Tag: Literature

…after three days the sea would rise and take everything

John Malalas (Greek: Ἰωάννης Μαλάλας, Iōánnēs Malálas) was a Byzantine writer who lived around 500 AD. In his Chronicles he records the following story from Constantinople:

“In the 5th of the Indiction such a thing happened: a woman who lived near the Golden Gate was hung up one night, and talked a great deal, so that the crowds in Constantinople came running, and they went away singing hymns to the church of St. Diomedes of Jerusalem, and they brought down the woman from her house and took her to the church of St. Diomedes. She said that after three days the sea would rise and take everything.

All were singing hymns and shouting ‘Lord have mercy.’ It was rumored that many cities had been swallowed up.

At that time in Egypt and Alexandria a plague was occurring. The King sent Narses the cubicularius with light, fast boats and some others to learn what was happening. The children of Narses went as his emissary to St. Diomedes. They learned from the assembled crowd what the woman had said. They came and reported to Narses what was happening in the church, and that they heard from the hanged woman that after three days the sea would rise and drown everything. The crowd heard what she said and went away distraught.”

Source

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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

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

Who inherits the sunken cities?

وَكَمْ أَهْلَكْنَا مِن قَرْيَةٍۭ بَطِرَتْ مَعِيشَتَهَا ۖ فَتِلْكَ مَسَـٰكِنُهُمْ لَمْ تُسْكَن مِّنۢ بَعْدِهِمْ إِلَّا قَلِيلًۭا ۖ وَكُنَّا نَحْنُٱلْوَٰرِثِينَ

“And how many a city have We destroyed that was insolent in its [way of] living, and those are their dwellings which have not been inhabited after them except briefly. And it is We who were the inheritors.” (translation: Saheeh International)

From Quran 28:58

The ruin as reunification of culture and nature?

from the movie 2067 (2020)
[Es] ist der Reiz der Ruine, dass hier ein Menschenwerk ganz wie ein Naturprodukt empfunden wird.
Dieselben Kräfte, die durch Verwitterung, Ausspülung, Zusammenstürzen, Ansetzen von Vegetation dem Berge seine Gestalt verschaffen, haben sich hier an dem Gemäuer wirksam erwiesen.

Was den Bau nach oben geführt hat, ist der menschliche Wille, was ihm sein jetziges Aussehen gibt, ist die mechanische, nach unten ziehende, zernagende und zertrümmernde Naturgewalt.

Aber sie lässt das Werk dennoch nicht in die Formlosigkeit bloßer Materie sinken, es entsteht eine neue Form, die vom Standpunkt der Natur aus durchaus sinnvoll, begreiflich, differenziert ist.

Die Natur hat das Kunstwerk zum Material ihrer Formung gemacht, wie vorher die Kunst sich der Natur als ihres Stoffes bedient hatte.
(Aus: Georg Simmel, Die Ruine, 1907)


engl. translation:
[It] is the attraction of the ruins that a work of man is perceived here as a product of nature.

The same forces that give the mountain its shape through weathering, washing out, collapsing, and the growth of vegetation have proved to be at work here on the walls.

Human will is what brought the structure up, what gives it its current appearance is the mechanical, downward-pulling, gnawing and smashing force of nature.

But she does not let the work sink into the formlessness of mere matter. A new form emerges that from the point of view of nature is quite meaningful, understandable, differentiated.

Nature has made the work of art the material of its formation, just as art had previously used nature as its material.

Germany; 20. Century; Christian; Essay;

Human Sacrifice in flood protection

Famous german novel “The Rider on a white Horse (Schimmelreiter)” by Theodor Storm draws on a superstition and theme that appears in numerous folk tales from the region of the North and Baltic Sea: In order to build a durable and reliable dyke, a living being has to be built into the construction alive. In Storm’s novel, the local builders try to hurl a dog into a hole in the dyke during construction. The animal is rescued by the main protagonist, the local Deichgraf who is supervising the construction. He later gives his own life by riding on his white horse into the open sea, in an attempt to safe the rest of the community.
There are various stories of towns abducting and killing foreigners – usually homeless people or minorities like Roma – or little children as sacrifices to make their dykes more durable. (Find an extensive comparative essay on the various sources here and another original source here. Both in German).
This superstition is comparable to other builder’s rites. But I wonder if similar superstitions or even customs exist in flood protextion in other world cultures as well?

Germany; 19. Century; Christian; Pagan; Animals; Text

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 the boat to its horn. The fish then tows this boat to safety and takes Manu to the highest and driest point left on the earth.

There is also a yoga position called Matsyana, the fish:

India; approxamitely 3. Century AD; Hindu; Animals; Story

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)

Anton Heimreich: Ernewerte Nordfresische Chronick

A. C. 1300 am Tage Marcelli Pontificis (ist der 16. Jan.) hat sich die Westsee durch Sturmwinde erhoben, und das Wasser vier Ellen über die höchsten Deiche geführet, Städte und Dörfer umgekehret, und den Flecken Rungholt neben sieben Kirchspielkirchen in Edomsharde verwüstet, andere mehr anjetzo zu geschweigen, und seyn dazumal 7600 Menschen ertrunken, und 21 Wehlen im Nordstrande eingerissen. […]

Unter allen diesen ertrunkenen Oertern ist insonderheit benamet der Flecken Rungholt, von dessen Verwüstung und Untergang, wie auch künftigen Wohlstande der gemeine Mann beides in vorigen und auch noch in jetzigen Zeiten viel Wunderdinges erzählet. Inmaßen man berichtet, daß auf eine Zeit etliche muthwillige Gäste eine Sau, mit Urlaub, sollen trunken gemachet und zu Bette geleget haben, und darauf den Prediger lassen ersuchen, er möchte ihrem Kranken das Abendmahl reichen, und sich dabey verschworen, daß, wenn er bey seiner Ankunft ihren Willen nicht würde erfüllen, sie ihn in den Graben stoßen wollten. Wie aber der Prediger das H. Sacrament nicht so gräulich wollen mißbrauchen, und sie sich unter einander besprochen: ob man nicht sollte halten, was man geschworen? Und der Prediger daraus leichtlich gemerket, daß sie nichts Gutes mit ihm im Sinne hätten, hat er sich stillschweigens davon gemacht. Indem er aber wieder heim gehen wollen, und ihn zwo gottlose Buben, so im Kruge gesessen, gesehen, haben sie sich beredet, daß so er nicht zu ihnen herein gehen würde, sie ihm die Haut wollten voll schlagen. Seyn darauf zu ihm hinaus gegangen, haben ihn mit Gewalt ins Haus gezogen, und gefraget wo er gewesen? Und wie ers ihnen geklaget, wie man mit Gott und ihm habe geschimpfet, haben sie ihn gefraget, ob er das H. Sacrament bey sich hätte? und ihn gebeten, daß er ihnen dasselbe möchte zeigen. Darauf er ihnen die Büchse gegeben, darin das Sacrament gewesen, welche sie voll Biers gegossen, und gotteslästerlich gesprochen, daß so Gott darinnen sey, so müsse er auch mit ihnen saufen, und wie der Prediger auf sein freundliches Anhalten die Büchse wieder bekommen, sey er damit zur Kirche gegangen, und habe Gott angerufen, daß er diese gottlosen Leute wolle strafen. Darauf er in der folgenden Nacht sey gewarnet worden, daß er aus dem Lande, so Gott verderben wollte, sollte gehen, sey auch aufgestanden und davongegangen, und habe sich also bald ein ungestümer Wind und hohes Wasser erhoben, dadurch das ganze Land Rungholt (oder wie andere melden, ganze sieben Kirchspiele, worunter Rungholt das vornehmste gewesen) sey untergegangen, und niemand davon gekommen, als gemeldeter Prediger und zwo (oder, wie andere setzen, seine Magd und drei) Jungfrauen, so den Abend zuvor von Rungholt aus auf Bopschlut zur Kirchmeß seyn gegangen, von welchen Backe Boisens Geschlecht zu Bopschlut soll entsprossen seyn, dessen Nachkommen theils noch jetziger Zeit in diesem Lande seyn vorhanden und verhält sich ihre Genealogie folgendernmaßen: […].

Sonsten stehen die alten abergläubischen Leute im Wahn, daß dieses Rungholt noch einmal wieder werde aufstehen, und vor dem jüngsten Tage zu vorigem Stande kommen, melden auch, daß diese Stadt mit allen Häusern ganz in der Erde stehe, und dessen Thurm und Mühlen (desgleichen man auch von Kirchspiel Alver oder Kalfer an der Süderog und andern untergesunkenen Oertern und Städten berichtet) sich öftermals bey hellem Wetter hervor thue, und klar sehen lasse, und daß auch von den vorüberfahrenden der Glockenklang und dergleichen noch jetzunder gehöret werde, doch wird dieses von andern entweder für einen alten Weibertraum oder auch für eine zur Bestätigung des Aberglaubens erdichtete Fabel gehalten. Und ist derselben Meinung der Wahrheit ähnlicher, welche erachten, daß dieser Flecken neben den umliegenden Kirchspielen durch eine hohe Fluth, nach Art dieser niedrigen Länder, sey überschwemmet, habe äußerste Noth gelitten, sey aus dem Deichbande geworfen, und also endlich zu salzen See geworden.

Und erachte ich, daß dieselbe Kirche bey der Süderog am Hamburger Sande wird gelegen haben, maaßen man daselbst noch einen Ort zeiget, welcher Süntkalff wird geheißen, und von welchem ein Sprichwort ist: Wenn upstahn wert Suntkalff, so wert Strand sinken halff! wiewol dieses, leider! erfolget, und jenes hinterblieben.

[…] wie der Deichgraf in Risummohr nach verfertigtem Deiche den Spaten auf den Deich gesetzet, und vermessentlich gesaget: Trotz nun blanke Hans! [27]

This is one of the earliest published versions of the story of the sunken city Rungholt in Northern Germany. Published in 1668 in a Chronicle of North Friesland.

Extensive info (german): http://www.g.eversberg.eu/MWStormWiss/Seite17.htm#_edn26

Germany; 17. Century; Christian; Chronicle; City: Rungholt

द्वारका – Dwarka, the Gated City

The sea, which had been beating against the shores, suddenly broke the boundary that was imposed on it by nature. The sea rushed into the city. It coursed through the streets of the beautiful city. The sea covered up everything in the city. I saw the beautiful buildings becoming submerged one by one. In a matter of a few moments it was all over. The sea had now become as placid as a lake. There was no trace of the city. Dvaraka was just a name; just a memory.

— Mausala Parva of Mahabharata

The sacred city appears in various Hindu and Budhist scriptures. It is believed to be the home of Krishna and have been submerged upon Krishna’s death. Today a modern city called Dwarka exists in the Arab Sea.

India; 3. Century BCE; Hindu, Hindu; Literature; City: Dwarka