Critias
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CRITIAS
by Plato
Translated by Benjamin Jowett
INTRODUCTION AND ANALYSIS.
The Critias is a fragment which breaks off in the middle of a sentence.
It was designed to be the second part of a trilogy, which, like the
other great Platonic trilogy of the Sophist, Statesman, Philosopher, was
never completed. Timaeus had brought down the origin of the world to
the creation of man, and the dawn of history was now to succeed the
philosophy of nature. The Critias is also connected with the Republic.
Plato, as he has already told us (Tim.), intended to represent the
ideal state engaged in a patriotic conflict. This mythical conflict is
prophetic or symbolical of the struggle of Athens and Persia, perhaps
in some degree also of the wars of the Greeks and Carthaginians, in the
same way that the Persian is prefigured by the Trojan war to the mind
of Herodotus, or as the narrative of the first part of the Aeneid is
intended by Virgil to foreshadow the wars of Carthage and Rome. The
small number of the primitive Athenian citizens (20,000), 'which is
about their present number' (Crit.), is evidently designed to contrast
with the myriads and barbaric array of the Atlantic hosts. The passing
remark in the Timaeus that Athens was left alone in the struggle, in
which she conquered and became the liberator of Greece, is also an
allusion to the later history. Hence we may safely conclude that the
entire narrative is due to the imagination of Plato, who has used the
name of Solon and introduced the Egyptian priests to give verisimilitude
to his story. To the Greek such a tale, like that of the earth-born
men, would have seemed perfectly accordant with the character of his
mythology, and not more marvellous than the wonders of the East narrated
by Herodotus and others: he might have been deceived into believing it.
But it appears strange that later ages should have been imposed upon by
the fiction. As many attempts have been made to find the great island of
Atlantis, as to discover the country of the lost tribes. Without regard
to the description of Plato, and without a suspicion that the whole
narrative is a fabrication, interpreters have looked for the spot in
every part of the globe, America, Arabia Felix, Ceylon, Palestine,
Sardinia, Sweden.
Timaeus concludes with a prayer that his words may be acceptable to the
God whom he has revealed, and Critias, whose turn follows, begs that a
larger measure of indulgence may be conceded to him, because he has to
speak of men whom we know and not of gods whom we do not know. Socrates
readily grants his request, and anticipating that Hermocrates will make
a similar petition, extends by anticipation a like indulgence to him.
Critias returns to his story, professing only to repeat what Solon was
told by the priests. The war of which he was about to speak had occurred
9000 years ago. One of the combatants was the city of Athens, the other
was the great island of Atlantis. Critias proposes to speak of these
rival powers first of all, giving to Athens the precedence; the various
tribes of Greeks and barbarians who took part in the war will be dealt
with as they successively appear on the scene.
In the beginning the gods agreed to divide the earth by lot in a
friendly manner, and when they had made the allotment they settled
their several countries, and were the shepherds or rather the pilots of
mankind, whom they guided by persuasion, and not by force. Hephaestus
and Athena, brother and sister deities, in mind and art united, obtained
as their lot the land of Attica, a land suited to the growth of virtue
and wisdom; and there they settled a brave race of children of the soil,
and taught them how to order the state. Some of their names, such as
Cecrops, Erechtheus, Erichthonius, and Erysichthon, were preserved and
adopted in later times, but the memory of their deeds has passed away;
for there have since been many deluges, and the remnant who survived
in the mountains were ignorant of the art of writing, and during many
generations were wholly devoted to acquiring the means of life...And the
armed image of the goddess which was dedicated by the ancient Athenians
is an evidence to other ages that men and women had in those days,
as they ought always to have, common virtues and pursuits. There were
various classes of citizens, including handicraftsmen and husbandmen and
a superior class of warriors who dwelt apart, and were educated, and had
all things in common, like our guardians. Attica in those days extended
southwards to the Isthmus, and inland to the heights of Parnes and
Cithaeron, and between them and the sea included the district of Oropus.
The country was then, as what remains of it still is, the most fertile
in the world, and abounded in rich plains and pastures. But in the
course of ages much of the soil was washed away and disappeared in
the deep sea. And the inhabitants of this fair land were endowed with
intelligence and the love of beauty.
The Acropolis of the ancient Athens extended to the Ilissus and
Eridanus, and included the Pnyx, and the Lycabettus on the opposite side
to the Pnyx, having a level surface and deep soil. The side of the hill
was inhabited by craftsmen and husbandmen; and the warriors dwelt by
themselves on the summit, around the temples of Hephaestus and Athene,
in an enclosure which was like the garden of a single house. In winter
they retired into houses on the north of the hill, in which they held
their syssitia. These were modest dwellings, which they bequeathed
unaltered to their children's children. In summer time the south
side was inhabited by them, and then they left their gardens and
dining-halls. In the midst of the Acropolis was a fountain, which gave
an abundant supply of cool water in summer and warm in winter; of this
there are still some traces. They were careful to preserve the number of
fighting men and women at 20,000, which is equal to that of the present
military force. And so they passed their lives as guardians of the
citizens and leaders of the Hellenes. They were a just and famous race,
celebrated for their beauty and virtue all over Europe and Asia.
And now I will speak to you of their adversaries, but first I ought to
explain that the Greek names were given to Solon in an Egyptian form,
and he enquired their meaning and translated them. His manuscript was
left with my grandfather Dropides, and is now in my possession...In the
division of the earth Poseidon obtained as his portion the island of
Atlantis, and there he begat children whose mother was a mortal. Towards
the sea and in the centre of the island there was a very fair and
fertile plain, and near the centre, about fifty stadia from the plain,
there was a low mountain in which dwelt a man named Evenor and his wife
Leucippe, and their daughter Cleito, of whom Poseidon became enamoured.
He to secure his love enclosed the mountain with rings or zones varying
in size, two of land and three of sea, which his divine power readily
enabled him to excavate and fashion, and, as there was no shipping in
those days, no man could get into the place. To the interior island he
conveyed under the earth springs of water hot and cold, and supplied the
land with all things needed for the life of man. Here he begat a family
consisting of five pairs of twin male children. The eldest was Atlas,
and him he made king of the centre island, while to his twin brother,
Eumelus, or Gadeirus, he assigned that part of the country which was
nearest the Straits. The other brothers he made chiefs over the rest of
the island. And their kingdom extended as far as Egypt and Tyrrhenia.
Now Atlas had a fair posterity, and great treasures derived from
mines--among them that precious metal orichalcum; and there was
abundance of wood, and herds of elephants, and pastures for animals of
all kinds, and fragrant herbs, and grasses, and trees bearing fruit.
These they used, and employed themselves in constructing their temples,
and palaces, and harbours, and docks, in the following manner:--First,
they bridged over the zones of sea, and made a way to and from the royal
palace which they built in the centre island. This ancient palace was
ornamented by successive generations; and they dug a canal which passed
through the zones of land from the island to the sea. The zones of earth
were surrounded by walls made of stone of divers colours, black and
white and red, which they sometimes intermingled for the sake of
ornament; and as they quarried they hollowed out beneath the edges of
the zones double docks having roofs of rock. The outermost of the walls
was coated with brass, the second with tin, and the third, which was the
wall of the citadel, flashed with the red light of orichalcum. In the
interior of the citadel was a holy temple, dedicated to Cleito and
Poseidon, and surrounded by an enclosure of gold, and there was
Poseidon's own temple, which was covered with silver, and the pinnacles
with gold. The roof was of ivory, adorned with gold and silver and
orichalcum, and the rest of the interior was lined with orichalcum.
Within was an image of the god standing in a chariot drawn by six winged
horses, and touching the roof with his head; around him were a hundred
Nereids, riding on dolphins. Outside the temple were placed golden
statues of all the descendants of the ten kings and of their wives;
there was an altar too, and there were palaces, corresponding to the
greatness and glory both of the kingdom and of the temple.
Also there were fountains of hot and cold water, and suitable buildings
surrounding them, and trees, and there were baths both of the kings
and of private individuals, and separate baths for women, and also for
cattle. The water from the baths was carried to the grove of Poseidon,
and by aqueducts over the bridges to the outer circles. And there
were temples in the zones, and in the larger of the two there was a
racecourse for horses, which ran all round the island. The guards were
distributed in the zones according to the trust reposed in them; the
most trusted of them were stationed in the citadel. The docks were full
of triremes and stores. The land between the harbour and the sea was
surrounded by a wall, and was crowded with dwellings, and the harbour
and canal resounded with the din of human voices.
The plain around the city was highly cultivated and sheltered from the
north by mountains; it was oblong, and where falling out of the straight
line followed the circular ditch, which was of an incredible depth. This
depth received the streams which came down from the mountains, as well
as the canals of the interior, and found a way to the sea. The entire
country was divided into sixty thousand lots, each of which was a square
of ten stadia; and the owner of a lot was bound to furnish the sixth
part of a war-chariot, so as to make up ten thousand chariots, two
horses and riders upon them, a pair of chariot-horses without a
seat, and an attendant and charioteer, two hoplites, two archers, two
slingers, three stone-shooters, three javelin-men, and four sailors to
make up the complement of twelve hundred ships.
Each of the ten kings was absolute in his own city and kingdom. The
relations of the different governments to one another were determined by
the injunctions of Poseidon, which had been inscribed by the first kings
on a column of orichalcum in the temple of Poseidon, at which the kings
and princes gathered together and held a festival every fifth and every
sixth year alternately. Around the temple ranged the bulls of Poseidon,
one of which the ten kings caught and sacrificed, shedding the blood of
the victim over the inscription, and vowing not to transgress the laws
of their father Poseidon. When night came, they put on azure robes