Until now, this column has highlighted the principal heroes, kings, and progenitors of Greek Prehistory. In the present text we shall refer to perhaps the most important king of ancient Attica: Ogygos.
Ogygos, or Ogyges, is considered the first king of Attica and Boeotia. He is regarded as autochthonous, and in extremely ancient times became the founder and settler of Attica.
From him begins the Heroic Age and the “Ogygia,” meaning the most ancient things, as Dionysios Thasios mentions. Concerning Ladon, it is written that he begot Daphne from the Earth, who is considered the first human being.
“Ogygian Thasos, shore of Demeter”
— because Demeter was worshipped there since very ancient times.
Is it history or myth?
Ogygos is considered so ancient that his name may symbolize a great natural catastrophe in prehistoric times. And the very fact that Greek tradition preserved in its memory events of such antiquity demonstrates an early emergence from the primitive age, at a time when other nations still existed in cultural nonexistence.
The scientists of the establishment — and naturally AI as well — treat everything concerning Ogygos as myth and not as historical fact, because allegedly there are no proofs. Yet the very Flood of Ogygos itself is sufficient to be recorded as perhaps the first great geological event preserved in human memory. The proof is the Aegean Sea itself and its islands.
According to the book WE THE GREEKS by Dimitris Vardikos (p. 73, 8th edition), the Flood of Ogygos dates approximately to 25,000 B.C.
The only people who recorded three floods are the Greeks:
- The Flood of Ogygos
- The Flood of Deucalion
- The Flood of Dardanus
All other peoples recorded only one:
- Noah (Bible)
- Utnapishtim (Mesopotamia)
What may a Flood signify?
- Vast inundation
- Geological catastrophe
- Restart of humanity
Ogygos, Aegis, and the Aegean
The so-called Aegis was the region of the Aegean more than 20,000 years B.C., when there existed much more dry land or unified land masses that today lie submerged beneath the sea.
During the last Ice Age:
- sea level was far lower,
- because the glaciers had not yet melted,
- and many of today’s islands were joined to the mainland.
At that time the Aegean was an entirely different landscape.
How is this connected with Ogygos?
Ogygos is associated with a primordial flood. Geologists state that after the end of the glaciers the sea rose rapidly and many regions were flooded.
Because Ogygos was king during that period, his name became associated with the Flood — just as even today we say that an event happened “during the reign of such-and-such ruler.”
Some considered Ogygos the son of Earth, while others regarded him as the son of Poseidon. He ruled Attica and Boeotia, and from him the inhabitants of Boeotia were called Ectines.
During the thirty-seventh year of his reign there occurred the first great flood in Greece, which drowned Attica. Some inhabitants perished, while others fled together with Ogygos. After this his fate became unknown and his name is no longer mentioned.
Some claimed that a river of Boeotia overflowed and destroyed Boeotia and Attica.
It is also said that during the Flood a strange phenomenon appeared upon the disk of Aphrodite, and its shape, color, and orbit changed. Because of this, certain people supposed that it was a comet and not the planet Aphrodite (Venus).
In treatises concerning this subject it is mentioned that the phenomenon appeared again in the year 1690.
After the Flood, no one knows what became of Ogygos.
His wife was Thebe, daughter of Zeus. By her he fathered Eleusis, the Praxidikai, and a son called Cadmus.
Others consider Ogygos the son of Hermes and Daera, daughter of Oceanus.
Before the Flood he had founded two towns: Eleusis and Athens in Boeotia, near Lake Copais, which were later submerged when the lake overflowed during the time of Cecrops.
Eleusis built Eleusis and dwelt there. It is today’s modern Elefsina.
King Ogygos and the Aegean sea
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Commentary
It is indeed impressive and unique in the world that the Greek Nation preserved within its memory events of such immense antiquity and transmitted them through myths. This is because myth — that is, the tale — remains alive and is repeated, whereas direct speech is lost with time.
There also exist indications from archaeological excavations in the region of Copais, such as artificial drainage works, which some researchers place in far more ancient periods.
The Aegean by its very nature is an archipelago, where land and sea are continuous and cannot be separated, as Turkey demands. On the contrary, throughout its long history and prehistory, the Aegean remained Greek even when under Turkish or other foreign rule.
Likewise, the opposite coasts of Asia Minor were deeply connected with the Aegean and were Greek lands; their inhabitants were Greeks and possessed Greek civilization, language, religion, customs, and traditions. Many still live in Ionia, Aeolia, and Phocaea — Greeks forcibly Turkified through the change of their religion.
The Aegean and its opposite shores are the cradle of human civilization and must remain as the “Greek Cultural Legacy of the Earth,” because from this region sprang universal civilization and from here it was spread by the Greek Pelasgian — sailor and wanderer — to every corner of the world.
King Ogygos and the Aegean sea
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Commentary
(1/5/26)
Amphiktyon – Lieutenant General (ret.) Konstantinos Konstantinidis
Writer, Member of the Society of Greek Writers
amphiktyon.blogspot.com
amphiktyon.org
