c.428 - c.347 BCE
from "The Antediluvian World" by Ignatius Donnelly
"But in addition to the gods whom you have mentioned, I would
specially invoke Mnemosyne; for all the important part of what I
have to tell is dependent on her favor, and if I can recollect and
recite enough of what was said by the priests, and brought hither
by Solon, I doubt not that I shall satisfy the requirements of this
theatre. To that task, then, I will at once address myself.
"Let me begin by observing, first of all, that nine thousand was
the sum of years which had elapsed since the war which was said to
have taken place between all those who dwelt outside the Pillars of
Heracles and those who dwelt within them: this war I am now to
describe.
Of the combatants on the one side the city of Athens was reported
to have been the ruler, and to have directed the contest; the
combatants on the other side were led by the kings of the islands
of Atlantis, which, as I was saying, once had an extent greater
than that of Libya and Asia; and, when afterward sunk by an
earthquake, became an impassable barrier of mud to voyagers sailing
from hence to the ocean.
The progress of the history will unfold the various tribes of
barbarians and Hellenes which then existed, as they successively
appear on the scene; but I must begin by describing, first of all,
the Athenians as they were in that day, and their enemies who
fought with them; and I shall have to tell of the power and form of
government of both of them. Let us give the precedence to Athens. .
. .(omitted?)
"Many great deluges have taken place during the nine thousand
years, for that is the number of years which have elapsed since the
time of which I am speaking; and in all the ages and changes of
things there has never been any sediment of the earth flowing down
from the mountains, as in other places, which is worth speaking
of.
It has always been carried round in a circle, and disappeared in
the depths below. The consequence is that, in comparison of what
then was, there are remaining in small islets only the bones of the
wasted body, as they may be called, all the richer and softer parts
of the soil having fallen away, and the mere skeleton of the
country being left. . . .
"And next, if I have not forgotten what I heard when I was a child,
I will impart to you the character and origin of their adversaries
(the Atlanteans); for friends should not keep their stories to
themselves, but have them in common. Yet, before proceeding farther
in the narrative, I ought to warn you that you must not be
surprised if you should bear Hellenic names given to
foreigners.
I will tell you the reason of this: Solon, who was intending to use
the tale for his poem, made an investigation into the meaning of
the names, and found that the early Egyptians, in writing them
down, had translated them into their own language, and he recovered
the meaning of the several names and retranslated them, and copied
them out again in our language. My great-grandfather, Dropidas, had
the original writing, which is still in my possession, and was
carefully studied by me when I was a child. Therefore, if you hear
names such as are used in this country, you must not be surprised,
for I have told you the reason of them.
"The tale, which was of great length, began as follows: I have
before remarked, in speaking of the allotments of the gods, that
they distributed the whole earth into portions differing in extent,
and made themselves temples and sacrifices. And Poseidon, receiving
for his lot the island of Atlantis, begat children by a mortal
woman, and settled them in a part of the island which I will
proceed to describe.
On the side toward the sea, and in the center of the whole island,
there was a plain which is said to have been the fairest of all
plains, and very fertile. Near the plain again, and also in the
center of the island, at a distance of about fifty stadia (one
stadia=606 feet), there was a mountain, not very high on any
side.
In this mountain there dwelt one of the earth-born primeval men of
that country, whose name was Evenor, and he had a wife named
Leucippe, and they had an only daughter, who was named Cleito. The
maiden was growing up to womanhood when her father and mother
died.
Poseidon fell in love with her, and had intercourse with her; and,
breaking the ground, enclosed the hill in which she dwelt all
round, making alternate zones of sea and land, larger and smaller,
encircling one another; there were two of land and three of water,
which he turned as with a lathe out of the center of the island,
equidistant every way, so that no man could get to the island, for
ships and voyages were not yet heard of.
He himself, as he was a god, found no difficulty in making special
arrangements for the center island, bringing two streams of water
under the earth, which he caused to ascend as springs, one of warm
water and the other of cold, and making every variety of food to
spring up abundantly in the earth.
He also begat and brought up five pairs of male children, dividing
the island of Atlantis into ten portions: he gave to the first-born
of the eldest pair his mother's dwelling and the surrounding
allotment, which was the largest and best, and made him king over
the rest; the others he made princes, and gave them rule over many
men and a large territory.
And he named them all: the eldest, who was king, he named Atlas,
and from him the whole island and the ocean received the name of
Atlantic. To his twin-brother, who was born after him, and obtained
as his lot the extremity of the island toward the Pillars of
Heracles, as far as the country which is still called the region of
Gades in that part of the world, he gave the name which in the
Hellenic language is Eumelus, in the language of the country which
is named after him, Gadeirus.
Of the second pair of twins, he called one Ampheres and the other
Evaemon. To the third pair of twins he gave the name Mneseus to the
elder, and Autochthon to the one who followed him. Of the fourth
pair of twins he called the elder Elasippus and the younger Mestor,
And of the fifth pair be gave to the elder the name of Azaes, and
to the younger Diaprepes.
All these and their descendants were the inhabitants and rulers of
divers islands in the open sea; and also, as has been already said,
they held sway in the other direction over the country within the
Pillars as far as Egypt and Tyrrhenia (Italy).
Now Atlas had a numerous and honorable family, and his eldest
branch always retained the kingdom, which the eldest son handed on
to his eldest for many generations; and they had such an amount of
wealth as was never before possessed by kings and potentates, and
is not likely ever to be again, and they were furnished with
everything which they could have, both in city and country. For,
because of the greatness of their empire, many things were brought
to them from foreign countries, and the island itself provided much
of what was required by them for the uses of life.
In the first place, they dug out of the earth whatever was to be
found there, mineral as well as metal, and that which is now only a
name, and was then something more than a name --
orichalcum -- was dug out of the earth in many parts of
the island, and, with the exception of gold, was esteemed the most
precious of metals among the men of those days.
There was an abundance of wood for carpenters' work, and sufficient
maintenance for tame and wild animals. Moreover, there were a great
number of elephants in the island, and there was provision for
animals of every kind, both for those which live in lakes and
marshes and rivers, and also for those which live in mountains and
on plains, and therefore for the animal which is the largest and
most voracious of them.
Also, whatever fragrant things there are in the earth, whether
roots, or herbage, or woods, or distilling drops of flowers or
fruits, grew and thrived in that land; and again, the cultivated
fruit of the earth, both the dry edible fruit and other species of
food, which we call by the general name of legumes, and the fruits
having a hard rind, affording drinks, and meats, and ointments, and
good store of chestnuts and the like, which may be used to play
with, and are fruits which spoil with keeping--and the pleasant
kinds of dessert which console us after dinner, when we are full
and tired of eating--all these that sacred island lying beneath the
sun brought forth fair and wondrous in infinite abundance.
All these things they received from the earth, and they employed
themselves in constructing their temples, and palaces, and harbors,
and docks; and they arranged the whole country in the following
manner: First of all they bridged over the zones of sea which
surrounded the ancient metropolis, and made a passage into and out
of the royal palace; they began to build the palace and then the
habitation of the god and of their ancestors. This they continued
to ornament in successive generations, every king surpassing the
one who came before him to the utmost of his power, until they made
the building a marvel to behold for size and for beauty.
And, beginning from the sea, they dug a canal three hundred feet in
width and one hundred feet in depth, and fifty stadia in length,
which they carried through to the outermost zone, making a passage
from the sea up to this, which became a harbor, and leaving an
opening sufficient to enable the largest vessels to find ingress.
Moreover, they divided the zones of land which parted the zones of
sea, constructing bridges of such a width as would leave a passage
for a single trireme to pass out of one into another, and roofed
them over; and there was a way underneath for the ships, for the
banks of the zones were raised considerably above the water.
Now the largest of the zones into which a passage was cut from the
sea was three stadia in breadth, and the zone of land which came
next of equal breadth; but the next two, as well the zone of water
as of land, were two stadia, and the one which surrounded the
central island was a stadium only in width. The island in which the
palace was situated had a diameter of five stadia.
This, and the zones and the bridge, which was the sixth part of a
stadium in width, they surrounded by a stone wall, on either side
placing towers, and gates on the bridges where the sea passed in.
The stone which was used in the work they quarried from underneath
the center island and from underneath the zones, on the outer as
well as the inner side. One kind of stone was white, another black,
and a third red; and, as they quarried, they at the same time
hollowed out docks double within, having roofs formed out of the
native rock. Some of their buildings were simple, but in others
they put together different stones, which they intermingled for the
sake of ornament, to be a natural source of delight.
The entire circuit of the wall which went round the outermost one
they covered with a coating of brass, and the circuit of the next
wall they coated with tin, and the third, which encompassed the
citadel flashed with the red light of orichalcum.
The palaces in the interior of the citadel were constructed in this
wise: In the center was a holy temple dedicated to Cleito and
Poseidon, which remained inaccessible, and was surrounded by an
enclosure of gold; this was the spot in which they originally begat
the race of the ten princes, and thither they annually brought the
fruits of the earth in their season from all the ten portions, and
performed sacrifices to each of them. Here, too, was Poiseidon's
own temple, of a stadium in length and half a stadium in width, and
of a proportionate height, having a sort of barbaric
splendor.
All the outside of the temple, with the exception of the pinnacles,
they covered with silver, and the pinnacles with gold. In the
interior of the temple the roof was of ivory, adorned everywhere
with gold and silver and orichalcum; all the other parts of the
walls and pillars and floor they lined with orichalcum. In the
temple they placed statues of gold: there was the god himself
standing in a chariot--the charioteer of six winged horses--and of
such a size that he touched the roof of the building with his head;
around him there were a hundred Nereids riding on dolphins, for
such was thought to be the number of them in that day.
There were also in the interior of the temple other images which
had been dedicated by private individuals. And around the temple on
the outside were placed statues of gold of all the ten kings and of
their wives; and there were many other great offerings, both of
kings and of private individuals, coming both from the city itself
and the foreign cities over which they held sway. There was an
altar, too, which in size and workmanship corresponded to the rest
of the work, and there were palaces in like manner which answered
to the greatness of the kingdom and the glory of the temple.
"In the next place, they used fountains both of cold and hot
springs; these were very abundant, and both kinds wonderfully
adapted to use by reason of the sweetness and excellence of their
waters. They constructed buildings about them, and planted suitable
trees; also cisterns, some open to the heaven, other which they
roofed over, to be used in winter as warm baths, there were the
king's baths, and the baths of private persons, which were kept
apart; also separate baths for women, and others again for horses
and cattle, and to them they gave as much adornment as was suitable
for them.
The water which ran off they carried, some to the grove of
Poseidon, where were growing all manner of trees of wonderful
height and beauty, owing to the excellence of the soil; the
remainder was conveyed by aqueducts which passed over the bridges
to the outer circles: and there were many temples built and
dedicated to many gods; also gardens and places of exercise, some
for men, and some set apart for horses, in both of the two islands
formed by the zones; and in the centre of the larger of the two
there was a race-course of a stadium in width, and in length
allowed to extend all round the island, for horses to race
in.
Also there were guard-houses at intervals for the body-guard, the
more trusted of whom had their duties appointed to them in the
lesser zone, which was nearer the Acropolis; while the most trusted
of all had houses given them within the citadel, and about the
persons of the kings. The docks were full of triremes and naval
stores, and all things were quite ready for use.
Enough of the plan of the royal palace. Crossing the outer harbors,
which were three in number, you would come to a wall which began at
the sea and went all round: this was everywhere distant fifty
stadia from the largest zone and harbor, and enclosed the whole,
meeting at the mouth of the channel toward the sea. The entire area
was densely crowded with habitations; and the canal and the largest
of the harbors were full of vessels and merchants coming from all
parts, who, from their numbers, kept up a multitudinous sound of
human voices and din of all sorts night and day.
I have repeated his descriptions of the city and the parts about
the ancient palace nearly as he gave them, and now I must endeavor
to describe the nature and arrangement of the rest of the country.
The whole country was described as being very lofty and precipitous
on the side of the sea, but the country immediately about and
surrounding the city was a level plain, itself surrounded by
mountains which descended toward the sea; it was smooth and even,
but of an oblong shape, extending in one direction three thousand
stadia, and going up the country from the sea through the centre of
the island two thousand stadia; the whole region of the island lies
toward the south, and is sheltered from the north.
The surrounding mountains he celebrated for their number and size
and beauty, in which they exceeded all that are now to be seen
anywhere; having in them also many wealthy inhabited villages, and
rivers and lakes, and meadows supplying food enough for every
animal, wild or tame, and wood of various sorts, abundant for every
kind of work.
I will now describe the plain, which had been cultivated during
many ages by many generations of kings. It was rectangular, and for
the most part straight and oblong; and what it wanted of the
straight line followed the line of the circular ditch.
The depth and width and length of this ditch were incredible and
gave the impression that such a work, in addition to so many other
works, could hardly have been wrought by the hand of man. But I
must say what I have heard. It was excavated to the depth of a
hundred feet, and its breadth was a stadium everywhere; it was
carried round the whole of the plain, and was ten thousand stadia
in length.
It received the streams which came down from the mountains, and
winding round the plain, and touching the city at various points,
was there let off into the sea. From above, likewise, straight
canals of a hundred feet in width were cut in the plain, and again
let off into the ditch, toward the sea; these canals were at
intervals of a hundred stadia, and by them they brought down the
wood from the mountains to the city, and conveyed the fruits of the
earth in ships, cutting transverse passages from one canal into
another, and to the city.
Twice in the year they gathered the fruits of the earth--in winter
having the benefit of the rains, and in summer introducing the
water of the canals. As to the population, each of the lots in the
plain had an appointed chief of men who were fit for military
service, and the size of the lot was to be a square of ten stadia
each way, and the total number of all the lots was sixty
thousand.
"And of the inhabitants of the mountains and of the rest of the
country there was also a vast multitude having leaders, to whom
they were assigned according to their dwellings and villages. The
leader was required to furnish for the war the sixth portion of a
war-chariot, so as to make up a total of ten thousand chariots;
also two horses and riders upon them, and a light chariot without a
seat, accompanied by a fighting man on foot carrying a small
shield, and having a charioteer mounted to guide the horses; also,
be was bound to furnish two heavy-armed men, two archers, two
slingers, three stone-shooters, and three javelin men, who were
skirmishers, and four sailors to make up a complement of twelve
hundred ships.
Such was the order of war in the royal city--that of the other nine
governments was different in each of them, and would be wearisome
to narrate. As to offices and honors, the following was the
arrangement from the first: Each of the ten kings, in his own
division and in his own city, had the absolute control of the
citizens, and in many cases of the laws, punishing and slaying
whomsoever be would.
"Now the relations of their governments to one another were
regulated by the injunctions of Poseidon as the law had handed them
down. These were inscribed by the first men on a column of
orichalcum, which was situated in the middle of the island, at the
temple of Poseidon, whither the people were gathered together every
fifth and sixth years alternately, thus giving equal honor to the
odd and to the even number.
And when they were gathered together they consulted about public
affairs, and inquired if any one had transgressed in anything, and
passed judgment on him accordingly--and before they passed judgment
they gave their pledges to one another in this wise:
There were bulls who had the range of the temple of Poseidon; and
the ten who were left alone in the temple, after they had offered
prayers to the gods that they might take the sacrifices which were
acceptable to them, hunted the bulls without weapons, but with
staves and nooses; and the bull which they caught they led up to
the column; the victim was then struck on the head by them, and
slain over the sacred inscription.
Now on the column, besides the law, there was inscribed an oath
invoking mighty curses on the disobedient. When, therefore, after
offering sacrifice according to their customs, they had burnt the
limbs of the bull, they mingled a cup and cast in a clot of blood
for each of them; the rest of the victim they took to the fire,
after having made a purification of the column all round.
Then they drew from the cup in golden vessels, and, pouring a
libation on the fire, they swore that they would judge according to
the laws on the column, and would punish any one who had previously
transgressed, and that for the future they would not, if they could
help, transgress any of the inscriptions, and would not command or
obey any ruler who commanded them to act otherwise than according
to the laws of their father Poseidon.
This was the prayer which each of them offered up for himself and
for his family, at the same time drinking, and dedicating the
vessel in the temple of the god; and, after spending some necessary
time at supper, when darkness came on and the fire about the
sacrifice was cool, all of them put on most beautiful azure robes,
and, sitting on the ground at night near the embers of the
sacrifices on which they had sworn, and extinguishing all the fire
about the temple, they received and gave judgment, if any of them
had any accusation to bring against any one; and, when they had
given judgment, at daybreak they wrote down their sentences on a
golden tablet, and deposited them as memorials with their
robes.
There were many special laws which the several kings had inscribed
about the temples, but the most important was the following: That
they were not to take up arms against one another, and they were
all to come to the rescue if any one in any city attempted to over
throw the royal house. Like their ancestors, they were to
deliberate in common about war and other matters, giving the
supremacy to the family of Atlas; and the king was not to have the
power of life and death over any of his kinsmen, unless he had the
assent of the majority of the ten kings.
"Such was the vast power which the god settled in the lost island
of Atlantis; and this he afterward directed against our land on the
following pretext, as traditions tell: For many generations, as
long as the divine nature lasted in them, they were obedient to the
laws, and well-affectioned toward the gods, who were their kinsmen;
for they possessed true and in every way great spirits, practicing
gentleness and wisdom in the various chances of life, and in their
intercourse with one another.
They despised everything but virtue, not caring for their present
state of life, and thinking lightly on the possession of gold and
other property, which seemed only a burden to them; neither were
they intoxicated by luxury; nor did wealth deprive them of their
self-control; but they were sober, and saw clearly that all these
goods are increased by virtuous friendship with one another, and
that by excessive zeal for them, and honor of them, the good of
them is lost, and friendship perishes with them.
"By such reflections, and by the continuance in them of a divine
nature, all that which we have described waxed and increased in
them; but when this divine portion began to fade away in them, and
became diluted too often, and with too much of the mortal
admixture, and the human nature got the upper-hand, then, they
being unable to bear their fortune, became unseemly.
To him who had an eye to see, they began to appear base, and had
lost the fairest of their precious gifts; but to those who had no
eye to see the true happiness, they still appeared glorious and
blessed at the very time when they were filled with unrighteous
avarice and power.
Zeus, the god of gods, who rules with law, and is able to see into
such things, perceiving that an honorable race was in a most
wretched state, and wanting to inflict punishment on them, that
they might be chastened and improved, collected all the gods into
his most holy habitation, which, being placed in the centre of the
world, sees all things that partake of generation. And when he had
called them together he spake as follows:"
[Here Plato's story abruptly ends. You get the image of this wise
old bearded man taking a break to work out the words that Zeus
would speak, and never coming back to it... ]
Go to Part 1: Plato's
Atlantis - Critias