Plato's Critias

Prologue

If I can only adequately recall and report what was once communicated to Solon by the priests and brought here by him, I think I know that I seem to have done my job pretty well for my audience here. So let it be done now, and I will hesitate no longer.

Let us first remember that the war between those who lived beyond the Pillars of Heracles and all those who lived within the pillars took place nine thousand years ago. I now have to tell you about it in detail. Now it has already been said that our city was at the head of the latter and ended the whole war, while the kings of the island of Atlantis ruled over the former. The island of Atlantis, which I noted was once larger than Libya and Asia combined, has since been submerged by earth tremors, leaving behind an impenetrable mud that is an obstacle to those who wish to sail out into the sea beyond. A picture of the many other non-Greek peoples and all the Hellenic tribes that existed at that time will be unfolded in the course of our narrative as the occasion demands. The relations of the ancient Athenians and their opponents with whom they waged war, i.e. the power and state institutions of both, must be described immediately beforehand. Among these, however, the description of local conditions deserves priority.

Division of the earth among gods

The gods once divided the whole earth among themselves into their individual territories, and they did so without dispute, for it would be absurd to assume that the gods did not know what each of them was entitled to. They therefore received what was due to them through a legally determined distribution and chose their residences accordingly. After this was done, they raised us as their possessions and charges, as shepherds do their flocks, but not in such a way that they dominated our bodies with physical force, as shepherds do their cattle with blows. Rather, they guided and steered the entire human race with a single rudder from the stern of the ship, as it were, by using their (higher) insight to take possession of human souls through persuasion.

Ancient Athens

Athens: Foundation of the state

As for other regions, other gods took possession of them and endowed them. Hephaestus and Athena, however, since they belonged together by nature, partly as siblings from the father's side, partly because of their common love of science and art, both received our land as their common property. They regarded it as naturally suited to producing virtues and wisdom. They therefore planted men of virtue as natives on this soil and placed in their minds the will to found the constitution of the state.

Their names have been preserved, but their deeds have been forgotten through the downfall of those who came after them and through the length of time. For, as already mentioned, there always remained the generation that lived on the mountains and knew not the scriptures, that heard only the names of the rulers of the land and little of their deeds. They therefore had to content themselves with passing on these names to their descendants. But they knew nothing of the virtues and state institutions of their ancestors, apart from a few obscure rumors about details. Moreover, since they and their descendants had suffered for many generations from a lack of what was necessary and therefore had to focus their minds on filling this lack, they preferred to talk about it among themselves and neglected what had once happened among their ancestors and before their time. For the telling of old legends and the study of ancient times only enter the states with leisure when the worries about the hardships of life have already been overcome in some people, but not before. That is why the names of the ancients have been preserved without their deeds.

As proof of what I am saying, I refer to Solon's statement that the Egyptian priests, in describing the war of this period, mentioned most of these names - such as those of Cecrops and Erechtheus and Erichthonius and Erysichthon and most of the other names that have come down to us from the various heroes before Theseus - and in the same way the names of the women.

Athens: The classes of society

The figure and image of the goddess was warlike, for just as the craft of war was then common to women and men, so the Athenians of that time are said to have consecrated the armed goddess as a temple image according to this custom, as proof that all living beings that occur in pairs, female and male, are by nature capable of exercising the bravery due to both sexes together on both sides.

At that time, in addition to the warriors, the other classes of citizens lived together in this land, engaged in trade and in the yield of the fruits of the earth. But the class of warriors, who had been separated from them from the beginning by godly men, lived apart from them, equipped with all that was necessary for education and training. None of them had any exclusive property, but all regarded everything as common to them, just as they accepted nothing from the other citizens beyond the necessary sustenance. They genuinely pursued all those aspirations that until then had only supposedly been attributed to the guardians.

Athens: Size and fertility of the land

But what was said about our country at that time is also credible and true: firstly, that its borders at that time extended as far as the Isthmus and towards the rest of the mainland as far as the heights of Cithaeron and Parnes, and that these borders extended downwards so that they had the area of Oropia on the right and the Asopus on the left, separating it from the sea. Secondly, our land was the most fertile, so it could have supported a large army of inhabitants. But an important proof of the goodness of the soil is the fact that even the present remnant of it still surpasses all other lands in the abundance of every kind of fruit and food for every kind of living creature. But then it bore all this in greater beauty and abundance.

Athens: Verifiability

So how is this claim plausible, and what remnant of the land that existed at that time can serve to confirm its truth? All the land that extends from the rest of the mainland to the sea lies there like a promontory, for the sea basin around it, it seems, is of great depth. Since many great floods have taken place in the nine thousand years - for many have passed since that time until today - the earth that has flowed down from the heights during this time and under these influences has not, as in other regions, thrown up a significant dam, but has disappeared into the depths each time. And as with small islands, what is left now, compared to what existed then, is like the skeleton of a sick man, since all the fat and soft earth has disappeared and only the bare framework of the land remains.

Athens: Topography and vegetation

At that time, when the land was still intact, its mountains were high and covered with earth, and its plains, now called stony ground, were full of rich soil. There were also many trees on the mountains, traces of which can still be seen today. Although some of the mountains now only provide food for bees, it was not so long ago that roofs made from the trees that were felled there as rafters for the largest buildings still stood intact. But there were also many other tall trees, namely fruit trees, and the land provided incredibly rich grazing land for the herds.

It also enjoyed an annual irrigation from Zeus and did not immediately lose it again, as it does now when it flows from the thin fertile soil into the sea. Just as the land then had an abundance of soil, it also absorbed the rain and stored it in an enclosure made of clay, which allowed the absorbed water to flow down from the heights into the depths, creating rich springs and rivers in all places. Sacred signs of the truth of my present tale about our land still exist where the rivers once had their source.

This was the nature of the land and it was cultivated in the right way by farmers who in truth deserved this name, who were only concerned with it and were industrious. They had the most beautiful soil and water in abundance, and in the air the most excellent mixture of the seasons.

Athens: The city

The city was laid out as follows. First of all, the castle was in a different environment than it is today, because a particularly rainy night had loosened and washed away the earth around it, while at the same time earthquakes and a huge flood, the third before the destruction in Deucalion's time, had taken place. At that time, in earlier times, the city extended as far as Eridanus and Ilissus, encompassed the Pnyx and had mount Lycabettus as its border opposite the Pnyx. The entire height was covered with earth and, with a few exceptions, flat on the surface.

Athens: Residence of the ruling family

The area outside the hill, immediately below its slopes, was inhabited by the craftsmen and country folk who cultivated the nearby fields. The hill itself, however, around the sanctuary of Athene and Hephaestus, was inhabited by the warrior family itself, who surrounded it with a single wall like the garden of an ordinary house.

The warrior family lived in the northern part of the castle, where they were equipped with communal houses and dining halls for the winter and generally with everything that was necessary in their community to furnish buildings for themselves and the priests, but not with gold and silver, for they never made use of them. Just as they generally took the middle course between arrogance and lack of freedom, their dwellings were also of moderately good quality, in which they themselves and their children's children grew old. Just as one generation was always similar to the next, they always handed it over in the same condition. As far as the southern part of the castle was concerned, they used it for these purposes when they left their gardens, training grounds and dining halls, as was customary in summer.

There was only one well at the time, on the site where the castle stands today, and after it dried up due to earthquakes, the small streams running around it remained, but it provided a perfectly adequate amount of water for all who lived then, and had the right amount of heat in winter and summer.

Athens: The warrior class

In this way they lived there as protectors of their fellow citizens, as well as freely elected leaders of all other Hellenes, ensuring as far as possible that the number of their own warrior members - men and women - remained forever the same, which even then amounted to about twenty thousand.

As they were of such a nature and governed their own state as well as the whole of Greece justly in the manner described, they were respected throughout Europe and Asia both for their physical beauty and for their manifold virtues of their souls. Indeed, they were the most respected of all peoples living at that time.

Atlantis

But now I will also bring to light the circumstances as they existed among their opponents and as they developed among them from the very beginning, provided my memory does not fail me with what I heard as a boy, in order to share the news with you, my friends.

Atlantis: The naming by Solon

However, I must preface my report by saying that you should not be surprised when you hear that non-Greeks have Greek names, for you will learn the reason for this. Solon, wishing to use this narrative in a poem, inquired into the meaning of the names, and found that those ancient Egyptians who had first recorded them had translated them into their own language, and so he in his turn also resumed the meaning of each name and wrote it down as it was translated into our language. These records were with my grandfather, and I still have them, and I read them carefully in my youth. So when you hear names like this in this country, don't be surprised, because you now know the reason.

Atlantis: The founding of the royal family

The beginning of the long narrative then went something like this. As already said above, the gods had divided the whole earth among themselves partly into larger and partly into smaller parts and founded their own sanctuaries and places of sacrifice. The island of Atlantis fell to Poseidon. Poseidon put his offspring, which he had fathered with a mortal woman, to a place on the island that was of approximately the following nature.

In the center of the whole island, there was a plain that abutted the sea and was said to be the most beautiful of all the plains and to have excellent soil quality. At the edge of this plain, about fifty stadia from the sea, there was a low mountain that sloped gently on all sides. On this mountain dwelt one of the people who had sprung from there at the beginning of the earth, named Evenor, together with his wife Leucippe, and they had an only daughter, Cleito. When this girl reached manhood, her mother and father died, but Poseidon was seized by love for her and joined himself to her.

Poseidon separated the hill on which he lived with a strong enclosure around it by placing several smaller and larger rings of water and earth alternately around each other, two of earth and three of water. Each of the rings circled the center so that each was equidistant from the others in all its parts. This made the hill inaccessible to people, as ships and shipping did not yet exist at that time. He provided the island in the middle with everything he needed, as it was not difficult for him as god. He created two gushes of water, one hot and one cold, so that they flowed from a common source, rose up from the earth and produced a variety of rich fruits.

As for the male offspring, he fathered five sets of twins and raised them. He then divided the entire island of Atlantis into ten land areas and assigned the firstborn of the eldest pair his mother's residence and the surrounding territory as the largest and best. He also appointed him king over the other sons. But he also made his other sons rulers, giving each of them dominion over many people and much land. He also gave them all names. To the eldest and the king, he gave the name from which the whole island called Atlantis took its name: Atlas. Atlas was the name of the first king who reigned at that time.

The twin brother born after him was called Gadeiros. His land, which encompasses the outermost part of the island to the side of the Pillars of Heracles, was named after him and is called Gadeira. Of the second pair he then named one Ampheres and the other Evaemon, of the third firstborn Mneseus and the following Autochthon, of the fourth Elasippus the first and Mestor the second, and finally of the fifth the firstborn was named Azaes and the second-born Diaprepes.

All of them and their descendants lived here for many generations and also ruled over many other islands of the sea, but also, as already mentioned, over those who lived here as far as Egypt and Tyrrhenia.

From Atlas descended a numerous lineage, which was also highly honored in its other members, especially in that the king always handed over royal power to the eldest of his sons. For many generations, the royal dynasty maintained this power and thus preserved a wealth of such magnitude as had probably never been seen before in any kingdom and will not easily be seen again in the future. The king was provided with everything that was needed in the city and the rest of the country.

Atlantis: Resources

Much was brought to these kings from foreign lands as a result of their rule. Most, however, was provided by the island itself for the needs of life, especially everything that was obtained through mining or excavated from smeltable ores. One of these ores, which is just a name now but was more than that then, was gold-copper ore. This ore was extracted from the earth in many places on the island and, along with gold, was the most highly prized ore by the people living at the time.

The island also provided an abundance of everything the forest had to offer for the work of the craftsmen and fed wild and tame animals. Even the elephant species was very numerous on it, for there was not only abundant food for the animals in general that live in swamps, ponds and rivers, as well as for those that live on the mountains and those that live on the plains, but also to the same extent for this species, which is the largest and most voracious of all.

Whatever else the earth nourishes, whether roots or grass or wood or swelling juices or flowers or fruits, all these the island bore and nurtured in many ways. It brought forth the mild fruit and the dry, which we need for food, and all those which we otherwise use for food, and whose species we call by the common name of vegetables. The island also produced the plant that grows like a tree and provides drink and food and anointing oil at the same time. It also produced the fruits of the fruit trees, which are difficult to preserve, which are created for our pleasure and amusement, and which we use for dessert as a desirable new stimulus to the full stomach of the already satiated. All this the island, which at that time was continuously accessible to the effects of the sun, produced in an excellent and admirable form and in the richest abundance.

Atlantis: The rings around the temple

Atlas and his descendants, having received all this from the earth, founded temples, royal houses, harbors and shipyards, and also furnished all the rest of the land, proceeding according to the following order.

First, they built bridges over the rings of water that surrounded their old mother city to create a path to and from the royal castle. They built them right at the beginning on the residence of the god and their ancestors. In this way, each generation received the royal castle from the previous one. Each added to its furnishings. They did their best to surpass their ancestors, until finally they had made Poseidon's abode an amazing sight through the size and beauty of their works:

First they dug a channel three plethres wide, a hundred feet deep and fifty stadia long from the sea to the outermost ring, making it possible to enter from the sea into a harbor by opening the mouth wide enough for the largest ships to enter. Then they also broke through the circular earth walls separating the water rings to such a width below the bridges that a single trireme could pass from one to the next. They then bridged the breach again, so that navigation here was underground. The edges of the earth embankments reached high enough above the sea.

The outermost of the rings, which had once been formed by Poseidon, was three stadia wide, and so was the rampart ring that followed it first. Of the next two rings, the one made of water was two stadia wide, and the one made of earth was just as wide. Finally, the one that ran directly around the island was one stadium wide, and the island itself, on which the royal castle stood, had a diameter of five stadia.

They now surrounded the island in the middle and also the rings and the bridge, which was a plethron wide, on both sides with a stone wall. They erected towers and gates at the bridges on both sides to block the passages from the sea. The stones they used for this purpose were partly white, partly black and partly red. They broke the stones at the bottom of the slopes of the island, which lay in the middle, all around, and also at the bottom of the edges of the ramparts, both outside and inside. By hewing out the stones there, they also created hollow spaces in them on both sides for ships' holds, which had the rock itself as a ceiling.

They also erected other buildings from these stones, some of them single colored, others multicolored, assembling them from different colored stones for the pleasure of the eye and thus giving them their full charm. Finally, they covered the wall around the outer rampart with ore, which they applied like an anointing oil. The wall around the inner rampart, however, they melted with tin, and finally the castle itself with gold-copper ore, which had a fire-like sheen.

Atlantis: The temple of Poseidon

The royal dwelling in the castle itself was furnished as follows. At its center was a temple dedicated to Cleito and Poseidon, which only the priests were allowed to enter and which was surrounded by a golden wall. It was still the same wall in which they had once created and brought forth the lineage of the ten princes. Every year, the firstlings from all ten regions were sent there as sacrifices for each of them. There was also a special temple of Poseidon, one stadium long, three plethres wide and of a height that gave it a sublime appearance, but which had a somewhat barbaric look.

They covered the whole temple with silver on the outside, except for the battlements, which were covered with gold. As for the interior, the ivory ceiling was decorated entirely with gold [and silver] and gold-copper ore. They covered everything else on the walls, pillars and screeds with gold-copper ore. They also set up golden image pillars in it, namely the god himself, standing on his chariot and driving six winged horses. He was so tall that his head touched the ceiling. Arranged around him were the hundred Nereids on dolphins, because that was how many were believed to exist at the time. There were also many other images in the temple as votive gifts from private persons.

Outside, around the altar, stood the statues of the ten kings themselves and their wives and all their descendants, as well as many other large votive gifts from the kings and private persons, some from the city itself and others from the ruled territories outside the city. The size and design of the altar also corresponded to these furnishings, and the royal apartment was just as appropriate to the size of the dominion as the decoration of the sanctuaries.

Atlantis: The complex

They took advantage of the two springs, of both cold and warm water. Both of which produced water in abundance and both of which offered the same taste and goodness in admirable excellence. They erected buildings and planted trees appropriate to the abundance of the springs. They also made use of the springs by building water tanks, some outdoors and some for warm baths in the winter in covered rooms in the surrounding area. They set up special baths for the kings and others for the subjects, and still others for the women and still others for the horses and other draught animals. They gave each of the baths the appropriate equipment. The outflowing water was directed into the grove of Poseidon, which, due to the goodness of the soil, contained trees of various kinds and of outstanding height and beauty, but also partly through canals over the bridges into the outer rings.

Near the water pipes, on the islands consisting of the ramparts, there were also sanctuaries of many gods, as well as many gardens and training grounds, special ones for training the human body and others for chariot teams. They also had a select racecourse in the middle of the larger island, which was a stadium wide and the entire length of which was designed for horse racing.

The apartments for the majority of the satellites were located around the outer ring of ramparts on both sides. However, the more reliable of them had their guard on the smaller rampart ring closer to the castle, while the most reliable had their dwellings in the castle itself around the royal palace. The ships' arsenals were full of trimeres and everything that belongs to the equipment of trimeres. There were plenty of them.

This was the equipment of the royal residence.

Atlantis: City wall and harbor bustle

When you had passed the three harbors outside of it, you came to a wall that started from the sea and ran in a circle around the rings, but was fifty stadia away from the largest ring and harbor and ended at the same point at the mouth of the canal back into the sea. The wall was surrounded by many densely packed dwellings. Both the exit and the largest harbor were teeming with ships and merchants, who came here from all regions and caused noise, tumult and din of various kinds by day and night because of their numbers.

I have now told you pretty much everything I was told about the city and the former residence of the kings.

Atlantis: Topography

But now I must also try to tell you about the natural features of the rest of the land and its administration.

At first, the whole country was described to me as very high and rising steeply from the sea, while the area around the city was described as a plain throughout. The plain was in turn enclosed on several sides by mountains that stretched down to the sea. The plain was described as a completely smooth and flat surface, which had an elongated shape in its overall extension. Its dimensions were three thousand stadia to the side, but only two thousand from the sea upwards in the middle. The plain lay on the southern side of the island and extended from north to south.

The mountains that surrounded them were praised for surpassing in quantity, size and beauty any that exist today. They contained many spots with a rich number of inhabitants. They contained rivers, lakes and floodplains that provided enough food for all kinds of tame and wild animals. They contained forests which, in colorful abundance and great variety of species, provided rich material for the works of every kind, great and small. In this way, the plain was endowed by nature.

Atlantis: Infrastructure

Many kings had worked on the further furnishing of the plain. For the most part it formed a complete rectangle, but where it still lacked the full regularity of that shape, it had been given it by digging a ditch around it on all sides. What I was told about its depth, width and length may seem incredible for a man-made work. It may seem incredible that they undertook this work of such immense proportions in addition to their many other works. Yet I must tell you what I have heard. The trench was dug everywhere a plethron deep and a stadium wide, and when the whole plain was circumnavigated, the trench was ten thousand stadia long. It received the water that flowed down from the mountains. When it had encircled the whole plain and touched the city on both sides, it drained it into the sea in the following way. From its upper part, channels about a hundred feet wide were led into the plain in a straight line, joining the (great) channel from the sea. They were a hundred stadia apart.

On them they brought the wood from the mountains to the city, but they also brought all the other products of the land to water by digging passages from the canals into each other, crossing each other, and in the same way to the city. They also harvested twice a year, in winter with the help of rain from Zeus, and in summer through the irrigation that the land itself carried by drawing water from the canals.

Atlantis: The army

As far as the number of inhabitants was concerned, the order was that each parcel of land on the plain had to have a leader. The size of each parcel was about one hundred stadia and the number of all sixty thousand. There was also an unspeakable mass of people on the mountains and in the rest of the country, but all of them were assigned to one of these plots and leaders on the basis of their towns and villages.

The leaders were each obliged to provide for the war the sixth portion of a war-chariot, so that there were ten thousand of them in total. They also had to provide two horses and riders each, plus a horse and a chariot without a seat. The chariot without the seat was manned by a warrior who carried a small shield and also fought on foot when he dismounted. In addition to this chariot fighter, there was a coachman for the two horses, two heavily armed men, two archers and two slingers, as well as three stone slingers and three spearmen without armor. Finally, there were four sailors to man twelve hundred ships. This is how warfare was organized in the royal state, but in different ways in the other nine states, which would take too long to discuss.

Atlantis: The system of rule

From the beginning, the rulership and state dignity were organized as follows. Each of the ten kings ruled over the inhabitants of his city in the territory that fell to him. He was above most laws, so he punished and executed whomever he saw fit. The rule of the kings themselves was reciprocal and communal according to the decrees of Poseidon, as handed down to them by a law engraved by their ancestors on a pillar of gold-copper ore.

Atlantis: The assembly of kings

The Pillar of Law stood in the middle of the island, in the sanctuary of Poseidon. Here the kings met alternately every fifth and sixth year to give equal justice to the even and odd number, and at these assemblies they partly deliberated on common matters, partly investigated whether one of them had committed a transgression, and sat in judgment.

But when they went to court, they first swore allegiance to each other as follows. Among the ten bulls grazing freely in the sanctuary of Poseidon, they organized a hunt after praying to the god that they might succeed in catching the sacrificial animal that pleased him. They caught the bull without iron, using only cords and ropes, and the bull they caught they brought to the top of the pillar and slaughtered it directly above the inscription. In addition to the law, there was also an oath on the pillar that pronounced terrible curses on those who disobeyed it.

When they had thus consecrated all the bull's limbs to the sacrificial god according to their customs, they prepared a mixing cup and threw a drop of coagulated blood into it for each of the kings. But they threw the rest into the fire after they had purified the pillar. Then they drew from the mixing cup with golden drinking vessels. As they poured the offerings into the fire, they swore to judge according to the laws on the pillar and to punish anyone among them who had committed an offense. They swore that they would not willfully violate any of these rules in the future, nor would they rule or obey any ruler other than the one who ruled according to the laws of the Father. After each of them had vowed this for himself and his family, he drank and then consecrated the cups as an offering to the sanctuary of the god. Then they turned to the meal to satisfy the needs of their bodies.

As soon as darkness fell and the sacrificial fire went out, they all clothed themselves in a blue robe of supreme beauty, and so, sitting on the ground by the glow of the oath sacrifice, while the fire in the sanctuary completely extinguished, they received and pronounced judgment by night, for example when one of them accused the other of a transgression. After pronouncing the judgment, they wrote the verdicts on a golden tablet as soon as it was daylight and consecrated them together with those robes as a memorial.

There were many other laws which laid down the rights of the kings for each one, but above all that they should never take up arms against each other, but should render each other general assistance if, for example, one tried to exterminate the royal family in any city. After joint consultation, they decided as their ancestors had done with regard to war and all other matters, leaving the presidency and supreme command to the family of Atlas. Furthermore, a king should not have the power to execute one of his kinsmen unless more than half of the ten (kings) had authorized it.

Atlantis: Beginning of the decline

This power, of such a nature and extent as then existed in those regions, the god, in assembling it, now led it against our country. It is said that the following circumstances gave rise to this. Throughout many generations, as long as the nature of the god was still active in them, they were obedient to the laws and showed a friendly behavior towards the divine related to them. For they possessed a true and constantly great disposition and showed a gentleness coupled with prudence towards all possible vicissitudes of fate as well as towards each other. As they therefore considered everything else but virtue to be worthless, they held all available goods of happiness in low esteem. They regarded the mass of their gold and other possessions with equanimity and rather like a burden. They did not intoxicate themselves with the indulgence of their riches, so that they would lose their self-control, but recognized with sober perspicacity that all this receives its value only through common friendship combined with virtue. Through zeal and striving for more power, wealth not only evaporates itself, but also destroys those values with it. As a result of these principles and the continual working of the divine nature in them, all that I have just told you has prospered.

But when their share in the essence of god began to diminish through the manifold and frequent admixture of the mortal in them and human nature gained the upper hand, only then were they no longer equal to the existing wealth and degenerated and appeared low to those who were able to recognize it, destroying the most beautiful of all that deserves to be honored. But to those who were incapable of pursuing a life that really leads to happiness, they appeared all the more glorious and blessed because they possessed an abundance of unjust gain and unjustly acquired power.

But Zeus, the god of the gods, who rules according to the law and is well able to recognize this, decided, when he saw an excellent generation sinking so shamefully, to inflict a punishment on them so that, brought to their senses, they would return to a nobler way of life.

He therefore summoned all the gods to their most venerable abode, which lies in the middle of the universe and provides an overview of all things that have ever come into being. After he had called the gods together, he spoke ...