powers to create earthquakes and storms, is given the epithets “earth mover” and “earth shaker”. Bittlestone comments what could be a more obvious opposing force for a king living in such a seismically active area. Today we know him as plate tectonics.
Following publication of the book, research continued to test Bittlestone’s theory, which generally seems to have been confirmed. A geology doctorate found evidence for a rotation slump ending in a toe thrust, which could have blocked the marine channel between Paliki/ Ithaca and Cephalonia, pushing marine sediments up to 170m above sea level.
In 2015 Bittlestone sadly died. He left as a memorial his theory, which brought something genuinely new to the study of the classics, and this great book.