Abstract Despite numerous damaging earthquakes in central Greece only the Atalanti Fault is considered to have ruptured successively, most recently in 1894 and in a historical event in 426 BC. Although the pre-Christian earthquake is now firmly entrenched in the tectonic literature, classical literary accounts are inconsistent and do not unequivocally tie the event to a particular time and place. Archaeological evidence from sites close to the Atalanti Fault similarly remains ambiguous, and fails to convincingly corroborate the rupture of the Atalanti Fault in 426 BC. In this paper, the main thrust of the argument is not to try to define the seismogenic source of the 426 BC event, but to illustrate the level of uncertainty that accompanies literary and archaeological information, and to highlight the need for caution when using interdisciplinary methods or datasets in earthquake seismology.