Legendary Passages #0070 - Critias & Atlantis -
Ancient Athenians, from Plato's Critias.
Last time Critias gave a summary of the war between Athens and
Atlantis. This time he begins to expand on that conflict, starting with
the original Athenians.
In the olden days, the gods divided the lands amongst themselves,
and shepherded their followers. Athens was governed by Hephaestus and
Athena, the gods of craftiness, so their people were wise and virtuous.
Through several calamities, most of that wisdom and history was lost, but
the old names, at least, were passed from one generation to the next.
Much of the land was taken by the sea, leaving behind only bare
bedrock. Back then, the plains were well watered and covered in fertile
soils, and the mountains draped with forests. The acropolis too was once
covered in an earthy hill, instead of the rocky outcropping today.
The warrior class once lived on the summit, having their own
halls and housing and a fountain that provided year-round water. They
limited their number to about twenty-thousand, and had no use for wealth
and ostentation, sharing things in common amongst themselves.
Next time, we leave Athens behind and explore the Island of
Atlantis.
http://sacred-texts.com/cla/plato/critias.htm
Critias & Atlantis
a Legendary Passage,
from Plato's Critias,
translated by Benjamin Jowett.
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.
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 nurselings 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 armour, to be a testimony that
all animals which associate together, male as well as female, may,
if they please, practise 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 practised 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 neighbourhood 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. 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.
Such was the natural state of the country, which was cultivated,
as we may well believe, by true husbandmen, who made husbandry their
business, and were lovers of honour, and of a noble nature, and had
a soil the best in the world, and abundance of water, and in the
heaven above an excellently attempered climate. Now the city in
those days was arranged on this wise. In the first place the Acropolis
was not as now. For the fact is that a single night of excessive
rain washed away the earth and laid bare the rock; at the same time
there were earthquakes, and then occurred the extraordinary
inundation, which was the third before the great destruction of
Deucalion. But in primitive times the hill of the Acropolis extended
to the Eridanus and Ilissus, and included the Pnyx on one side, and
the Lycabettus as a boundary on the opposite side to the Pnyx, and was
all well covered with soil, and level at the top, except in one or two
places.
Outside the Acropolis and under the sides of the hill there
dwelt artisans, and such of the husbandmen as were tilling the
ground near; the warrior class dwelt by themselves around the
temples of Athene and Hephaestus at the summit, which moreover they
had enclosed with a single fence like the garden of a single house. On
the north side they had dwellings in common and had erected halls
for dining in winter, and had all the buildings which they needed
for their common life, besides temples, but there was no adorning of
them with gold and silver, for they made no use of these for any
purpose; they took a middle course between meanness and ostentation,
and built modest houses in which they and their children's children
grew old, and they handed them down to others who were like
themselves, always the same. But in summer-time they left their
gardens and gymnasia and dining halls, and then the southern side of
the hill was made use of by them for the same purpose.
Where the Acropolis now is there was a fountain, which was choked
by the earthquake, and has left only the few small streams which still
exist in the vicinity, but in those days the fountain gave an abundant
supply of water for all and of suitable temperature in summer and in
winter. This is how they dwelt, being the guardians of their own
citizens and the leaders of the Hellenes, who were their willing
followers. And they took care to preserve the same number of men and
women through all time, being so many as were required for warlike
purposes, then as now-that is to say, about twenty thousand.
Such were the ancient Athenians, and after this manner they
righteously administered their own land and the rest of Hellas; they were
renowned all over Europe and Asia for the beauty of their persons and for
the many virtues of their souls, and of all men who lived in those days
they were the most illustrious.
And next, if I have not forgotten what I heard when I was a
child, I will impart to you the character and origin of their
adversaries. For friends should not keep their stories to themselves, but
have them in common.
http://sacred-texts.com/cla/plato/critias.htm
Greek and Roman mythology from the original sources, from Atlantis to Hercules to the Trojan War. Email: LegendaryPassages@gmail.com
Thursday, September 21, 2017
Friday, September 15, 2017
LP0069 - Timaeus & Atlantis - The Forgotten Enemy, from Plato's Timaeus
Legendary Passages #0069 - Timaeus & Atlantis -
The Forgotten Enemy, from Plato's Timaeus.
The next six episodes focus on Atlantis. This passage is an
overview of the story, focusing on the forgotten history of Athens and
their triumph over the Atlanteans.
This story was told by an Egyptian priest to Solon, who told
Critias, who told his grandson (also named Critias), who told Socrates
and was recorded by Plato.
Solon tries to impress the Egyptian priest by recounting their
oldest stories of the flood of Deucalion and their earliest genealogies.
The priest dismisses them as children's tales, for there have been many
floods and disasters, and the written word and the greek histories lost
several times over.
Ancient Athens was founded nine thousand years before. Their
greatest act was the defeat of Atlantis, which had conquered Europe and
Africa from beyond the Mediterranean. Athens led the Greeks and their
allies in losing war against Atlantis. Yet she prevailed, and liberated
the enslaved and the subjugated. But then disaster struck and the brave
men of Athens perished, and the island of Atlantis sank beneath the
waves.
http://sacred-texts.com/cla/plato/timaeus.htm
Timaeus & Atlantis,
a Legendary Passage,
from Plato's Timaeus,
trans. by Benjamin Jowett.
Crit. Then listen, Socrates, to a tale which, though strange,
is certainly true, having been attested by Solon, who was the wisest
of the seven sages. He was a relative and a dear friend of my
great-grandfather, Dropides, as he himself says in many passages of
his poems; and he told the story to Critias, my grandfather, who
remembered and repeated it to us. There were of old, he said, great
and marvellous actions of the Athenian city, which have passed into
oblivion through lapse of time and the destruction of mankind, and one
in particular, greater than all the rest. This we will now rehearse.
It will be a fitting monument of our gratitude to you, and a hymn of
praise true and worthy of the goddess, on this her day of festival.
Soc. Very good. And what is this ancient famous action of the
Athenians, which Critias declared, on the authority of Solon, to be
not a mere legend, but an actual fact?
Crit. I will tell an old-world story which I heard from an
aged man; for Critias, at the time of telling it, was as he said,
nearly ninety years of age, and I was about ten. Now the day was that
day of the Apaturia which is called the Registration 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
sang the poems of Solon, which at that time had not gone out of
fashion. One of our tribe, either because he thought so or to please
Critias, said that in his judgment Solon was not only the wisest of
men, but also the noblest of poets. The old man, as I very well
remember, brightened up at hearing this and said, smiling: Yes,
Amynander, if Solon had only, like other poets, made poetry the
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 which he found stirring in his own 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 the tale about, Critias? said Amynander.
About the greatest action which the Athenians ever did, and
which ought to have been the most famous, but, through the lapse of
time and the destruction of the actors, it 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:-In the Egyptian Delta, at the head of which 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
Sais, and is the city from which King Amasis came. The citizens have
a deity for their foundress; she is called in the Egyptian tongue Neith,
and is asserted by them to be the same whom the Hellenes call Athene;
they are great lovers of the Athenians, and say that they are in some
way related to them. To this city came Solon, and was received there
with great honour; he asked the priests who were most skilful in
such matters, about antiquity, and made the discovery that neither
he nor any other Hellene knew anything worth mentioning about the
times of old. On one occasion, wishing to draw them on to speak of
antiquity, he began to tell about the most ancient things in our
part of the world- about Phoroneus, who is called "the first man,"
and about Niobe; and after the Deluge, of the survival of Deucalion
and Pyrrha; and he traced the genealogy of their descendants, and
reckoning up the dates, tried to compute how many years ago the events
of which he was speaking happened. Thereupon one of the priests, who
was of a very great age, said: O Solon, Solon, you Hellenes are
never anything but children, and there is not an old man among you.
Solon in return asked him what he meant. 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 why. There have been, and will be again,
many destructions of mankind arising out of many causes; the greatest
have been brought about by the agencies of fire and water, and other
lesser ones by innumerable other causes. There is a story, which
even you have preserved, that once upon a time Paethon, 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 thunderbolt.
Now this has the form of a myth, but really signifies a declination of
the bodies moving in the heavens around the earth, and a great
conflagration of things upon the earth, which recurs after long
intervals; at such times 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 seashore. And from this calamity the Nile,
who is our never-failing saviour, delivers and preserves us. When,
on the other hand, the gods purge the earth with a deluge of water,
the survivors in your country are herdsmen and shepherds who dwell
on the mountains, but those who, like you, live in cities are
carried by the rivers into the sea. Whereas in this land, neither then
nor at any other time, does the water come down from above on the
fields, having always a tendency to come up from below; for which
reason the traditions preserved here are the most ancient.
The fact is, that wherever the extremity of winter frost or of
summer does not prevent, mankind exist, sometimes in greater,
sometimes in lesser numbers. And whatever happened either in your
country or in ours, or in any other region of which we are informed-if
there were any actions noble or great or in any other way
remarkable, they have all been written down by us of old, and are
preserved in our temples. Whereas just when you and other nations
are beginning to be provided with letters and the other requisites
of civilized life, after the usual interval, the stream from heaven,
like a pestilence, comes pouring down, and leaves only those of you
who are destitute of letters and education; and so you have to begin
all over again like children, and know nothing of what happened in
ancient times, either among us or among yourselves. As for those
genealogies of yours which you just now recounted to us, Solon, they
are no better than the tales of children. In the first place you
remember a single deluge only, but there were many previous ones; in
the next place, you do not know that there formerly dwelt in your land
the fairest and noblest race of men which ever lived, and that you and
your whole city are descended from a small seed or remnant of them
which survived. And this was unknown to you, because, for many
generations, the survivors of that destruction died, leaving no
written word. For there was a time, Solon, before the great deluge
of all, when the city which now is Athens was first in war and in
every way the best governed of all cities, is said to have performed
the noblest deeds and to have had the fairest constitution of any of
which tradition tells, under the face of heaven.
Solon marvelled at his words, and earnestly requested the
priests to inform 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 your city, and above all, for the sake of
the goddess who is the common patron and parent and educator of both
our cities. She founded your city a thousand years before ours,
receiving from the Earth and Hephaestus the seed of your race, and
afterwards she founded ours, of which the constitution is recorded
in our sacred registers to be eight thousand years old. As touching
your citizens of nine thousand years ago, I will briefly inform you of
their laws and of their most famous action; the exact particulars of
the whole we will hereafter go through at our leisure in the sacred
registers themselves. If you compare these very laws with ours you
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, which is separated from all the others; next, there are the
artificers, who ply their several crafts by themselves and do not
intermix; and also there is the class of shepherds and of hunters,
as well as that of husbandmen; and you will observe, too, that the
warriors in Egypt are distinct from all the other classes, and are
commanded by the law to devote themselves solely to military pursuits;
moreover, the weapons which they carry are shields and spears, a style
of equipment which the goddess taught of Asiatics first to us, as in
your part of the world first to you. Then as to wisdom, do you observe
how our law from the very first made a study of the whole order of
things, extending even to prophecy and medicine which gives health,
out of these divine elements deriving what was needful for human life,
and adding every sort of knowledge which was akin to 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 temperament 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, having 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 exceeds all the rest in greatness and
valour. For these histories tell of a mighty power which unprovoked
made an expedition 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 are by
you called the Pillars of Heracles; the island was larger than Libya
and Asia put together, and was the way to other islands, and from
these you might pass to the whole of the opposite continent which
surrounded the true ocean; for this sea which is within the Straits of
Heracles is only a harbour, having a narrow entrance, but that other
is a real sea, and the surrounding land may be most truly called a
boundless continent.
Now in this island of Atlantis there was a great and wonderful
empire which had rule over the whole island and several others, and over
parts of the continent, and, furthermore, the men of Atlantis had
subjected the parts of Libya within the columns of Heracles as far as
Egypt, and of Europe as far as Tyrrhenia. This vast power, gathered into
one, endeavoured to subdue at a blow our country and yours and
the whole of the region within the straits; and then, Solon, your country
shone forth, in the excellence of her virtue and strength, among all mankind.
She was pre-eminent in courage and military skill, and was the leader of
the Hellenes. And when the 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 subjugated, and generously liberated all the rest of us
who dwell within the pillars. But afterwards there occurred violent
earthquakes and floods; and in a single day and night of misfortune all
your warlike men in a body sank into the earth, and the island of Atlantis
in like manner disappeared in the depths of the sea. For which reason the
sea in those parts is impassable and impenetrable, because there is a shoal
of mud in the way; and this was caused by the subsidence of the island.
http://sacred-texts.com/cla/plato/timaeus.htm
The Forgotten Enemy, from Plato's Timaeus.
The next six episodes focus on Atlantis. This passage is an
overview of the story, focusing on the forgotten history of Athens and
their triumph over the Atlanteans.
This story was told by an Egyptian priest to Solon, who told
Critias, who told his grandson (also named Critias), who told Socrates
and was recorded by Plato.
Solon tries to impress the Egyptian priest by recounting their
oldest stories of the flood of Deucalion and their earliest genealogies.
The priest dismisses them as children's tales, for there have been many
floods and disasters, and the written word and the greek histories lost
several times over.
Ancient Athens was founded nine thousand years before. Their
greatest act was the defeat of Atlantis, which had conquered Europe and
Africa from beyond the Mediterranean. Athens led the Greeks and their
allies in losing war against Atlantis. Yet she prevailed, and liberated
the enslaved and the subjugated. But then disaster struck and the brave
men of Athens perished, and the island of Atlantis sank beneath the
waves.
http://sacred-texts.com/cla/plato/timaeus.htm
Timaeus & Atlantis,
a Legendary Passage,
from Plato's Timaeus,
trans. by Benjamin Jowett.
Crit. Then listen, Socrates, to a tale which, though strange,
is certainly true, having been attested by Solon, who was the wisest
of the seven sages. He was a relative and a dear friend of my
great-grandfather, Dropides, as he himself says in many passages of
his poems; and he told the story to Critias, my grandfather, who
remembered and repeated it to us. There were of old, he said, great
and marvellous actions of the Athenian city, which have passed into
oblivion through lapse of time and the destruction of mankind, and one
in particular, greater than all the rest. This we will now rehearse.
It will be a fitting monument of our gratitude to you, and a hymn of
praise true and worthy of the goddess, on this her day of festival.
Soc. Very good. And what is this ancient famous action of the
Athenians, which Critias declared, on the authority of Solon, to be
not a mere legend, but an actual fact?
Crit. I will tell an old-world story which I heard from an
aged man; for Critias, at the time of telling it, was as he said,
nearly ninety years of age, and I was about ten. Now the day was that
day of the Apaturia which is called the Registration 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
sang the poems of Solon, which at that time had not gone out of
fashion. One of our tribe, either because he thought so or to please
Critias, said that in his judgment Solon was not only the wisest of
men, but also the noblest of poets. The old man, as I very well
remember, brightened up at hearing this and said, smiling: Yes,
Amynander, if Solon had only, like other poets, made poetry the
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 which he found stirring in his own 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 the tale about, Critias? said Amynander.
About the greatest action which the Athenians ever did, and
which ought to have been the most famous, but, through the lapse of
time and the destruction of the actors, it 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:-In the Egyptian Delta, at the head of which 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
Sais, and is the city from which King Amasis came. The citizens have
a deity for their foundress; she is called in the Egyptian tongue Neith,
and is asserted by them to be the same whom the Hellenes call Athene;
they are great lovers of the Athenians, and say that they are in some
way related to them. To this city came Solon, and was received there
with great honour; he asked the priests who were most skilful in
such matters, about antiquity, and made the discovery that neither
he nor any other Hellene knew anything worth mentioning about the
times of old. On one occasion, wishing to draw them on to speak of
antiquity, he began to tell about the most ancient things in our
part of the world- about Phoroneus, who is called "the first man,"
and about Niobe; and after the Deluge, of the survival of Deucalion
and Pyrrha; and he traced the genealogy of their descendants, and
reckoning up the dates, tried to compute how many years ago the events
of which he was speaking happened. Thereupon one of the priests, who
was of a very great age, said: O Solon, Solon, you Hellenes are
never anything but children, and there is not an old man among you.
Solon in return asked him what he meant. 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 why. There have been, and will be again,
many destructions of mankind arising out of many causes; the greatest
have been brought about by the agencies of fire and water, and other
lesser ones by innumerable other causes. There is a story, which
even you have preserved, that once upon a time Paethon, 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 thunderbolt.
Now this has the form of a myth, but really signifies a declination of
the bodies moving in the heavens around the earth, and a great
conflagration of things upon the earth, which recurs after long
intervals; at such times 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 seashore. And from this calamity the Nile,
who is our never-failing saviour, delivers and preserves us. When,
on the other hand, the gods purge the earth with a deluge of water,
the survivors in your country are herdsmen and shepherds who dwell
on the mountains, but those who, like you, live in cities are
carried by the rivers into the sea. Whereas in this land, neither then
nor at any other time, does the water come down from above on the
fields, having always a tendency to come up from below; for which
reason the traditions preserved here are the most ancient.
The fact is, that wherever the extremity of winter frost or of
summer does not prevent, mankind exist, sometimes in greater,
sometimes in lesser numbers. And whatever happened either in your
country or in ours, or in any other region of which we are informed-if
there were any actions noble or great or in any other way
remarkable, they have all been written down by us of old, and are
preserved in our temples. Whereas just when you and other nations
are beginning to be provided with letters and the other requisites
of civilized life, after the usual interval, the stream from heaven,
like a pestilence, comes pouring down, and leaves only those of you
who are destitute of letters and education; and so you have to begin
all over again like children, and know nothing of what happened in
ancient times, either among us or among yourselves. As for those
genealogies of yours which you just now recounted to us, Solon, they
are no better than the tales of children. In the first place you
remember a single deluge only, but there were many previous ones; in
the next place, you do not know that there formerly dwelt in your land
the fairest and noblest race of men which ever lived, and that you and
your whole city are descended from a small seed or remnant of them
which survived. And this was unknown to you, because, for many
generations, the survivors of that destruction died, leaving no
written word. For there was a time, Solon, before the great deluge
of all, when the city which now is Athens was first in war and in
every way the best governed of all cities, is said to have performed
the noblest deeds and to have had the fairest constitution of any of
which tradition tells, under the face of heaven.
Solon marvelled at his words, and earnestly requested the
priests to inform 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 your city, and above all, for the sake of
the goddess who is the common patron and parent and educator of both
our cities. She founded your city a thousand years before ours,
receiving from the Earth and Hephaestus the seed of your race, and
afterwards she founded ours, of which the constitution is recorded
in our sacred registers to be eight thousand years old. As touching
your citizens of nine thousand years ago, I will briefly inform you of
their laws and of their most famous action; the exact particulars of
the whole we will hereafter go through at our leisure in the sacred
registers themselves. If you compare these very laws with ours you
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, which is separated from all the others; next, there are the
artificers, who ply their several crafts by themselves and do not
intermix; and also there is the class of shepherds and of hunters,
as well as that of husbandmen; and you will observe, too, that the
warriors in Egypt are distinct from all the other classes, and are
commanded by the law to devote themselves solely to military pursuits;
moreover, the weapons which they carry are shields and spears, a style
of equipment which the goddess taught of Asiatics first to us, as in
your part of the world first to you. Then as to wisdom, do you observe
how our law from the very first made a study of the whole order of
things, extending even to prophecy and medicine which gives health,
out of these divine elements deriving what was needful for human life,
and adding every sort of knowledge which was akin to 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 temperament 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, having 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 exceeds all the rest in greatness and
valour. For these histories tell of a mighty power which unprovoked
made an expedition 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 are by
you called the Pillars of Heracles; the island was larger than Libya
and Asia put together, and was the way to other islands, and from
these you might pass to the whole of the opposite continent which
surrounded the true ocean; for this sea which is within the Straits of
Heracles is only a harbour, having a narrow entrance, but that other
is a real sea, and the surrounding land may be most truly called a
boundless continent.
Now in this island of Atlantis there was a great and wonderful
empire which had rule over the whole island and several others, and over
parts of the continent, and, furthermore, the men of Atlantis had
subjected the parts of Libya within the columns of Heracles as far as
Egypt, and of Europe as far as Tyrrhenia. This vast power, gathered into
one, endeavoured to subdue at a blow our country and yours and
the whole of the region within the straits; and then, Solon, your country
shone forth, in the excellence of her virtue and strength, among all mankind.
She was pre-eminent in courage and military skill, and was the leader of
the Hellenes. And when the 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 subjugated, and generously liberated all the rest of us
who dwell within the pillars. But afterwards there occurred violent
earthquakes and floods; and in a single day and night of misfortune all
your warlike men in a body sank into the earth, and the island of Atlantis
in like manner disappeared in the depths of the sea. For which reason the
sea in those parts is impassable and impenetrable, because there is a shoal
of mud in the way; and this was caused by the subsidence of the island.
http://sacred-texts.com/cla/plato/timaeus.htm
Monday, September 11, 2017
LP0068 - The Shield of Eurypylus - Herculean armor, from Quintus Smyrnaeus' The Fall of Troy
Legendary Passages #0068 - The Shield of Eurypylus -
Herculean armor, from Quintus Smyrnaeus' The Fall of Troy.
Last time we heard about the imprint Hercules and his family had on Theban lands. This time we revisit his mighty deeds and labors, etched upon the armor of his son Eurypylus.
During the long years of the Trojan War, many allies came to the defense of Troy, after Paris made off with Helen, and the Achaeans launched a war to get her back. One of these allies was Eurypulus, son of Hercules, who bore a shield depicting his father's legendary labors.
First were the serpents he slew in the crib, then the Nemean Lion, Learnean Hydra, the Erymanthian Boar, the Golden Hind, the Stymphalian Birds, the Augean Stables, the Cretan Bull, the Amazonian Girdle, the Mares of Diomedes, the Cattle of Geryon, the Apples of the Hesperides, and the three-headed Cerberus, Guardian of Hades.
Also engraved was the Liberation of Prometheus, the Centauromachy, the centaur Nessus, the giant Antaeus, and rescuing Princess Hesione from the Trojan sea-monster.
Eurypulus matched his father's godly prowess as he made war upon the Achaeans, and vowed to to the Trojans that he would keep on fighting until they achieved victory, or death.
http://www.theoi.com/Text/QuintusSmyrnaeus6.html
The Shield of Eurypylus,
a Legendary Passage,
from Quintus Smyrnaeus' The Fall of Troy,
translated by A. S. Way.
[201] - [352]
Up sprang with dawn the son of Telephus, and passed to the host with all those other kings in Troy abiding. Straightway did the folk all battle-eager don their warrior-gear, burning to strike in forefront of the fight. And now Eurypylus clad his mighty limbs in armour that like levin-flashes gleamed; upon his shield by cunning hands were wrought all the great labours of strong Hercules.
-
Thereon were seen two serpents flickering black tongues from grimly jaws: they seemed in act to dart; but Hercules' hands to right and left -- albeit a babe's hands -- now were throttling them; for aweless was his spirit. As Zeus' strength from the beginning was his strength. The seed of Heaven-abiders never deedless is nor helpless, but hath boundless prowess, yea, even when in the womb unborn it lies.
Nemea's mighty lion there was seen strangled in the strong arms of Hercules, his grim jaws dashed about with bloody foam: he seemed in verity gasping out his life.
Thereby was wrought the Hydra many-necked flickering its dread tongues. Of its fearful heads some severed lay on earth, but many more were budding from its necks, while Hercules and Iolaus, dauntless-hearted twain, toiled hard; the one with lightning sickle-sweeps lopped the fierce heads, his fellow seared each neck with glowing iron; the monster so was slain.
Thereby was wrought the mighty tameless Boar with foaming jaws; real seemed the pictured thing, as by Aleides' giant strength the brute was to Eurystheus living borne on high.
There fashioned was the fleetfoot stag which laid the vineyards waste of hapless husbandmen. The Hero's hands held fast its golden horns, the while it snorted breath of ravening fire.
Thereon were seen the fierce Stymphalian Birds, some arrow-smitten dying in the dust, some through the grey air darting in swift flight. At this, at that one -- hot in haste he seemed -- Hercules sped the arrows of his wrath.
Augeias' monstrous stable there was wrought with cunning craft on that invincible targe; and Hercules was turning through the same the deep flow of Alpheius' stream divine, while wondering Nymphs looked down on every hand upon that mighty work.
Elsewhere portrayed was the Fire-breathing Bull: the Hero's grip on his strong horns wrenched round the massive neck: the straining muscles on his arm stood out: the huge beast seemed to bellow.
Next thereto wrought on the shield was one in beauty arrayed as of a Goddess, even Hippolyta. The hero by the hair was dragging her from her swift steed, with fierce resolve to wrest with his strong hands the Girdle Marvellous from the Amazon Queen, while quailing shrank away the Maids of War.
There in the Thracian land were Diomedes' grim man-eating steeds: these at their gruesome mangers had he slain, and dead they lay with their fiend-hearted lord.
There lay the bulk of giant Geryon dead mid his kine. His gory heads were cast in dust, dashed down by that resistless club. Before him slain lay that most murderous hound Orthros, in furious might like Cerberus his brother-hound: a herdman lay thereby, Eurytion, all bedabbled with his blood.
There were the Golden Apples wrought, that gleamed in the Hesperides' garden undefiled: all round the fearful Serpent's dead coils lay, and shrank the Maids aghast from Zeus' bold son.
And there, a dread sight even for Gods to see, was Cerberus, whom the Loathly Worm had borne to Typho in a craggy cavern's gloom close on the borders of Eternal Night, a hideous monster, warder of the Gate of Hades, Home of Wailing, jailer-hound of dead folk in the shadowy Gulf of Doom. But lightly Zeus' son with his crashing blows tamed him, and haled him from the cataract flood of Styx, with heavy-drooping head, and dragged the Dog sore loth to the strange upper air all dauntlessly.
-
And there, at the world's end, were Caucasus' long glens, where Hercules, rending Prometheus' chains, and hurling them this way and that with fragments of the rock whereinto they were riveted, set free the mighty Titan. Arrow-smitten lay the Eagle of the Torment therebeside.
There stormed the wild rout of the Centaurs round the hall of Pholus: goaded on by Strife and wine, with Hercules the monsters fought. Amidst the pine-trunks stricken to death they lay still grasping those strange weapons in dead hands, while some with stems long-shafted still fought on in fury, and refrained not from the strife; and all their heads, gashed in the pitiless fight, were drenched with gore -- the whole scene seemed to live -- with blood the wine was mingled: meats and bowls and tables in one ruin shattered lay.
There by Evenus' torrent, in fierce wrath for his sweet bride, he laid with the arrow low Nessus in mid-flight.
There withal was wrought Antaeus' brawny strength, who challenged him to wrestling-strife; he in those sinewy arms raised high above the earth, was crushed to death.
There where swift Hellespont meets the outer sea, lay the sea-monster slain by his ruthless shafts, while from Hesione he rent her chains.
-
Of bold Alcides many a deed beside shone on the broad shield of Eurypylus. He seemed the War-god, as from rank to rank he sped; rejoiced the Trojans following him, seeing his arms, and him clothed with the might of Gods; and Paris hailed him to the fray: "Glad am I for thy coming, for mine heart trusts that the Argives all shall wretchedly be with their ships destroyed; for such a man mid Greeks or Trojans never have I seen. Now, by the strength and fury of Hercules -- to whom in stature, might, and goodlihead most like thou art I pray thee, have in mind him, and resolve to match his deeds with thine. Be the strong shield of Trojans hard-bestead: win us a breathing-space. Thou only, I trow, from perishing Troy canst thrust the dark doom back."
With kindling words he spake. That hero cried: "Great-hearted Paris, like the Blessed Ones in goodlihead, this lieth foreordained on the Gods' knees, who in the fight shall fall, and who outlive it. I, as honour bids, and as my strength sufficeth, will not flinch from Troy's defence. I swear to turn from fight never, except in victory or death."
Gallantly spake he: with exceeding joy rejoiced the Trojans.
Herculean armor, from Quintus Smyrnaeus' The Fall of Troy.
Last time we heard about the imprint Hercules and his family had on Theban lands. This time we revisit his mighty deeds and labors, etched upon the armor of his son Eurypylus.
During the long years of the Trojan War, many allies came to the defense of Troy, after Paris made off with Helen, and the Achaeans launched a war to get her back. One of these allies was Eurypulus, son of Hercules, who bore a shield depicting his father's legendary labors.
First were the serpents he slew in the crib, then the Nemean Lion, Learnean Hydra, the Erymanthian Boar, the Golden Hind, the Stymphalian Birds, the Augean Stables, the Cretan Bull, the Amazonian Girdle, the Mares of Diomedes, the Cattle of Geryon, the Apples of the Hesperides, and the three-headed Cerberus, Guardian of Hades.
Also engraved was the Liberation of Prometheus, the Centauromachy, the centaur Nessus, the giant Antaeus, and rescuing Princess Hesione from the Trojan sea-monster.
Eurypulus matched his father's godly prowess as he made war upon the Achaeans, and vowed to to the Trojans that he would keep on fighting until they achieved victory, or death.
http://www.theoi.com/Text/QuintusSmyrnaeus6.html
The Shield of Eurypylus,
a Legendary Passage,
from Quintus Smyrnaeus' The Fall of Troy,
translated by A. S. Way.
[201] - [352]
Up sprang with dawn the son of Telephus, and passed to the host with all those other kings in Troy abiding. Straightway did the folk all battle-eager don their warrior-gear, burning to strike in forefront of the fight. And now Eurypylus clad his mighty limbs in armour that like levin-flashes gleamed; upon his shield by cunning hands were wrought all the great labours of strong Hercules.
-
Thereon were seen two serpents flickering black tongues from grimly jaws: they seemed in act to dart; but Hercules' hands to right and left -- albeit a babe's hands -- now were throttling them; for aweless was his spirit. As Zeus' strength from the beginning was his strength. The seed of Heaven-abiders never deedless is nor helpless, but hath boundless prowess, yea, even when in the womb unborn it lies.
Nemea's mighty lion there was seen strangled in the strong arms of Hercules, his grim jaws dashed about with bloody foam: he seemed in verity gasping out his life.
Thereby was wrought the Hydra many-necked flickering its dread tongues. Of its fearful heads some severed lay on earth, but many more were budding from its necks, while Hercules and Iolaus, dauntless-hearted twain, toiled hard; the one with lightning sickle-sweeps lopped the fierce heads, his fellow seared each neck with glowing iron; the monster so was slain.
Thereby was wrought the mighty tameless Boar with foaming jaws; real seemed the pictured thing, as by Aleides' giant strength the brute was to Eurystheus living borne on high.
There fashioned was the fleetfoot stag which laid the vineyards waste of hapless husbandmen. The Hero's hands held fast its golden horns, the while it snorted breath of ravening fire.
Thereon were seen the fierce Stymphalian Birds, some arrow-smitten dying in the dust, some through the grey air darting in swift flight. At this, at that one -- hot in haste he seemed -- Hercules sped the arrows of his wrath.
Augeias' monstrous stable there was wrought with cunning craft on that invincible targe; and Hercules was turning through the same the deep flow of Alpheius' stream divine, while wondering Nymphs looked down on every hand upon that mighty work.
Elsewhere portrayed was the Fire-breathing Bull: the Hero's grip on his strong horns wrenched round the massive neck: the straining muscles on his arm stood out: the huge beast seemed to bellow.
Next thereto wrought on the shield was one in beauty arrayed as of a Goddess, even Hippolyta. The hero by the hair was dragging her from her swift steed, with fierce resolve to wrest with his strong hands the Girdle Marvellous from the Amazon Queen, while quailing shrank away the Maids of War.
There in the Thracian land were Diomedes' grim man-eating steeds: these at their gruesome mangers had he slain, and dead they lay with their fiend-hearted lord.
There lay the bulk of giant Geryon dead mid his kine. His gory heads were cast in dust, dashed down by that resistless club. Before him slain lay that most murderous hound Orthros, in furious might like Cerberus his brother-hound: a herdman lay thereby, Eurytion, all bedabbled with his blood.
There were the Golden Apples wrought, that gleamed in the Hesperides' garden undefiled: all round the fearful Serpent's dead coils lay, and shrank the Maids aghast from Zeus' bold son.
And there, a dread sight even for Gods to see, was Cerberus, whom the Loathly Worm had borne to Typho in a craggy cavern's gloom close on the borders of Eternal Night, a hideous monster, warder of the Gate of Hades, Home of Wailing, jailer-hound of dead folk in the shadowy Gulf of Doom. But lightly Zeus' son with his crashing blows tamed him, and haled him from the cataract flood of Styx, with heavy-drooping head, and dragged the Dog sore loth to the strange upper air all dauntlessly.
-
And there, at the world's end, were Caucasus' long glens, where Hercules, rending Prometheus' chains, and hurling them this way and that with fragments of the rock whereinto they were riveted, set free the mighty Titan. Arrow-smitten lay the Eagle of the Torment therebeside.
There stormed the wild rout of the Centaurs round the hall of Pholus: goaded on by Strife and wine, with Hercules the monsters fought. Amidst the pine-trunks stricken to death they lay still grasping those strange weapons in dead hands, while some with stems long-shafted still fought on in fury, and refrained not from the strife; and all their heads, gashed in the pitiless fight, were drenched with gore -- the whole scene seemed to live -- with blood the wine was mingled: meats and bowls and tables in one ruin shattered lay.
There by Evenus' torrent, in fierce wrath for his sweet bride, he laid with the arrow low Nessus in mid-flight.
There withal was wrought Antaeus' brawny strength, who challenged him to wrestling-strife; he in those sinewy arms raised high above the earth, was crushed to death.
There where swift Hellespont meets the outer sea, lay the sea-monster slain by his ruthless shafts, while from Hesione he rent her chains.
-
Of bold Alcides many a deed beside shone on the broad shield of Eurypylus. He seemed the War-god, as from rank to rank he sped; rejoiced the Trojans following him, seeing his arms, and him clothed with the might of Gods; and Paris hailed him to the fray: "Glad am I for thy coming, for mine heart trusts that the Argives all shall wretchedly be with their ships destroyed; for such a man mid Greeks or Trojans never have I seen. Now, by the strength and fury of Hercules -- to whom in stature, might, and goodlihead most like thou art I pray thee, have in mind him, and resolve to match his deeds with thine. Be the strong shield of Trojans hard-bestead: win us a breathing-space. Thou only, I trow, from perishing Troy canst thrust the dark doom back."
With kindling words he spake. That hero cried: "Great-hearted Paris, like the Blessed Ones in goodlihead, this lieth foreordained on the Gods' knees, who in the fight shall fall, and who outlive it. I, as honour bids, and as my strength sufficeth, will not flinch from Troy's defence. I swear to turn from fight never, except in victory or death."
Gallantly spake he: with exceeding joy rejoiced the Trojans.
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