The Greek geographer Strabo wrote (VIII.7.2): "For the sea was raised by an earthquake and it submerged Eliki, and also the temple of Elikonian Poseidon, whom the Ionians worship even to this day....And Eratosthenes says that he himself saw the place, and that the ferrymen say that there was a bronze Poseidon in the strait, standing erect, holding a sea horse in his hand, which was perilous for those who fished with nets. And Herakleides says that the submersion took place by night in his time, and, although the city was twelve stadia [about 1.5km] distant from the sea, this whole district together with the city was hidden from sight; and two thousand men who had been sent by the Achaians were unable to recover the dead bodies..."
The Greek travel writer Pausanias visited the site of Eliki five centuries after its destruction and wrote (24.5): "Going on further [to the west] you come to the river Selinous, and forty stades [about 5 km] away from Aigion is a place on the sea called Eliki. Here used to be situated a city Eliki, where the Ionians had a very holy sanctuary of Elikonian Poseidon." After describing the most violent type of earthquake, he says (24.12): "It is this sort of shock alone that leaves no trace on the ground that men ever dwelt there. This was the type of earthquake, they say, that... levelled Eliki to the ground, and that it was accompanied by another disaster in the season of winter. The sea flooded a great part of the land, and covered up the whole of Eliki all round. Moreover, the tide was so deep in the grove of Poseidon that only the tops of the trees remained visible. What with the sudden earthquake, and the invasion of the sea that accompanied it, the tidal wave swallowed up Eliki and every man in it... The ruins of Eliki too are visible, but not plainly now as they were once, because they are corroded by the salt water." He later noted (25.4): "As none of the people of Eliki were left alive, the land is occupied by the people of Aegion."
The Greek historian Diodorus Siculus wrote (XV.48): "During their term of office great earthquakes occurred in the Peloponnese accompanied by tidal waves which engulfed the open country and cities in a manner past belief; for never in the earlier periods had such disasters befallen Greek cities, nor had entire cities along with their inhabitants disappeared as a result of some divine force wreaking destruction and ruin upon mankind. The extent of the destruction was increased by the time of its occurrence; for the earthquake did not come in the daytime when it would have been possible for the sufferers to help themselves, but the blow came at night, so that when the houses crashed and crumbled under the force of the shock, the population, owing to the darkness and to the surprise and bewilderment occasioned by the event, had no power to struggle for life. The majority were caught in the falling houses and annihilated, but as day returned some survivors dashed from the ruins and, when they thought they had escaped the danger, met with a greater and still more incredible disaster. For the sea rose to a vast height, and a wave towering even higher washed away and drowned all the inhabitants and their native lands as well. Two cities in Achaia bore the brunt of this disaster, Eliki and Bura, the former of which had, as it happened, before the earthquake held first place among the cities of Achaia. These disasters have been the subject of much discussion."
The Roman writer Aelian wrote (On the Characteristics of Animals XI.19): "For five days before Eliki disappeared all the mice and martens and snakes and centipedes and beetles and every other creature of that kind in the town left in a body by the road that leads to Keryneia. And the people of Eliki seeing this happening were filled with amazement, but were unable to guess the reason. But after the aforesaid creatures had departed, an earthquake occurred in the night; the town collapsed; an immense wave poured over it, and Eliki disappeared, while ten Lacedaemonian [Sparten] vessels which happened to be at anchor close by were destroyed together with the city I speak of."
The Roman poet Ovid wrote (in Metamorphoses I.263): "If you seek for Eliki and Bura, once cities of Achaia, you will find them beneath the waves; and the sailors still show you the sloping cities with their buried walls."
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