Critias
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 of 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 heaven, 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 guard-houses 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 harbours, 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 to you 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