Pliny, Atlantis, and Tantalus © Nicholas Costa 2025

In a section entitled Islands of the Ethiopian Sea Pliny states “It is said also that there is another island situate over against Mount Atlas, being itself known by the name of Atlantis” This he locates off the coast of Mauritania in west Africa.However, as he is aware, the geography in this region was distinctly garbled, for his passage begins with an island called Cerne in Ethiopian Ocean beyond the Red Sea which is impassable at the ‘Pillars’ and then somehow ends by referring to a sequence of hazy and indeterminate islands off the west coast of Africa.

The names significantly reflect those encountered in western Anatolia: Cerne, Mount Atlas, Atlantis, the Hesperides, and the Gorgiades (Gorgons). He is justifiably sceptical about these west African locations when he writes all accounts relative to the subject are “so uncertain.” He finishes the section by stating, “Nor have we any more certain information relative to the islands of Mauritania.”(Natural History§ 6.199)

In Book 2 Pliny perceptively writes about islands taken away from the sea and joined to the land. In this passage among other locations he cites how the island of Sirie/Syrie near Ephesus now known as Kuru Tepe, had became landlocked due to the silting of the Cayster River’s delta and had become part of the mainland. (Natural History § 2.204-205)

At this point he moves on directly to ‘cases of land entirely stolen away by the first of all (if we accept Plato’s story { Tim. 24 E }), the vast area covered by the Atlantic…’ His scepticism of a popular interpretation of Plato’s narrative is apparent. Interestingly though in section {93.} he focuses the reader’s attention upon a sequence of quasi mythical locations related to catastrophes, only one of which is readily identifiable. He states:

And to pass over bays and marshes, the earth is eaten up by herself. She has devoured the highest mountain in Caria, Cibotus, together with the town of that name, Sipylus in Magnesia, and previously the very celebrated city in the same place that used to be called Tantalis, the territories of Galene and Galame in Phoenicia with the cities themselves, and the loftiest mountain range in Ethiopia, Phegium – just as if the coasts also did not treacherously encroach!

There are problems here for modern interpreter. Whilst Magnesia ad Sipylum (modern-day Manisa) can be located, it lies approximately 70-75 kilometers (43-47 miles) north-east of Ephesus, there are serious problems in identifying the other places. The locations of the highest mountain in Caria (Cibotus) and the highest in Ethiopia (Phegium) are totally unknown and even their existence is doubted. Why also in this same passage does he suddenly include two other totally unknown locations in Phoenicia? However all these places make sense if one considers them in the context of the airburst above Ugarit c1383 BC and the airburst above Ephesus and the subsequent volcanic eruption of Nisyros c1327 BC.

When did Tantalus live?

Strabo wrote that: “Notably certain catastrophes recorded by Democles (fl. 4th century BC) how formerly in the reign of Tantalus there were great earthquakes in Lydia and Ionia as far as the Troad, which swallowed up whole villages and overturned Mount Sipylus; marshes then became lakes, and the city of Troy was covered by the waters.”

St. Jerome, Chronicon § B1352 : Tityus banqueted with Tantalus. Tityus lived at the time of Leto mother of Apollo, who with Hercules served Admetus.

From Clement (Stromata), undated wrote: “Further, Latona (Leto) lived in the time of Tityus. “For he dragged Latona, the radiant consort of Zeus.” Now Tityus was contemporary with Tantalus. Rightly, therefore, the Bœotian Pindar writes, “And in time was Apollo born;” and no wonder when he is found along with Hercules, serving Admetus “for a long year.”

Thus Tantalus is depicted as living at exactly the same time as Leto who gave birth to Artemis and Apollo. Whilst Leto is depicted as being attacked by a giant named Tityus who was killed either by the arrows of Artemis and Apollo or by the thunderbolt of Zeus. This is effectively another metaphor for the airburst and subsequent volcanic eruption of c1327BC.

Kibotos- Nisyros?

Pliny begins with the name of an unknown mountain which he says wasthe highest in Caria before it was devoured by the earth. The name he gives it is Kibotos (box or container). It is descriptive. The same name was used to describe Noah’s Ark in the Bible. Architecturally a kibotion was a structure or form into which liquid concrete or similar materials were poured. This therefore conjures up a metaphor for a volcano. A volcano is a sold structure which holds liquid magma. (In my work Adam to Apophis evidence is presented to demonstrate that the entire Noah mythos was actually centered upon an airbust and volcanic eruption c2345 BC). This imagery is consistent with a description of the Nisyros volcano in its pre-eruption phase. It lies directly off the coast of Caria. In classical times the island was ruled by Artemisa I (c480 BC) queen of Caria, therefore it can be accurately be defined as being in Caria.

Phegion – Nisyros?

Other than Pliny the only other extant source from antiquity that names Phegium/ Phegion is in Lycophron’s Alexandra. Here, it is directly associated with the flight of Pegasus over the steep crag Phegion and with Cerne (which the author has identified as Ephesus). The name Phegium/ Phegion, as written in the extant sources derives from the Greek word for oak. The description of a mountain being covered in oak would be true of Anatolia where oak trees are endemic but it is not true of Ethiopia. Ethiopia’s environment is not suited for oaks, which are primarily found in temperate regions. Likewise the name has little meaning in the context of the myth, a slight change in the Greek spelling of the word replacing the eta with an upsilon produces an almost identical word but with an entirely different meaning: phygion the place of flight or mountain of escape which bears a direct relevance to the myth. The fact that mythographers placed it in Ethiopia, land of the burnt faces, should by now be self evident, the Ethiopia in question was none other than the region affected by the eruption of Nisyros.

Lycophron’s poem is famous for its riddling language and recondite style. ( The Rhetoric of the Riddle in the Alexandra of Lycophron, Christophe Cusset & Antje Kolde, 2012). Whilst it is thought it was written in c190 BC, the earliest extant manuscripts date to the Byzantine period and by that time the sound of upsilon and eta had fully shifted in most dialects into the same sound which meant that they were frequently confused when written.

Phonecia – Joppa.

Immediately prior to these two locations Pliny also curiously includes two other unknown cities, stating the territories of Galene and Galame in Phoenicia with the cities themselves were lost to the sea. In the current context it can be interpreted as a reference to the tidal wave that engulfed the region c1383 BC which affected the city of Ugarit and which appears in the myth of Perseus at Joffa in which he uses the Gorgon’s head to destroy a threatening sea monster.

The distance between the two cities is approximately 507 km (315 miles). This indicates just how extensive the damage was. Notably dendrochronological records reveal the following for the 14^th millenium BC: 1386, 1385, 1373 (ring-width minima signals), and for 1359 (frost signals). (Bristlecone pine tree rings and volcanic eruptions over the last 5000 yr Matthew W. Salzer, Malcolm K. Hughes, 2005.)

The region bears many traces of underwater structures although as yet no specific city seems to have been reliably identified.

Next: Tantalus, Sisiphus, and Ixion- metaphors for the disaster of c1327 BC by Nicholas Costa

Don’t forget aditional information is contained in the book entitled: Atlantis, the Amazons, and the Birth of Athene: The True Story by Nicholas Costa. Support new research. Get the book!