ABSTRACT
The first excerpts of Greek literature record a natural event: the solar eclipse of April 6th, 648 B.C., which Archilochus witnessed. A poet of fiery passion, but also an astute observer of nature, he describes the precise precursors to forewarn us of a storm that about to strike the Cyclades in the intense rhythm of the tetrameters of another fragment. When faced with such events, men of the VII century B.C. could only respond with fear, which exploded inside them as suddenly as the calamity itself. Twothousand and seven-hundred years later, in an epoch when natural risk is still perceived as an anomalous and extraordinary event, incompatible with the schemes of technological development and paradoxically increasing with economic and social growth, it is better, from one point of view, to reflect on the state of knowledge in order to evaluate the important steps forward that science has made in comprehending such phenomena and relative defence techniques and interventions, but is also necessary to highlight criticality, limits, and what is yet to come.
