Why this sunken island is changing the way we think about myths

June 27, 2024 6:44 PM

Why this sunken island is changing the way we think about myths. Legend has it a jealous husband used a wave curse to sink Teonimenu into the ocean forever. Scientists have worked out what really happened.
posted by chariot pulled by cassowaries (6 comments total)

That's pretty terrifying to think of an entire island just landsliding down into a trench and then boom, it's gone.
posted by aubilenon at 11:21 PM on June 27 [3 favorites]

Seriously. I find the entire concept of ocean trenches and subduction zones viscerally horrifying. Nature’s oubliette.
posted by BrashTech at 4:22 AM on June 28

Oubliet-te
Natures oubliet-te
Oubliet-te
Vanish in the sea

Vanish in the sea my pet [points]
Vanish in the sea my pet
Ta my pet! Ta my pet!
Oubliette! Oubliette!
A-a-a-ah!
posted by seanmpuckett at 5:20 AM on June 28 [8 favorites]

That was a great article, thank you for posting it. I appreciate how modern science is giving more respect to oral traditions of various peoples. It doesn't mean all those stories are true, every culture is susceptible to distorting their history in various non-objective ways. But this particular story is so recent and so consistent and so specific I'm glad someone took it seriously enough to consider the science of it.
posted by Nelson at 7:09 AM on June 28 [3 favorites]

For another example of indigenous oral histories bringing light to events in the geologic record, here's an article on the Orphan Tsunami of 1700.
posted by which_chick at 5:38 PM on June 28 [1 favorite]

"No one ever talks about how an oubliette implies the existence of a larger, and far more terrifying, oobly." Twitter user Brainmage, Oct 4, 2019

The site shouldn't be linked to anymore, but this is such a perfect joke. It lives rent-free in my head and brings me profound joy.
posted by MengerSponge at 2:53 AM on June 29 [1 favorite]