Eridanus

Published June 7, 2010

Eridanus is the name of a constellation in the Southern Hemisphere as well as the name of the only Atlantean river named by Plato (Crit. 112a). It has been identified with a number of waterways⁽^b⁾including the Nile (Eratosthenes), the Eider (Spedicato)^(d), the Rhine^(f⁾, the Istros (Danube) of Hungary^(g⁾ and the Po (H. S. Bellamy). Mythology has fiery Phaëton crashing into the Eridanus, which means ‘early burnt’.

Adding to the confusion is the existence of the River Eridanos, referred to by Plato (Phaedrus 229) which is a tributary of the Ilissos and is still partly visible in the centre of modern Athens^(e). (see left image)

Jürgen Spanuth was convinced that it was as either the Elder or the Eider, which flow into the North Sea opposite Helgoland. Emilio Spedicato echoed Spanuth’s views in a number of more recent articles^(c)(d) and opted for the Eider as the original Eridanus. The similarity of the two names also adds some credence to this idea.

The late Walter Baucum quoted^[183.159] the Swiss historian and geographer, Frederic de Rougemont (1808-1876), who, in his 1866 book, L’Age de Bronze, ‘proved’ that originally the Rhine had been known as the Eridanus.

Apollonius of Rhodes in his Argonautica refers to the River Eridanus as flowing into the Cronian Sea⁽^a⁾, generally accepted as the North Atlantic. The Eridanus is frequently referred to in ancient Greek texts as an amber-rich river in Northern Europe. Amber was claimed by Spanuth to have been the Orichalcum of Plato’s Atlantis.

Kai Helge Wirth^[⁶²⁷^], a German geographer, has advanced the controversial theory that the configuration of the constellations was chosen to conform with the outlines of various Mediterranean and Atlantic coasts and was used as navigational aids to ancient mariners. As part of this radical idea, Wirth has pointed out that the constellation Eridanus closely follows the meandering Eider rather than the Po.

Geologists have given the name Eridanus to a river which flowed where the Baltic is now located. Claudius Ptolemy identified the River Duna, which flows into the Gulf of Riga in the Baltic, as the Eridanus.

⁽^a⁾ h ttp://www.theoi.com/Text/ApolloniusRhodius4.html

⁽^b⁾ Star Tales – Eridanus (ianridpath.com)

^(c)https://www.2008-paris-conference.org/mapage13/phaethon-to-chapamacac.pdf

^(d) Wayback Machine (archive.org) *

^(e) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eridanos_(Athens)

^(f) https://www.bibletools.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/Topical.show/RTD/CGG/ID/2236/Danube.htm

^(g) https://www.theoi.com/Potamos/PotamosEridanos.html

Tagged amber, Apollonius of Rhodes, Athens, Claudius Ptolemy, Cronian Sea, Danube, Eider, Emilio Spedicato, Eratosthenes, Eridanus, Frederic de Rougemont, Gulf of Riga, H.S. Bellamy, Helgoland, Juergen Spanuth, Kai Helge Wirth, North Sea, orichalcum, Phaeton, Rhine, River Duna, River Po, Walter Baucum

Earthquake *

Published May 26, 2010

An earthquake, not a volcanic eruption resulted in the inundation of Atlantis according to Plato’s account. Although, for those who believe that the destruction of ancient Santorini was the inspiration behind Plato’s Atlantis story, it is not difficult to imagine an earthquake accompanying an eruption such as that which occurred on Thera in the 2nd millennium BC, particularly in an area that had been prone to frequent earthquakes over thousands of years.

My reading of Plato’s description of the demise of Atlantis is that there is no suggestion whatsoever of a volcanic eruption causing its destruction, which rules out the Minoan Hypothesis. Instead, Plato describes it as sinking into a shallow watery grave following an earthquake. Many commentators have suggested that this was the result of a tsunami generated by the earthquake, which can be a common occurrence. Usually, flood waters created by tsunamis eventually return to the sea, exposing the land again. So I have concluded that the most likely explanation is that Atlantis sank as a result of liquefaction, which can accompany earthquakes, depending on the type of soil upon which structures have been built.

Stavros Papamarinopoulos at the 2005 Atlantis Conference highlighted^(h) the part played by earthquakes in the description of the ancient Athenian Acropolis in the Atlantis narrative, which he saw as a part of a 50-year ‘seismic storm’ which ravaged the Eastern Mediterranean around the 12th century BC ^[629.499]. Amos Nur & Eric H. Cline have written about this period of intense seismic activity in a paper on the Academia.edu website^(l).

Later, in 365 AD, a massive earthquake near Crete, killed thousands, caused damage in Alexandria and submerged the Roman city of Neapolis on the east coast of Tunisia, which has only recently been rediscovered^(j). On Crete, some land was uplifted by as much as 30 feet.

However, earthquakes in the region have continued ever since. Dr. Iain Stewart recounts how an earthquake in Greece in the 5th century BC led to the death of 20,000 Spartans⁽ⁱ⁾.

Earthquakes were once thought to be a form of divine retribution, so when an earthquake in 1570, caused death, damage, and the alteration of the River Po’s course, ‘infallible’ Pope Pius V declared it to be the consequence of god’s wrath against the Jews!^(b)

A Ph.D. Dissertation by Jamie Rae Bluestone investigates early understanding of earthquakes, which inevitably touches on the Atlantis story^(a).

A recent paper by Marc-Andre Gutscher discussed the Cadiz subduction zone, which appears to be ‘locked’ and consequently liable to generate very strong earthquakes over long return periods. Gutscher offered evidence of deposits dated to 12000 BC which ‘may correspond to the destructive earthquake and tsunami described by Plato’. However, he recognised that Plato describes a Bronze Age society, while Spartel Island in the Strait of Gibraltar would only have been inhabited by ‘simple fishermen’ unlikely to have merited a mention in the records of the Egyptian priests.

In the Mediterranean, the Aegean and Turkey are the most seismically active, followed by Italy (including Sicily)^(f) and North Africa from Morocco to Tunisia. There is a European Earthquake Catalogue that graphically illustrates earthquake activity over the past 1,000 years^(e). Italy is also home to most of the active volcanoes in the Med.

Ben Davidson, promotes the idea that earthquakes are caused by solar activity ^(c) and offers what he considers compelling evidence on a YouTube clip^(d).

Up-to-date earthquake information is available on the Geofon website^(g).

A recent (April 2022) report^(k) offered evidence “For the biggest earthquake in human history”……. “a terrifying magnitude-9.5 megaquake that caused a 5,000-mile-long (8,000 kilometers) tsunami and prompted human populations to abandon nearby coastlines for 1,000 years.

The earthquake struck about 3,800 years ago in what is now northern Chile when a tectonic plate rupture lifted the region’s coastline. The subsequent tsunami was so powerful, it created waves as high as 66 feet (20 meters) and traveled all the way to New Zealand, where it hurled car-size boulders hundreds of miles inland, the researchers found.”

[The words ‘seismology’ and ‘epicentre’ were coined in 1858 by an Irishman, Robert Mallet (1810-1881)]

^(a) https://conservancy.umn.edu/bitstream/handle/11299/99438/Bluestone_umn_0130E_11718.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y

^(b) https://www.newser.com/story/211354/medieval-quake-rocked-city-moved-big-river-forever.html

^(c) https://www.suspicious0bservers.org/

^(d) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yBvo7lvf

^(e) https://www.emidius.eu/SHEEC/catalogue/

^(f)https://gisetc.com/european-earthquake-risk-concentrated-around-the-mediterranean/

^(g) https://geofon.gfz-potsdam.de/eqinfo/eqinfo.php

^(h) https://www.2009-q-conf-kandersteg.grazian-archive.com/platoandtheseism/papamarinopoulos-newversionof2009.pdf

⁽ⁱ⁾ https://www.bbc.co.uk/history/ancient/greeks/atlantis_01.shtml

^(j) Submerged Ancient Roman City Of Neapolis Discovered In Tunisia (archive.org) *

^(k)Scientists find evidence for biggest earthquake in human history | Live Science