When Solon heard this, he showed his astonishment, and asked the priest to tell him everything to do with these former citizens of Athens, from start to finish. But the priest replied, ‘I will keep nothing from you Solon, I will tell you everything, as a favor to you and your city, but above all out of regard for the goddess who had a share both in your country and ours, and who advanced both of them, and brought them high culture: first yours, 1,000 years earlier, from the seed which she had received for this purpose from Mother Earth and Hephaistos, and then later ours. The founding of our state took place 8,000 years ago, according to the records of our temple documents. The people whose laws and most outstanding deeds I will briefly tell you of, were therefore citizens who lived 9,000 years ago. Afterwards we can take our time to consider all further specific details by perusing the documents themselves.’”3
In the monologue so far, Critias has mentioned the name Solon several times. Who was this man? Solon was an ancestor of Plato who was very highly regarded (often referred to as a priest). He gave the Athenians a new constitution, and in 571 BC traveled to Egypt, to Naucratis, a harbor on the Canopic stretch of the Nile. Only 10 miles (16km) away lay the temple city of Sais, where there was a translators’ school. Solon said that he heard the Atlantis story from an old temple scribe called Sonchis, and at the same time saw it written in hieroglyphics. About 650 years after Solon’s death, Plutarch wrote a book about him: The Life of Solon. In it Plutarch says that Solon himself had wanted to record the Atlantis story in writing, but had been prevented from doing so by his advanced age.
In his introduction, Critias mentions a conversation which Solon had in Sais. It would seem very strange to accuse Critias of tall-storytelling; he is speaking of an experience his ancestor had, and Critias himself is one of the “30 heads of Athens,” highly respected politicians. Why should he want to tell fibs to this circle of men? They were all old and wise enough to see through lies. Around the men sat pupils, and everything he said was being written down. We’re not talking about the rambling introduction to a hypothesis, nor talk about an ideal republic, as is often assumed. Plato after all had described such a state in his books Laws, The Republic and Politics. He had already said everything, so why should he need an additional pack of lies about some Atlantis?
In addition, Critias seems to know exactly what he is talking about. He lists geographical details, such as the place where the River Nile divides, the great city of Sais, the birth town of King Amasis, and so on. And he confirms that documents and texts about Atlantis were to be found in Sais. Solon, we will later learn, also wrote down the Atlantis text from an inscription on a statue or pillar. Stories on pillars must have been particularly important ones, otherwise people would never have considered it worthwhile to immortalize them there.
Then Critias conveys to the others the words of the old priest, as he knows them from Solon. This priest assures him that the Egyptians had recorded it all in writing. In one of these texts it was reported that once, before the great flood, Athens had waged war on a power which had its base in the “Atlantic sea,” for in those days this sea is said to have been navigable but was now—in Solon’s time—no longer so. Why not?
Because then “behind the pillars of Heracles” there was an island, from which one could cross to the further islands behind it, and also to the “mainland on the other side.” Then had come a time of “mighty earthquakes and floods,” and “a day and night full of appalling terrors.” The island of Atlantis had vanished, and the sea there was therefore no longer navigable, because of the “enormous masses of mud which gathered about the sinking island.” Critias closes this first Atlantis story with the words: “So, my Socrates, you have now heard a very brief version of the story my grandfather Critias told me, which he had from Solon.”
Almost apologetically, Critias adds that he spent the night before recalling everything, for, he says, what one learns as a youth stays in the memory. Then the men discuss matters of astronomy, geometry, and the creation of the world. Nowadays our astrophysicists talk about the “creation of time,” and in Plato’s Timaeus dialogue a similar view is expressed: “Time arose together with the universe, so that both, created simultaneously, would also be undone at the same time… “
Our own science isn’t one whit sharper.
Is that all that antiquity tells us about Atlantis? No, that’s only the beginning! The following day the same circle of men meets once more. In the meantime, Critias seems to have gotten his papers in order. Timaeus opens the conversation and urges Critias to continue the story of Atlantis. Critias does this, but first asks his conversation partners for understanding of the difficulties involved in recalling an old story from memory. He compares his undertaking with that of a painter, who conjures a wonderful picture onto the canvas. The picture, he says, ought to be a faithful reproduction of the original, and the same applies to oral description. He hopes to do justice to this difficult task.
I only mention this introduction to show how seriously these men viewed the Atlantis story. Each one there was aware that Critias had to relate from memory (and with the help of a few notes) a story he had learned by heart when a boy. Critias for his part was striving to recreate the picture in a way faithful to his memory of it:
Critias: Above all let us first recall that 9,000 years had passed since the war, which I will describe, was said to have broken out between those who lived beyond the pillars of Heracles and those dwelling within them. It has already been mentioned that our city of Athens was the greatest among the latter, and pursued the war to its end, while the former, the people of the island of Atlantis, were ruled by its kings. This island was, as we saw, once larger than Libya and Asia, but now had sunk into the sea as a consequence of earthquakes, and presented to those who wanted to sail to the further sea an insuperable obstacle in the form of a mass of mud…. 4
This conversation took place about 400 BC. Working back from today, the event of which Critias speaks must have occurred about 11,500 years ago. I have already written of the “impossible dates” which the traditions and legends of ancient peoples confront us with. At present, there is nothing else to be done but let them stand as they are. The equation that Troy equals Atlantis receives its first major setback at this point. According to Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey, the siege of Troy lasted 10 years. Archaeological findings speak of a devastation which occurred about 1200 BC. So in this case only one of two things is possible:
1. Homer’s and Schliemann’s Troy was once called Atlantis, and was destroyed around 1200 BC. In this case there would only be a couple of hundred years between the destruction of Troy (or Atlantis) and Homer’s account of it. So why would he not mention the name of Atlantis? (The same applies to other Greek historians.) The former names of Troy are known, right back to mythical times, yet the word Atlantis does not appear anywhere.
2. Homer’s and Schliemann’s Troy once had the name of Atlantis in a past that is lost in the mists of time. That Atlantis was not however identical with the “Troy” of archaeology, because it would have been much more ancient than Troy at the time of its destruction. Such an assumption would render the archaeological finds from Schliemann’s Troy useless as part of an “Atlantis model.” Added to this, the myth is a folk-memory. Such a mighty city as Atlantis does not vanish from folk-memory and suddenly change its name to Troy, Tros, or Ilion.
And what about the 9,000 years which Critias speaks of? Eberhard Zangger thinks the Egyptians had been using a national sun calendar and two religiously-inspired moon calendars since 2500 BC. It is likely that the dates on the temple pillars in Sais, from which Solon wrote down his Atlantis story, should be reckoned in moon cycles. A calculation based on this would produce a date of 1207 BC, and at that time the Greeks were indeed entangled in great wars, as part of which Troy was destroyed. This would mean that Troy/Atlantis would have had to exist up to 1207 BC. Why then does Critias (quoting Solon) emphasize that Atlantis was situated in the Atlantic Ocean? And I don�
��t just mean the reference to the “Pillars of Heracles.” Troy neither lies in the Atlantic Ocean, nor is it an island. And if I place the destruction of Troy/Atlantis in 1207 BC, the same problems arise as under point 1. It gets worse: if Atlantis/Troy existed around 1200 BC and previously held sway over a great realm, why do the Egyptians and Babylonians, who would have been close neighbors of this mighty power, know nothing about it?
In Plato’s dialogue, the men continue to give ear to Critias. He mentions, as an aside—and it might almost have been something I wrote—that the gods had once divided the earth amongst themselves, into various regions. Each god had owned a particular realm, and regarded us human beings as their property, whom they could nurture and educate. Then Critias speaks about Greece before the Flood, that is, before the destruction of Atlantis. But he does not think of mentioning that Atlantis was part of the geographical region of Greece, and that it was more or less just next door. Troy is only 186 miles (300 km) from Athens, on a sea route which was much travelled in 1200 BC. It is also north-east of Athens. The Atlantic Ocean, of course, is in the opposite direction.
The wise Solon, who wrote down the Atlantis story in Sais, lived between 640 and 560 BC. The destruction of Atlantis/Troy would have taken place a mere 600 years before his time. In Egypt, Solon learned that the sea in the region of the former Atlantis was now unnavigable because of the great masses of mud there which had formed when Atlantis sank. Now the sea around Troy, together with the passage through the Dardanelles, certainly is navigable. It is actually because of its position by the sea that Troy/Atlantis is said to have blossomed and flourished. The Dardanelles were still navigable after the destruction of Troy. And if one assumes that after the destruction of Troy/Atlantis the Greeks somehow dredged the unnavigable area and made it navigable again, then the Greeks would surely know about this—for it only happened 600 short years before Solon!
Critias (or Solon) says nothing about any of that. On the contrary, he makes it quite clear that those with “Hellenic” (that is Greek) names are also from a “foreign race.” And then he gives such an incredible wealth of precise details that it is only with great difficulty that one could view them as the products of fantasy:
Critias: Yet I must first preface my account with a short observation, so that you are not surprised when you hear Greek names in a story concerning men of a foreign race. You will hear the reason for this. Solon, who had the intention of using these names in his poems, searched for their original meanings and found that the Egyptians—I mean those most ancient ones who had first written down these records—had translated them into their own language. Solon then pondered about each name and wrote them down, translating them once more into our language. And this written account was in the possession of my grandfather, and is now in mine, and I studied it carefully in the days of my youth. So when you hear names which are the same as ones in use in our country, you should not be surprised, for now you know the reason. The beginning of this long account goes as follows…. 5
There follows a confirmation of the truth of the written version of the Atlantis legend, to which Critias adds once more that it belonged to his grandfather and now to him.
Critias: As already mentioned, when the whole earth was divided amongst the gods, some received a larger and others a smaller portion, in which to set up shrines and places of sacrifice to themselves. Poseidon received the island of Atlantis, where he gave abode to those who were descended from his union with a mortal woman, and at a place which was of the following nature. From the sea to the middle of the whole island stretched a plain, which could not have been surpassed for beauty and fertility of its soil. Besides this plain, again towards the middle of the island, about 50 stadia distant from the sea, was a mountain low on all sides. It was inhabited by one of the original earthborn men, by the name of Evenor, with his wife Leucippe. The fruit of their union was an only daughter, Cleito. When the girl reached the age of maturity, her father and mother died. But Poseidon, who had fallen in love with her, united with her, and smoothing the sides of the hill on which she lived, surrounded it with strong defenses. He placed in alternation larger and smaller rings, of earth and sea water, around each other: two of earth and three of sea water, starting from the middle of the island as though drawn with a compass, always with the same distance from each other, so that the hill became inaccessible to human beings—for there were as yet no ships or sailors. It was however perfectly easy for him, a god, to furnish the island with all that was necessary; making two springs, one warm, the other cold, pour from the earth, and nurturing manifold and abundant fruits from the soil. They had five sets of twin sons, and raised them, dividing the whole Atlantic island into ten parts. To the firstborn of the eldest pair, he gave his mother’s dwelling place, with its surrounding region, the largest and best, and made him a king over the others. Yet he also made the others into rulers, giving each one dominion over many people and much land. He also gave them names. To the oldest one, the king, he gave the name from which the whole island and also the Atlantic sea takes its name: Atlas. To the second-born of the eldest pair of twins, who received the outermost part of the island, from the pillars of Heracles to the land of Gades, as it is still known in that region, he gave the name which in Greek is Eumelus, and in the native language of the country named after him, Gadeiros. Of the second pair of twins he called one Ampheres, the other Evaimon; of the third pair he named the older Mneseus, and the younger Autocthon. The elder of the fourth pair was called Elasippos, the younger Estor; the elder of the fifth pair, finally, he called Azaes, and the younger Diaprepes. These and their descendants lived there for many generations, not only as rulers over many other islands in the ocean, but also, as already mentioned, as masters over those living within the pillars of Heracles, as far as Egypt and Tyrrhenia. Atlas, then, brought forth a numerous and highly favored race. The kingship always passed down from eldest to eldest, and was perpetuated through many generations. At the same time, they amassed great wealth and riches, such as were probably never seen before, nor will be again in future times, and provided everything which the city or the rest of the land might need. Much was brought to them from other lands subject to their dominion, but the island supplied most of their needs. Firstly, everything which is produced by mining the earth, in the way of minerals and workable metals, including a type of metal which we now only know by name, but which was then more than a mere name, orichalcum or gold-copper ore. This was obtained from the earth at many places, and next to gold was most prized by this ancient race.6
Even though Critias makes it clear that the names in this story have been translated into Greek, there is not a single one here that is familiar to us from the Troy legend. Next Critias explains that in this land of Atlantis all trees and fruits, as well as all vegetables, grew wonderfully well. Why? “Because its climate in those days united the sun’s warmth with moisture.” That does not fit with the climate of Troy, where it is unpleasantly cold in winter; tropical fruits and trees would not survive there. They did in Atlantis, though, the whole year through. Finally Critias begins to talk about the architecture and buildings of Atlantis.
And his account is so precise that architects of our own day have been able to make accurate, scale drawings from them.7
Critias: Firstly they made bridges over the rings of water which surrounded the original ancient city, in order to make a path to and from the king’s palace. And the king’s palace itself they built at the dwelling place of the god and their ancestors. Each succeeding king received it from his predecessor, and added to and adorned it more richly than it had been before—until, through the greatness and beauty of their works, they had made their dwelling a marvel to behold. Then, beginning from the sea, they dug a canal 3 plethra wide, 100 feet deep, and 50 stadia long, as far as the outermost ring, so that ships could sail in as into a harbor, and they made the entrance large enough for the largest vessels to enter. Thus they broke through the rings of earth too, which separated the
rings of water from each other, so that one could sail from one to another in a trireme. But they constructed bridges over these openings, so that the vessels passed under the bridges, for the banks of the earth-rings were raised high enough above the water to allow this. The largest of the rings, into which the sea flowed, had a breadth of 3 stadia, and the next earth-ring had the same dimensions. The water-ring of the second pair was 2 stadia wide, as was the dry ring also. The water-ring closest to the middle of the island was 1 stadium wide. But the island on which the king’s palace stood was 5 stadia in diameter. They surrounded this with a stone wall, and the earth-rings likewise, from one side of a 1-plethron-wide bridge to the other, placing towers and bridges on the passages to the sea. The stones they used, some white, some black, and some red, they quarried from the under edges of the island in the middle, and from both the inside and outside edges of the rings. At the same time as quarrying, they also hollowed out shelters and docks for ships, on both sides of the rings, which were roofed by the overhanging rocks that remained. Some of the buildings which they constructed were of a single color; others were built of varicolored stones, to please the eye, in compositions which had a natural charm. Then they overlaid the entire outermost wall with bronze, spreading it in a similar way to anointing oil. The next wall they coated with tin and the innermost wall which surrounded the palace they plated with gold-copper ore, or orichalcum, which had a burnished and fiery sheen.8
Odyssey of the Gods Page 14
