INUNDATION OF HELIKE (HELICE), 373 BCE

A disastrous event occurred in 373 BCE that could have inspired Plato’s thinking regarding his Atlantis story: Helice, a city on the Corinthian Gulf, was destroyed by a tsunami. Stabo's account mentions a temple of Poseidon, bull-sacrifices, a wrathful deity, and a city sunk beneath the waves, all of which figure prominently in Critias’ account of Atlantis. This link takes you to the relevant passage from Strabo's Geography - Strabo 8.7.2. Cf. 1.3.18.