THE ATLANTIS MYTH

1

CRITIAS begins by saying that he heard the story, when he was a boy, from his grandfather Critias, who had heard it from his father Dropides, who got it from Solon. Solon brought it from Egypt, having got it from a priest of Neith-that is, of Athena-at Sais. Solon had been telling the priests of Neith some of the old Greek stories, especially that about the Flood which Deucalion and Pyrrha survived, when a very aged priest exclaimed, "You Greeks are always children; there is not an old man among you!" meaning that the oldest Greek stories were but of yesterday. Deucalion's Flood was not the only one; there were many Floods and other catastrophes before it, by which civilisations both in Greece and in other parts of the world were destroyed. But Egypt had been exempt from catastrophes, and her priests had made records, which were still preserved in continuous series, of all that had happened, not only in Egypt, but in other parts of the world, during the successive periods terminated by the various Floods and other catastrophes. Among these records was one relating to the Athens which flourished before the greatest of the Floods. This Athens, the aged priest told Solon, Athena founded nine thousand years before his time-one thousand years before she founded Sais; and the constitution of the antediluvian Athens was similar to that which the sister city of Sais still preserved, especially in the separation of the class of priests and the class of warriors from a third class, including the castes of artisans, shepherds, huntsmen, and husbandmen. He then went on to give the History of the Great War in which Athens, so constituted, was engaged with the people of the

1 Timaeus, 20 E.

Island of Atlantis, explaining that this island, which was larger than Libya and Asia together, lay in the Ocean outside, off the straits now called the Pillars of Hercules. Beyond this island there were other islands in the Atlantic Ocean, by means of which it was possible to pass to the Continent on the farther side of that Ocean. In the Island of Atlantis itself there was a mighty dynasty of Kings who ruled over that island, over many of the adjacent islands, over parts of the Transatlantic Continent, and over Libya as far as Egypt, and, on the other side of the Mediterranean Sea, as far as Etruria. This mighty Power, collecting all its forces, was moving eastwards to add to its empire the remaining Mediterranean countries, Greece and Egypt, when Athens stood forth as their champion; and, now leading the other Greek States, now deserted by them, waged a glorious war against the invaders, and conquered them, and not only saved Greece and Egypt, but liberated the Western Mediterranean countries which had been enslaved. Then, sometime after, came the Deluge. Athens was overwhelmed, in a day and a night, by flood and earthquake; and the Island of Atlantis sank under the sea, leaving shoals which still render the navigation of the Ocean difficult in these parts.

This is the Atlantis Myth as sketched by Critias in the Timaeus.1

He then proposes to enter fully into its details, on the understanding that the citizens of the Ideal State constructed in the Republic are identified with the citizens of the antediluvian Athens; but first, Timaeus must give his promised account of the creation of the world and of man, so that, when all is said, we may have the full history of man-created in the Timaeus, educated in the Republic, and acquitting himself nobly in the Atlantis Myth.

The Critias, in which the Atlantis Myth was to have been told fully, is a fragment-a fragment, however, of considerable bulk; and I do not propose to translate it verbatim or to print the Greek text. A detailed account of its contents will serve our purpose sufficiently.

The fragment begins by saying that, in the old time, the Earth was divided into provinces, each of which was directly

1 21 A-25 D.

governed by a God, or Gods.1 Thus Athens was assigned to Hephaestus and Athena, brother and sister, and the Island of Atlantis to Poseidon.

The Athens of Athena and Hephaestus was constituted according to the model set forth in the Republic. There were artisans and husbandmen, and a class of warriors originally set apart by certain "divine men." The warriors dwelt together, and had all things in common, being supported by the labour of the other citizens. Men and women alike practised the art of warfare. The territory of the city, co-extensive with Attica as it now is, was the most fertile in the world. What is now a mere skeleton of mountains and rocks was then filled in with rich soil, so that what are now mountains were then only hills; and Pnyx, Acropolis, and Lycabettus formed one almost level ridge of loam. On the top of this ridge, where the Acropolis now is, the warriors lived round the Temple of Athena and Hephaestus, their winter quarters towards the north, and their summer quarters towards the south. The number of these warriors, men and women, was always about twenty thousand. They were the guardians (púλakes) of their own citizens, and the leaders (nyeμóves) of the other Greeks their willing followers. Such were the ancient Athenians; and they were famous throughout Europe and Asia for the beauty of their bodies and the various virtues of their souls.

To Poseidon the Island of Atlantis was allotted. Near the centre of the island there was a fertile plain, and near it a mountain. In this mountain dwelt the earth-born Evenor, who had a daughter Cleito. Her Poseidon loved, and enclosed the mountain in which she lived with concentric rings of sea and land, three of sea and two of land, so that it could not be approached, for at that time there were no ships. Being a god, he easily brought subterranean streams of water, one cold and the other hot, to this island-mountain, and made it fruitful. Here he begat ten sons; and he divided the whole island of Atlantis among them into ten parts. To the first-born, who was named Atlas, he gave the island-mountain and surrounding territory, and also made him King of the whole of Atlantis, his nine brethren being governors under him in 1 Cf. Politicus, 271 D, and Laws, iv. 712 E ff.

their several provinces. From Atlas were descended the Kings of Atlantis in long and unbroken line; and under them the island prospered greatly, receiving much through foreign trade, and itself producing much-metals, timber, spices, and all manner of food for man, and pasture for the elephants and other animals which abounded. Great works were also carried out by these Kings. . . . First they made a bridge across the rings of sea which enclosed the ancient metropolis, and began to build a palace on the island-mountain, to the size and adornment of which each generation added till it became a wonder. Then they dug a canal 50 stadia long, 300 feet broad, and 100 feet deep, making a waterway for the largest ships from the ocean to their metropolis, which thus became a seaport. They also cut passages for ships through the two rings of land, and spanned the passages by bridges under which ships could go. The first ring of land, like the outermost ring of sea, was three stadia broad; the second ring of land, like the ring of sea which enclosed it, was two stadia broad; while the ring of water which immediately surrounded the island-mountain was one stade wide; the island-mountain itself being five stadia across. The island-mountain and its palace they surrounded with a wall; and another wall they built round the circuit of the mid ring of land; and a third wall round the circuit of the outer ring of land; and also a wall on either side of the great bridge leading from the country without to that ring; and towers and gates they placed at the bridges which spanned the passages cut in both rings of land. The stone for the walls they quarried from the foot of the island-mountain and from both sides of the two rings of land, thus at the same time making cavities in the rock which served as covered docks. The stone was of three kinds-white, black, and red; and these three kinds, pieced together in one building, made it beautiful to behold. The outermost wall was coated with brass, laid on like ointment; the middle wall with tin, and the wall of the Acropolis itself with orichalcum glancing red like fire. Within the enclosure of the Acropolis was first the holy place of Cleito and Poseidon, in which no man might set foot-the spot where the ten sons were begotten. It was surrounded with a golden fence. Thither they brought the seasonable fruits of the earth, from each of

Then

the ten provinces, as offerings to each of the ten sons. there was the Temple of Poseidon himself, in length a stade, in breadth three plethra, and of proportionate height, on the outside coated all over with silver except the pinnacles, which were coated with gold-a spectacle of barbaric splendour; and within, the roof of ivory inlaid with gold and silver and orichalcum, and all other parts-walls, pillars, and floorcovered over with orichalcum-and images all golden; the God himself mounted on a chariot driving six winged horses, his head towering up to the roof of the temple, and round him in a ring a hundred Nereids riding on dolphins; and there were other images too, which had been put up by private persons within the temple; and outside, golden statues of the Kings and their wives, and many other statues presented by persons at home and in foreign countries belonging to the Atlantic Empire. There was also an altar in keeping with the temple, and there were magnificent palaces hard by.

The numerous fountains of cold and hot water which Poseidon had caused to spring in his island-mountain were housed and made to serve as baths for the Kings, for private persons, for women, and for horses and other beasts of burden: and the water not used in this way was conducted, some of it to the beautiful grove of Poseidon in the island-mountain, some of it by aqueducts across the bridges to the two rings of land, where also there were temples and gardens and gymnasia and race-courses for horses-especially in the outermost of the two rings, where there was a race-course a stade wide running right round the ring. Along this grand course were the quarters of the main body of the troops; a smaller number of trusted troops was quartered in the inner ring of land, and the most trusted of all in the Acropolis itself as bodyguard to the Kings.

The docks close under the island-mountain and the two rings of land were full of war-ships and stores; and when you crossed these two rings and came to the outermost ring of sea, or harbour, you found it and the canal leading to the ocean full of merchant shipping. At the ocean-mouth of this canal the two semicircles met of a wall which ran always at a distance of fifty stades from the outermost ring of sea, and enclosed a densely-populated area.