Atlantis Pyramids Floods (8 page)

The city and citizens, which you
yesterday described to us in fiction, we will now transfer to the
world of reality. It shall be the ancient city of Athens, and we
will suppose that the citizens whom you imagined, were our
veritable ancestors, of whom the priest spoke; they will perfectly
harmonize, and there will be no inconsistency in saying that the
citizens of your republic are these ancient Athenians.

Let us divide the subject among us,
and all endeavor according to our ability gracefully to execute the
task which you have imposed upon us. Consider then, Socrates, if
this narrative is suited to the purpose, or whether we should seek
for some other instead.

Timaeus: How thankful I am, Socrates,
that I have arrived at last, and, like a weary traveller after a
long journey, may be at rest! And I pray the being who always was
of old, and has now been by me revealed, to grant that my words may
endure in so far as they have been spoken truly and acceptably to
him; but if unintentionally I have said anything wrong, I pray that
he will impose upon me a just retribution, and the just retribution
of him who errs is that he should be set right.

Wishing, then, to speak truly in
future concerning the generation of the gods, I pray him to give me
knowledge, which of all medicines is the most perfect and best. And
now having offered my prayer I deliver up the argument to Critias,
who is to speak next according to our agreement.

Critias: And I, Timaeus, accept the
trust, and as you at first said that you were going to speak of
high matters, and begged that some forbearance might be shown to
you, I too ask the same or greater forbearance for what I am about
to say. And although I very well know that my request may appear to
be somewhat discourteous, I must make it nevertheless. For will any
man of sense deny that you have spoken well?

I can only attempt to show that I
ought to have more indulgence than you, because my theme is more
difficult; and I shall argue that to seem to speak well of the gods
to men is far easier than to speak well of men to men: for the
inexperience and utter ignorance of his hearers about any subject
is a great assistance to him who has to speak of it, and we know
how ignorant we are concerning the gods. But I should like to make
my meaning clearer, if Timaeus, you will follow me.

All that is said by any of us can only
be imitation and representation. For if we consider the likenesses
which painters make of bodies divine and heavenly, and the
different degrees of gratification with which the eye of the
spectator receives them, we shall see that we are satisfied with
the artist who is able in any degree to imitate the earth and its
mountains, and the rivers, and the woods, and the universe, and the
things that are and move therein, and further, that knowing nothing
precise about such matters, we do not examine or analyze the
painting; all that is required is a sort of indistinct and
deceptive mode of shadowing them forth.

But when a person endeavors to paint
the human form we are quick at finding out defects, and our
familiar knowledge makes us severe judges of any one who does not
render every point of similarity. And we may observe the same thing
to happen in discourse; we are satisfied with a picture of divine
and heavenly things which has very little likeness to them; but we
are more precise in our criticism of mortal and human
things.

Wherefore if at the moment of speaking
I cannot suitably express my meaning, you must excuse me,
considering that to form approved likenesses of human things is the
reverse of easy. This is what I want to suggest to you, and at the
same time to beg, Socrates, that I may have not less, but more
indulgence conceded to me in what I am about to say. Which favor,
if I am right in asking, I hope that you will be ready to
grant.

Socrates: Certainly, Critias, we will
grant your request, and we will grant the same by anticipation to
Hermocrates, as well as to you and Timaeus; for I have no doubt
that when his turn comes a little while hence, he will make the
same request which you have made.

In order, then, that he may provide
himself with a fresh beginning, and not be compelled to say the
same things over again, let him understand that the indulgence is
already extended by anticipation to him. And now, friend Critias, I
will announce to you the judgment of the theatre. They are of
opinion that the last performer was wonderfully successful, and
that you will need a great deal of indulgence before you will be
able to take his place.

Hermocrates: The warning, Socrates,
which you have addressed to him, I must also take to myself. But
remember, Critias, that faint heart never yet raised a trophy; and
therefore you must go and attack the argument like a man. First
invoke Apollo and the Muses, and then let us hear you sound the
praises and show forth the virtues of your ancient
citizens.

Critias: 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 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.

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.

The Story of 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 nurslings 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 armor, to be a testimony that all animals
which associate together, male as well as female, may, if they
please, practice 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
practiced 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 neighborhood 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.

Note:
notice
that Plato used the terms “mountain” and “hills” nearly
interchangeably. This caused confusion when he used the terms the
same way to describe the small hill on the small island of
Atlantis.

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.