Earthquake in Santorini in 1956: Panteli’s daughter Zervou was buried alive and discovered in the exhumation

Pantelis Zervos lamented the loss of his 12-year-old daughter Eudoxia, who was killed in the 1956 murderous earthquake that also struck Amorgos. The memorable actor was in Epidaurus that day and even took part in the performance. He had found on the Cycladic island the wife and three daughters they had had. One didn’t make it. The second act of the drama was to be played 3 years later. During the exhumation it was found that the 12-year-old had been buried alive. On July 9, 1956, a strong earthquake of magnitude 7.5 Richter shocked the Cyclades, with Santorini and Amorgos receiving the biggest blow. The vibration caused huge disasters, leveling houses and left behind dozens of dead. Of the earthquakes, 53 people died. Among them is the little daughter of actor Pantelis Gervou. CORVERSE Pantelis Zervos had grown up alone and his family was the most important he had. Maria’s wife was from Santorini and the summers the actor worked at the theater, along with their daughters, went to the island. There, they were also found by the hit of Enceladus on July 9, 1956. But 12-year-old Eudoxia did not get out and was trapped under the ruins. Pantelis Zervos played in Epidaurus at the time. His wife and two other daughters were saved as they got out of the house. The 12-year-old didn’t have the same luck. The unbearable news will reach Pantelis Zervos the night before he goes on stage to play. “The Eudoxula was killed,” he was told. CORVERSE Even that night, when his pain ate the insides, he did not disappoint the public. He drowned his pain and went out on stage. He plays and bows. The “hort” audience, who knew nothing, invited him out not once and twice, but eight! And he, on the board, obeyed… Even these dramatic hours. When the curtain fell and the applause was silenced, he returned to the scenes. He could now mourn the loss of his child. She fainted. The drama would continue three years later, when it was discovered that the little girl had been buried alive (her body had changed place in the coffin). Pantelis Zervos, once again finding a “superhuman” power, kept this secret, even from his own woman, forever. That’s what he knew would tear her apart. Only just before he died did he reveal it in an interview, rendering the tragic mistake in the fact that “those tragic days on the island, anyone who strayed and did not drool, buried him.” On 22 January 1982 the actor worshiped by the public, the commune, the mayor, the gendarme, the boatman, the strict but loving father but always just and good, died aged 74, betrayed by his heart.