Home life in Hellas, Greece and the Greeks - eBooks4Greeks.gr

once greater and fairer isle,cataclysm.THE ISLES 117witnesses to a mightyHerodotus tells of the island Kalliste,of which Santorin is but a vestige, and geologistssupport him in the belief that a great cone formerlyrose where this basin of sea now rolls.Sir CharlesLyell conjectures the date of the catastrophe to beabout 2000 B.C. The forces that wrought it arenot yet spent, as the boiling waters, the smokingrocks, and frequent tremors and rumblings attest.Subsidences often occur, and remains of submergedbuildings are found near the coast. There aresome off Epanomeria. In 1650 two towns, buriedand forgotten, were unearthed by the disturbances.They may be seen near Perissa and Kamara. Itis an eerie place, this Santorin, and it is not to bewondered at that, in times not long gone by,popular belief regarded it as the chosen home ofghouls and vampires and the like uncanny beings.Swallows avoid it, although the cliffs would affordthem an ideal nesting-place. Man, less timid orless wise than the swallows, has dwelt on it fromthe remotest ages. He has left traces whichscience attributes to a period anterior to the cataclysm,if the date assigned to it is correct.To-day,next to Syra, it is the most progressive and themost prosperous of the Cyclades.But whilst theimportance of Syra dates from yesterday and is dueto an accidental cause outside itself, that of Santorinextends through its whole history and isspontaneous.Thera—the ancient name is now itsofficial title—has a great past. Its remains attest