Friend Hermocrates, you, who are
stationed last and have another in front of you, have not lost heart as
yet; the gravity of the situation will soon be revealed to you; meanwhile
I accept your exhortations and encouragements. But besides the gods and
goddesses whom you have mentioned, I would specially invoke Mnemosyne; for
all the important part of my discourse is dependent on her favour, 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. And now, making no more excuses, I will proceed.
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 those who dwelt outside the Pillars of Heracles and all who
dwelt within them; this war I am going to describe. Of the combatants on
the one side, the city of Athens was reported to have been the leader and
to have fought out the war; the combatants on the other side were
commanded by the kings of Atlantis, which, as was saying, was an island
greater in extent than Libya and Asia, and when afterwards sunk by an
earthquake, became an impassable barrier of mud to voyagers sailing from
hence to any part of the ocean. The progress of the history will unfold
the various nations of barbarians and families of Hellenes which then
existed, as they successively appear on the scene; but I must describe
first of all Athenians of that day, and their enemies who fought with them,
and then the respective powers and governments of the two kingdoms. Let us
give the precedence to Athens.
In the days of old the gods had the whole earth distributed among them
by allotment. There was no quarrelling; for you cannot rightly suppose
that the gods did not know what was proper for each of them to have, or,
knowing this, that they would seek to procure for themselves by contention
that which more properly belonged to others. They all of them by just
apportionment obtained what they wanted, and peopled their own districts;
and when they had peopled them they tended us, their nurselings and
possessions, as shepherds tend their flocks, excepting only that they did
not use blows or bodily force, as shepherds do, but governed us like
pilots from the stern of the vessel, which is an easy way of guiding
animals, holding our souls by the rudder of persuasion according to their
own pleasure; thus did they guide all mortal creatures. Now different gods
had their allotments in different places which they set in order.
Hephaestus and Athene, who were brother and sister, and sprang from the
same father, having a common nature, and being united also in the love of
philosophy and art, both obtained as their common portion this land, which
was naturally adapted for wisdom and virtue; and there they implanted
brave children of the soil, and put into their minds the order of
government; their names are preserved, but their actions have disappeared
by reason of the destruction of those who received the tradition, and the
lapse of ages. For when there were any survivors, as I have already said,
they were men who dwelt in the mountains; and they were ignorant of the
art of writing, and had heard only the names of the chiefs of the land,
but very little about their actions. The names they were willing enough to
give to their children; but the virtues and the laws of their predecessors,
they knew only by obscure traditions; and as they themselves and their
children lacked for many generations the necessaries of life, they
directed their attention to the supply of their wants, and of them they
conversed, to the neglect of events that had happened in times long past;
for mythology and the enquiry into antiquity are first introduced into
cities when they begin to have leisure, and when they see that the
necessaries of life have already been provided, but not before. And this
is reason why the names of the ancients have been preserved to us and not
their actions. This I infer because Solon said that the priests in their
narrative of that war mentioned most of the names which are recorded prior
to the time of Theseus, such as Cecrops, and Erechtheus, and Erichthonius,
and Erysichthon, and the names of the women in like manner. Moreover,
since military pursuits were then common to men and women, the men of
those days in accordance with the custom of the time set up a figure and
image of the goddess in full armour, to be a testimony that all animals
which associate together, male as well as female, may, if they please,
practise in common the virtue which belongs to them without distinction of
sex.
Now the country was inhabited in those days by various classes of
citizens; there were artisans, and there were husbandmen, and there was
also a warrior class originally set apart by divine men. The latter dwelt
by themselves, and had all things suitable for nurture and education;
neither had any of them anything of their own, but they regarded all that
they had as common property; nor did they claim to receive of the other
citizens anything more than their necessary food. And they practised all
the pursuits which we yesterday described as those of our imaginary
guardians. Concerning the country the Egyptian priests said what is not
only probable but manifestly true, that the boundaries were in those days
fixed by the Isthmus, and that in the direction of the continent they
extended as far as the heights of Cithaeron and Parnes; the boundary line
came down in the direction of the sea, having the district of Oropus on
the right, and with the river Asopus as the limit on the left. The land
was the best in the world, and was therefore able in those days to support
a vast army, raised from the surrounding people. Even the remnant of
Attica which now exists may compare with any region in the world for the
variety and excellence of its fruits and the suitableness of its pastures
to every sort of animal, which proves what I am saying; but in those days
the country was fair as now and yielded far more abundant produce. How
shall I establish my words? and what part of it can be truly called a
remnant of the land that then was? The whole country is only a long
promontory extending far into the sea away from the rest of the continent,
while the surrounding basin of the sea is everywhere deep in the
neighbourhood of the shore. 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 during all this time and
through so many changes, there has never been any considerable
accumulation of the soil coming down from the mountains, as in other
places, but the earth has fallen away all round and sunk out of sight. The
consequence is, that in comparison of what then was, there are remaining
only the bones of the wasted body, as they may be called, as in the case
of small islands, all the richer and softer parts of the soil having
fallen away, and the mere skeleton of the land being left. But in the
primitive state of the country, its mountains were high hills covered with
soil, and the plains, as they are termed by us, of Phelleus were full of
rich earth, and there was abundance of wood in the mountains. Of this last
the traces still remain, for although some of the mountains now only
afford sustenance to bees, not so very long ago there were still to be
seen roofs of timber cut from trees growing there, which were of a size
sufficient to cover the largest houses; and there were many other high
trees, cultivated by man and bearing abundance of food for cattle.
Moreover, the land reaped the benefit of the annual rainfall, not as now
losing the water which flows off the bare earth into the sea, but, having
an abundant supply in all places, and receiving it into herself and
treasuring it up in the close clay soil, it let off into the hollows the
streams which it absorbed from the heights, providing everywhere abundant
fountains and rivers, of which there may still be observed sacred
memorials in places where fountains once existed; and this proves the
truth of what I am saying.
Such was the natural state of the country, which was cultivated, as we
may well believe, by true husbandmen, who made husbandry their business,
and were lovers of honour, and of a noble nature, and had a soil the best
in the world, and abundance of water, and in the heaven above an
excellently attempered climate. Now the city in those days was arranged on
this wise. In the first place the Acropolis was not as now. For the fact
is that a single night of excessive rain washed away the earth and laid
bare the rock; at the same time there were earthquakes, and then occurred
the extraordinary inundation, which was the third before the great
destruction of Deucalion. But in primitive times the hill of the Acropolis
extended to the Eridanus and Ilissus, and included the Pnyx on one side,
and the Lycabettus as a boundary on the opposite side to the Pnyx, and was
all well covered with soil, and level at the top, except in one or two
places. Outside the Acropolis and under the sides of the hill there dwelt
artisans, and such of the husbandmen as were tilling the ground near; the
warrior class dwelt by themselves around the temples of Athene and
Hephaestus at the summit, which moreover they had enclosed with a single
fence like the garden of a single house. On the north side they had
dwellings in common and had erected halls for dining in winter, and had
all the buildings which they needed for their common life, besides temples,
but there was no adorning of them with gold and silver, for they made no
use of these for any purpose; they took a middle course between meanness
and ostentation, and built modest houses in which they and their
children's children grew old, and they handed them down to others who were
like themselves, always the same. But in summer-time they left their
gardens and gymnasia and dining halls, and then the southern side of the
hill was made use of by them for the same purpose. Where the Acropolis now
is there was a fountain, which was choked by the earthquake, and has left
only the few small streams which still exist in the vicinity, but in those
days the fountain gave an abundant supply of water for all and of suitable
temperature in summer and in winter. This is how they dwelt, being the
guardians of their own citizens and the leaders of the Hellenes, who were
their willing followers. And they took care to preserve the same number of
men and women through all time, being so many as were required for warlike
purposes, then as now-that is to say, about twenty thousand. Such were the
ancient Athenians, and after this manner they righteously administered
their own land and the rest of Hellas; they were renowned all over Europe
and Asia for the beauty of their persons and for the many virtues of their
souls, and of all men who lived in those days they were the most
illustrious. 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.
For friends should not keep their stories to themselves, but have them in
common.
Yet, before proceeding further in the narrative, I ought to warn you,
that you must not be surprised if you should perhaps hear Hellenic names
given to foreigners. I will tell you the reason of this: Solon, who was
intending to use the tale for his poem, enquired 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 when copying them out again translated them into our
language. My great-grandfather, Dropides, 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 how they came to be introduced. 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 for themselves temples and instituted 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 describe.
Looking towards the sea, but in the centre 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 centre of the island at a
distance of about fifty stadia, 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 called Cleito. The maiden had already reached
womanhood, when her father and mother died; Poseidon fell in love with her
and had intercourse with her, and breaking the ground, inclosed 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, each having its
circumference equidistant every way from the centre, so that no man could
get to the island, for ships and voyages were not as yet. He himself,
being a god, found no difficulty in making special arrangements for the
centre island, bringing up two springs of water from beneath the earth,
one of warm water and the other of cold, and making every variety of food
to spring up abundantly from the soil. He also begat and brought up five
pairs of twin male children; and 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 the first king, he named Atlas, and after him the whole
island and the ocean were called Atlantic. To his twin brother, who was
born after him, and obtained as his lot the extremity of the island
towards the Pillars of Heracles, facing the country which is now 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 elder of the third pair of twins
he gave the name Mneseus, 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 he gave to the elder the name of Azaes, and
to the younger that of Diaprepes. All these and their descendants for many
generations were the inhabitants and rulers of divers islands in the open
sea; and also, as has been already said, they held sway in our direction
over the country within the Pillars as far as Egypt and Tyrrhenia.
Now Atlas had a numerous and honourable family, and they retained the
kingdom, the eldest son handing it 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 needed, both in the 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 most 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, solid as well as fusile,
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, being
more precious in those days than anything except gold. There was an
abundance of wood for carpenter's work, and sufficient maintenance for
tame and wild animals. Moreover, there were a great number of elephants in
the island; for as there was provision for all other sorts of animals,
both for those which live in lakes and marshes and rivers, and also for
those which live in mountains and on plains, so there was for the animal
which is the largest and most voracious of all. Also whatever fragrant
things there now are in the earth, whether roots, or herbage, or woods, or
essences which distil from fruit and flower, grew and thrived in that
land; also the fruit which admits of cultivation, both the dry sort, which
is given us for nourishment and any other which we use for food-we call
them all by the common name pulse, and the fruits having a hard rind,
affording drinks and meats and ointments, and good store of chestnuts and
the like, which furnish pleasure and amusement, and are fruits which spoil
with keeping, and the pleasant kinds of dessert, with which we console
ourselves after dinner, when we are tired of eating-all these that sacred
island which then beheld the light of the sun, brought forth fair and
wondrous and in infinite abundance. With such blessings the earth freely
furnished them; meanwhile they went on constructing their temples and
palaces and harbours 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, making a road to and from the royal palace. And at the
very beginning they built the palace in the habitation of the god and of
their ancestors, which they continued to ornament in successive
generations, every king surpassing the one who went 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 bored a canal of
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 harbour, and leaving an
opening sufficient to enable the largest vessels to find ingress. Moreover,
they divided at the bridges the zones of land which parted the zones of
sea, leaving room for a single trireme to pass out of one zone into
another, and they covered over the channels so as to leave a way
underneath for the ships; for the banks 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 zones, the one of water, the other 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. All this including the zones and the bridge,
which was the sixth part of a stadium in width, they surrounded by a stone
wall on every 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 centre island, and from underneath the zones, on the outer
as well as the inner side. One kind was white, another black, and a third
red, and as they quarried, they at the same time hollowed out double docks,
having roofs formed out of the native rock. Some of their buildings were
simple, but in others they put together different stones, varying the
colour to please the eye, and to be a natural source of delight. The
entire circuit of the wall, which went round the outermost zone, 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 on this
wise: in the centre was a holy temple dedicated to Cleito and Poseidon,
which remained inaccessible, and was surrounded by an enclosure of gold;
this was the spot where the family of the ten princes first saw the light,
and thither the people annually brought the fruits of the earth in their
season from all the ten portions, to be an offering to each of the ten.
Here was Poseidon's own temple which was a stadium in length, and half a
stadium in width, and of a proportionate height, having a strange barbaric
appearance. 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, curiously wrought everywhere
with gold and silver and orichalcum; and all the other parts, the walls
and pillars and floor, they coated 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
by the men of those days. There were also in the interior of the temple
other images which had been dedicated by private persons. And around the
temple on the outside were placed statues of gold of all the descendants
of the ten kings and of their wives, and there were many other great
offerings of kings and of private persons, coming both from the city
itself and from the foreign cities over which they held sway. There was an
altar too, which in size and workmanship corresponded to this magnificence,
and the palaces, in like manner, answered to the greatness of the kingdom
and the glory of the temple.
In the next place, they had fountains, one of cold and another of hot
water, in gracious plenty flowing; and they were wonderfully adapted for
use by reason of the pleasantness and excellence of their waters. They
constructed buildings about them and planted suitable trees, also they
made cisterns, some open to the heavens, others roofed over, to be used in
winter as warm baths; there were the kings' baths, and the baths of
private persons, which were kept apart; and there were separate baths for
women, and for horses and cattle, and to each of them they gave as much
adornment as was suitable. Of 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, while the
remainder was conveyed by aqueducts along 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 others for horses in both of the
two islands formed by the zones; and in the centre of the larger of the
two there was set apart 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 guardhouses at intervals for the guards, the more trusted of whom
were appointed-to keep watch in the lesser zone, which was nearer the
Acropolis while the most trusted of all had houses given them within the
citadel, near 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.
Leaving the palace and passing out across the three you came to a wall
which began at the sea and went all round: this was everywhere distant
fifty stadia from the largest zone or harbour, and enclosed the whole, the
ends meeting at the mouth of the channel which led to the sea. The entire
area was densely crowded with habitations; and the canal and the largest
of the harbours were full of vessels and merchants coming from all parts,
who, from their numbers, kept up a multitudinous sound of human voices,
and din and clatter of all sorts night and day.
I have described the city and the environs of the ancient palace nearly
in the words of Solon, and now I must endeavour to represent the nature
and arrangement of the rest of the land. The whole country was said by him
to be 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 towards the sea; it was smooth and
even, and of an oblong shape, extending in one direction three thousand
stadia, but across the centre inland it was two thousand stadia. This part
of the island looked towards the south, and was sheltered from the north.
The surrounding mountains were celebrated for their number and size and
beauty, far beyond any which still exist, having in them also many wealthy
villages of country folk, and rivers, and lakes, and meadows supplying
food enough for every animal, wild or tame, and much wood of various sorts,
abundant for each and every kind of work.
I will now describe the plain, as it was fashioned by nature and by the
labours of many generations of kings through long ages. It was for the
most part rectangular and oblong, and where falling out of the straight
line followed the circular ditch. The depth, and width, and length of this
ditch were incredible, and gave the impression that a work of such extent,
in addition to so many others, could never have been artificial.
Nevertheless I must say what I was told. 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 meeting at the city, was there let off into the sea. Further
inland, likewise, straight canals of a hundred feet in width were cut from
it through the plain, and again let off into the ditch leading to 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 of heaven, and in
summer the water which the land supplied by introducing streams from the
canals.
As to the population, each of the lots in the plain had to find a
leader for the men who were fit for military service, and the size of a
lot was 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, which was
distributed among the lots and had leaders assigned to them according to
their districts 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 for them, and a pair of
chariot-horses without a seat, accompanied by a horseman who could fight
on foot carrying a small shield, and having a charioteer who stood behind
the man-at-arms to guide the two horses; also, he was bound to furnish two
heavy armed soldiers, two slingers, three stone-shooters and three
javelin-men, who were light-armed, and four sailors to make up the
complement of twelve hundred ships. Such was the military order of the
royal city -- the order of the other nine governments varied, and it would
be wearisome to recount their several differences.
As to offices and honours, 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 most cases, of the laws,
punishing and slaying whomsoever he would. Now the order of precedence
among them and their mutual relations were regulated by the commands of
Poseidon which the law had handed down. These were inscribed by the first
kings on a pillar of orichalcum, which was situated in the middle of the
island, at the temple of Poseidon, whither the kings were gathered
together every fifth and every sixth year alternately, thus giving equal
honour to the odd and to the even number. And when they were gathered
together they consulted about their common interests, and enquired if any
one had transgressed in anything and passed judgment and before they
passed judgment they gave their pledges to one another on this wise: There
were bulls who had the range of the temple of Poseidon; and the ten kings,
being left alone in the temple, after they had offered prayers to the god
that they might capture the victim which was acceptable to him, hunted the
bulls, without weapons but with staves and nooses; and the bull which they
caught they led up to the pillar and cut its throat over the top of it so
that the blood fell upon the sacred inscription. Now on the pillar,
besides the laws, there was inscribed an oath invoking mighty curses on
the disobedient. When therefore, after slaying the bull in the accustomed
manner, they had burnt its limbs, they filled a bowl of wine and cast in a
clot of blood for each of them; the rest of the victim they put in the
fire, after having purified the column all round. Then they drew from the
bowl in golden cups and pouring a libation on the fire, they swore that
they would judge according to the laws on the pillar, and would punish him
who in any point had already transgressed them, and that for the future
they would not, if they could help, offend against the writing on the
pillar, and would neither command others, nor 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 descendants, at the same time drinking and dedicating the cup
out of which he drank in the temple of the god; and after they had supped
and satisfied their needs, 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, over the embers of the sacrifices by
which they had sworn, and extinguishing all the fire about the temple,
they received and gave judgment, if any of them had an accusation to bring
against any one; and when they given judgment, at daybreak they wrote down
their sentences on a golden tablet, and dedicated it together with their
robes to be a memorial.
There were many special laws affecting the several kings inscribed
about the temples, but the most important was the following: They were not
to take up arms against one another, and they were all to come to the
rescue if any one in any of their cities attempted to overthrow the royal
house; like their ancestors, they were to deliberate in common about war
and other matters, giving the supremacy to the descendants 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.
Such was the vast power which the god settled in the lost island of
Atlantis; and this he afterwards directed against our land for the
following reasons, as tradition tells: For many generations, as long as
the divine nature lasted in them, they were obedient to the laws, and
well-affectioned towards the god, whose seed they were; for they possessed
true and in every way great spirits, uniting gentleness with wisdom in the
various chances of life, and in their intercourse with one another. They
despised everything but virtue, caring little for their present state of
life, and thinking lightly of 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 virtue and
friendship with one another, whereas by too great regard and respect for
them, they are lost and friendship with them. By such reflections and by
the continuance in them of a divine nature, the qualities which we have
described grew and increased among them; but when the divine portion began
to fade away, and became diluted too often and too much with the mortal
admixture, and the human nature got the upper hand, they then, being
unable to bear their fortune, behaved unseemly, and to him who had an eye
to see grew visibly debased, for they were losing the fairest of their
precious gifts; but to those who had no eye to see the true happiness,
they appeared glorious and blessed at the very time when they were full of
avarice and unrighteous power. Zeus, the god of gods, who rules according
to law, and is able to see into such things, perceiving that an honourable
race was in a woeful plight, and wanting to inflict punishment on them,
that they might be chastened and improve, collected all the gods into
their most holy habitation, which, being placed in the centre of the world,
beholds all created things. And when he had called them together, he spake
as follows....
The rest of the Dialogue of Critias has been lost.