Atlantis: the antediluvian world ... Illustrated

Front matter

THE PROFILE OF ATLANTIS, Ab revealed by the deep-sea soundings of II. if. ship "Challtnger," arnt the U. S. ship "Dolphin." ATLANTIS: THE ANTEDILUVIAN WORLD. BY IGNATIUS DONNELLY. ILLUSTRATED. " The world has made such comet-Wee advance LatHy on science, we may almost hope, Before we die of sheer decay, to learn Something about our infancy ; when lived That great, original, broad-eyed, sunken race, Whose knowledge, like the sea-sustainipg rocks, Hath formed the base of this world's fiuctuous lore. Festus. LONDON SAMPSON LOW, MARSTON, SEARLE, & KIVIXGTON CROWX BUILDINGS, 188 FLEET STREET Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1882, by HARPER & BROTHERS, In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington. AU rights reserved. CONTENTS.

Part I

CnAp THE BISTORT OF ATLAXTIS. pAQE I. The Purpose of the Book 1 II. Plato's History of Atlantis 5 III. The Probabilities of Plato's Story 22 IV. Was such a Catastrophe Possible? 31 V. The Testimony of the Sea 46 VI. The Testimony of the Flora and Fauna 64

Part II. The Deluge

I. The Destruction of Atlantis described in the Deluge Legends 65 n. The Deluge of the Bible 68 III. The Deluge of the Chaldeans 75 i*. IV. The Deluge Legends of other Nations 85 V. The Deluge Legends of America 98 VI. Some Consideration of the Deluge Legends ~119

Part III. The Civilization Of The Old World And New Compared

I. Civilization an Inheritance ■ 129 II. The Identity of the Civilizations of the Old World and the New 136 in. American Evidences of Intercourse with Europe or Atlantis CONTENTS. VI Chap. Pao" IV. Corroborating Circumstances 171 V. The Question of Complexion 183 VI. Genesis contains a Historyof Atlantis 198 VII. The Origin of our Alphabet 214 VIII. The Bronze Age in Europe 237 IX. Artificlvl Deformation of the Skull 268

Part IV. The Mythologies Of The Old World

A RECOLLECTION OF ATLANTIS. I. Traditions of Atlantis 276 II. The Kings of Atlantis become the Gods of the Greeks . 283 III. The Gods of the Phœnicians also Kings of Atlantis . . 308 TV. The God Odin, Woden, or Wotan 313 V. The Pyramid, the Cross, and the Garden of Eden . . .317 VI. Gold and Silver the Sacred Metals of Atlantis .... 343

Part V. The Colonies Of Atlantis

I. The Central American and Mexican Colonies 348 II. The Egyptian Colony 358 III. The Colonies of the Mississippi Valley 370 IV. The Iberian Colonies of Atlantis 387 V. The Peruvian Colony 390 VI. The African Colonies 404 VII. The Irish Colonies from Atlantis 408 VIII. The Oldest Son of Noah 423 IX. The Antiquity of some of our Great Inventions .... 440 X. The Aryan Colonies from Atlantis 456 XI. Atlantis Reconstructed ILLUSTRATIONS. Paoe The Profile of Atlantis Frontispiece Coal-measures of Pennsylvania 31 Destruction of Pompeii 33 Calabrian Peasants Ingulfed by Crevasses (1783) 37 Fort of Sindree, on the Eastern Branch of the Indus, before it was Submerged by the Earthquake of 1819 39 View of the Fort of Sindree from the West in March, 1838 . . 39 Eruption of Vesuvius in 1737 • . 41 Map of Atlantis, with its Islands and Connecting Ridges, from Deep-sea Soundings 47 Ancient Islands between Atlantis and the Mediterranean, from Deep-sea Soundings 51 Ancient Carving, Stratford-on-Avon, England 60 Cereals of the Age of Stone in Europe 62 Ancient Irish Pipes 63 Ancient Indian Pipe, New Jersey 64 The World, according to Cosmos 95 Map of Europe, after Cosmos 96 The Mountain the Sun goes behind at XTight 97 The Starting-point of the Aztecs, according to the Gamelli Cared Pictured MS 104 The Starting-point of the Aztecs, according to the Boturini Pictured Writing 104 Calendar Stone 107 The God of the Flood 123 Mosaics at Mitla, Mexico 137 Carving on the Buddhist Tower, Sarnath, India 139 Ancient Irish Vase of the Bronze Age 142 Ancient Vase from the Mounds of the United States ILLUSTRATIONS.

VIII Page Ancient Mexican Vase . '. 166 Bearded Head, from Teotihuacan 166 Elephant Mound, Wisconsin 168 Elephant Pipe, Louisa County, Iowa 169 Elephant-trunk Head-dress, Palenque 109 Mexican Representation of Elephant 170 Negro Idols found in Central America 174 Negroid Figure, Palenque 175 Negro Head, Vera Cruz 175 Governor and other Indians of the Pueblo of San Domingo, New Mexico 187 Choctaw " 190 Shawnees 191 Savonarola 193 The Races of Men according to the Egyptians 195 Ruins of the Pyramid of Cholula 201 Great Serpent-mound, Ohio . . 205 Stone Implements of Europe and America 206 Landa's Alphabet 217 The Alphabet 219 Implements and Ornaments of the Bronze Age 239 Ornaments of the Bronze Age 242 Celtic Warrior, from Egyptian Monuments 244 Celtic Warrior, from Assyrian Monuments 245 A Skull of the Age of Stone, Denmark 249 A Skull of the Earliest Times of the Age of Iron, Denmark . . 249 Irish Celt 250 Danish Celt 250 Leaf-shaped Bronze Swords 251 Stone Celt, Mound in Tennessee 253 Bronze Knives from Denmark 254 Bronze Knives from Switzerland 254 Hut Bin, Albano .... a 255 Bronze Lake Village 255 Bronze Razor-knives 256 Ancient Galley, from a Roman Coin 257 Ship of William the Conqueror 257 Irish Bronze Dagger 258 Inscribed Celt ■ 258 Bronze Hair pins 259 Vases from Mounds iu the Mississippi Valley ILLUSTRATIONS.

IX Page Vases from Switzerland 261 Ancient Swiss Vase and Supporter 261 Bronze Chisels 262 Spirals from Scotland 262 Spiral from New Mexico 262 Discoidal Stones, Illinois 263 Copper Spear-head, Lake Superior 263 Bronze Hatchets, Switzerland 263 Spiral from New Mexico 265 Shell Ornament, Mound near Nashville, Tennessee 265 Copper Axe, from a Mound near Laporte, Indiana 266 Copper Axe, Waterford, Ireland 266 Fragment of Pottery, Lake Neufchatel, Switzerland 266 Fragment of Pottery, San Jose, Mexico 266 Stucco Bass-relief in the Palace of Palenque 269 Ancient Swiss Skull 270 Peruvian Skull 271 Chinook (Flat-head), after Catlin 271 Heads from Palenque 272 Outlines of Skulls of Different Races 273 Egyptian Heads 274 Central American Head .- 274 Egyptian Head ' 274 Peruvian Inca Skull, from the Ancient Cemetery of Pachacamac . 275 The Empire of Atlantis 295 Poseidon, or Neptune 305 Egyptian Tau 319 Cross from Monuments of Palenque 319 Ancient Irish Cross 320 Central American Cross 320 Copper Coin, Teotihuacan 320 Ancient Irish Cross — Pre-Christian — Kilnaboy 321 Cross from Egyptian Monuments 322 Pyramids of Egypt 337 Pyramids of Teotihuacan 338 The great Mound, near Miamisburg, Ohio 339 Great Pyramid of Xcoch, Mexico 341 Common Form of Arch, Central America 353 Section of the Treasure-house of Atreus at Mycenæ 354 Arch of Las Monjas, Palenque, Central America 355 Graded Way near Piketon, Ohio ILLUSTRATIONS.

X Page Walls at Gran-Chimu, Peru 375 Cross and Pyramid Mound, Ohio 375 From the Mounds of the Ohio Valley 381 Cyclopean Wall, Greece 397 Cyclopean Masonry, Peru 397 Owl-headed Vase, Troy 398 Owl-headed Vase, Peru 398 Owl-headed Vase, Peru 399 Owl-headed Vase, Troy 400 Tamahu, from the Egyptian Monuments, 1500 b.c 407 The Burgh of Moussa, in the Shetlands 417 Round-tower of the Canon of the Maneos, Colorado, U. S. ... 418 Cow-headed Idol, Mycenæ (from Sc-hliemann) 427 Religious Emblem of the Bronze Age, Switzerland 428 Baal, the Phœnician God 428 Moqui Idol 429 Dakota Idol 429 Peruvian Devil . 429 Greek Siren 430 Chinese Magnetic Car 442 Ancient Coins of Tyre 444 Coin from Central America 445 Ancient Egyptian Plough ATLANTIS : THE ANTEDILUVIAN WORLD.

Part I. The History Of Atlantis

Chapter I. THE PURPOSE OF THE BOOK. This book is an attempt to demonstrate several distinct and novel propositions. These are : 1. That there once existed in the Atlantic Ocean, opposite the mouth of the Mediterranean Sea, a large island, which was the remnant of an Atlantic continent, and known to the an cient world as Atlantis. 2. That the description of this island given by Plato is not, as has been long supposed, fable, but veritable history. 3. That Atlantis was the region where man first rose from a state of barbarism to civilization. 4. That it became, in the course of ages, a populous and mighty nation, from whose overflowings the shores of the Gulf of Mexico, the Mississippi River, the Amazon, the Pacific coast of South America, the Mediterranean, the west coast of Europe and Africa, the Baltic, the Black Sea, and the Caspian wer populated by civilized nations. 5.

That it was th true Antediluvian world ; the Garden of Eden; the Ga; iens of the Hesperides; the Elysian Fields; the Gardens of Alcinous ; the Mesomphalos ; the Olympos ; the Asgard of the traditions of the ancient nations; representing a universal memory of a great land, where early mankind dwelt for ages in peace and happiness. 6. That the gods and goddesses of the ancient Greeks, the Phœnicians, the Hindoos, and the Scandinavians were simply the kings, queens, and heroes of Atlantis ; and the acts at tributed to them in mythology are a confused recollection of real historical events. 7. That the mythology of Egypt and Pern represented tlie original religion of Atlantis, wliich was sun-worship. 8. That the oldest colony formed by the Atlanteans was probably in Egypt, whose civilization was a reproduction of that of the Atlantic island. 9.

That the implements of the "Bronze Age" of Europe were derived from Atlantis. The Atlanteans were also the first manufacturers of iron. 10. That the Phœnician alphabet, parent of all the Euro pean alphabets, was derived from an Atlantis alphabet, which was also conveyed from Atlantis to the Mayas of Central America. 11. That Atlantis was the original seat of the Aryan or Indo-European family of nations, as well as of the Semitic peoples, and possibly also of the Turanian races. 12. That Atlantis perished in a terrible convulsion of nature, in which the whole island sunk into the ocean, with nearly all its inhabitants. 13. That a few persons escaped in ships and on rafts, and carried to the nations east and west the tidings of the ap palling catastrophe, which has survived to our own time in the Flood and Deluge legends of the different nations of the old and new worlds. If these propositions can be proved, they will solve many problems which now perplex mankind; they will confirm in THE PURPOSE OF THE

Book. 3

many respects the statements in the opening chapters of Gen esis; they will widen the area of human history ; they will ex plain the remarkable resemblances which exist between the ancient civilizations found upon the opposite shores of the At lantic Oce.an, in the old and new worlds ; and they will aid us to rehabilitate the fathers of our civilization, our blood, and our fundamental ideas — the men who lived, loved, and labored ages before the Aryans descended upon India, or the Phœni cian had settled in Syria, or the Goth had reached the shores of thc Baltic. The fact that the story of Atlantis was for thousands of years regarded as a fable proves nothing. There is an unbelief which grows out of ignorance, as well as a scepticism which is born of intelligence. The people nearest to the past are not always those who are best informed concerning the past.

For a thousand ye<irs it was believed that the legends of the buried cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum were myths : they were spoken of as " the fabulous cities." For a thousand years the educated world did not credit the accounts given by He rodotus of the wonders of the ancient civilizations of the Nile and of Chaldea. He was called " the father of liars." Even Plutarch sneered at him. Now, in the language of Frederick Schlegel, "the deeper and more comprehensive the researches of the moderns have been, the more their regard and esteem for Herodotus has increased." Buckle says, "His minute in formation about Egvpt and Asia Minor is admitted by all geographers." There was a time when the expedition sent out by Pharaoh Necho to circumnavigate Africa was doubted, becfiuse the ex plorers stated tha-it after they had progressed a certain distance the sun was north of them ; this circumstance, which then aroused suspicion, now proves to us that the Egyptian navigators had really passed the equator, and anticipated by 2100 years Vasquez de Gama in his discovery of the Cape of Good Hope.

If I succeed in demonstrating the truth of the somewhat startling propositions with which I commenced this chapter, it will only be by bringing to bear upon the question of At lantis a thousand converging lines of light from a multitude of researches made by scholars in different fields of modern thought. Further investigations and discoveries will, I trust, confirm the correctness of the conclusions at which I have arrived. Chapter II. PLATO'S HISTORY OF ATLANTIS. Plato has preserved for us the history of AtLantis. If our views are correct, it is one of the most valuable records which have come down to us from antiquity. Plato lived 400 years before the birth of Christ. His an cestor, Solon, was the great law-giver of Athens 600 years be fore the Christian era. Solon visited Egypt. Plutarch says, "Solon attempted in verse a large description, or rather fabulous account of the Atlantic Island, which he had learned from the wise men of Sais, and which particularly concerned the Athenians ; but by reason of his age, not want of leisure (as Plato would have it), he was apprehensive the work would be too much for him, <ind therefore did not go through with it.

These verses are a proof that business was not the hinderance : " ' I grow in learning as I grow in age.' And again : " ' Wine, wit, and beauty still their charms bestow, Light all the shades of life, and cheer us as we go.' "Plato, ambitious to cultivate and adorn the subject of thc Atlantic Island, as a delightful spot in some fair field unoccu pied, to which also he had some claim by reason of his being related to Solon, laid out magnificent courts and enclosures, and erected a grand entrance to it, such as no other story, fable, or poem ever had. But, as he began it late, he ended his life before the work, so that the more the reader is delighted with the part that is written, the more regret he has to find it un finished." There can be no question that Solon visited Egypt. Thc causes of his departure from Athens, for a period of ten years, are fully explained by Plutarch.

He dwelt, he tells us, "On the Canopian shore, by Xile's deep mouth." There he conversed upon points of philosophy and history with the most learned of the Egyptian priests. He was a man of extraordinary force and penetration of mind, as his laws and his sayings, which have been preserved to us, testify. There is no improbability in the statement that he commenced in verse a history and description of Atlantis, which he left unfinished at his death ; and it requires no great stretch of the imagination to believe that this manuscript reached the hands of his successor and descendant, Plato ; a scholar, thinker, and his torian like himself, and, like himself, one of thc profoundest minds of the ancient world. The Egyptian priest had said to Solon, " You have no antiquity of history, and no history of antiquity ;" and Solon doubtless realized fully the vast impor tance of a record which carried human history back, not only thousands of years before the era of Greek civilization, but many thousands of years before even the establishment of the kingdom of Egypt ; and he was anxious to preserve for his half-civilized countrymen this inestimable record of the past.

We know of no better way to commence a book about At lantis than by giving in full the record preserved by Plato. It is as follows : Critias. Then listen, Socrates, to a strange tale, which is, however, certainly true, as Solon, who was the wisest of the seven sages, declared. He was a relative and great friend of my great-grandfather, Dropidas, as he himself says in several of his poems; and Dropidas told Critias, my grandfather, who re membered, and told us, that there were of old great and mar vellous actions of the Athenians, which have passed into ob livion through time and the destruction of the human race — and one in particular, which was the greatest of them all, the recital of which will be a suitable testimony of our gratitude to yon. . . . Socrates. Very good ; and what is this ancient famous action of which Critias spoke, not as a mere legend, but as a veritable action of the Athenian State, which aSolon recounted ?

Critias. I will tell an old-world story which I heard from an aged man ; for Critias was, as he said, at that time nearly ninety years of age, and I was about ten years of age. Now the day was that day of the Apaturia whicli is called the regis tration of youth; at which, according to custom, our parents gave prizes for recitations, and the poems of several poets were recited by us boys, and many of us sung the poems of Solon, whicli were new at the time. One of our tribe, either because this was his real opinion, or because he thought that he would please Critias, said that, in his judgment, Solon was not only the wisest of men but the noblest of poets. The old man, I well remember, brightened up at this, and said, smiling: "Yes, Amynander, if Solon had only, like other poets, made poetry tlie business of his life, and had completed the tale which he brought with him from Egypt, and had not been compelled, by reason of the factions and troubles whicli he found stirring in this country when he came home, to attend to other matters, in my opinion he would have been as famous as Homer, or Hesiod, or any poet."

" And what was that poem about, Critias ?" said the person who addressed him. " About the greatest action which the Athenians ever did, and which ought to have been most famous, but which, through the lapse of time and the destruction of the actors, has not come down to us." "Tell us," said the other, "the whole story, and how and from whom Solon heard this veritable tradition." He replied : " At the head of the Egyptian Delta, where the river Nile divides, there is a certain district which is called the district of Sais, and the great city of the district is also called aSais, and is the city from which Amasis the king was sprung. And the citizens have a deity who is their foundress : she is called in the Egyptian tongue Neither which is asserted by them to be the same whom the Hellenes called Athene.

Now, the citizens of this city are great lovers of the Athenians, and say thait they are in some way related to them. Thither came Solon, who was received by them with great honor ; and he asked the priests, who were most skilful in such matters, about antiquity, and made the discovery that neither he nor any oth er Hellene knew anything worth mentioning about the times of old. On one occasion, when he was drawing them on to speak of antiquity, he began to tell about the most ancieut things in our part, of the world — about Phoronens, who is called 'the first,' and about Niobe; and, after the Deluge, to tell of the lives of Deucalion and Pyrrha ; and he traced the genealogy of their descendants, and attempted to reckon how many years old were the events of which he was speaking, and to give the dates.

Thereupon, one of the priests, who was of very great age, said, 'O Solon, Solon, you Hellenes are but children, and there is never an old man who is an Hellene.' Solon, hearing this, said, ' What do you mean ?' ' I mean to say,' he replied, ' that in mind you are all young ; there is no old opinion handed down among you by ancient tradition, nor any science which is hoary with age. And I will tell you the reason of this : there have been, and there will be again, many de structions of mankind arising out of many causes. There is a story which even you have preserved, that once upon a time Phaethon, the son of Helios, having yoked the steeds in his father's chariot, because he was not able to drive them in the path of his father, burnt up all that was upon the earth, and was himself destroyed by a thunder-bolt.

Now, this has the form of a myth, but really signifies a declination of the bodies moving around the earth and in the heavens, and a great confla gration of things upon the earth recurring at long intervals of time: when this happens, those who live upon the mountains and in dry and lofty places are more liable to destruction than those who dwell by rivers or on the sea-shore ; and from this calamity the Nile, who is our never-failing savior, saves and de livers us. When, on the other hand, the gods purge the earth with a deluge of water, among you herdsmen and shepherds on the mountains are the survivors, whereas those of you who live in cities are carried by the rivers into the sea ; but in this country neither at that time nor at any other does the water come from above on the fields, having always a tendency to come up from below, for whicli reason the things preserved here are said to be the oldest.

The fact is, that wherever the extremity of winter frost or of summer sun does not prevent, the human race is always increasing at times, and at other times diminishing in numbers. And whatever happened either in your country or in ours, or in any other region of which we are informed — if any action which is noble or great, or in any other way remarkable has taken place, all that has been written down of old, and is preserved in our temples ; whereas you and other nations are just being provided with letters and the other things which States require ; and then, at the usual period, the stream from heaven descends like a pestilence, and leaves only those of you who are destitute of letters and education ; and thus you have to begin all over again as children, and know nothing of what happened in ancient times, either among us or among yourselves.

As for those genealogies of yours which you have recounted to us, Solon, the)' are no bet ter than the tales of children ; for, in the first place, you re member one deluge only, whereas there were many of them ; and, in the next place, you do not know that there dwelt in your land the fairest and noblest race of men which ever lived, of whom you and your whole city are but a seed or remnant. And this was unknown to you, because for many generations the survivors of that destruction died and made no sign. For there was a time, Solon, before that great deluge of all, when the city which now is Athens was first in war, and was pre eminent for the excellence of her laws, and is said to have per formed the noblest deeds, and to have had the fairest constitution of any of which tradition tells, under the face of heaven.' Solon marvelled at this, and earnestly requested the priest to in form him exactly and in order about these former citizens. 'You are welcome to hear about them, Solon,' said the priest, ' both for your own sake and for that of the city; and, above all, for the sake of the goddess who is the common patron and pro tector and educator of both our .cities.

She founded your city a thousand years before ours, receiving from the Earth and Hephæstus the seed of your race, and then she founded ours, the constitution of which is set down in our sacred registers as 8000 years old. As touching the citizens of 9000 .years ago, I will briefly inform you of their laws and of the noblest of their actions; and the exact particulars of the whole we will hereafter go through at our leisure in the sacred registers them selves. If you compare these very laws with your own, you 1* will find that many of ours are the counterpart of yours, as they were in the olden time. In the first place, there is the caste of priests, wliich is separated from all the others ; next there are the artificers, who exercise their several crafts by themselves, and without admixture of any other; and also there is the class of shepherds and that of hunters, as well as that of husbandmen; and you will observe, too, that the war riors in Egypt are separated from all the other classes, and are commanded by the law only to engage in war; moreover, the weapons with which they are equipped are shields and spears, and this the goddess taught first among you, and then in Asi atic countries, and we among the Asiatics first adopted.

"'Then, as to wisdom, do you observe what care the law took from the very first, searching out and comprehending the whole order of things down to prophecy and medicine (the lat ter with a view to health) ; and out of these divine elements drawing what was needful for human life, and adding every sort of knowledge which was connected with them. All this order and arrangement the goddess first imparted to you when establishing your city; and she chose the spot of earth in which you were born, because she saw that the happy tem perament of the seasons in that land would produce the wisest of men. Wherefore the goddess, who was a lover both of war and of wisdom, selected, and first of all settled that spot which was the most likely to produce men likest herself. And there you dwelt, leaving such laws as these and still better ones, and excelled all mankind in all virtue, as became the children and disciples of the gods.

Many great and wonderful deeds are recorded of your State in our histories ; but one of them ex ceeds all the rest in greatness and valor ; for these histories tell of a mighty power which was aggressing wantonly against the whole of Europe and Asia, and to which your city put an end. This power came forth out of the Atlantic Ocean, for in those days the Atlantic was navigable ; and there was an island situated in front of the straits which you call the Col umns of Heracles : the island was larger than Libya and Asia put together, and was the way to other islands, and from the islands you might pass through the whole of the opposite con tinent whicli surrounded the true ocean ; for this sea which is within the Straits of Heracles is onlya harbor, having a narrow entrance, but that other is a real sea, and the surroundinc land may be most truly called a continent.

Now, in the island of Atlantis there was a great and wonderful empire, whicli had rule over the whole island and several others, as well as over parts of the continent; and, besides these, they subjected the parts of Libya within the Columns of Heracles as far as Egypt, and of Europe as far as Tyrrhenia. The vast power thus gath ered into one, endeavored to subdue at one blow our country and yours, and the whole of the land which was within the straits; and then, Solon, your country shone forth, in the ex cellence of her virtue and strength, among all mankind; for she was the first in courage and military skill, and was the leader of the Hellenes. And when thc rest fell off from her, being compelled to stand alone, after having undergone the very extremity of danger, she defeated and triumphed over the invaders, and preserved from slavery those who were not yet subjected, and freely liberated all the others who dwelt within the limits of Heracles.

But afterward there occurred violent earthquakes and floods, and in a single day and night of rain all your warlike men in a body sunk into the earth, and the island of Atlantis in like manner disappeared, and was sunk beneath the sea. And that is the reason why the sea in those parts is impassable and impenetrable, because there is such a quantity of shallow mud in the way; and this was caused by the subsidence of the island.' (" Plato's Dialogues," ii., 517, Timceus.) . . . "But in addition to the gods whom you have mentioned, I would specially invoke Mnemosyne ; for all the important part of what I have to tell 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.

To that task, then, I will at once address myself. " 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 all those who dwelt outside the Pillars of Heracles and those who dwelt within them : this war I am now to describe. Of the combat ants on the one side the city of Athens was reported to have been the ruler, and to have directed the contest ; the combat ants on the other side were led by the kings of the islands of Atlantis, which, as I was siiying, once had an extent greater than that of Libya and Asia ; and, when afterward sunk by an earthquake, became an impassable barrier of mud to voyagers sailing from hence to the ocean. The progress of the history will unfold the various tribes of barbarians and Hellenes which then existed, as they successively appear on the scene ; but I must begin by describing, first of all, the Athenians as they were in that day, and their enemies who fought with them ; and I shall have to tell of the power and form of government of both of them.