Establishment of Atlantides in Samothrace

Samothrace was inhabited before the flood of the Bosphorus-Hellespont.

The Atlanteans's Settlement

Or else the flood of Dardanus

The ancient Greek historian Diodorus of Sicily (Siculus or Sikeliotis ) provides us with important information about the history of the inhabitants of the island of Samothrace and about a great flood in the Black Sea and the Bosphorus Strait (in "Historical Library", book 5, paragraphs 47-48).

Diodorus states that Samothrace was inhabited by natives but nothing has been handed down to us about the first people who founded it and their rulers. He mentions the opinion of some people that, in the past, it was called Saonisos and took its current name from the inhabitants who went from Samos and Thrace. These natives had their own ancient language, with many words preserved to this day in the sacrifices.

The Samothracians used to tell a story about a great deluge that happened there, before the deluges happened to the rest of the peoples, which caused the following successive disasters and natural changes:

1) The sea of Pontus ("Pontus sea") which until then was a lake, swelled from the waters of the rivers that flowed into it, and from the increase of the amount of water in it, it poured with momentum into the Hellespont

2) From the above events, the mouth around the Kianes Petres opened (it is the mouth to the Thracian Bosphorus around the Sympligades Stones)

3) Then the mouth of the Hellespont opened

4) At the same time, a large coastal region of Asia was flooded and a large part of the flat part of Samothrace became a sea, and for this reason, in the following years, fishermen raised stone capitals in their nets because cities were also flooded

5) Diodorus' account continues: "The inhabitants of the island who were saved, because they ran to the highest points of the island as the sea continued to rise more and more, in memory of their salvation they surrounded the island with stones and established altars where they make sacrifices to this day. So it is clear that they lived in Samothrace before the flood".

"Historical Library", book 5, paragraph 47

Keep as a first thought in your mind the conclusion easily drawn by Diodorus himself, from his own description of the accounts of the inhabitants that "the island of Samothrace was inhabited before the flood of Black Sea" by people who had their own ancient language

But, who were the inhabitants (peoples) who lived in Samothrace before the flood and some were saved from it?

Diodorus himself describes that after the flood many peoples lived scattered on the island, but someone named Saon, an inhabitant of the island, the son of Zeus or Hermes and the nymph Hespera, managed to unite them and, setting laws, named it Saona (Saos is called today and the mountain that exists) from him, and he divided the people into five tribes.

But, for the only race whose exploits Diodorus describes, it was the race of the Atlantida Electra (apparently this was the most dominant of the five, the only one left in tradition). So Diodorus writes (book 5):

The inhabitants of Samothrace living under this regime, say that from Zeus and Atlantida Electra, who was one of the Atlantides, Dardanus, Jasion and Harmonia were born there. Dardanus, having grand plans, crossed first into Asia by raft and founded first of all the city named Dardanus and established his kingdom around what was later called Troy and named the people Dardanians and settled the Dardanians beyond Thrace. The another son, Iasion, learned the performance of the mysteries that had existed since ancient times on the island and was the first to spread the ceremony of the mysteries, making them glorious, introducing strangers to it."Historical Library", book 5, paragraph 48

In his book 3, Diodorus mentions another story, that the Amazons also passed through the island, led by Myrina, who started from Lake Trichonida in Libya, expanded to the Aegean islands, occupied Lesbos and they founded Mytilene and after being carried away by storms they reached a desert island where they established altars to the great goddess (meaning the great goddess of Phrygia, Cybele), offered sacrifices and named it Samothraki which in the Greek language translates as "sacred island". However, the Amazons did not remain there but returned to their mainland country."Historical Library", book 3, paragraph 55, 7-8

The revelations that Diodorus makes are important because they change part of the traditional view of prehistory:

1) It reveals that the first founders of the Kingdom of Troy (its former name was "Dardania") were a tribe of Atlanteans who remained in Samothrace even after the flood of the "Euxine Pontus". Dardanus, the founder of the Dardanian kingdom later renamed Troy (present-day Ilion), was of Atlantean origin, being the son of the Atlantida Electra. I remind you that Electra Atlantis was one of the seven daughters of Atlas who married prominent rulers, heroes and "gods" and became progenitors of much of the human race. In this case, she mixed with Zeus, writes Diodorus, but in all probability she mixed with the Samothrace king Saona, as all the kings or heroes of that time passed into mythology as "gods" or descendants of "gods".

2) A tribe of Atlanteans initiated foreigners into the rites of the mysteries and performed them gloriously as Iasion, to whom these were assigned, was the son of Atlantida Electra and the brother of Dardanus.

3) That the inhabitants of Samothrace kept in their memory a very large old flood coming from the Black Sea that submerged a part of their island. And they performed religious ceremonies in memory of their salvation.

4) This powerful flood of the Black Sea-Hellispont was established in the memories of the peoples of Samothrace, Thrace and N. Western Asia to be called "the flood of Dardanus", in honor of their leader Dardanus, who created the kingdom of the Dardanians in the same area. With the same name it spread to the inhabitants of the rest of the cities of Greece and Asia, apparently through their initiation into the Kaverian Mysteries. This is how it appears today in mythology as the "Dardanus flood".

Modern geological evidence from scientific investigations

There is geological evidence that confirms the authenticity of this myth about the flood of Samothrace, Thrace, the Black Sea, north-western Asia Minor.
The history of the Black Sea, during the Pleistocene era (it is the geological period from about 2,588,000 to 11,700 years before today, also called the ice age), has today been sufficiently studied based on serious geological evidence that does not raise any doubts.

At the beginning of the Pleistocene period, the Black Sea was much smaller than today and received the waters of the Caspian Sea, which was at a higher level. Part of the water of the Black Sea was pouring into the Sea of Marmara. In those days there was a river in the Dardanelles and not a strait like today. Due to the relatively high level of the water surface in the Caspian Sea, as well as the Black Sea, and the absence of a direct connection to the Mediterranean Sea, the amount of salt in these locations was much lower than today.

During the last ice age, about 6000 to 8000 years ago, the present connection with the Mediterranean was established through the Bosphorus, the Sea of Marmara and the Dardanelles.... Since then, in the Hellespont there has been a rapid surface current from the sea of Marmaras towards the Aegean and a deeper one, with opposite direction and greater amound of salt. (Encyclopedia PAPYRUS LARUS BRITANICA)

© Copyright: Theodoros Paschos, Athens, 2016