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The geotectonic evolution of olympus mt. and its mythological analogue

Manoutsoglou Emmanouil, Mariolakos, Ilias

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Summary

Mt Olympus is the highest mountain of Greece (2918 m.) and one of the most importantand well known locations of the modern world. This is related to its great culturalsignificance, since the ancient Greeks considered this mountain as the habitatof their Gods, ever since Zeus became the dominant figure of the ancient Greek religionand consequently the protagonist of the cultural regime. Before the generationof Zeus, Olympus was inhabited by the generation of Cronus.In this paper we shall refer to a lesser known mythological reference which, in ouropinion, presents similarities to the geotectonic evolution of the wider area ofOlympus.According to Apollodorus and other great authors, the God Poseidon and Iphimediahad twin sons, the Aloades, namely Otus and Ephialtes, who showed a tendency togigantism. When they reached the age of nine, they were about 16 m. tall and 4.5 m.wide. Having then realized their powers, because of their gigantic proportions, theydecided to climb Olympus and fight the Gods, exile Zeus and the others, and wedtwo Goddesses. Otus was to marry Hera and Ephialtes Artemis.But they did not know how to climb such a high mountain, so they decided to constructa “ladder”, by putting mount Ossa on top of mount Olympus and mount Pelionon top of Ossa. This description coincides with the geological and tectonic evolutionof the wider Olympus area. But, these complex tectonic processes were completedabout 8 – 10 m.a., i.e. millions of years before the appearance of humans,therefore it is impossible that these morphotectonic processes were witnessed byman, so the similarities between the myth of Aloades and the tectonic evolution ofthe area must be purely coincidental. But are they, or is there more here?

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