Tag: Greece

Neromanna – A film about a sunken community

Athens based artist collective Latent Community produced this wonderful film about the story of Kallio in Fokida, Greece, a village that was expropriated in 1969 and was covered in 1981 by the waters of the artificial lake created by the Mornos Dam for use as a reservoir for the city of Athens. The lake has been the main source of water for the Greek capital ever since. The community got dispersed, many of the people of Kallio now living in Athens themselves.

I was lucky to meet Latent Community in their studio in Athens and discuss the impact of flooding on the collective psyche of a community and the political implications of Athens incessant thirst for fresh water.

Alexander’s submarine dive

The Alexander Romance is an account of the life and exploits of Alexander the Great. Although constructed around a historical core, the romance is largely fictional. It was widely copied and translated, accruing various legends and fantastical elements at different stages. The original version was composed in Ancient Greek some time before 338 CE, when a Latin translation was made, although the exact date is unknown. (from Wikipedia)

One of those tales is about a deep sea dive Alexander undertook:
” In the Problemata, a text contentiously credited to Aristotle, the philosopher tells how his student Alexander the Great descends to the depths of the sea in “a very fine barrel made entirely of white glass”, as a later poet would put it. The reasons for this descent differ across time. For some, it was to scout submarine defenses surrounding the city of Tyre during its siege. Others depict the Macedonian king met with a cruel vision of the great chain of being, stating, upon resurfacing, that “the world is damned and lost. The large and powerful fish devour the small fry”. 

In one particularly elaborate version, Alexander submerges with companions — a dog, cat, and cock — entrusting his life to a mistress who holds the cord used to retrieve the bathysphere. However, during his dive, she is seduced by a lover and persuaded to elope, dropping the chains that anchor Alexander and his animal companions to their boat. Through a gruesome utility, the pets help him survive: the cock keeps track of time in the lightless fathoms, the cat serves as a rebreather to purify the vessel’s atmosphere, and the poor hound’s body becomes a kind of airbag, propelling Alexander back to the sea’s surface.” (from Public Domain Review)

Miniature from a manuscript of Rudolf von Ems’ Weltchronik in Versen (World Chronicle in Verse), ca. 1370

When the story was told to me by Tobias Bulang, he explained that to medieval believe, the ocean does not keep dead bodies inside. Thus Alexander’s diving bell would rise back to the surface because the ocean emited the animal’s corpse. The fact that drowned corpses tend to float on the surface of the water instead of sinking to the ground gives plausible cause for this believe. Still I would be interested to understand, what people then believed to be the cause for this.

The image of Alexandre the Great below the sea became quite popular in the visual arts of the 14. and the following centuries. You can see many more creative and vivid illustrations here.

Thanks to Tobias Bulang for the lead.

Tourism and Sunken Cities

In the greek town Epidavros on the Pelopones a sunken villa is marketed as a toursit attraction of some sorts.

Somewehere, down there…

thanks to Tanja Krone for the lead and the travel company!

Very Large Floating Structures

To answer the never-tiring desire for more space for residential buildings along the coasts – nearly 50% of the industrialized world now lives within a kilometer of the coast – floating structures are repeatedly discussed in urbanization discourse. So called VLFS, very large floating structures, are a fashionable topic in architectural discourse – see for example the “Mega-Float” by Japanese architects M. Fujikubo and H. Suzuki from 2015 -, but so far no city has actually built one to house it’s residents. There are as far as I know only parking lots built on floating strutures in New York or Goetborg for example.

This image is from a brochure about the Floating Parking Garage in Goetborg

And there are of course accomodation units for employees working on off shore oil platforms. (see: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accommodation_platform )

As always – the idea of floating habitats is not a new one. The oldest source is – as almost always – Homer’s Odysee. There the hero sails to the island Aeolia, which is floating on open sea in the western Mediteranean. The island and the city on it are home to the god of Winds, Aeolus, thus the name of the island. Today a group of islands near Sicilly is refered to as Aeolian Islands.

Homer does not give away alot about his floating island and how and why it floats. This is the main passage from verse 10 of the text:

“Then to the Aeolian isle we came, where dwelt Aeolus, son of Hippotas, dear to the immortal gods, in a floating island, and all around it is a wall of unbreakable bronze, and the cliff runs up sheer. […] And the house, filled with the savour of feasting, resounds all about even in the outer court by day, and by night again they sleep beside their chaste wives on blankets and on corded bedsteads. To their city, then, and fair palace did we come…”

source: http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0136%3Abook%3D10

Diodorus (1. Century BC) on the Destruction of Helice and Bura

“When Asteius was archon at Athens, the Romans elected six military tribunes with consular power, Marcus Furius, Lucius Furius, Aulus Postumius, Lucius Lucretius, Marcus Fabius, and Lucius Postumius. During their term of office great earthquakes occurred in the Peloponnese accompanied by tidal waves which engulfed the open country and cities in a manner past belief; for never in the earlier periods had such disasters befallen Greek cities, nor had entire cities along with their inhabitants disappeared as a result of some divine force wreaking destruction and ruin upon mankind.

The extent of the destruction was increased by the time of its occurrence; for the earthquake did not come in the daytime when it would have been possible for the sufferers to help themselves, but the blow came at night, so that when the houses crashed and crumbled under the force of the shock, the population, owing to the darkness and to the surprise and bewilderment occasioned by the event, had no power to struggle for life.

The majority were caught in the falling houses and annihilated, but as day returned some survivors dashed from the ruins and, when they thought they had escaped the danger, met with a greater and still more incredible disaster. For the sea rose to a vast height, and a wave towering even higher washed away and drowned all the inhabitants and their native lands as well. Two cities in Achaia bore the brunt of this disaster, Helice and Bura,1 the former of which had, as it happened, before the earthquake held first place among the cities of Achaia.

These disasters have been the subject of much discussion. Natural scientists make it their endeavour to attribute responsibility in such cases not to divine providence, but to certain natural circumstances determined by necessary causes, whereas those who are disposed to venerate the divine power assign certain plausible reasons for the occurrence, alleging that the disaster was occasioned by the anger of the gods at those who had committed sacrilege. This question I too shall endeavour to deal with in detail in a special chapter of my history.”

source: http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0084%3Abook%3D15%3Achapter%3D48%3Asection%3D4

Greece, 1. Century BC, pagan; text; city: Helice

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 submerged by the sea two years before the battle at Leuctra. And Eratosthenes says that he himself saw the place, and that the ferrymen say that there was a bronze Poseidon in the strait, standing erect, holding a hippo-campus in his hand, which was perilous for those who fished with nets.

And Heracleides says that the submersion took place by night in his time, and, although the city was twelve stadia distant from the sea, this whole district together with the city was hidden from sight; and two thousand men who had been sent by the Achaeans were unable to recover the dead bodies; and they divided the territory of Helice among the neighbours; and the submersion was the result of the anger of Poseidon, for the Ionians who had been driven out of Helice sent men to ask the inhabitants of Helice particularly for the statue of Poseidon, or, if not that, for the model of the temple; and when the inhabitants refused to give either, the Ionians sent word to the general council of the Achaeans; but although the assembly voted favorably, yet even so the inhabitants of Helice refused to obey; and the submersion resulted the following winter; but the Achaeans later gave the model of the temple to the Ionians.”

thanks to Jasmin Hettinger for the lead.

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 death of more persons. The last befell at the beginning of spring, great rain storms suddenly bursting forth with hail of incredible size. Indeed, hail-stones fell weighing a mina​ (94) and sometimes more, so that many of the houses collapsed because of the weight, and no small number of the inhabitants were killed. Since Rhodes is shaped like a theatre and since the streams of water were thus deflected chiefly into a single region, the lower parts of the city were straightway flooded; for, because it was thought that the rainy season of winter had passed, the drains had been neglected and the drainage openings through the city walls had become clogged. The water that suddenly gathered filled the whole region about the Market and the Temple of Dionysus; and then, as the flood was already advancing to the Temple of Asclepius, all were struck with fear and began to follow various plans for gaining safety. Some of them fled to ships, others ran to the theatre; certain of those overthrown by the calamity in their extremity climbed upon the highest altars and the bases of statues. When the city and all its inhabitants were in danger of being utterly destroyed, relief of a sort came of itself; for, as the walls gave way over a long stretch, the water that had been confined poured out through this opening into the sea, and each man soon returned again to his former place. It was to the advantage of those who were endangered that the flood came by day, for most of the people escaped in time from their houses to the higher parts of the city; and also that the houses were not constructed of sun-dried brick but of stone and that for this reason those who took refuge upon the roofs were safe. Yet in this great disaster more than five hundred persons lost their lives, while some houses collapsed completely and others were badly shaken.

Such was the disaster which befell Rhodes.”

from The Library of History

Greece; 1. Century BC; Pagan; Literature; City: Rhodes

Scipio looks back on the Ruins of Karthago

The greek historian Polybius, who lived in the era of the Punic wars around 200 BC reports about the Roman military leader Scipio after his troops conquered and burnt down Carthage:


“Turning round to me at once and grasping my hand Scipio said, ‘A glorious moment, Polybius; but I have a dread foreboding that some day the same doom will be pronounced on my own country.’ It would be difficult to mention an utterance more statesmanlike and more profound. For at the moment of our greatest triumph and of disaster to our enemies to reflect on our own situation and on the possible reversal of circumstances, and generally to bear in mind at the season of success the mutability of Fortune, is like a great and perfect man, a man in short worthy to be remembered.

Scipio, when he looked upon the city as it was utterly perishing and in the last throes of its complete destruction, is said to have shed tears and wept openly for his enemies. After being wrapped in thought for long, and realizing that all cities, nations, and authorities must, like men, meet their doom; that this happened to Ilium, once a prosperous city, to the empires of Assyria, Media, and Persia, the greatest of their time, and to Macedonia itself, the brilliance of which was so recent, either deliberately or the verses escaping him, he said:

A day will come when sacred Troy shall perish,
And Priam and his people shall be slain.

And when Polybius speaking with freedom to him, for he was his teacher, asked him what he meant by the words, they say that without any attempt at concealment he named his own country, for which he feared when he reflected on the fate of all things human.”

From Polybius, Histories, Book 38

Thanks to Holger Sonnabend for the tip.

Greece, Tunisia; 1. Century BC; Pagan; Literature; City: Carthage

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 andere Tiere solcher Art in einer großen Anzahl entlang der Strasse, die nach Coria führt. Als die Einwohner Helikes sahen, dass dies geschah, wunderten sie sich; dennoch konnten sie keine Vermutung über den Grund machen. Die dem Auszug jener Tiere am nächsten gelegene Bürgerschaft, ging, nachdem sie nachts durch eine Erdbeben erschüttert worden war, zugrunde und wurde durch überflutende Wassermassen zerstört; und zugleich mit der Stadt gingen auch zehn Schiffe der Spartaner, die damals zufällig bei dem Hafen vor Anker lagen, durch dieselbe Überschwemmung des Meeres unter. Es geschieht, wenn die Gerechtigkeit den Dienst der Tiere nutzt, um Rache an gottlosen Menschen zu nehmen.” (Aelian, De natura animalium, 6, 19)

I

english translation:

“Five days before Helice perished, all the mice, weasels, snakes, beetles, and other such animals fled in great numbers along the road that leads to Coria. When the inhabitants of Helice saw this happening, they marveled; yet they could make no conjecture as to the reason. The citizenry nearest to the exodus of those beasts, after being shaken by an earthquake at night, perished and were destroyed by flooding waters; and ten Spartan ships, which happened to be at anchor near the port, perished along with the city by the same inundation of the sea. It happens when justice uses the ministry of animals to take vengeance on ungodly people." 
(Aelian, De natura animalium, 6, 19)