Atalanta (island)

Coordinates: 38°40′20″N 23°5′45″E / 38.67222°N 23.09583°E / 38.67222; 23.09583 Atalanta (Ancient Greek: Ἀταλάντη), the modern Talandonísi (Greek: Ταλαντονήσι), is a small island off Locris, in the Opuntian Gulf, said to have been torn asunder from the mainland by an earthquake. In the first year of the Peloponnesian War this previously uninhabited island was fortified by the Athenians to prevent Locrian pirates attacking Euboea.^[1] In the sixth year of the war a part of the Athenian works was destroyed by the sea, with half the ships on the beach destroyed. Thucydides reports that following an earthquake, the sea receded from the shore before returning in a huge wave.^[2] Citing similar events at Peparethus and Orobiae, he suggests that earthquakes and such "sea events" are linked—we now know that such tsunami are in fact caused by earthquakes. In 421 BC, the Peace of Nicias returned Atalanta to Sparta.^[3]

References

• Strabo i. p. 61, ix. pp. 395, 425;, iii. 89
• Diodorus xii. 44, 59
• Pausanias (geographer) x. 20. § 3
• Livy xxxv. 37
• Pliny the Elder ii. 88, iv. 12
• Seneca Q. N. vi. 24
• Stephanus of Byzantium s. v.
• William Martin Leake, Northern Greece, vol. ii. p. 172

•  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Smith, William, ed. (1854–1857). "article name needed". Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography. London: John Murray.