Strabo on the flooding of Helice

Strabo, a Greek geographer and historian whol lived from around 60 BC to 20 AD writes in his Geographica: “For the sea was raised by an earthquake and it submerged Helice, and also the temple of the Heliconian Poseidon, whom the Ionians worship even to this day, offering there the Pan-Ionian sacrifices. … Helice was […]

The Inundation of the city of Rhodes

Greek historian Diodorus Siculus (1. Century BC) writes: “At this time occurred the third inundation of the city of Rhodes, which destroyed many of its  p353 inhabitants. Of these floods, the first did little damage to the population since the city was newly founded and therefore contained much open space; the second was greater and caused […]

The City as Jungle

In the US-American 2014 movie Godzilla, the cityscape – in this case the coastal city San Francisco – experiences an interesting reversal of the culture-nature-dichotomy. The city here is not the place of culture and humanity, but the battle site of a fight between two animal species (Godzilla and the Mutos) – a jungle where […]

Soldiers Grove, Wisconsin

Soldiers Grove is a village situated along the Kickapoo River in Crawford County, Wisconsin, in the United States. The population was 592 at the 2010 census. The town has become a case study in best practices for managed retreat. In 1978, flooding inundated the Soldiers Grove area. In the aftermath of the disaster, $900,000 in […]

All Saints Flood

The All Saints’ Flood (Dutch: Allerheiligenvloed) of 1570 was a disaster which happened on November 1, on the Dutch and German coast. Affected cities include Egmond, Bergen op Zoom and Saeftinghe. The print by Hans Moser depicts the Scheldt river overflowing. According to a popular legend, the bells of the church of the city Saeftinghe […]

Matsya / मत्स्य

Vishnu, disguised as the fish Matsya, saves Manu from the flood. When the flood begins, Manu boards the boat and then prays to the fish Matsya for assistance. The fish then appears and ties the boat to a horn that has grown on its head. It uses the serpent Vasuki as the rope to tie […]

Animals leave first

Stories often mention that the behaviour of animals announces approaching floods. This is an exceprt from a text by the Roman writer and natural scientist Claudius Aelianus (c. 175 – c. 235 AD) about the flood that submerged Helice (nothern Pelepones, Greece). “Fünf Tage bevor Helike zugrunde ging, flohen alle Mäuse, Wiesel, Schlangen, Käfer und […]

Evariste Vital Luminais: Flight of King Gradlon

Painting from 1884 depicting the flight of the king from the sinking city of Ys. France; 19. Century; Chistian; Painting; City: Ys

Claude Debussy: La Cathédrale Engloutie

Prelude for solo piano written by the French composer Claude Debussy, published in 1910. To quote wikipedia: “This piece is based on an ancient Breton myth in which a cathedral, submerged underwater off the coast of the Island of Ys, rises up from the sea on clear mornings when the water is transparent. Sounds can […]

Ar Roue Gralon ha kear Is

A bretonic folksong about the sinking of the City Ys on the Atlantic Coast of Brittany. Original LyricsFrench Translation