eumolpus, settled in Thracia, on the opposite shore of Thasos Island. [55]
Ceryx married Chione, daughter of Boreas, who was among the emigrants, and they had a son, Eumolpus. [56]
In 1352 BC, there was a battle between Immaradus, son of Eumolpus, of Eleusis and Erechtheus, son of Pandion, of Athens. [57]
Eumolpus, son of Chione, rushed with the Thracians to join Immaradus at Eleusis. [58]
Immaradus was killed in battle, and the rites of Eleusis were inherited by the daughters of Eumolpus and Celeus. They were succeeded by Immaradus' brother Ceryx, who was recalled from Thracia, and Ceryx was succeeded by his son Eumolpus. [59]
8.2 Emigration 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, the daughter of Erechtheus. [60]
Boreas parted ways with the Aeetes emigrants just before the Strait of Hellespontos. Boreas found a suitable site by going up the Hebrus (now Maritsa) River, opposite the Samothrace from Thracia, and up the tributary Rheginia (now Ergene). The Rheginia River, in ancient times was called the Erigon River, and was at the foot of Mount Haemon, near the Sarpedon rock. [61]
The Boreas settlement is estimated to have been near present-day Ipsala in northwestern Turkey.
The Boreas emigrants were not formal expeditions departing from the Prytaneum in Athens. [62]
The following marital status of Boreas's children indicates that he immigrated with Belus and Ceryx.
8.2.1 Cleopatra, daughter of Boreas
Cleopatra married Phineus of Salmydessus, near the source of the Rheginia River. [63]
Phineus was the son of Belus, and it is clear that there was contact between Boreas and Belus even after the settlement. [64]
8.2.2 Chione, daughter of Boreas
Chione married Ceryx and had a son, Eumolpus. [65]
Eumolpus married Daeira, the daughter of Benthesicyme, who lived in the colony of Belus. [66]
8.2.3 Zetes and Calais, twin sons of Boreas
In 1365 BC, the twin sons of Boreas, Zetes and Calais, migrated across the Propontis Sea to the island of Peuce in the Ister (now Danube) River on the west coast of the Black Sea. [67]
It was home to the Hyperboreans, and from there offerings were brought to Delos. [68]
The route of communication via Dodona reported by Herodotus was via Carystus on Euboea. [69]
Carystus was a town founded in 1260 BC by Carystus, the son of Scirus, the father of Aegeus, who immigrated from Salamis. Zarex, son of Petraeus, son of Carystus, married Rhoeo (or Creousa), daughter of Staphylus, son of Ariadne, daughter of Minos, and gave birth to Anius (or Anion), who became a priest on Delos. [70]
Furthermore, the route of communication from the land of the Hyperboreans to Delos, as reported by Pausanias, goes through Prasiae in Attica. [71]
In both lines of communication, Athens was closely connected to the Hyperboreans and Delos.
Zetes and Calais became the progenitors of a people called the Hyperboreans, who migrated further north than the Boreas settlements and lived on fertile islands where they could harvest twice a year. [72]
The rulers and priesthood of the islands inhabited by the Hyperboreans were inherited by the descendants of Boreas. [73]
The Hyperboreans, Athenians, and Delians had friendly relations. The position of Boreas's father, Butes, as a priest in Athens seems to have had a major influence. [74]
More than 150 years before Boreas, Athens held rituals on Delos.
[75]
The island inhabited by the Hyperboreans was later an island in the river where the Triballians took refuge when Alexander the Great attacked Thracia. The island was located 22 km upstream from the Sacred Mouth, the largest of the seven estuaries of the Ister (now Danube) River, which flows into the west coast of the Black Sea. The island was called Peuce Island. [76]
At this time, it is said that even after forming friendly relations with the Triballians, they did not allow Alexander to land on the island.
The island was a sacred place where residents could seek refuge and seek divine protection in times of emergency. [77]
8.3 Settlement of Belus
From the Aegean Sea, pass through the Strait of Hellespontos, enter the Propontis Sea, keep the land on your right, and follow the shore to find the mouth of the Aesepus River just before Cyzicus. Belus was settled in the Aesepus river basin. People at the time called the area around that area Ethiopia.
Two sons were born to Belus, Cepheus and Phineus. Cepheus succeeded his father, and Phineus moved to the southwestern coast of the Black Sea and founded Salmydessus. [78]
Phineus married Cleopatra, daughter of Boreas, and then Idaea, daughter of Dardanus, and had two sons, Thynus and Mariandynus. [79]
The marriage of Phineus to Cleopatra indicates that there was contact between Belus and Boreas, who were also part of the same immigrant group.
It is also believed that the marriage between Phineus and Idaea took place due to their proximity to each other.
Thynus and Mariandynus settled near Mount Olympus, southwest of Lake Ascania in Phrygia, and became the ancestors of the Thynians and Mariandynians, respectively. [80]
From their descendants was born Hecuba (or Hecabe), wife of Priam of the kingdom of Troy. [81]
8.3.1 About Belus' father
The reason why Belus's father was presumed to be Archander is based on the following.
1) The time when Belus settled in Ethiopia and the time when Boreas and Aeetes settled were around the same time.
2) Phineus, son of Belus, married Cleopatra, daughter of Boreas. [82]
3) Second Aeetes descendant of Aeetes is born to the son of Phineus. [83]
Based on the above, it is presumed that the three people were part of the same immigrant group, but each settled in different lands.
Additionally, Herodotus, a historian of the mid-5th century BC, asserted that the Colchians were Egyptians based on similarities in physical characteristics, customs, and flax cultivation methods. It is presumed that the Aeetes immigrant group included Egyptians. [84]
The Aeetes and Boreas had no ties to Egypt, and Belus' settlement was called Ethiopia, so it is assumed that Belus led the immigrant group that included Egyptians from Egypt.
It is also assumed that the father of Perseus, the son of Danae, who was born in Chemmis, Egypt, was a grandson of Archander. Perseus' wife Andromeda was the daughter of Cepheus, son of Belus, and given that Perseus and Andromeda were second cousins with Archander as their great-grandfather, their long-distance marriage can be understood. [85]
8.4 Settlement of Aeetes
Aeetes settled in Colchis near the Phasis River on the eastern coast of the Black Sea. [86]
The Aeetes emigrant group included those who sailed from Egypt with Belus, and the Colchians were believed to be Egyptians. [87]
Colchis was rich in gold and silver, and it is thought that Telchines led the Aeetes on their journey, searching for mines. About 150 years after the settlement of the Aeetes, the name of Colchis, the land of gold, became widely known, and the story of the Argonauts, in which young men from all over Greece went on an expedition in search of gold, was born. [88]
9 Egypt
In 1390 BC, a great tsunami hit Canopus west of the NileDelta in Egypt. [89]
Sardus, the son of Maceris, moved to Sardinia with the stricken inhabitants. Sardus' settlement appears to have been in the southwestern part of the island, where there was a Sardus temple. [90]
Maceris, the father of Sardus, was called Egyptian Heracles, or Phoenician Heracles. [91]
In 1430 BC, Maceris, along with Cadmus' father Agenor and others, emigrated from Egypt to Sidon in Phoenicia. [92]
Maceris learned navigation from the Phoenicians there, and was later initiated into the knowledge of the stars by Actis at Heliopolis in Egypt. [93]
Maceris founded Heracleia (later Calpe, near present-day Algeciras) on the western edge of the Mediterranean Sea, and died there. [94]
The Baetis (oldly Tartessus, modern Guadalquivir) river basin north of Heracleia was called Tartessus and was home to the temple of Heracles. The Heracles were the same as those in the temple of Tyre in Phoenicia. [95]
Maceris, who excelled in navigation and knew the far reaches of the world, was a god-like being to the Phoenicians, a seafaring people. In addition to Tartessus and Tyre, Heracles also had shrines in Canopus of Egypt and Thasos. [96]
Maceris was presumably the son of Agenor and brother of Cadmus.
Phoenix, the son of Agenor, lived in Tire, and Thasus, the son of Cillix, the son of Agenor, lived on Thasos. [97]
Geryones (or Geryon), the cowherd of Erytheia, who appears in the Labors of Heracles, son of Amphitryon, was a descendant of Maceris. Norax, son of Erytheia, daughter of Geryones, migrated to Sardinia and founded Nora near the settlement of his ancestor Sardus. [98]
End
