I'm watching a documentary on Helike and like. Why.
The records of this city's destruction clearly say it was hit by a tsunami big enough to take out what, three or five warships and submerge said city. The city was obliterated.
Why the fuck are there so many archaeologists who are 100% convinced it's "completely undisturbed on the sea floor"? Do you not know what tsunamis do or how they work?
My bitch on earth Helike was fucking glassed. The ground where it was was salted by the ocean and the trees were uprooted, the buildings down to even their foundations would have been ripped out to sea. You are not going to find this city waiting for you undisturbed at the bottom of the ocean, you're going to find a few pieces of debris.
Because.
It was destroyed by a natural disaster.
How. How are they missing this very important fact?
Granted it's still early in the documentary and talking about like, the olden days archaeologists.
I was tagged in some WIP Wednesday chain-type things a while back by @thunderboltfire and @violets-and-amber and totally forgot to actually do it, so here’s a fresh one! And I am tagging any moots or followers who want to participate :)
"These texts have been studied again and again by archaeologists before her. But Katsonopoulou has an advantage: she can read these works in ancient Greek!"
— "Ancient Apocalypse: The Lost City of Helike"
Do we really have to egg every discovery with the Hero's Journey/Lone Genius?
Helike, again, but this time from Strawberry-Tate (you can find him on Instagram as well as tatekikuko). Isn't she so adorable?? And I love how he added a background of the port of Herakleion (even though that would be anachronistic, because Herakleion was founded much later as far as I can recall, but anyways). I love this so much!!
I like to imagine that she's dancing with his Minoan OC, Rhadamanthe, as he had proposed. How do you like it?
Helike, la ciudad de la antigua Grecia desaparecida bajo el mar.
Helike, la ciudad de la antigua Grecia desaparecida bajo el mar.
Desde el año 1988, un grupo multidisciplinar dirigido por la arqueóloga griega Dora Katsonopoulou está sacando a la luz los restos de una antigua ciudad desaparecida como consecuencia de un devastador terremoto. Los trabajos, que se iniciaron en el año 2000, confirmaron a la postre que se trataba de la ciudad desaparecida de Helike, que según los autores clásicos fue engullida por un tsunami…
Vanished beneath the waves in 373 BCE, Helike is a byword for thinking about disaster, for ancients and moderns alike
One night nearly 2,500 years ago, the people of Helike, a city in the northern Peloponnese, were in their homes. Perhaps they were winding down with a glass of watered wine or already sleeping after spending the day about their business in the bustling town. Some had been busy at the market, selling or buying the produce from the local farms or purchasing goods from further afield. Some might have visited the famous Temple of Poseidon, as worshippers or priests of the cult, or trained in the gymnasium. Others were engaged in usual city business, the day-to-day civic and political life of Helike. This night, though, would be their last.
As they slept, a terrible earthquake struck the region, toppling buildings and killing the inhabitants. Then, in a second calamity, the city was swallowed up by a giant wave. The inhabitants disappeared. A recovery party of 2,000 men sent from neighbouring cities found no bodies. The nearby village of Bura was destroyed too.
The story of the destruction of classical Helike in 373 BCE rippled out through the Greek lands. When it was recent history, Aristotle (384-322 BCE) wrote of it in his Meterologica, a book not only about the atmosphere and weather, as we would expect, but also more generally about what we could term Earth processes, including earthquakes and tsunamis. Helike was remembered and written about for centuries by Greek and Roman authors. But as the centuries turned and the coastline shifted, the location of the once-great city was forgotten. The search for this city has captivated modern archaeologists for more than 50 years.
Oxeia hums in acknowledgement, but doesn't turn from her perch.
The City is quiet. In mourning. It almost fell apart into so many memories and so much nothing. One of the Convocation has stepped down, and the other has become a part of something greater. And nobody knows whether replacements will be chosen, whether the seats shall remain empty...whether there are any replacements to pick, with so many dead.
Helike crosses her arms over her chest, scuffing her feet on the stone flooring. There's rubble there; scorch marks. They'll have to clean things, in time. But there are larger priorities.
"Why are you telling me?" Oxeia speaks. Her voice is pained and broken, cracking in a way it never has before.
And for once, Helike flounders. She's normally one for speaking so much, so openly. For sharing every little thought that passes through her mind, and letting others see the joy she feels.
But there is no joy to be found here.
"I thought...you would want to know that we're recovering. That..." she bites her lip, and looks down at the city below them. The city they so nearly lost. "...that we can rebuild."
The lights throughout the city flicker on, one tower block at a time. It had been difficult to work with the arcane circuitry and to rebuild all that was broken, and in truth she'd been a little more reluctant to use Creation magic than normal. Her reticence was understandable, given what had so nearly befallen them all. Given what had befallen so many.
It's almost worse, with the lights on. In the dark you could almost pretend the city was whole. But with the lights, you could see gaps in the skyline where skyscrapers used to stand. You could see sections of darkness, where great chunks of rock and stone and metal and magic have been torn away by colossal impacts. And you could see the bodies that had not yet been recovered.
So much death; before and after the calamity. The sickness and the cure both.
It makes Helike feel sick.
"No," Oxeia says. She turns, slipping from her perch and dropping in front of her friend. She's not wearing her mask. A petty refusal she's had since she stepped down. If she is not to be a part of polite Amaurotine society, why should she wear their masks? Why shouldn't her face be seen? Her eyes are a bright green, defiant even now. But now...now, the scarring across her face is on clear display. A burn, running from one eye all the way to her neck. The crack in her voice. "We can't."
Helike closes her eyes, looking down at the floor in shame.
