LP0070 - Critias & Atlantis - Ancient Athenians, from Plato's Critias

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.

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