Legends of Atlantis

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“III. Kritias.” from The Timaeus of Plato by Plato, translated by R. D. Archer-Hind, 1888.

I will tell an ancient story that I heard from a man no longer young. For Kritias was then, as he said, hard upon ninety years of age, while I was about ten. It happened to be the 'children's day' of the Apaturia; and then as usual the boys enjoyed their customary pastime, our fathers giving us prizes for reciting poetry.

A great deal of poetry by various authors was recited, and since that of Solon was new at the time, many of us children sang his poems. So one of the clansmen said, whether he really thought so or whether he wished to please Kritias, he considered that Solon was not only in other respects the wisest of mankind but also the noblest of all poets.

The old man how well I recollect it was extremely pleased and said smiling, Yes, Amynandros, if he had not treated poetry merely as a by-work, but had made a serious business of it like the rest, and if he had finished the legend which he brought hither from Egypt, instead of being compelled to abandon it by the factions and other troubles which he found here on his return, my belief is that neither Hesiod nor Homer nor any other poet would have enjoyed greater fame than he.

What was the legend, Kritias? asked Amynandros.

It concerned a mighty achievement, he replied, and one that deserved to be the most famous in the world; a deed which our city actually performed, but owing to time and the destruction of the doers thereof the story has not lasted to our times.

Tell us from the beginning, said the other, what was the tale that Solon told, and how and from whom he heard it as true.

There is in Egypt, said Kritias, in the Delta, at the apex of which the stream of the Nile divides, a province called the Saitic; and the chief city of this province is Sais, the birthplace of Amasis the king. The founder of their city is a goddess, whose name in the Egyptian tongue is Neith, and in Greek, as they aver, Athena: the people are great lovers of the Athenians and claim a certain kinship with our countrymen.

Now when Solon travelled to this city he said he was most honourably entreated by the citizens; moreover when he questioned concerning ancient things such of the priests as were most versed therein, he found that neither he nor any other Grecian man, one might wellnigh say, knew aught about such matters.

And once, when he wished to lead them on to talk of ancient times, he essayed to tell them of the oldest legends of Hellas, of Phoroneus who was called the first man, and of Niobe; and again he told the tale of Deukalion and Pyrrha, how they survived after the deluge, and he reckoned up their descendants, and tried, by calculating the periods, to count up the number of years that passed during the events he related.

Then said one of the priests, a man well stricken in years, O Solon, Solon, ye Greeks are ever children, and old man that is a Grecian is there none.

And when Solon heard it, he said, What meanest thou by this?

And the priest said, Ye are all young in your souls; for ye have not in them because of old tradition any ancient belief nor knowledge that is hoary with eld. And the reason of it is this: many and manifold are the destructions of mankind that have been and shall be; the greatest are by fire and by water; but besides these there are lesser ones in countless other fashions.

For indeed that tale that is also told among you, how that Phaethon, the child of the Sun, yoked his father's chariot, and for that he could not drive in his father's path, he burnt up all things upon earth and himself was smitten by a thunderbolt and slain this story, as it is told, has the fashion of a fable; but the truth of it is a deviation of the bodies that move round the earth in the heavens, whereby comes at long intervals of time a destruction with much fire of the things that are upon earth.

Thus do such as dwell on mountains and in high places and in dry perish more widely than they who live beside rivers and by the sea. Now the Nile, which is in all else our preserver, saves us then also from this distress by releasing his founts: but when the gods send a flood upon the earth, cleansing her with waters, those in the mountains are saved, the neatherds and shepherds, but the inhabitants of the cities in your land are swept by the rivers into the sea.

But in this country neither then nor at any time does water fall from on high upon the fields, but contrariwise all rises up by nature from below. Wherefore and for which causes the legends preserved here are the most ancient that are told : but the truth is that in all places, where exceeding cold or heat does not forbid, there are ever human beings, now more, now fewer.

Now whether at Athens or in Egypt, or in any other place whereof we have tidings, anything noble or great or otherwise notable has occurred, we have all written down and preserved from ancient times in our temple here. But with you and other nations the commonwealth has only just been enriched with letters and all else that cities require: and again after the wonted term of years like a recurring sickness comes rushing on them the torrent from heaven; and it leaves only the unlettered and untaught among you, so that as it were ye become young again with a new birth, knowing nought of what happened in the ancient times either in our country or in yours.

For instance the genealogies, Solon, which you just now recounted, concerning the people of your country, are little better than children's tales. For in the first place ye remember but one deluge, whereas there had been many before it; and moreover ye know not that the fairest and noblest race among mankind lived once in your country, whence ye sprang and all your city which now is, from a very little seed that of old was left over. Ye however know it not, because the survivors lived and died for many generations without utterance in writing.

For once upon a time, Solon, far back beyond the greatest destruction by waters, that which is now the city of the Athenians was foremost both in war and in all besides, and her laws were exceedingly righteous above all cities. Her deeds and her government are said to have been the noblest among all under heaven whereof the report has come to our ears.

And Solon said that on hearing this he was astonished, and used all urgency in entreating the priests to relate to him from beginning to end all about those ancient citizens.

So the priest said, I grudge thee not, O Solon, and I will tell it for thy sake and for the sake of thy city, and chiefly for the honour of the goddess who was the possessor and nurse and instructress both of your city and of ours; for she founded yours earlier by a thousand years, having taken the seed of you from Earth and Hephaistos; and ours in later time. And the date of our city's foundation is recorded in our sacred writings to be eight thousand years ago.

But concerning the citizens of Athens nine thousand years ago I will inform you in brief of their laws and of the noblest of the deeds which they performed: the exact truth concerning everything we will examine in due order hereafter, taking the actual records at our leisure.

Consider now their laws in comparison with those of our country; for you will find here at the present day many examples of the laws which then existed among you: first the separation of the priestly caste from the rest; next the distinction of the craftsmen, that each kind plies its own craft by itself and mingles not with another; and the class of shepherds and of hunters and of husbandmen are set apart; and that of the warriors too you have surely noticed is here sundered from all the other classes; for on them the law enjoins to study the art of war and nought else.

Furthermore there is the fashion of their arming with spears and shields, wherewith we have been the first men in Asia to arm ourselves; for the goddess taught this to us, as she did first to you in that country of yours. Again as regards knowledge, you see how careful our law is in its first principles, investigating the laws of nature till it arrives at divination and medicine, the object of which is health, drawing from these divine studies lessons useful for human needs, and adding to these all the sciences that are connected therewithal.

With all this constitution and order the goddess established you when she founded your nation first; choosing out the spot in which ye were born because she saw that the mild temperament of its seasons would produce the highest intelligence in its people. Seeing then that the goddess was a lover of war and of wisdom, she selected the spot that should bring forth men likest to herself, and therein she first founded your race. Thus then did ye dwell governed by such laws as I have described, ay and even better still, surpassing all men in excellence, as was meet for them that were offspring and nurslings of gods.

Many and mighty are the deeds of your city recorded here for the marvel of men; but one is there which for greatness and nobleness surpasses all the rest. For our chronicles tell what a power your city quelled of old, that marched in wanton insolence upon all Europe and Asia together, issuing yonder from the Atlantic ocean. For in those days the sea there could be crossed, since it had an island before the mouth of the strait which is called, as ye say, the pillars of Herakles.

Now this island was greater than Libya and Asia together; and there-from there was passage for the sea-farers of those times to the other islands, and from the islands to all the opposite continent which bounds that ocean truly named. For these regions that lie within the strait aforesaid seem to be but a bay having a narrow entrance; but the other is ocean verily, and the land surrounding it may with fullest truth and fitness be named a continent. In this island Atlantis arose a great and marvellous might of kings, ruling over all the island itself, and many other islands, and parts of the mainland; and besides these, of the lands east of the strait they governed Libya as far as Egypt, and Europe to the borders of Etruria.

So all this power gathered itself together, and your country and ours and the whole region within the strait it sought with one single swoop to enslave. Then, O Solon, did the power of your city shine forth in all men's eyes glorious in valour and in strength. For being foremost upon earth in courage and the arts of war, sometimes she was leader of the Hellenes, sometimes she stood alone perforce, when the rest fell away from her; and after being brought into the uttermost perils, she vanquished the invaders and triumphed over them: and the nations that were not yet enslaved she preserved from slavery; while the rest of us who dwell this side the pillars of Herakles, all did she set free with ungrudging hand.

But in later time, after there had been exceeding great earthquakes and floods, there fell one day and night of destruction; and the warriors in your land all in one body were swallowed up by the earth, and in like manner did the island Atlantis sink beneath the sea and vanish away. Wherefore to this day the ocean there is impassable and unsearchable, being blocked by very shallow shoals, which the island caused as she settled down.

Plato. The Timaeus of Plato, translated by R. D. Archer-Hind, MacMillan and Co, 1888.

Plato and R. D. Archer-Hind