Legendary Passages #0077 -III ARGONAUTS-
Introduction to the Argonauts, from The Library of Apollodorus.
Previously, Ino conspired to sacrifice her stepson Phrixus, but he escaped on the back of a flying golden ram. Another version of that tale is told here, as well as the backgrounds and genealogies of many Argonauts, including Jason.
Aeolus had sons Sisyphus and Athamas, who was father of Phrixus and husband of Nephele, Ino, and Themisto; and they all came to bad ends.
Salmoneus impersonated Zeus and got thunderbolted, but his daughter Tyro married King Cretheus of Iolcus, and had sons Amythaon, Pheres, and Aeson, father of Jason. Tyro had also by Poseidon sons Neleus and Pelias.
Pelias became king after Cretheus, and made an enemy of Hera by killing his own step-mother on the altar of the goddess. This will come back to haunt him later, as we shall see.
http://www.theoi.com/Text/Apollodorus1.html#9
Introduction to the Argonauts,
a Legendary Passage from,
PSEUDO-APOLLODORUS,
BIBLIOTHECA, or THE LIBRARY,
BOOK 1 Section 9,
translated by J. G. FRAZER.
[1.9.1] - [1.9.16]
Of the sons of Aeolus, Athamas ruled over Boeotia and begat a son Phrixus and a daughter Helle by Nephele. And he married a second wife, Ino, by whom he had Learchus and Melicertes. But Ino plotted against the children of Nephele and persuaded the women to parch the wheat; and having got the wheat they did so without the knowledge of the men. But the earth, being sown with parched wheat, did not yield its annual crops; so Athamas sent to Delphi to inquire how he might be delivered from the dearth. Now Ino persuaded the messengers to say it was foretold that the infertility would cease if Phrixus were sacrificed to Zeus. When Athamas heard that, he was forced by the inhabitants of the land to bring Phrixus to the altar.
But Nephele caught him and her daughter up and gave them a ram with a golden fleece, which she had received from Hermes, and borne through the sky by the ram they crossed land and sea. But when they were over the sea which lies betwixt Sigeum and the Chersonese, Helle slipped into the deep and was drowned, and the sea was called Hellespont after her.
But Phrixus came to the Colchians, whose king was Aeetes, son of the Sun and of Perseis, and brother of Circe and Pasiphae, whom Minos married. He received Phrixus and gave him one of his daughters, Chalciope. And Phrixus sacrificed the ram with the golden fleece to Zeus the god of Escape, and the fleece he gave to Aeetes, who nailed it to an oak in a grove of Ares. And Phrixus had children by Chalciope, to wit, Argus, Melas, Phrontis, and Cytisorus.
But afterwards Athamas was bereft also of the children of Ino through the wrath of Hera; for he went mad and shot Learchus with an arrow, and Ino cast herself and Melicertes into the sea. Being banished from Boeotia, Athamas inquired of the god where he should dwell, and on receiving an oracle that he should dwell in whatever place he should be entertained by wild beasts, he traversed a great extent of country till he fell in with wolves that were devouring pieces of sheep; but when they saw him they abandoned their prey and fled. So Athamas settled in that country and named it Athamantia after himself; and he married Themisto, daughter of Hypseus, and begat Leucon, Erythrius, Schoeneus, and Ptous.
And Sisyphus, son of Aeolus, founded Ephyra, which is now called Corinth, and married Merope, daughter of Atlas. They had a son Glaucus, who had by Eurymede a son Bellerophon, who slew the fire breathing Chimera. But Sisyphus is punished in Hades by rolling a stone with his hands and head in the effort to heave it over the top; but push it as he will, it rebounds backward. This punishment he endures for the sake of Aegina, daughter of Asopus; for when Zeus had secretly carried her off, Sisyphus is said to have betrayed the secret to Asopus, who was looking for her.
Deion reigned over Phocis and married Diomede, daughter of Xuthus; and there were born to him a daughter, Asterodia, and sons, Aenetus, Actor, Phylacus, and Cephalus, who married Procris, daughter of Erechtheus. But afterwards Dawn fell in love with him and carried him off.
Perieres took possession of Messene and married Gorgophone, daughter of Perseus, by whom he had sons, to wit, Aphareus and Leucippus, and Tyndareus, and also Icarius. But many say that Perieres was not the son of Aeolus but of Cynortas, son of Amyclas; so we shall narrate the history of the descendants of Perieres in dealing with the family of Atlas.
Magnes married a Naiad nymph, and sons were born to him, Polydectes and Dictys; these colonized Seriphus.
Salmoneus at first dwelt in Thessaly, but afterwards he came to Elis and there founded a city. And being arrogant and wishful to put himself on an equality with Zeus, he was punished for his impiety; for he said that he was himself Zeus, and he took away the sacrifices of the god and ordered them to be offered to himself; and by dragging dried hides, with bronze kettles, at his chariot, he said that he thundered, and by flinging lighted torches at the sky he said that he lightened. But Zeus struck him with a thunderbolt, and wiped out the city he had founded with all its inhabitants.
Now Tyro, daughter of Salmoneus and Alcidice, was brought up by Cretheus, brother of Salmoneus, and conceived a passion for the river Enipeus, and often would she hie to its running waters and utter her plaint to them. But Poseidon in the likeness of Enipeus lay with her, and she secretly gave birth to twin sons, whom she exposed. As the babes lay forlorn, a mare, belonging to some passing horsekeepers, kicked with its hoof one of the two infants and left a livid mark on its face. The horsekeeper took up both the children and reared them; and the one with the livid (pelion) mark he called Pelias, and the other Neleus. When they were grown up, they discovered their mother and killed their stepmother Sidero. For knowing that their mother was ill-used by her, they attacked her, but before they could catch her she had taken refuge in the precinct of Hera. However, Pelias cut her down on the very altars, and ever after he continued to treat Hera with contumely.
But afterwards the brothers fell out, and Neleus, being banished, came to Messene, and founded Pylus, and married Chloris, daughter of Amphion, by whom he had a daughter, Pero, and sons, to wit, Taurus, Asterius, Pylaon, Deimachus, Eurybius, Epilaus, Phrasius, Eurymenes, Evagoras, Alastor, Nestor and Periclymenus, whom Poseidon granted the power of changing his shape. And when Hercules was ravaging Pylus, in the fight Periclymenus turned himself into a lion, a snake, and a bee, but was slain by Hercules with the other sons of Neleus. Nestor alone was saved, because he was brought up among the Gerenians. He married Anaxibia, daughter of Cratieus, and begat daughters, Pisidice and Polycaste, and sons, Perseus, Stratichus, Aretus, Echephron, Pisistratus, Antilochus, and Thrasymedes.
But Pelias dwelt in Thessaly and married Anaxibia, daughter of Bias, but according to some his wife was Phylomache, daughter of Amphion; and he begat a son, Acastus, and daughters, Pisidice, Pelopia, Hippothoe, and Alcestis.
Cretheus founded Iolcus and married Tyro, daughter of Salmoneus, by whom he had sons, Aeson, Amythaon, and Pheres. Amythaon dwelt in Pylus and married Idomene, daughter of Pheres, and there were born to him two sons, Bias and Melampus. The latter lived in the country, and before his house there was an oak, in which there was a lair of snakes. His servants killed the snakes, but Melampus gathered wood and burnt the reptiles, and reared the young ones. And when the young were full grown, they stood beside him at each of his shoulders as he slept, and they purged his ears with their tongues. He started up in a great fright, but understood the voices of the birds flying overhead, and from what he learned from them he foretold to men what should come to pass. He acquired besides the art of taking the auspices, and having fallen in with Apollo at the Alpheus he was ever after an excellent soothsayer.
Bias wooed Pero, daughter of Neleus. But as there were many suitors for his daughter's hand, Neleus said that he would give her to him who should bring him the kine of Phylacus. These were in Phylace, and they were guarded by a dog which neither man nor beast could come near. Unable to steal these kine, Bias invited his brother to help him. Melampus promised to do so, and foretold that he should be detected in the act of stealing them, and that he should get the kine after being kept in bondage for a year. After making this promise he repaired to Phylace and, just as he had foretold, he was detected in the theft and kept a prisoner in a cell. When the year was nearly up, he heard the worms in the hidden part of the roof, one of them asking how much of the beam had been already gnawed through, and others answering that very little of it was left. At once he bade them transfer him to another cell, and not long after that had been done the cell fell in. Phylacus marvelled, and perceiving that he was an excellent soothsayer, he released him and invited him to say how his son Iphiclus might get children. Melampus promised to tell him, provided he got the kine. And having sacrificed two bulls and cut them in pieces he summoned the birds; and when a vulture came, he learned from it that once, when Phylacus was gelding rams, he laid down the knife, still bloody, beside Iphiclus, and that when the child was frightened and ran away, he stuck the knife on the sacred oak, and the bark encompassed the knife and hid it. He said, therefore, that if the knife were found, and he scraped off the rust, and gave it to Iphiclus to drink for ten days, he would beget a son. Having learned these things from the vulture, Melampus found the knife, scraped the rust, and gave it to Iphiclus for ten days to drink, and a son Podarces was born to him. But he drove the kine to Pylus, and having received the daughter of Neleus he gave her to his brother. For a time he continued to dwell in Messene, but when Dionysus drove the women of Argos mad, he healed them on condition of receiving part of the kingdom, and settled down there with Bias.
Bias and Pero had a son Talaus, who married Lysimache, daughter of Abas, son of Melampus, and had by her Adrastus, Parthenopaeus, Pronax, Mecisteus, Aristomachus, and Eriphyle, whom Amphiaraus married. Parthenopaeus had a son Promachus, who marched with the Epigoni against Thebes; and Mecisteus had a son Euryalus, who went to Troy. Pronax had a son Lycurgus; and Adrastus had by Amphithea, daughter of Pronax, three daughters, Argia, Deipyle, and Aegialia, and two sons, Aegialeus and Cyanippus.
Pheres, son of Cretheus, founded Pherae in Thessaly and begat Admetus and Lycurgus. Lycurgus took up his abode at Nemea, and having married Eurydice, or, as some say, Amphithea, he begat Opheltes, afterwards called Archemorus.
When Admetus reigned over Pherae, Apollo served him as his thrall, while Admetus wooed Alcestis, daughter of Pelias. Now Pelias had promised to give his daughter to him who should yoke a lion and a boar to a car, and Apollo yoked and gave them to Admetus, who brought them to Pelias and so obtained Alcestis. But in offering a sacrifice at his marriage, he forgot to sacrifice to Artemis; therefore when he opened the marriage chamber he found it full of coiled snakes. Apollo bade him appease the goddess and obtained as a favour of the Fates that, when Admetus should be about to die, he might be released from death if someone should choose voluntarily to die for him. And when the day of his death came neither his father nor his mother would die for him, but Alcestis died in his stead. But the Maiden sent her up again, or, as some say, Hercules fought with Hades and brought her up to him.
Aeson, son of Cretheus, had a son Jason by Polymede, daughter of Autolycus.
http://www.theoi.com/Text/Apollodorus1.html#9
This passage continues with Jason receiving his quest and quickly sailing to Colchis, but our next episode will detail the assembling of the Argonauts.
Greek and Roman mythology from the original sources, from Atlantis to Hercules to the Trojan War. Email: LegendaryPassages@gmail.com
Monday, November 13, 2017
Wednesday, November 8, 2017
LP0076 -II ARGONAUTS- Ino & Phrixus, from the Fables of Hyginus
Legendary Passages #0076 -II ARGONAUTS-
Ino & Phrixus, from the Fables of Hyginus.
Previously, Jason and the Argonauts sailed to Colchis, and with the help of Medea, stole the Golden Fleece from her father King Aeetes. This episode reveals how the the Golden Fleece came to Colchis, after a very long preface. Listed here are the genealogies of the Roman gods.
Eventually we come to the three wives of King Athamas. Both Ino and Themisto had twins by him, and Themisto snuck into the nursery to kill Ino's. But a nurse switched their clothes, so Themisto accidentally killed her own children.
The first wife of Athamas was the goddess Nebula, and they had a son Phrixus and a daughter Helle. Ino faked a drought and an oracle to have Phrixus sacrificed, but the plot was revealed, and Phrixus and Helle flew away on a flying golden ram.
http://www.theoi.com/Text/HyginusFabulae1.html#Preface
Ino & Phrixus,
a Legendary Passage from,
GAIUS JULIUS HYGINUS,
FABLES I - III,
translated by MARY GRANT.
[1] - [3]
PREFACE
Excerpts from the Genealogiae of Hyginus, commonly called the Fabulae Preface.
From Mist (was born) Chaos; from Chaos and Caligine: Night, Day, Erebus, Aether.
From Night and Erebus: Fate, Old Age, Death, Dissolution, *Continence, Sleep, Dreams, Love – that is, Lysimeles, *Epiphron, Porphyrion, Epaphus, Discord, Wretchedness, Wantonness, Nemesis, Euphrosyne, Friendship, Compassion, Styx; the three Fates, namely, Clotho, Lachesis, and Atropos; the Hesperides, Aegle, Hesperie, *aerica.
From Aether and Day: Earth, Heaven, Sea.
From Aether and Earth: Grief, Deceit, Wrath, Lamentation, Falsehood, Oath, Vengeance, Intemperance, Altercation, Forgetfulness, Sloth, Fear, Pride, Incest, Combat, Ocean, Themis, Tartarus, Pontus; and the Titans, Briareus, Gyges, Steropes, Atlas, Hyperion, and Polus, Saturn, Ops, Moneta, Dione; and three Furies – namely, Alecto, Megaera, Tisiphone.
From Earth and Tartarus, Giants: Enceladus, Coeus, *elentes, *mophius, Astraeus, Pelorus, Pallas, Emphytus, Rhoecus, *ienios, Agrius, *alemone, Ephialtes, Eurytus, *effracorydon, Themoises, Theodamas, Otus, Typhon, Polybo[e}tes, *menephriarus, *abesus, *colophonus, Iapetus.
From Pontus and Sea: the tribes of fishes.
From Ocean and Tethys: the Oceanides - namely *yaea, Melite, Ianthe, Admete, Stilbo, Pasiphae, Polyxo, Eurynome, Euagoreis, Rhodope, *lyris, Clytie, *teschinoeno, *clitenneste, Metis, Menippe, Argia. Of the same descent Rivers: Strymon, Nilus, Euphrates, Tanais, Indus, Cephisus, Ismenus, Axenus, Achelous, Simois, Inachus, Alpheus, Therodoon, Scamandrus, Tigris, Maeandrus, Orontes.
From Pontos and Earth: Thaumas, *tusciuersus, *cepheus
From Nereus and Doris fifty Nereids: Glauce, Thalia, Cymodoce, Nesaea, Spio, Thoe, Cymothoe[a], Actaea, Limnoria, Melite, Iaera, Amphithoe, Agaue, Doto, Prot[h]o, Pherusa, Dynamene, Dexamene, Amphnome, Callianassa, Doris, Panope, Galat[h]ea, Nemertes, Apseudes, Clymene, Ianira, [Panopea], Ianassa, Maera, Orithyia, Amathia, Drymo, Xantho, Ligea, Phyllodoce, Cydippe, Lycorias, Cleio, Beroe, Ephyre, Opis, Asia, Deiopea, Arethusa, [Clymene], Creneis, Eurydice, Leucothea.
From Phorcus and Ceto: Phorcides, Pemphredo, Enyo and Persis (for this last others say Dino).
From Gorgon and Ceto: Sthenno, Eurylae, Medusa.
From Polus and Phoebe: Latone, Asterie, *aphirape . . . Perses, Pallas.
From Iapetus and Clymene: Atlas, Epimetheus, Prometheus.
From Hyperion and Aethra: Sol, Luna, Aurora.
From Saturn and Ops: Vesta, Ceres, Iuno, Jupiter, Pluto, Neptune. From Saturn and Philyra: Chiron, Dolops.
From Astraeus and Aurora: Zephyrus, Boreas, Notus, Favonius.
From Atlas and Pleione: Maia, Calypso, Alcyone, Merope, Electra, Celaeno.
From Pallas the giant and Styx: Scylla, Force, Envy, Power, Victory, Fountains, Lakes.
From Neptune and Amphitrite, Triton.
From Dione and Jove, Venus. From Jove and Juno, Mars. From Jove’s head, Minerva. From Juno without father, Vulcan. From Jove and Eurynome, Graces. Again from Jove and Juno: Youth, Liberty. From Jove and Themis, the Hours. From Jove and Ceres, Proserpina. From Jove and Moneta, the Muses. From Jove and Luna, Pandia.
From Venus and Mars: Harmonia, and Formido.
From Acheloos and Melpomene, the Sirens: Thelxiepe, Molpe and Pisinoe.
From Jove and Clymene, Mnemosyne. From Jove and Maia, Mercury. From Jove and Latona, Apollo and Diana.
From Earth: Python, a divine (prophetic) snake.
From Thaumas and Electra: Iris, Harpies, Celaeno, Ocypete, Podarce.
From Sol and Persa: Circe, Pasiphae, Aeeta, Perses.
From Aeeta and Clytia, Medea.
From Sol and Clymene, Phaethon and the Phaethontides, Merope, Helie, Aetherie, Dioxippe.
From Typhon and Echidna: Gorgon, Cerberus, the dragon which guarded the Golden Fleece at Colchis, Scylla who was woman above but dog-forms below [whom Hercules killed]; Chimaera, Sphinx who was in Boeotia, Hydra serpent which had nine heads which Hercules killed, and the dragon of the Hesperides.
From Neptune and Medusa: the horse Pegasus.
From Chrysaor and Callirhoe: three-formed Geryon.
I. THEMISTO
Athamas, son of Aeolus, had by his wife Nebula a son Phrixus and a daughter Helle, and by Themisto, daughter of Hypseus, two son, Sphincius and Orchomenus, and by Ino, daughter of Cadmus, two sons, Learchus and Melicertes. Themisto, robbed of her marriage by Ino, wished to kill Ino’s children. She hid, therefore, in the palace, and when an opportunity presented itself, thinking she was killing the sons of her rival, unwittingly killed her own, deceived by the nurse who had put the wrong garments on them. When Themisto discovered this, she killed herself.
II. INO
Ino, daughter of Cadmus and Harmonia, wishing to kill Phrixus and Helle, Nebula’s children, formed a plan with the women of the entire tribe, and conspired to parch the seed grain to make it unfertile, so that, when the sterility and scarcity of grain resulted, the whole state should perish, some by starvation, others by sickness. With regard to this situation Athamas sent a servant to Delphi, but Ino instructed him to bring back a false reply that the pestilence would end if he sacrificed Phrixus to Jove. When Athamas refused to do this, Phrixus voluntarily and readily promised that he alone would free the state from its distress. Accordingly he was led to the altar, wearing fillets (of sacrifice), but the servant, out of pity for the youth, revealed Ino’s plans to Athamas. The king, thus informed of the crime, gave over his wife Ino and her son Melicertes to be put to death, but Father Liber cast mist around her, and saved Ino his nurse.
Later, Athamas, driven mad by Jove, slew his son Learchus. But Ino, with Melicertes her son, threw herself into the sea. Liber would have her called Leucothea, and Melicertes, her son the god Palaemon, but we call her Mater Matuta, and him Portunus. In his honor every fifth year gymnastic contests are held, which are called Isthmian.
III. PHRIXUS
While Phrixus and Helle under madness sent by Liber were wandering in a forest, Nebula their mother is said to have come there bringing a gilded ram, offspring of Neptune and Theophane. She bade her children to mount it, and journey to Colchis to King Aeetes, son of Sol, and there sacrifice the ram to Mars. This they were said to have done, but when they had mounted, and the ram had carried them over the sea, Helle fell from the ram; from this sea was called Hellespont. Phrixus, however, was carried to Colchis, where, as his mother had bidden, he sacrificed the ram, and placed its gilded fleece in the temple of Mars - the very fleece which, guarded by a dragon, it is said Jason, son of Aeson and Alcimede, came to secure.
But Aeetes gladly welcomed Phrixus, and gave him his daughter Chalciope in marriage. She later bore him children, but Aeetes feared that they would drive him from his kingdom, because he had been warned by prodigies to beware of death at the hands of a foreigner, a son of Aeolus. Therefore he killed Phrixus. But Phrixus’ sons – Argus, Melas, and Cylindrus – took ship to go to their grandfather Athamas. They were shipwrecked, however, and Jason, on his trip for the fleece, rescued them from the island of Dia, and took them back to their mother Chalciope. By her favour he was recommended to her sister Medea.
http://www.theoi.com/Text/HyginusFabulae1.html#Preface
This passage continues with the fate of Ino, but next episode is about the family of Jason and our introduction to the Argonauts.
Ino & Phrixus, from the Fables of Hyginus.
Previously, Jason and the Argonauts sailed to Colchis, and with the help of Medea, stole the Golden Fleece from her father King Aeetes. This episode reveals how the the Golden Fleece came to Colchis, after a very long preface. Listed here are the genealogies of the Roman gods.
Eventually we come to the three wives of King Athamas. Both Ino and Themisto had twins by him, and Themisto snuck into the nursery to kill Ino's. But a nurse switched their clothes, so Themisto accidentally killed her own children.
The first wife of Athamas was the goddess Nebula, and they had a son Phrixus and a daughter Helle. Ino faked a drought and an oracle to have Phrixus sacrificed, but the plot was revealed, and Phrixus and Helle flew away on a flying golden ram.
http://www.theoi.com/Text/HyginusFabulae1.html#Preface
Ino & Phrixus,
a Legendary Passage from,
GAIUS JULIUS HYGINUS,
FABLES I - III,
translated by MARY GRANT.
[1] - [3]
PREFACE
Excerpts from the Genealogiae of Hyginus, commonly called the Fabulae Preface.
From Mist (was born) Chaos; from Chaos and Caligine: Night, Day, Erebus, Aether.
From Night and Erebus: Fate, Old Age, Death, Dissolution, *Continence, Sleep, Dreams, Love – that is, Lysimeles, *Epiphron, Porphyrion, Epaphus, Discord, Wretchedness, Wantonness, Nemesis, Euphrosyne, Friendship, Compassion, Styx; the three Fates, namely, Clotho, Lachesis, and Atropos; the Hesperides, Aegle, Hesperie, *aerica.
From Aether and Day: Earth, Heaven, Sea.
From Aether and Earth: Grief, Deceit, Wrath, Lamentation, Falsehood, Oath, Vengeance, Intemperance, Altercation, Forgetfulness, Sloth, Fear, Pride, Incest, Combat, Ocean, Themis, Tartarus, Pontus; and the Titans, Briareus, Gyges, Steropes, Atlas, Hyperion, and Polus, Saturn, Ops, Moneta, Dione; and three Furies – namely, Alecto, Megaera, Tisiphone.
From Earth and Tartarus, Giants: Enceladus, Coeus, *elentes, *mophius, Astraeus, Pelorus, Pallas, Emphytus, Rhoecus, *ienios, Agrius, *alemone, Ephialtes, Eurytus, *effracorydon, Themoises, Theodamas, Otus, Typhon, Polybo[e}tes, *menephriarus, *abesus, *colophonus, Iapetus.
From Pontus and Sea: the tribes of fishes.
From Ocean and Tethys: the Oceanides - namely *yaea, Melite, Ianthe, Admete, Stilbo, Pasiphae, Polyxo, Eurynome, Euagoreis, Rhodope, *lyris, Clytie, *teschinoeno, *clitenneste, Metis, Menippe, Argia. Of the same descent Rivers: Strymon, Nilus, Euphrates, Tanais, Indus, Cephisus, Ismenus, Axenus, Achelous, Simois, Inachus, Alpheus, Therodoon, Scamandrus, Tigris, Maeandrus, Orontes.
From Pontos and Earth: Thaumas, *tusciuersus, *cepheus
From Nereus and Doris fifty Nereids: Glauce, Thalia, Cymodoce, Nesaea, Spio, Thoe, Cymothoe[a], Actaea, Limnoria, Melite, Iaera, Amphithoe, Agaue, Doto, Prot[h]o, Pherusa, Dynamene, Dexamene, Amphnome, Callianassa, Doris, Panope, Galat[h]ea, Nemertes, Apseudes, Clymene, Ianira, [Panopea], Ianassa, Maera, Orithyia, Amathia, Drymo, Xantho, Ligea, Phyllodoce, Cydippe, Lycorias, Cleio, Beroe, Ephyre, Opis, Asia, Deiopea, Arethusa, [Clymene], Creneis, Eurydice, Leucothea.
From Phorcus and Ceto: Phorcides, Pemphredo, Enyo and Persis (for this last others say Dino).
From Gorgon and Ceto: Sthenno, Eurylae, Medusa.
From Polus and Phoebe: Latone, Asterie, *aphirape . . . Perses, Pallas.
From Iapetus and Clymene: Atlas, Epimetheus, Prometheus.
From Hyperion and Aethra: Sol, Luna, Aurora.
From Saturn and Ops: Vesta, Ceres, Iuno, Jupiter, Pluto, Neptune. From Saturn and Philyra: Chiron, Dolops.
From Astraeus and Aurora: Zephyrus, Boreas, Notus, Favonius.
From Atlas and Pleione: Maia, Calypso, Alcyone, Merope, Electra, Celaeno.
From Pallas the giant and Styx: Scylla, Force, Envy, Power, Victory, Fountains, Lakes.
From Neptune and Amphitrite, Triton.
From Dione and Jove, Venus. From Jove and Juno, Mars. From Jove’s head, Minerva. From Juno without father, Vulcan. From Jove and Eurynome, Graces. Again from Jove and Juno: Youth, Liberty. From Jove and Themis, the Hours. From Jove and Ceres, Proserpina. From Jove and Moneta, the Muses. From Jove and Luna, Pandia.
From Venus and Mars: Harmonia, and Formido.
From Acheloos and Melpomene, the Sirens: Thelxiepe, Molpe and Pisinoe.
From Jove and Clymene, Mnemosyne. From Jove and Maia, Mercury. From Jove and Latona, Apollo and Diana.
From Earth: Python, a divine (prophetic) snake.
From Thaumas and Electra: Iris, Harpies, Celaeno, Ocypete, Podarce.
From Sol and Persa: Circe, Pasiphae, Aeeta, Perses.
From Aeeta and Clytia, Medea.
From Sol and Clymene, Phaethon and the Phaethontides, Merope, Helie, Aetherie, Dioxippe.
From Typhon and Echidna: Gorgon, Cerberus, the dragon which guarded the Golden Fleece at Colchis, Scylla who was woman above but dog-forms below [whom Hercules killed]; Chimaera, Sphinx who was in Boeotia, Hydra serpent which had nine heads which Hercules killed, and the dragon of the Hesperides.
From Neptune and Medusa: the horse Pegasus.
From Chrysaor and Callirhoe: three-formed Geryon.
I. THEMISTO
Athamas, son of Aeolus, had by his wife Nebula a son Phrixus and a daughter Helle, and by Themisto, daughter of Hypseus, two son, Sphincius and Orchomenus, and by Ino, daughter of Cadmus, two sons, Learchus and Melicertes. Themisto, robbed of her marriage by Ino, wished to kill Ino’s children. She hid, therefore, in the palace, and when an opportunity presented itself, thinking she was killing the sons of her rival, unwittingly killed her own, deceived by the nurse who had put the wrong garments on them. When Themisto discovered this, she killed herself.
II. INO
Ino, daughter of Cadmus and Harmonia, wishing to kill Phrixus and Helle, Nebula’s children, formed a plan with the women of the entire tribe, and conspired to parch the seed grain to make it unfertile, so that, when the sterility and scarcity of grain resulted, the whole state should perish, some by starvation, others by sickness. With regard to this situation Athamas sent a servant to Delphi, but Ino instructed him to bring back a false reply that the pestilence would end if he sacrificed Phrixus to Jove. When Athamas refused to do this, Phrixus voluntarily and readily promised that he alone would free the state from its distress. Accordingly he was led to the altar, wearing fillets (of sacrifice), but the servant, out of pity for the youth, revealed Ino’s plans to Athamas. The king, thus informed of the crime, gave over his wife Ino and her son Melicertes to be put to death, but Father Liber cast mist around her, and saved Ino his nurse.
Later, Athamas, driven mad by Jove, slew his son Learchus. But Ino, with Melicertes her son, threw herself into the sea. Liber would have her called Leucothea, and Melicertes, her son the god Palaemon, but we call her Mater Matuta, and him Portunus. In his honor every fifth year gymnastic contests are held, which are called Isthmian.
III. PHRIXUS
While Phrixus and Helle under madness sent by Liber were wandering in a forest, Nebula their mother is said to have come there bringing a gilded ram, offspring of Neptune and Theophane. She bade her children to mount it, and journey to Colchis to King Aeetes, son of Sol, and there sacrifice the ram to Mars. This they were said to have done, but when they had mounted, and the ram had carried them over the sea, Helle fell from the ram; from this sea was called Hellespont. Phrixus, however, was carried to Colchis, where, as his mother had bidden, he sacrificed the ram, and placed its gilded fleece in the temple of Mars - the very fleece which, guarded by a dragon, it is said Jason, son of Aeson and Alcimede, came to secure.
But Aeetes gladly welcomed Phrixus, and gave him his daughter Chalciope in marriage. She later bore him children, but Aeetes feared that they would drive him from his kingdom, because he had been warned by prodigies to beware of death at the hands of a foreigner, a son of Aeolus. Therefore he killed Phrixus. But Phrixus’ sons – Argus, Melas, and Cylindrus – took ship to go to their grandfather Athamas. They were shipwrecked, however, and Jason, on his trip for the fleece, rescued them from the island of Dia, and took them back to their mother Chalciope. By her favour he was recommended to her sister Medea.
http://www.theoi.com/Text/HyginusFabulae1.html#Preface
This passage continues with the fate of Ino, but next episode is about the family of Jason and our introduction to the Argonauts.
Sunday, November 5, 2017
LP0075 -RELAUNCH- The Argonauts, from Diodorus
Legendary Passages #0075 -RELAUNCH-
The Argonauts, from Diodorus.
Welcome to Legendary Passages, a thrice weekly podcast about Greek and Roman classical mythology. My name is Joel; I have been doing this podcast for several years now. I have always loved science fiction and fantasy and comic-book super-heroes, as well as history and religion, so I searched far and wide for podcasts about the old Greek heroes. There were a few gems like 'Mythology Translated', and 'The Myths and History of Greece and Rome', but none that featured the ancient texts themselves, aside from LibriVox.
The problem with reading classical mythology texts verbatim is that most of them are anthologies. Here's an overview of Theseus; Hercules performed his fourth labor here; the founder of this city was an Argonaut and sent his sons to the Trojan War, and so on. What we call mythology was their religion and common knowledge. Imagine future scholars coming across references to tooth fairies and easter bunnies, or Spider-Man or Darth Vader, and trying to figure out what the heck we were talking about. The contexts and the stories are all but lost.
Now, the stories are what I am interested in. My hope is to reconstruct something resembling the lost epics by presenting every known version of specific adventures in a rough chronological order. Between the similarities and the differences between the texts, perhaps we can gleam a whisper of the histories that Greeks and Romans looked back on as the bedrock of their civilizations. These passages give us a window onto their culture, their own sense of history, and the beginnings of Western Civilization.
Now, the original incarnation of this podcast began with the best of intentions. I was doing research for books I was going to write about the origins and adventures of Hercules and Theseus, and their going on the voyage of the Argonauts. I was trying to sync up the timelines for their adventures, but I couldn't keep all the details in my head. Hence, this podcast. We started off with the early adventures Hercules, then Theseus, then Minos and Crete. But then I went back to re-edit and 'improve' the original episodes, and added more stuff on Hercules, an overview of the Argonauts, more Theseus, lots and lots more Hercules.... and it all became a messy anthology, just like the original texts.
So for the foreseeable future, instead of organizing stories in groups of six, we will hear more long-form story-based collections of twenty-five passages each, starting with this one. The episodes will still be less than fifteen minutes long, but I will try to put them out three times a week, ideally publishing twelve a month. The larger scope will give better sense of where we are going, and more incentive for me to put them out regularly.
With the bigger format, I can now fit in actual drama and plays. I hope to recruit others to participate, otherwise I'm just talking to myself. I will also be redoing previous episodes, likely with breaks in different places, just to keep the overall narrative intact.
For the next twenty-five episodes, we will journey with Jason and the Argonauts, steal Medea and the Golden Fleece, return home to a kingdom in crisis, reenact the tragedy of Medea in Corinth, and end up in Athens just in time for the next twenty-five episodes on Theseus.
This passage explores the multiple origins of the Golden Fleece, reveals that murder and dark magic run in Medea's family, and shows just how Jason stole the fleece and why Medea was willing to help him do it.
http://www.theoi.com/Text/DiodorusSiculus4C.html#6
The Argonauts,
a Legendary Passage from,
DIODORUS SICULUS,
LIBRARY OF HISTORY,
BOOK IV. Sections 45 - 48,
trans. by C. H. OLDFATHER.
[4.45.1] - [4.48.5]
AEETES, HECATE AND CIRCE
Since it is the task of history to inquire into the reasons for this slaying of strangers, we must discuss these reasons briefly, especially since the digression on this subject will be appropriate in connection with the deeds of the Argonauts.
We are told, that is, that Helius had two sons, Aeëtes and Perses, Aeëtes being king of Colchis and the other king of the Tauric Chersonese, and that both of them were exceedingly cruel.
And Perses had a daughter Hecatê, who surpassed her father in boldness and lawlessness; she was also fond of hunting, and when she had no luck she would turn her arrows upon human beings instead of the beasts. Being likewise ingenious in the mixing of deadly poisons she discovered the drug called aconite and tried out the strength of each poison by mixing it in the food given to the strangers. And since she possessed great experience in such matters she first of all poisoned her father and so succeeded to the throne, and then, founding a temple of Artemis and commanding that strangers who landed there should be sacrificed to the goddess, she became known far and wide for her cruelty.
After this she married Aeëtes and bore two daughters, Circê and Medea, and a son Aegialeus. Although Circê also, it is said, devoted herself to the devising of all kinds of drugs and discovered roots of all manner of natures and potencies such as are difficult to credit, yet, notwithstanding that she was taught by her mother Hecatê about not a few drugs, she discovered by her own study a far greater number, so that she left to the other woman no superiority whatever in the matter of devising uses of drugs.
She was given in marriage to the king of the Sarmatians, whom some call Scythians, and first she poisoned her husband and after that, succeeding to the throne, she committed many cruel and violent acts against her subjects.
For this reason she was deposed from her throne and, according to some writers of myths, fled to the ocean, where she seized a desert island, and there established herself with the women who had fled with her, though according to some historians she left the Pontus and settled in Italy on a promontory which to this day bears after her the name Circaeum.
AEETES AND MEDEA
Concerning Medea this story is related:- From her mother and sister she learned all the powers which drugs possess, but her purpose in using them was exactly the opposite. For she made a practice of rescuing from their perils the strangers who came to their shores, sometimes demanding from her father by entreaty and coaxing that the lives be spared of those who were to die, and sometimes herself releasing them from prison and then devising plans for the safety of the unfortunate men. For Aeëtes, party because of his own natural cruelty and partly because he was under the influence of his wife Hecatê, had given his approval to the custom of slaying strangers.
But since Medea as time went on opposed the purpose of her parents more and more, Aeëtes, they say, suspecting his daughter of plotting against him consigned her to free custody; Medea, however made her escape and fled for refuge to a sacred precinct of Helius on the shore of the sea.
THE ARGONAUTS AND MEDEA
This happened at the very time when the Argonauts arrived from the Tauric Chersonese and landed by night in Colchis at this precinct. There they came upon Medea, as she wandered along the shore, and learning from her of the custom of slaying strangers they praised the maiden for her kindly spirit, and then, revealing to her their own project, they learned in turn from her of the danger which threatened her from her father because of the reverence which she showed to strangers.
Since they now recognized that it was to their mutual advantage, Medea promised to co-operate with them until they should perform the labour which lay before them, while Jason gave her his pledge under oath that he would marry her and keep her as his life’s companion so long as he lived.
After this the Argonauts left guards to watch the ship and set off by night with Medea to get the golden fleece, concerning which it may be proper for us to give a detailed account, in order that nothing which belongs to the history which we have undertaken may remain unknown.
PHRIXUS, AEETES AND THE GOLDEN FLEECE
Phrixus, the son of Athamas, the myths relate, because of his stepmother’s plots against him, took his sister Hellê and fled with her from Greece. And while they were making the passage from Europe to Asia, as a kind of Providence of the gods directed, on the back of a ram, whose fleece was of gold, the maiden fell into the sea, which was named after her Hellespont, but Phrixus continued on into the Pontus and was carried to Colchis, where, as some oracle had commanded, he sacrificed the ram and hung up its fleece as a dedicatory offering in the temple of Ares.
After this, while Aeëtes was king of Colchis, an oracle became known, to the effect that he was to come to the end of his life whenever strangers should land there and carry off the golden fleece. For this reason and because of his own cruelty as well, Aeëtes ordained that strangers should be offered up in sacrifice, in order that, the report of the cruelty of the Colchi having been spread abroad to every part of the world, no stranger should have the courage to set foot on the land. He also threw a wall about the precinct and stationed there many guardians, these being men of the Tauric Chersonese, and it is because of these guards that the Greeks invented monstrous myths.
For instance, the report was spread abroad that there were fire-breathing bulls (tauroi) round about the precinct and that a sleepless dragon (drakon) guarded the fleece, the identity of the names having led to the transfer from the men who were Taurians to the cattle because of their strength and the cruelty shown in the murder of strangers having been made into the myth of the bulls breathing fire; and similarly the name of the guardian who watched over the sacred precinct, which was Dracon, has been transferred by the poets to the monstrous and fear-inspiring beast, the dragon.
Also the account of Phrixus underwent a similar working into a myth. For, as some men say, he made his voyage upon a ship which bore the head of a ram upon its bow, and Hellê, being troubled with a sea-sickness, while leaning far over the side of the boat for this reason, fell into the sea.
Some say, however, that the king of the Scythians, who was a son-in-law of Aeëtes, was visiting among the Colchi at the very time when, as it happened, Phrixus and his attendant were taken captive, and conceiving a passion for the boy he received him from Aeëtes as a gift, loved him like a son of his own loins, and left his kingdom to him. The attendant, however, whose name was Crius (ram), was sacrificed to the gods, and when his body had been flayed the skin was nailed upon on the temple, in keeping with a certain custom.
And when later an oracle was delivered to Aeëtes to the effect that he was to die whenever strangers would sail to his land and carry off the skin of Crius, the king, they say, built a wall about the precinct and stationed a guard over it; furthermore, he gilded the skin in order that by reason of its brilliant appearance the soldiers should consider it worthy of the most careful guardian. As for these matters, however, it rests with my readers to judge each in accordance with his own predilections.
THE ARGONAUTS AND THE GOLDEN FLEECE
Medea, we are told, led the way for the Argonauts to the sacred precinct of Ares, which was seventy stades distant from the city which was called Sybaris and contained the palace of the rulers of the Colchi. And approaching the gates, which were kept closed at night, she addressed the guards in the Tauric speech.
And when the soldiers readily opened the gates to her as being the king’s daughter, the Argonauts, they say, rushing in with drawn swords slew many of the barbarians and drove the rest, who were struck with terror by the unexpected happening, out of the precinct, and then, taking with them the fleece, made for the ship with all speed.
Medea likewise, assisting the Argonauts, slew with poisons the dragon which, according to the myths, never slept as it lay coiled about the fleece in the precinct, and made her way with Jason down to the sea.
The Tauri who had escaped by flight reported to the king the attack which had been made upon them, and Aeëtes, they say, took with him the soldiers who guarded his person, set out in pursuit of the Greeks, and came upon them near the sea. Joining battle on the first contact with them, he slew one of the Argonauts, Iphitus, the brother of Eurystheus who had laid the Labours upon Heracles, but soon, when he enveloped the rest of them with the multitude of his followers and pressed too hotly into the fray, he was slain by Meleager.
The moment the king fell, the Greeks took courage, and the Colchi turned in flight and the larger part of them were slain in the pursuit.
http://www.theoi.com/Text/DiodorusSiculus4C.html#6
This passage continues with the Argonauts journeying home, but our next passage is about why Phrixus ran away from his step-mother Ino.
The Argonauts, from Diodorus.
Welcome to Legendary Passages, a thrice weekly podcast about Greek and Roman classical mythology. My name is Joel; I have been doing this podcast for several years now. I have always loved science fiction and fantasy and comic-book super-heroes, as well as history and religion, so I searched far and wide for podcasts about the old Greek heroes. There were a few gems like 'Mythology Translated', and 'The Myths and History of Greece and Rome', but none that featured the ancient texts themselves, aside from LibriVox.
The problem with reading classical mythology texts verbatim is that most of them are anthologies. Here's an overview of Theseus; Hercules performed his fourth labor here; the founder of this city was an Argonaut and sent his sons to the Trojan War, and so on. What we call mythology was their religion and common knowledge. Imagine future scholars coming across references to tooth fairies and easter bunnies, or Spider-Man or Darth Vader, and trying to figure out what the heck we were talking about. The contexts and the stories are all but lost.
Now, the stories are what I am interested in. My hope is to reconstruct something resembling the lost epics by presenting every known version of specific adventures in a rough chronological order. Between the similarities and the differences between the texts, perhaps we can gleam a whisper of the histories that Greeks and Romans looked back on as the bedrock of their civilizations. These passages give us a window onto their culture, their own sense of history, and the beginnings of Western Civilization.
Now, the original incarnation of this podcast began with the best of intentions. I was doing research for books I was going to write about the origins and adventures of Hercules and Theseus, and their going on the voyage of the Argonauts. I was trying to sync up the timelines for their adventures, but I couldn't keep all the details in my head. Hence, this podcast. We started off with the early adventures Hercules, then Theseus, then Minos and Crete. But then I went back to re-edit and 'improve' the original episodes, and added more stuff on Hercules, an overview of the Argonauts, more Theseus, lots and lots more Hercules.... and it all became a messy anthology, just like the original texts.
So for the foreseeable future, instead of organizing stories in groups of six, we will hear more long-form story-based collections of twenty-five passages each, starting with this one. The episodes will still be less than fifteen minutes long, but I will try to put them out three times a week, ideally publishing twelve a month. The larger scope will give better sense of where we are going, and more incentive for me to put them out regularly.
With the bigger format, I can now fit in actual drama and plays. I hope to recruit others to participate, otherwise I'm just talking to myself. I will also be redoing previous episodes, likely with breaks in different places, just to keep the overall narrative intact.
For the next twenty-five episodes, we will journey with Jason and the Argonauts, steal Medea and the Golden Fleece, return home to a kingdom in crisis, reenact the tragedy of Medea in Corinth, and end up in Athens just in time for the next twenty-five episodes on Theseus.
This passage explores the multiple origins of the Golden Fleece, reveals that murder and dark magic run in Medea's family, and shows just how Jason stole the fleece and why Medea was willing to help him do it.
http://www.theoi.com/Text/DiodorusSiculus4C.html#6
The Argonauts,
a Legendary Passage from,
DIODORUS SICULUS,
LIBRARY OF HISTORY,
BOOK IV. Sections 45 - 48,
trans. by C. H. OLDFATHER.
[4.45.1] - [4.48.5]
AEETES, HECATE AND CIRCE
Since it is the task of history to inquire into the reasons for this slaying of strangers, we must discuss these reasons briefly, especially since the digression on this subject will be appropriate in connection with the deeds of the Argonauts.
We are told, that is, that Helius had two sons, Aeëtes and Perses, Aeëtes being king of Colchis and the other king of the Tauric Chersonese, and that both of them were exceedingly cruel.
And Perses had a daughter Hecatê, who surpassed her father in boldness and lawlessness; she was also fond of hunting, and when she had no luck she would turn her arrows upon human beings instead of the beasts. Being likewise ingenious in the mixing of deadly poisons she discovered the drug called aconite and tried out the strength of each poison by mixing it in the food given to the strangers. And since she possessed great experience in such matters she first of all poisoned her father and so succeeded to the throne, and then, founding a temple of Artemis and commanding that strangers who landed there should be sacrificed to the goddess, she became known far and wide for her cruelty.
After this she married Aeëtes and bore two daughters, Circê and Medea, and a son Aegialeus. Although Circê also, it is said, devoted herself to the devising of all kinds of drugs and discovered roots of all manner of natures and potencies such as are difficult to credit, yet, notwithstanding that she was taught by her mother Hecatê about not a few drugs, she discovered by her own study a far greater number, so that she left to the other woman no superiority whatever in the matter of devising uses of drugs.
She was given in marriage to the king of the Sarmatians, whom some call Scythians, and first she poisoned her husband and after that, succeeding to the throne, she committed many cruel and violent acts against her subjects.
For this reason she was deposed from her throne and, according to some writers of myths, fled to the ocean, where she seized a desert island, and there established herself with the women who had fled with her, though according to some historians she left the Pontus and settled in Italy on a promontory which to this day bears after her the name Circaeum.
AEETES AND MEDEA
Concerning Medea this story is related:- From her mother and sister she learned all the powers which drugs possess, but her purpose in using them was exactly the opposite. For she made a practice of rescuing from their perils the strangers who came to their shores, sometimes demanding from her father by entreaty and coaxing that the lives be spared of those who were to die, and sometimes herself releasing them from prison and then devising plans for the safety of the unfortunate men. For Aeëtes, party because of his own natural cruelty and partly because he was under the influence of his wife Hecatê, had given his approval to the custom of slaying strangers.
But since Medea as time went on opposed the purpose of her parents more and more, Aeëtes, they say, suspecting his daughter of plotting against him consigned her to free custody; Medea, however made her escape and fled for refuge to a sacred precinct of Helius on the shore of the sea.
THE ARGONAUTS AND MEDEA
This happened at the very time when the Argonauts arrived from the Tauric Chersonese and landed by night in Colchis at this precinct. There they came upon Medea, as she wandered along the shore, and learning from her of the custom of slaying strangers they praised the maiden for her kindly spirit, and then, revealing to her their own project, they learned in turn from her of the danger which threatened her from her father because of the reverence which she showed to strangers.
Since they now recognized that it was to their mutual advantage, Medea promised to co-operate with them until they should perform the labour which lay before them, while Jason gave her his pledge under oath that he would marry her and keep her as his life’s companion so long as he lived.
After this the Argonauts left guards to watch the ship and set off by night with Medea to get the golden fleece, concerning which it may be proper for us to give a detailed account, in order that nothing which belongs to the history which we have undertaken may remain unknown.
PHRIXUS, AEETES AND THE GOLDEN FLEECE
Phrixus, the son of Athamas, the myths relate, because of his stepmother’s plots against him, took his sister Hellê and fled with her from Greece. And while they were making the passage from Europe to Asia, as a kind of Providence of the gods directed, on the back of a ram, whose fleece was of gold, the maiden fell into the sea, which was named after her Hellespont, but Phrixus continued on into the Pontus and was carried to Colchis, where, as some oracle had commanded, he sacrificed the ram and hung up its fleece as a dedicatory offering in the temple of Ares.
After this, while Aeëtes was king of Colchis, an oracle became known, to the effect that he was to come to the end of his life whenever strangers should land there and carry off the golden fleece. For this reason and because of his own cruelty as well, Aeëtes ordained that strangers should be offered up in sacrifice, in order that, the report of the cruelty of the Colchi having been spread abroad to every part of the world, no stranger should have the courage to set foot on the land. He also threw a wall about the precinct and stationed there many guardians, these being men of the Tauric Chersonese, and it is because of these guards that the Greeks invented monstrous myths.
For instance, the report was spread abroad that there were fire-breathing bulls (tauroi) round about the precinct and that a sleepless dragon (drakon) guarded the fleece, the identity of the names having led to the transfer from the men who were Taurians to the cattle because of their strength and the cruelty shown in the murder of strangers having been made into the myth of the bulls breathing fire; and similarly the name of the guardian who watched over the sacred precinct, which was Dracon, has been transferred by the poets to the monstrous and fear-inspiring beast, the dragon.
Also the account of Phrixus underwent a similar working into a myth. For, as some men say, he made his voyage upon a ship which bore the head of a ram upon its bow, and Hellê, being troubled with a sea-sickness, while leaning far over the side of the boat for this reason, fell into the sea.
Some say, however, that the king of the Scythians, who was a son-in-law of Aeëtes, was visiting among the Colchi at the very time when, as it happened, Phrixus and his attendant were taken captive, and conceiving a passion for the boy he received him from Aeëtes as a gift, loved him like a son of his own loins, and left his kingdom to him. The attendant, however, whose name was Crius (ram), was sacrificed to the gods, and when his body had been flayed the skin was nailed upon on the temple, in keeping with a certain custom.
And when later an oracle was delivered to Aeëtes to the effect that he was to die whenever strangers would sail to his land and carry off the skin of Crius, the king, they say, built a wall about the precinct and stationed a guard over it; furthermore, he gilded the skin in order that by reason of its brilliant appearance the soldiers should consider it worthy of the most careful guardian. As for these matters, however, it rests with my readers to judge each in accordance with his own predilections.
THE ARGONAUTS AND THE GOLDEN FLEECE
Medea, we are told, led the way for the Argonauts to the sacred precinct of Ares, which was seventy stades distant from the city which was called Sybaris and contained the palace of the rulers of the Colchi. And approaching the gates, which were kept closed at night, she addressed the guards in the Tauric speech.
And when the soldiers readily opened the gates to her as being the king’s daughter, the Argonauts, they say, rushing in with drawn swords slew many of the barbarians and drove the rest, who were struck with terror by the unexpected happening, out of the precinct, and then, taking with them the fleece, made for the ship with all speed.
Medea likewise, assisting the Argonauts, slew with poisons the dragon which, according to the myths, never slept as it lay coiled about the fleece in the precinct, and made her way with Jason down to the sea.
The Tauri who had escaped by flight reported to the king the attack which had been made upon them, and Aeëtes, they say, took with him the soldiers who guarded his person, set out in pursuit of the Greeks, and came upon them near the sea. Joining battle on the first contact with them, he slew one of the Argonauts, Iphitus, the brother of Eurystheus who had laid the Labours upon Heracles, but soon, when he enveloped the rest of them with the multitude of his followers and pressed too hotly into the fray, he was slain by Meleager.
The moment the king fell, the Greeks took courage, and the Colchi turned in flight and the larger part of them were slain in the pursuit.
http://www.theoi.com/Text/DiodorusSiculus4C.html#6
This passage continues with the Argonauts journeying home, but our next passage is about why Phrixus ran away from his step-mother Ino.
Wednesday, November 1, 2017
LP0074 - Cybele & Atlantis - Origin of the Gods, from Diodorus Siculus' Library of History
Legendary Passages #0074 - Cybele & Atlantis -
Origin of the Gods, from Diodorus Siculus' Library of History.
Last time we discussed the god Uranus and his children. This time we cover his sons Atlas and Cronus, and their various descendants.
But first long aside on the goddess Cybele, born a princess but abandoned in the countryside. She fell in love with Attis, but after her father found out, he had him killed. She wandered the countryside with her friend Marsyas, who competed with Apollo in music and lost badly.
Anyway, Atlas, son of Uranus, ruled Mount Atlas and the coastlines, and made many discoveries in astrology. That is why he holds aloft the sphere of the earth and the sphere of heaven. He is most well known for his seven daughters, the mothers of many gods and heroes, who became the constellation Pleiades.
Now Cronus was a mean and unjust man who married his sister Rhea, and had a son named Zeus who was kind and just. Zeus overthrew his father and the Titans, and became master of the world, and ruled with virtue and goodness.
Here ends our section on Atlantis, for now. The next episode begins a new phase....
http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Diodorus_Siculus/3D*.html
Cybele & Atlantis,
a Legendary Passage,
from Diodorus Siculus' Library of History,
translated by C. H. Oldfather.
However, an account is handed down also that this goddess was born in Phrygia. For the natives of that country have the following myth: In ancient times Meïon became king of Phrygia and Lydia; and marrying Dindymê he begat an infant daughter, but being unwilling to rear her he exposed her on the mountain which was called Cybelus. There, in accordance with some divine providence, both the leopards and some of the other especially ferocious wild beasts offered their nipples to the child and so gave it nourishment, and some women who were tending the flocks in that place witnessed the happening, and being astonished at the strange event took up the babe and called her Cybelê after the name of the place.
The child, as she grew up, excelled in both beauty and virtue and also came to be admired for her intelligence; for she was the first to devise the pipe of many reeds and to invent cymbals and kettledrums with which to accompany the games and the dance, and in addition she taught how to heal the sicknesses of both flocks and little children by means of rites of purification; in consequence, since the babes were saved from death by her spells and were generally taken up in her arms, her devotion to them and affection for them led all the people to speak of her as the "mother of the mountain."
The man who associated with her and loved her more than anyone else, they say, was Marsyas the physician, who was admired for his intelligence and chastity; and a proof of his intelligence they find in the fact that he imitated the sounds made by the pipe of many reeds and carried all its notes over into the flute, and as an indication of his chastity they cite his abstinence from sexual pleasures until the day of his death.
Now Cybelê, the myth records, having arrived at full womanhood, came to love a certain native youth who was known as Attis, but at a later time received the appellation Papas; with him she consorted secretly and became with child, and at about the same time her parents recognized her as their child.
Consequently she was brought up into the palace, and her father welcomed her at the outset under the impression that she was a virgin, but later, when he learned of her seduction, he put to death her nurses and Attis as well and cast their bodies forth to lie unburied; whereupon Cybelê, they say, because of her love for the youth and grief over the nurses, became frenzied and rushed out of the palace into the countryside.
And crying aloud and beating upon a kettledrum she visited every country alone, with hair hanging free, and Marsyas, out of pity for her plight, voluntarily followed her and accompanied her in her wanderings because of the love which he had formerly borne her.
When they came to Dionysus in the city of Nysa they found there Apollo, who was being accorded high favour because of the lyre, which, they say, Hermes invented, though Apollo was the first to play it fittingly; and when Marsyas strove with Apollo in a contest of skill and the Nysaeans had been appointed judges, the first time Apollo played upon the lyre without accompanying it with his voice, while Marsyas, striking up upon his pipes, amazed the ears of his hearers by their strange music and in their opinion far excelled, by reason of his melody, the first contestant. But since they had agreed to take turn about in displaying their skill to the judges, Apollo, they say, added, this second time, his voice in harmony with the music of the lyre, whereby he gained greater approval than that which had formerly been accorded to the pipes. Marsyas, however, was enraged and tried to prove to the hearers that he was losing the contest in defiance of every principle of justice; for, he argued, it should be a comparison of skill and not of voice, and only by such a test was it possible to judge between the harmony and music of the lyre and of the pipes; and furthermore, it was unjust that two skills should be compared in combination against but one. Apollo, however, as the myth relates, replied that he was in no sense taking any unfair advantage of the other; in fact, when Marsyas blew into his pipes he was doing almost the same thing as himself; consequently the rule should be made either that they should both be accorded this equal privilege of combining their skills, or that neither of them should use his mouth in the contest but should display his special skill by the use only of his hands. When the hearers decided that Apollo presented the more just argument, their skills were again compared; Marsyas was defeated, and Apollo, who had become somewhat embittered by the quarrel, flayed the defeated man alive.
But quickly repenting and being distressed at what he had done, he broke the strings of the lyre and destroyed the harmony of sounds which he had discovered. The harmony of the strings, however, was rediscovered, when the Muses added later the middle string, Linus the string struck with the forefinger, and Orpheus and Thamyras the lowest string and the one next to it. And Apollo, they say, laid away both the lyre and the pipes as a votive offering in the cave of Dionysus, and becoming enamoured of Cybelê joined in her wanderings as far as the land of the Hyperboreans.
But, the myth goes on to say, a pestilence fell upon human beings throughout Phrygia and the land ceased to bear fruit, and when the unfortunate people inquired of the god how they might rid themselves of their ills he commanded them, it is said, to bury the body of Attis and to honour Cybelê as a goddess. Consequently the physicians, since the body had disappeared in the course of time, made an image of the youth, before which they sang dirges and by means of honours in keeping with his suffering propitiated the wrath of him who had been wronged; and these rites they continue to perform down to our own lifetime.
As for Cybelê, in ancient times they erected altars and performed sacrifices to her yearly; and later they built for her a costly temple in Pisinus of Phrygia, and established honours and sacrifices of the greatest magnificence, Midas their king taking part in all these works out of his devotion to beauty; and beside the statue of the goddess they set up panthers and lions, since it was the common opinion that she had first been nursed by these animals.
Such, then, are the myths which are told about Mother of the God both among the Phrygians and by the Atlantians who dwell on the coast of the ocean.
-
After the death of Hyperion, the myth relates, the kingdom was divided among the sons of Uranus, the most renowned of whom were Atlas and Cronus. Of these sons Atlas received as his part the regions on the coast of the ocean, and he not only gave the name of Atlantians to his peoples but likewise called the greatest mountain in the land Atlas. They also say that he perfected the science of astrology and was the first to publish to mankind the doctrine of the sphere; and it was for this reason that the idea was held that the entire heavens were supported upon the shoulders of Atlas, the myth darkly hinting in this way at his discovery and description of the sphere.
There were born to him a number of sons, one of whom was distinguished above the others for his piety, justice to his subjects, and love of mankind, his name being Hesperus. This king, having once climbed to the peak of Mount Atlas, was suddenly snatched away by mighty winds while he was making his observations of the stars, and never was seen again; and because of the virtuous life he had lived and their pity for his sad fate the multitudes accorded to him immortal honours and called the brightest of the stars of heaven after him.
Atlas, the myth goes on to relate, also had seven daughters, who as a group were called Atlantides after their father, but their individual names were Maea, Electra, Taÿgetê, Steropê, Meropê, Halcyonê, and the last Celaeno. These daughters lay with the most renowned heroes and gods and thus became the first ancestors of the larger part of the race of human beings, giving birth to those who, because of their high achievements, came to be called gods and heroes; Maea the eldest, for instance, lay with Zeus and bore Hermes, who was the discoverer of many things for the use of mankind; similarly the other Atlantides also gave birth to renowned children, who became the founders in some instances of nations in other cases of cities. Consequently, not only among certain barbarians but among the Greeks as well, the great majority of the most ancient heroes trace their descent back to the Atlantides. These daughters were also distinguished for their chastity and after their death attained to immortal honour among men, by whom they were both enthroned in the heavens and endowed with the appellation of Pleiades. The Atlantides were also called "nymphs" because the natives of that land addressed their women by the common appellation of "nymph."
Cronus, the brother of Atlas, the myth continues, who was a man notorious for his impiety and greed, married his sister Rhea, by whom he begat that Zeus who was later called "the Olympian."
But there had been also another Zeus, the brother of Uranus and a king of Crete, who, however, was far less famous than the Zeus who was born at a later time. Now the latter was king over the entire world, whereas the earlier Zeus, who was lord of the above-mentioned island, begat ten sons who were given the name of Curetes; and the island he named after his wife Idaea, and on it he died and was buried, and the place which received his grave is pointed out to our day. The Cretans, however, have a myth which does not agree with the story given above, and we shall give a detailed account of it when we speak of Crete.
Cronus, they say, was lord of Sicily and Libya, and Italy as well, and, in a word, established his kingdom over the regions to the west; and everywhere he occupied with garrisons the commanding hills and the strongholds of the regions, this being the reason why both throughout Sicily and the parts which incline towards the west many of the lofty places are called to this day after him "Cronia."
Zeus, however, the son of Cronus, emulated a manner of life the opposite of that led by his father, and since he showed himself honourable and friendly to all, the masses addressed him as "father." As for his succession to the kingly power, some say that his father yielded it to him of his own accord, but others state that he was chosen as king by the masses because of the hatred they bore towards his father, and that when Cronus made war against him with the aid of the Titans, Zeus overcame him in battle, and on gaining supreme power visited all the inhabited world, conferring benefactions upon the race of men. He was pre-eminent also in bodily strength and in all the other qualities of virtue and for this reason quickly became master of the entire world. And in general he showed all zeal to punish impious and wicked men and to show kindness to the masses. In return for all this, after he had passed from among men he was given the name of Zên, because he was the cause of right "living" among men, and those who had received his favours showed him honour by enthroning him in the heavens, all men eagerly acclaiming him as god and lord for ever of the whole universe.
These, then, are in summary the facts regarding the teachings of the Atlantians about the gods.
http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Diodorus_Siculus/3D*.html
Origin of the Gods, from Diodorus Siculus' Library of History.
Last time we discussed the god Uranus and his children. This time we cover his sons Atlas and Cronus, and their various descendants.
But first long aside on the goddess Cybele, born a princess but abandoned in the countryside. She fell in love with Attis, but after her father found out, he had him killed. She wandered the countryside with her friend Marsyas, who competed with Apollo in music and lost badly.
Anyway, Atlas, son of Uranus, ruled Mount Atlas and the coastlines, and made many discoveries in astrology. That is why he holds aloft the sphere of the earth and the sphere of heaven. He is most well known for his seven daughters, the mothers of many gods and heroes, who became the constellation Pleiades.
Now Cronus was a mean and unjust man who married his sister Rhea, and had a son named Zeus who was kind and just. Zeus overthrew his father and the Titans, and became master of the world, and ruled with virtue and goodness.
Here ends our section on Atlantis, for now. The next episode begins a new phase....
http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Diodorus_Siculus/3D*.html
Cybele & Atlantis,
a Legendary Passage,
from Diodorus Siculus' Library of History,
translated by C. H. Oldfather.
However, an account is handed down also that this goddess was born in Phrygia. For the natives of that country have the following myth: In ancient times Meïon became king of Phrygia and Lydia; and marrying Dindymê he begat an infant daughter, but being unwilling to rear her he exposed her on the mountain which was called Cybelus. There, in accordance with some divine providence, both the leopards and some of the other especially ferocious wild beasts offered their nipples to the child and so gave it nourishment, and some women who were tending the flocks in that place witnessed the happening, and being astonished at the strange event took up the babe and called her Cybelê after the name of the place.
The child, as she grew up, excelled in both beauty and virtue and also came to be admired for her intelligence; for she was the first to devise the pipe of many reeds and to invent cymbals and kettledrums with which to accompany the games and the dance, and in addition she taught how to heal the sicknesses of both flocks and little children by means of rites of purification; in consequence, since the babes were saved from death by her spells and were generally taken up in her arms, her devotion to them and affection for them led all the people to speak of her as the "mother of the mountain."
The man who associated with her and loved her more than anyone else, they say, was Marsyas the physician, who was admired for his intelligence and chastity; and a proof of his intelligence they find in the fact that he imitated the sounds made by the pipe of many reeds and carried all its notes over into the flute, and as an indication of his chastity they cite his abstinence from sexual pleasures until the day of his death.
Now Cybelê, the myth records, having arrived at full womanhood, came to love a certain native youth who was known as Attis, but at a later time received the appellation Papas; with him she consorted secretly and became with child, and at about the same time her parents recognized her as their child.
Consequently she was brought up into the palace, and her father welcomed her at the outset under the impression that she was a virgin, but later, when he learned of her seduction, he put to death her nurses and Attis as well and cast their bodies forth to lie unburied; whereupon Cybelê, they say, because of her love for the youth and grief over the nurses, became frenzied and rushed out of the palace into the countryside.
And crying aloud and beating upon a kettledrum she visited every country alone, with hair hanging free, and Marsyas, out of pity for her plight, voluntarily followed her and accompanied her in her wanderings because of the love which he had formerly borne her.
When they came to Dionysus in the city of Nysa they found there Apollo, who was being accorded high favour because of the lyre, which, they say, Hermes invented, though Apollo was the first to play it fittingly; and when Marsyas strove with Apollo in a contest of skill and the Nysaeans had been appointed judges, the first time Apollo played upon the lyre without accompanying it with his voice, while Marsyas, striking up upon his pipes, amazed the ears of his hearers by their strange music and in their opinion far excelled, by reason of his melody, the first contestant. But since they had agreed to take turn about in displaying their skill to the judges, Apollo, they say, added, this second time, his voice in harmony with the music of the lyre, whereby he gained greater approval than that which had formerly been accorded to the pipes. Marsyas, however, was enraged and tried to prove to the hearers that he was losing the contest in defiance of every principle of justice; for, he argued, it should be a comparison of skill and not of voice, and only by such a test was it possible to judge between the harmony and music of the lyre and of the pipes; and furthermore, it was unjust that two skills should be compared in combination against but one. Apollo, however, as the myth relates, replied that he was in no sense taking any unfair advantage of the other; in fact, when Marsyas blew into his pipes he was doing almost the same thing as himself; consequently the rule should be made either that they should both be accorded this equal privilege of combining their skills, or that neither of them should use his mouth in the contest but should display his special skill by the use only of his hands. When the hearers decided that Apollo presented the more just argument, their skills were again compared; Marsyas was defeated, and Apollo, who had become somewhat embittered by the quarrel, flayed the defeated man alive.
But quickly repenting and being distressed at what he had done, he broke the strings of the lyre and destroyed the harmony of sounds which he had discovered. The harmony of the strings, however, was rediscovered, when the Muses added later the middle string, Linus the string struck with the forefinger, and Orpheus and Thamyras the lowest string and the one next to it. And Apollo, they say, laid away both the lyre and the pipes as a votive offering in the cave of Dionysus, and becoming enamoured of Cybelê joined in her wanderings as far as the land of the Hyperboreans.
But, the myth goes on to say, a pestilence fell upon human beings throughout Phrygia and the land ceased to bear fruit, and when the unfortunate people inquired of the god how they might rid themselves of their ills he commanded them, it is said, to bury the body of Attis and to honour Cybelê as a goddess. Consequently the physicians, since the body had disappeared in the course of time, made an image of the youth, before which they sang dirges and by means of honours in keeping with his suffering propitiated the wrath of him who had been wronged; and these rites they continue to perform down to our own lifetime.
As for Cybelê, in ancient times they erected altars and performed sacrifices to her yearly; and later they built for her a costly temple in Pisinus of Phrygia, and established honours and sacrifices of the greatest magnificence, Midas their king taking part in all these works out of his devotion to beauty; and beside the statue of the goddess they set up panthers and lions, since it was the common opinion that she had first been nursed by these animals.
Such, then, are the myths which are told about Mother of the God both among the Phrygians and by the Atlantians who dwell on the coast of the ocean.
-
After the death of Hyperion, the myth relates, the kingdom was divided among the sons of Uranus, the most renowned of whom were Atlas and Cronus. Of these sons Atlas received as his part the regions on the coast of the ocean, and he not only gave the name of Atlantians to his peoples but likewise called the greatest mountain in the land Atlas. They also say that he perfected the science of astrology and was the first to publish to mankind the doctrine of the sphere; and it was for this reason that the idea was held that the entire heavens were supported upon the shoulders of Atlas, the myth darkly hinting in this way at his discovery and description of the sphere.
There were born to him a number of sons, one of whom was distinguished above the others for his piety, justice to his subjects, and love of mankind, his name being Hesperus. This king, having once climbed to the peak of Mount Atlas, was suddenly snatched away by mighty winds while he was making his observations of the stars, and never was seen again; and because of the virtuous life he had lived and their pity for his sad fate the multitudes accorded to him immortal honours and called the brightest of the stars of heaven after him.
Atlas, the myth goes on to relate, also had seven daughters, who as a group were called Atlantides after their father, but their individual names were Maea, Electra, Taÿgetê, Steropê, Meropê, Halcyonê, and the last Celaeno. These daughters lay with the most renowned heroes and gods and thus became the first ancestors of the larger part of the race of human beings, giving birth to those who, because of their high achievements, came to be called gods and heroes; Maea the eldest, for instance, lay with Zeus and bore Hermes, who was the discoverer of many things for the use of mankind; similarly the other Atlantides also gave birth to renowned children, who became the founders in some instances of nations in other cases of cities. Consequently, not only among certain barbarians but among the Greeks as well, the great majority of the most ancient heroes trace their descent back to the Atlantides. These daughters were also distinguished for their chastity and after their death attained to immortal honour among men, by whom they were both enthroned in the heavens and endowed with the appellation of Pleiades. The Atlantides were also called "nymphs" because the natives of that land addressed their women by the common appellation of "nymph."
Cronus, the brother of Atlas, the myth continues, who was a man notorious for his impiety and greed, married his sister Rhea, by whom he begat that Zeus who was later called "the Olympian."
But there had been also another Zeus, the brother of Uranus and a king of Crete, who, however, was far less famous than the Zeus who was born at a later time. Now the latter was king over the entire world, whereas the earlier Zeus, who was lord of the above-mentioned island, begat ten sons who were given the name of Curetes; and the island he named after his wife Idaea, and on it he died and was buried, and the place which received his grave is pointed out to our day. The Cretans, however, have a myth which does not agree with the story given above, and we shall give a detailed account of it when we speak of Crete.
Cronus, they say, was lord of Sicily and Libya, and Italy as well, and, in a word, established his kingdom over the regions to the west; and everywhere he occupied with garrisons the commanding hills and the strongholds of the regions, this being the reason why both throughout Sicily and the parts which incline towards the west many of the lofty places are called to this day after him "Cronia."
Zeus, however, the son of Cronus, emulated a manner of life the opposite of that led by his father, and since he showed himself honourable and friendly to all, the masses addressed him as "father." As for his succession to the kingly power, some say that his father yielded it to him of his own accord, but others state that he was chosen as king by the masses because of the hatred they bore towards his father, and that when Cronus made war against him with the aid of the Titans, Zeus overcame him in battle, and on gaining supreme power visited all the inhabited world, conferring benefactions upon the race of men. He was pre-eminent also in bodily strength and in all the other qualities of virtue and for this reason quickly became master of the entire world. And in general he showed all zeal to punish impious and wicked men and to show kindness to the masses. In return for all this, after he had passed from among men he was given the name of Zên, because he was the cause of right "living" among men, and those who had received his favours showed him honour by enthroning him in the heavens, all men eagerly acclaiming him as god and lord for ever of the whole universe.
These, then, are in summary the facts regarding the teachings of the Atlantians about the gods.
http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Diodorus_Siculus/3D*.html
Sunday, October 29, 2017
LP0073 - The Gods of Atlantis - Sky, Sun, & Moon, from Diodorus Siculus' Library of History
Legendary Passages #0073 - The Gods of Atlantis -
Sky, Sun, & Moon, from Diodorus Siculus' Library of History.
Last time we reviewed the history of Atlantis. This time we focus more on the ancient gods born there that inspired the Greek religion.
Their first King was a wise man named Uranus, who taught them laws, agriculture, astronomy, and the calendar. When he died, his people deified him as the universe made manifest.
Uranus had many wives, but his most productive was named Titaea, and her eighteen sons were called the titans. When she died, she too was made a goddess, renamed Gê.
Uranus' eldest child was a daughter named Basileia. She was kind and understanding, helping to raise all forty-four of her siblings, and became known as the Great Mother. After her father's death she was made Queen, and eventually married Hyperion.
They had two children, a son named Helius, and a daughter named Selene. The sons of Titaea, not wanting the sons of Hyperion to be made king over them, stabbed the boy Helius, and drowned him in the river. Distraught, his sister Selene jumped from the roof, killing herself.
While searching for her son's body, Basileia collapsed and had a vision of him. Helius told her not to mourn them, as men would come to call the sun 'Helius', and call the moon 'Selene'.
Basileia wondered the land making noise with her daughter's cymbals, until, one day, during a storm, she vanished from sight. Afterwards, the Atlantians called her the goddess Cybele.
Next time, we finish our history of Cybele & Atlantis.
http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Diodorus_Siculus/3D*.html
The Gods of Atlantis,
a Legendary Passage,
from Diodorus Siculus' Library of History,
translated by C. H. Oldfather.
[56] - [57]
But since we have made mention of the Atlantians, we believe that it will not be inappropriate in this place to recount what their myths relate about the genesis of the gods, in view of the fact that it does not differ greatly from the myths of the Greeks. Now the Atlantians, dwelling as they do in the regions on the edge of the ocean and inhabiting a fertile territory, are reputed far to excel their neighbours in reverence towards the gods and the humanity they showed in their dealings with strangers, and the gods, they say, were born among them. And their account, they maintain, is in agreement with that of the most renowned of the Greek poets when he represents Hera as saying:
For I go to see the ends of the bountiful earth,
Oceanus source of the gods and Tethys divine
Their mother.
This is the account given in their myth: Their first king was Uranus, and he gathered the human beings, who dwelt in scattered habitations, within the shelter of a walled city and caused his subjects to cease from their lawless ways and their bestial manner of living, discovering for them the uses of cultivated fruits, how to store them up, and not a few other things which are of benefit to man; and he also subdued the larger part of the inhabited earth, in particular the regions to the west and the north. And since he was a careful observer of the stars he foretold many things which would take place throughout the world; and for the common people he introduced the year on the basis of the movement of the sun and the months on that of the moon, and instructed them in the seasons which recur year after year.
Consequently the masses of the people, being ignorant of the eternal arrangement of the stars and marvelling at the events which were taking place as he had predicted, conceived that the man who taught such things partook of the nature of the gods, and after he had passed from among men they accorded him immortal honours, both because of his benefactions and because of his knowledge of the stars and then they transferred his name to the firmament of heaven, both because they thought that he had been so intimately acquainted with the risings and the settings of the stars and with whatever else took place in the firmament, and because they would surpass his benefactions by the magnitude of the honours which they would show him, in that for all subsequent time they proclaimed him to be the king of the universe.
To Uranus, the myth continues, were born forty-five sons from a number of wives, and, of these, eighteen, it is said, were by Titaea, each of them bearing a distinct name, but all of them as a group were called, after their mother, Titans. Titaea, because she was prudent and had brought about many good deeds for the peoples, was deified after her death by those whom she had helped and her name was changed to Gê.
To Uranus were also born daughters, the two eldest of whom were by far the most renowned above all the others and were called Basileia and Rhea, whom some also named Pandora. Of these daughters Basileia, who was the eldest and far excelled the others in both prudence and understanding, reared all her brothers, showing them collectively a mother's kindness; consequently she was given the appellation of "Great Mother"; and after her father had been translated from among men into the circle of the gods, with the approval of the masses and of her brothers she succeeded to the royal dignity, though she was still a maiden and because of her exceedingly great chastity had been unwilling to unite in marriage with any man.
But later, because of her desire to leave sons who should succeed to the throne, she united in marriage with Hyperion, one of her brothers, for whom she had the greatest affection. And when there were born to her two children, Helius and Selenê, who were greatly admired for both their beauty and their chastity, the brothers of Basileia, they say, being envious of her because of her happy issue of children and fearing that Hyperion would divert the royal power to himself, committed an utterly impious deed; for entering into a conspiracy among themselves they put Hyperion to the sword, and casting Helius, who was still in years a child, into the Eridanus river, drowned him. When this crime came to light, Selenê, who loved her brother very greatly, threw herself down from the roof, but as for his mother, while seeking his body along the river, her strength left her and falling into a swoon she beheld a vision in which she thought that Helius stood over her and urged her not to mourn the death of her children; for, he said, the Titans would meet the punishment which they deserve, while he and his sister would be transformed, by some divine providence, into immortal natures, since that which had formerly been called the "holy fire" in the heavens would be called by men Helius ("the sun") and that addressed as "menê" would be called Selenê ("the moon").
When she was aroused from the swoon she recounted to the common crowd both the dream and the misfortunes which had befallen her, asking that they render to the dead honours like those accorded to the gods and asserting that no man should thereafter touch her body. And after this she became frenzied, and seizing such of her daughter's playthings as could make a noise, she began to wander over the land, with her hair hanging free, inspired by the noise of the kettledrums and cymbals, so that those who saw her were struck with astonishment. And all men were filled with pity at her misfortune and some were clinging to her body, when there came a mighty storm and continuous crashes of thunder and lightning; and in the midst of this Basileia passed from sight, whereupon the crowds of people, amazed at this reversal of fortune, transferred the names and the honours of Helius and Selenê to the stars of the sky, and as for their mother, they considered her to be a goddess and erected altars to her, and imitating the incidents of her life by the pounding of the kettledrums and the clash of the cymbals they rendered unto her in this way sacrifices and all other honours.
http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Diodorus_Siculus/3D*.html
Sky, Sun, & Moon, from Diodorus Siculus' Library of History.
Last time we reviewed the history of Atlantis. This time we focus more on the ancient gods born there that inspired the Greek religion.
Their first King was a wise man named Uranus, who taught them laws, agriculture, astronomy, and the calendar. When he died, his people deified him as the universe made manifest.
Uranus had many wives, but his most productive was named Titaea, and her eighteen sons were called the titans. When she died, she too was made a goddess, renamed Gê.
Uranus' eldest child was a daughter named Basileia. She was kind and understanding, helping to raise all forty-four of her siblings, and became known as the Great Mother. After her father's death she was made Queen, and eventually married Hyperion.
They had two children, a son named Helius, and a daughter named Selene. The sons of Titaea, not wanting the sons of Hyperion to be made king over them, stabbed the boy Helius, and drowned him in the river. Distraught, his sister Selene jumped from the roof, killing herself.
While searching for her son's body, Basileia collapsed and had a vision of him. Helius told her not to mourn them, as men would come to call the sun 'Helius', and call the moon 'Selene'.
Basileia wondered the land making noise with her daughter's cymbals, until, one day, during a storm, she vanished from sight. Afterwards, the Atlantians called her the goddess Cybele.
Next time, we finish our history of Cybele & Atlantis.
http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Diodorus_Siculus/3D*.html
The Gods of Atlantis,
a Legendary Passage,
from Diodorus Siculus' Library of History,
translated by C. H. Oldfather.
[56] - [57]
But since we have made mention of the Atlantians, we believe that it will not be inappropriate in this place to recount what their myths relate about the genesis of the gods, in view of the fact that it does not differ greatly from the myths of the Greeks. Now the Atlantians, dwelling as they do in the regions on the edge of the ocean and inhabiting a fertile territory, are reputed far to excel their neighbours in reverence towards the gods and the humanity they showed in their dealings with strangers, and the gods, they say, were born among them. And their account, they maintain, is in agreement with that of the most renowned of the Greek poets when he represents Hera as saying:
For I go to see the ends of the bountiful earth,
Oceanus source of the gods and Tethys divine
Their mother.
This is the account given in their myth: Their first king was Uranus, and he gathered the human beings, who dwelt in scattered habitations, within the shelter of a walled city and caused his subjects to cease from their lawless ways and their bestial manner of living, discovering for them the uses of cultivated fruits, how to store them up, and not a few other things which are of benefit to man; and he also subdued the larger part of the inhabited earth, in particular the regions to the west and the north. And since he was a careful observer of the stars he foretold many things which would take place throughout the world; and for the common people he introduced the year on the basis of the movement of the sun and the months on that of the moon, and instructed them in the seasons which recur year after year.
Consequently the masses of the people, being ignorant of the eternal arrangement of the stars and marvelling at the events which were taking place as he had predicted, conceived that the man who taught such things partook of the nature of the gods, and after he had passed from among men they accorded him immortal honours, both because of his benefactions and because of his knowledge of the stars and then they transferred his name to the firmament of heaven, both because they thought that he had been so intimately acquainted with the risings and the settings of the stars and with whatever else took place in the firmament, and because they would surpass his benefactions by the magnitude of the honours which they would show him, in that for all subsequent time they proclaimed him to be the king of the universe.
To Uranus, the myth continues, were born forty-five sons from a number of wives, and, of these, eighteen, it is said, were by Titaea, each of them bearing a distinct name, but all of them as a group were called, after their mother, Titans. Titaea, because she was prudent and had brought about many good deeds for the peoples, was deified after her death by those whom she had helped and her name was changed to Gê.
To Uranus were also born daughters, the two eldest of whom were by far the most renowned above all the others and were called Basileia and Rhea, whom some also named Pandora. Of these daughters Basileia, who was the eldest and far excelled the others in both prudence and understanding, reared all her brothers, showing them collectively a mother's kindness; consequently she was given the appellation of "Great Mother"; and after her father had been translated from among men into the circle of the gods, with the approval of the masses and of her brothers she succeeded to the royal dignity, though she was still a maiden and because of her exceedingly great chastity had been unwilling to unite in marriage with any man.
But later, because of her desire to leave sons who should succeed to the throne, she united in marriage with Hyperion, one of her brothers, for whom she had the greatest affection. And when there were born to her two children, Helius and Selenê, who were greatly admired for both their beauty and their chastity, the brothers of Basileia, they say, being envious of her because of her happy issue of children and fearing that Hyperion would divert the royal power to himself, committed an utterly impious deed; for entering into a conspiracy among themselves they put Hyperion to the sword, and casting Helius, who was still in years a child, into the Eridanus river, drowned him. When this crime came to light, Selenê, who loved her brother very greatly, threw herself down from the roof, but as for his mother, while seeking his body along the river, her strength left her and falling into a swoon she beheld a vision in which she thought that Helius stood over her and urged her not to mourn the death of her children; for, he said, the Titans would meet the punishment which they deserve, while he and his sister would be transformed, by some divine providence, into immortal natures, since that which had formerly been called the "holy fire" in the heavens would be called by men Helius ("the sun") and that addressed as "menê" would be called Selenê ("the moon").
When she was aroused from the swoon she recounted to the common crowd both the dream and the misfortunes which had befallen her, asking that they render to the dead honours like those accorded to the gods and asserting that no man should thereafter touch her body. And after this she became frenzied, and seizing such of her daughter's playthings as could make a noise, she began to wander over the land, with her hair hanging free, inspired by the noise of the kettledrums and cymbals, so that those who saw her were struck with astonishment. And all men were filled with pity at her misfortune and some were clinging to her body, when there came a mighty storm and continuous crashes of thunder and lightning; and in the midst of this Basileia passed from sight, whereupon the crowds of people, amazed at this reversal of fortune, transferred the names and the honours of Helius and Selenê to the stars of the sky, and as for their mother, they considered her to be a goddess and erected altars to her, and imitating the incidents of her life by the pounding of the kettledrums and the clash of the cymbals they rendered unto her in this way sacrifices and all other honours.
http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Diodorus_Siculus/3D*.html
Thursday, October 26, 2017
LP0072 - The Kings of Atlantis - Atlantean governance, from Plato's Critias
Legendary Passages #0072 - The Kings of Atlantis -
Atlantean governance, from Plato's Critias.
Last time we explored the capitol city of Atlantis. This time
we get a view of the whole of the island, and learn how they governed
themselves.
Firstly, remember that a hundred stadia in length is about 11.5
miles or about 18.5 kilometers.
Atlantis had a huge fertile plain sheltered by mountains, and
all the waters flowed into a massive circular ditch that connected to
the sea, which branched off into canals every hundred stadia, servicing
the land with irrigation and transportation. The land was dived into
lots, each of which had to provide troops and horses and equipment for
the military.
The land was ruled by ten kings, direct descendants of the ten
sons of Poseidon. The commands and laws of the god were inscribed on a
pillar of orichalcum in the temple on the central island, and every
five or six years the kings gathered together there. They sacrificed a
bull on the pillar itself, and swore to uphold the laws thereon and
punish those who broke them. The highest law was to maintain the rule
of the royal line of Atlas, and come to his defense.
For a long time, the Atlanteans cared little for gold and
property, instead valuing friendship and virtue. But as the divine
blood diluted with that of mortals, they grew greedy and corrupt. Zeus
sought to chastise them into improvement, and called all the gods
together. But what happened next is forgotten, and lost to history.
Next time, we discuss The Gods of Atlantis.
http://sacred-texts.com/cla/plato/critias.htm
The Kings of Atlantis,
a Legendary Passage,
from Plato's Critias,
trans. by Benjamin Jowett.
I have described the city and the environs of the ancient
palace nearly in the words of Solon, and now I must endeavour to
represent the nature and arrangement of the rest of the land. The whole
country was said by him to be very lofty and precipitous on the side
of the sea, but the country immediately about and surrounding the city
was a level plain, itself surrounded by mountains which descended
towards the sea; it was smooth and even, and of an oblong shape,
extending in one direction three thousand stadia, but across the
centre inland it was two thousand stadia. This part of the island
looked towards the south, and was sheltered from the north. The
surrounding mountains were celebrated for their number and size and
beauty, far beyond any which still exist, having in them also many
wealthy villages of country folk, and rivers, and lakes, and meadows
supplying food enough for every animal, wild or tame, and much wood of
various sorts, abundant for each and every kind of work.
I will now describe the plain, as it was fashioned by nature
and by the labours of many generations of kings through long ages. It
was for the most part rectangular and oblong, and where falling out of
the straight line followed the circular ditch. The depth, and width,
and length of this ditch were incredible, and gave the impression that
a work of such extent, in addition to so many others, could never have
been artificial. Nevertheless I must say what I was told. It was
excavated to the depth of a hundred feet, and its breadth was a
stadium everywhere; it was carried round the whole of the plain, and
was ten thousand stadia in length. It received the streams which
came down from the mountains, and winding round the plain and
meeting at the city, was there let off into the sea. Further inland,
likewise, straight canals of a hundred feet in width were cut from
it through the plain, and again let off into the ditch leading to
the sea: these canals were at intervals of a hundred stadia, and by
them they brought down the wood from the mountains to the city, and
conveyed the fruits of the earth in ships, cutting transverse passages
from one canal into another, and to the city. Twice in the year they
gathered the fruits of the earth- in winter having the benefit of the
rains of heaven, and in summer the water which the land supplied by
introducing streams from the canals.
As to the population, each of the lots in the plain had to find
a leader for the men who were fit for military service, and the size
of a lot was a square of ten stadia each way, and the total number
of all the lots was sixty thousand. And of the inhabitants of the
mountains and of the rest of the country there was also a vast
multitude, which was distributed among the lots and had leaders
assigned to them according to their districts and villages. The leader
was required to furnish for the war the sixth portion of a
war-chariot, so as to make up a total of ten thousand chariots; also
two horses and riders for them, and a pair of chariot-horses without a
seat, accompanied by a horseman who could fight on foot carrying a
small shield, and having a charioteer who stood behind the man-at-arms
to guide the two horses; also, he was bound to furnish two heavy armed
soldiers, two slingers, three stone-shooters and three javelin-men,
who were light-armed, and four sailors to make up the complement of
twelve hundred ships. Such was the military order of the royal
city- the order of the other nine governments varied, and it would be
wearisome to recount their several differences.
As to offices and honours, the following was the arrangement
from the first. Each of the ten kings in his own division and in his
own city had the absolute control of the citizens, and, in most cases,
of the laws, punishing and slaying whomsoever he would. Now the
order of precedence among them and their mutual relations were
regulated by the commands of Poseidon which the law had handed down.
These were inscribed by the first kings on a pillar of orichalcum,
which was situated in the middle of the island, at the temple of
Poseidon, whither the kings were gathered together every fifth and
every sixth year alternately, thus giving equal honour to the odd
and to the even number. And when they were gathered together they
consulted about their common interests, and enquired if any one had
transgressed in anything and passed judgment and before they passed
judgment they gave their pledges to one another on this wise:- There
were bulls who had the range of the temple of Poseidon; and the ten
kings, being left alone in the temple, after they had offered
prayers to the god that they might capture the victim which was
acceptable to him, hunted the bulls, without weapons but with staves
and nooses; and the bull which they caught they led up to the pillar
and cut its throat over the top of it so that the blood fell upon
the sacred inscription. Now on the pillar, besides the laws, there was
inscribed an oath invoking mighty curses on the disobedient. When
therefore, after slaying the bull in the accustomed manner, they had
burnt its limbs, they filled a bowl of wine and cast in a clot of
blood for each of them; the rest of the victim they put in the fire,
after having purified the column all round. Then they drew from the
bowl in golden cups and pouring a libation on the fire, they swore
that they would judge according to the laws on the pillar, and would
punish him who in any point had already transgressed them, and that
for the future they would not, if they could help, offend against
the writing on the pillar, and would neither command others, nor
obey any ruler who commanded them, to act otherwise than according
to the laws of their father Poseidon. This was the prayer which each
of them-offered up for himself and for his descendants, at the same
time drinking and dedicating the cup out of which he drank in the
temple of the god; and after they had supped and satisfied their
needs, when darkness came on, and the fire about the sacrifice was
cool, all of them put on most beautiful azure robes, and, sitting on
the ground, at night, over the embers of the sacrifices by which
they had sworn, and extinguishing all the fire about the temple,
they received and gave judgment, if any of them had an accusation to
bring against any one; and when they given judgment, at daybreak
they wrote down their sentences on a golden tablet, and dedicated it
together with their robes to be a memorial.
There were many special laws affecting the several kings
inscribed about the temples, but the most important was the following:
They were not to take up arms against one another, and they were all to
come to the rescue if any one in any of their cities attempted to
overthrow the royal house; like their ancestors, they were to deliberate
in common about war and other matters, giving the supremacy to the
descendants of Atlas. And the king was not to have the power of life
and death over any of his kinsmen unless he had the assent of the
majority of the ten.
Such was the vast power which the god settled in the lost
island of Atlantis; and this he afterwards directed against our land
for the following reasons, as tradition tells: For many generations, as
long as the divine nature lasted in them, they were obedient to the
laws, and well-affectioned towards the god, whose seed they were;
for they possessed true and in every way great spirits, uniting
gentleness with wisdom in the various chances of life, and in their
intercourse with one another. They despised everything but virtue,
caring little for their present state of life, and thinking lightly of
the possession of gold and other property, which seemed only a
burden to them; neither were they intoxicated by luxury; nor did
wealth deprive them of their self-control; but they were sober, and
saw clearly that all these goods are increased by virtue and
friendship with one another, whereas by too great regard and respect
for them, they are lost and friendship with them. By such
reflections and by the continuance in them of a divine nature, the
qualities which we have described grew and increased among them; but
when the divine portion began to fade away, and became diluted too
often and too much with the mortal admixture, and the human nature got
the upper hand, they then, being unable to bear their fortune, behaved
unseemly, and to him who had an eye to see grew visibly debased, for
they were losing the fairest of their precious gifts; but to those who
had no eye to see the true happiness, they appeared glorious and
blessed at the very time when they were full of avarice and
unrighteous power.
Zeus, the god of gods, who rules according to law, and is able
to see into such things, perceiving that an honourable race was in a
woeful plight, and wanting to inflict punishment on them, that they
might be chastened and improve, collected all the gods into their most
holy habitation, which, being placed in the centre of the world, beholds
all created things. And when he had called them together, he spake as
follows-*
* The rest of the Dialogue of Critias has been lost.
-THE END-
http://sacred-texts.com/cla/plato/critias.htm
Atlantean governance, from Plato's Critias.
Last time we explored the capitol city of Atlantis. This time
we get a view of the whole of the island, and learn how they governed
themselves.
Firstly, remember that a hundred stadia in length is about 11.5
miles or about 18.5 kilometers.
Atlantis had a huge fertile plain sheltered by mountains, and
all the waters flowed into a massive circular ditch that connected to
the sea, which branched off into canals every hundred stadia, servicing
the land with irrigation and transportation. The land was dived into
lots, each of which had to provide troops and horses and equipment for
the military.
The land was ruled by ten kings, direct descendants of the ten
sons of Poseidon. The commands and laws of the god were inscribed on a
pillar of orichalcum in the temple on the central island, and every
five or six years the kings gathered together there. They sacrificed a
bull on the pillar itself, and swore to uphold the laws thereon and
punish those who broke them. The highest law was to maintain the rule
of the royal line of Atlas, and come to his defense.
For a long time, the Atlanteans cared little for gold and
property, instead valuing friendship and virtue. But as the divine
blood diluted with that of mortals, they grew greedy and corrupt. Zeus
sought to chastise them into improvement, and called all the gods
together. But what happened next is forgotten, and lost to history.
Next time, we discuss The Gods of Atlantis.
http://sacred-texts.com/cla/plato/critias.htm
The Kings of Atlantis,
a Legendary Passage,
from Plato's Critias,
trans. by Benjamin Jowett.
I have described the city and the environs of the ancient
palace nearly in the words of Solon, and now I must endeavour to
represent the nature and arrangement of the rest of the land. The whole
country was said by him to be very lofty and precipitous on the side
of the sea, but the country immediately about and surrounding the city
was a level plain, itself surrounded by mountains which descended
towards the sea; it was smooth and even, and of an oblong shape,
extending in one direction three thousand stadia, but across the
centre inland it was two thousand stadia. This part of the island
looked towards the south, and was sheltered from the north. The
surrounding mountains were celebrated for their number and size and
beauty, far beyond any which still exist, having in them also many
wealthy villages of country folk, and rivers, and lakes, and meadows
supplying food enough for every animal, wild or tame, and much wood of
various sorts, abundant for each and every kind of work.
I will now describe the plain, as it was fashioned by nature
and by the labours of many generations of kings through long ages. It
was for the most part rectangular and oblong, and where falling out of
the straight line followed the circular ditch. The depth, and width,
and length of this ditch were incredible, and gave the impression that
a work of such extent, in addition to so many others, could never have
been artificial. Nevertheless I must say what I was told. It was
excavated to the depth of a hundred feet, and its breadth was a
stadium everywhere; it was carried round the whole of the plain, and
was ten thousand stadia in length. It received the streams which
came down from the mountains, and winding round the plain and
meeting at the city, was there let off into the sea. Further inland,
likewise, straight canals of a hundred feet in width were cut from
it through the plain, and again let off into the ditch leading to
the sea: these canals were at intervals of a hundred stadia, and by
them they brought down the wood from the mountains to the city, and
conveyed the fruits of the earth in ships, cutting transverse passages
from one canal into another, and to the city. Twice in the year they
gathered the fruits of the earth- in winter having the benefit of the
rains of heaven, and in summer the water which the land supplied by
introducing streams from the canals.
As to the population, each of the lots in the plain had to find
a leader for the men who were fit for military service, and the size
of a lot was a square of ten stadia each way, and the total number
of all the lots was sixty thousand. And of the inhabitants of the
mountains and of the rest of the country there was also a vast
multitude, which was distributed among the lots and had leaders
assigned to them according to their districts and villages. The leader
was required to furnish for the war the sixth portion of a
war-chariot, so as to make up a total of ten thousand chariots; also
two horses and riders for them, and a pair of chariot-horses without a
seat, accompanied by a horseman who could fight on foot carrying a
small shield, and having a charioteer who stood behind the man-at-arms
to guide the two horses; also, he was bound to furnish two heavy armed
soldiers, two slingers, three stone-shooters and three javelin-men,
who were light-armed, and four sailors to make up the complement of
twelve hundred ships. Such was the military order of the royal
city- the order of the other nine governments varied, and it would be
wearisome to recount their several differences.
As to offices and honours, the following was the arrangement
from the first. Each of the ten kings in his own division and in his
own city had the absolute control of the citizens, and, in most cases,
of the laws, punishing and slaying whomsoever he would. Now the
order of precedence among them and their mutual relations were
regulated by the commands of Poseidon which the law had handed down.
These were inscribed by the first kings on a pillar of orichalcum,
which was situated in the middle of the island, at the temple of
Poseidon, whither the kings were gathered together every fifth and
every sixth year alternately, thus giving equal honour to the odd
and to the even number. And when they were gathered together they
consulted about their common interests, and enquired if any one had
transgressed in anything and passed judgment and before they passed
judgment they gave their pledges to one another on this wise:- There
were bulls who had the range of the temple of Poseidon; and the ten
kings, being left alone in the temple, after they had offered
prayers to the god that they might capture the victim which was
acceptable to him, hunted the bulls, without weapons but with staves
and nooses; and the bull which they caught they led up to the pillar
and cut its throat over the top of it so that the blood fell upon
the sacred inscription. Now on the pillar, besides the laws, there was
inscribed an oath invoking mighty curses on the disobedient. When
therefore, after slaying the bull in the accustomed manner, they had
burnt its limbs, they filled a bowl of wine and cast in a clot of
blood for each of them; the rest of the victim they put in the fire,
after having purified the column all round. Then they drew from the
bowl in golden cups and pouring a libation on the fire, they swore
that they would judge according to the laws on the pillar, and would
punish him who in any point had already transgressed them, and that
for the future they would not, if they could help, offend against
the writing on the pillar, and would neither command others, nor
obey any ruler who commanded them, to act otherwise than according
to the laws of their father Poseidon. This was the prayer which each
of them-offered up for himself and for his descendants, at the same
time drinking and dedicating the cup out of which he drank in the
temple of the god; and after they had supped and satisfied their
needs, when darkness came on, and the fire about the sacrifice was
cool, all of them put on most beautiful azure robes, and, sitting on
the ground, at night, over the embers of the sacrifices by which
they had sworn, and extinguishing all the fire about the temple,
they received and gave judgment, if any of them had an accusation to
bring against any one; and when they given judgment, at daybreak
they wrote down their sentences on a golden tablet, and dedicated it
together with their robes to be a memorial.
There were many special laws affecting the several kings
inscribed about the temples, but the most important was the following:
They were not to take up arms against one another, and they were all to
come to the rescue if any one in any of their cities attempted to
overthrow the royal house; like their ancestors, they were to deliberate
in common about war and other matters, giving the supremacy to the
descendants of Atlas. And the king was not to have the power of life
and death over any of his kinsmen unless he had the assent of the
majority of the ten.
Such was the vast power which the god settled in the lost
island of Atlantis; and this he afterwards directed against our land
for the following reasons, as tradition tells: For many generations, as
long as the divine nature lasted in them, they were obedient to the
laws, and well-affectioned towards the god, whose seed they were;
for they possessed true and in every way great spirits, uniting
gentleness with wisdom in the various chances of life, and in their
intercourse with one another. They despised everything but virtue,
caring little for their present state of life, and thinking lightly of
the possession of gold and other property, which seemed only a
burden to them; neither were they intoxicated by luxury; nor did
wealth deprive them of their self-control; but they were sober, and
saw clearly that all these goods are increased by virtue and
friendship with one another, whereas by too great regard and respect
for them, they are lost and friendship with them. By such
reflections and by the continuance in them of a divine nature, the
qualities which we have described grew and increased among them; but
when the divine portion began to fade away, and became diluted too
often and too much with the mortal admixture, and the human nature got
the upper hand, they then, being unable to bear their fortune, behaved
unseemly, and to him who had an eye to see grew visibly debased, for
they were losing the fairest of their precious gifts; but to those who
had no eye to see the true happiness, they appeared glorious and
blessed at the very time when they were full of avarice and
unrighteous power.
Zeus, the god of gods, who rules according to law, and is able
to see into such things, perceiving that an honourable race was in a
woeful plight, and wanting to inflict punishment on them, that they
might be chastened and improve, collected all the gods into their most
holy habitation, which, being placed in the centre of the world, beholds
all created things. And when he had called them together, he spake as
follows-*
* The rest of the Dialogue of Critias has been lost.
-THE END-
http://sacred-texts.com/cla/plato/critias.htm
Friday, October 20, 2017
LP0071 - The Island of Atlantis - Atlantean architecture, from Plato's Critias
Legendary Passages #0071 - The Island of Atlantis -
Atlantean architecture, from Plato's Critias.
Last time we reviewed the ancient Athenians. This time we explore the island city of Atlantis itself.
Poseidon had five sets of twin sons with a mortal woman named Cleito, and their firstborn son was named Atlas, after whom Atlantis and The Atlantic Ocean was so named, and each successive firstborn son of line his became king.
The island was rich in resources, chiefly in orichalcum, a glowing red metal more precious than gold. The ground was fertile, providing many plants and animals, including elephants.
The city is measured in stadia, a unit of length about 185 meters, 607 feet, or just over two hundred yards. On the island there were three rings of water nested inside each other, probably successive volcanic rims. The order goes like this: The Atlantic Ocean, The Island of Atlantis, the outer lake, the outer ring, the middle channel, the inner ring, the innermost moat, and finally the central island.
Next time we review the history of The Kings of Atlantis.
http://sacred-texts.com/cla/plato/critias.htm
The Island of Atlantis,
a Legendary Passage,
from Plato's Critias,
trans. by Benjamin Jowett.
Yet, before proceeding further in the narrative, I ought to
warn you, that you must not be surprised if you should perhaps hear
Hellenic names given to foreigners. I will tell you the reason of
this: Solon, who was intending to use the tale for his poem,
enquired into the meaning of the names, and found that the early
Egyptians in writing them down had translated them into their own
language, and he recovered the meaning of the several names and when
copying them out again translated them into our language. My
great-grandfather, Dropides, had the original writing, which is
still in my possession, and was carefully studied by me when I was a
child. Therefore if you hear names such as are used in this country,
you must not be surprised, for I have told how they came to be
introduced.
The tale, which was of great length, began as follows:-
I have before remarked in speaking of the allotments of the
gods, that they distributed the whole earth into portions differing in
extent, and made for themselves temples and instituted sacrifices. And
Poseidon, receiving for his lot the island of Atlantis, begat children
by a mortal woman, and settled them in a part of the island, which I
will describe. Looking towards the sea, but in the centre of the whole
island, there was a plain which is said to have been the fairest of
all plains and very fertile. Near the plain again, and also in the
centre of the island at a distance of about fifty stadia, there was
a mountain not very high on any side.
In this mountain there dwelt one of the earth born primeval men
of that country, whose name was Evenor, and he had a wife named Leucippe,
and they had an only daughter who was called Cleito. The maiden had
already reached womanhood, when her father and mother died; Poseidon
fell in love with her and had intercourse with her, and breaking the
ground, inclosed the hill in which she dwelt all round, making
alternate zones of sea and land larger and smaller, encircling one
another; there were two of land and three of water, which he turned as
with a lathe, each having its circumference equidistant every way from
the centre, so that no man could get to the island, for ships and
voyages were not as yet. He himself, being a god, found no
difficulty in making special arrangements for the centre island,
bringing up two springs of water from beneath the earth, one of warm
water and the other of cold, and making every variety of food to
spring up abundantly from the soil. He also begat and brought up
five pairs of twin male children; and dividing the island of
Atlantis into ten portions, he gave to the first-born of the eldest
pair his mother's dwelling and the surrounding allotment, which was
the largest and best, and made him king over the rest; the others he
made princes, and gave them rule over many men, and a large territory.
And he named them all; the eldest, who was the first king, he
named Atlas, and after him the whole island and the ocean were called
Atlantic. To his twin brother, who was born after him, and obtained as
his lot the extremity of the island towards the Pillars of Heracles,
facing the country which is now called the region of Gades in that
part of the world, he gave the name which in the Hellenic language
is Eumelus, in the language of the country which is named after him,
Gadeirus. Of the second pair of twins he called one Ampheres, and
the other Evaemon. To the elder of the third pair of twins he gave the
name Mneseus, and Autochthon to the one who followed him. Of the
fourth pair of twins he called the elder Elasippus, and the younger
Mestor. And of the fifth pair he gave to the elder the name of
Azaes, and to the younger that of Diaprepes. All these and their
descendants for many generations were the inhabitants and rulers of
divers islands in the open sea; and also, as has been already said,
they held sway in our direction over the country within the Pillars as
far as Egypt and Tyrrhenia.
Now Atlas had a numerous and honourable family, and they retained
the kingdom, the eldest son handing it on to his eldest for many
generations; and they had such an amount of wealth as was never before
possessed by kings and potentates, and is not likely ever to be again,
and they were furnished with everything which they needed, both in the
city and country. For because of the greatness of their empire many
things were brought to them from foreign countries, and the island
itself provided most of what was required by them for the uses of
life. In the first place, they dug out of the earth whatever was to be
found there, solid as well as fusile, and that which is now only a
name and was then something more than a name, orichalcum, was dug
out of the earth in many parts of the island, being more precious in
those days than anything except gold. There was an abundance of wood
for carpenter's work, and sufficient maintenance for tame and wild
animals. Moreover, there were a great number of elephants in the
island; for as there was provision for all other sorts of animals,
both for those which live in lakes and marshes and rivers, and also
for those which live in mountains and on plains, so there was for
the animal which is the largest and most voracious of all. Also
whatever fragrant things there now are in the earth, whether roots, or
herbage, or woods, or essences which distil from fruit and flower,
grew and thrived in that land; also the fruit which admits of
cultivation, both the dry sort, which is given us for nourishment
and any other which we use for food - we call them all by the common
name pulse, and the fruits having a hard rind, affording drinks and
meats and ointments, and good store of chestnuts and the like, which
furnish pleasure and amusement, and are fruits which spoil with
keeping, and the pleasant kinds of dessert, with which we console
ourselves after dinner, when we are tired of eating - all these that
sacred island which then beheld the light of the sun, brought forth
fair and wondrous and in infinite abundance. With such blessings the
earth freely furnished them; meanwhile they went on constructing their
temples and palaces and harbours and docks. And they arranged the
whole country in the following manner:
First of all they bridged over the zones of sea which surrounded
the ancient metropolis, making a road to and from the royal palace. And
at the very beginning they built the palace in the habitation of the
god and of their ancestors, which they continued to ornament in
successive generations, every king surpassing the one who went
before him to the utmost of his power, until they made the building
a marvel to behold for size and for beauty. And beginning from the sea
they bored a canal of three hundred feet in width and one hundred feet
in depth and fifty stadia in length, which they carried through to the
outermost zone, making a passage from the sea up to this, which became
a harbour, and leaving an opening sufficient to enable the largest
vessels to find ingress. Moreover, they divided at the bridges the
zones of land which parted the zones of sea, leaving room for a single
trireme to pass out of one zone into another, and they covered over
the channels so as to leave a way underneath for the ships; for the
banks were raised considerably above the water. Now the largest of the
zones into which a passage was cut from the sea was three stadia in
breadth, and the zone of land which came next of equal breadth; but
the next two zones, the one of water, the other of land, were two
stadia, and the one which surrounded the central island was a
stadium only in width. The island in which the palace was situated had
a diameter of five stadia. All this including the zones and the
bridge, which was the sixth part of a stadium in width, they
surrounded by a stone wall on every side, placing towers and gates
on the bridges where the sea passed in. The stone which was used in
the work they quarried from underneath the centre island, and from
underneath the zones, on the outer as well as the inner side. One kind
was white, another black, and a third red, and as they quarried,
they at the same time hollowed out double docks, having roofs formed
out of the native rock. Some of their buildings were simple, but in
others they put together different stones, varying the colour to
please the eye, and to be a natural source of delight. The entire
circuit of the wall, which went round the outermost zone, they covered
with a coating of brass, and the circuit of the next wall they
coated with tin, and the third, which encompassed the citadel, flashed
with the red light of orichalcum.
The palaces in the interior of the citadel were constructed on
this wise: - in the centre was a holy temple dedicated to Cleito and
Poseidon, which remained inaccessible, and was surrounded by an
enclosure of gold; this was the spot where the family of the ten
princes first saw the light, and thither the people annually brought
the fruits of the earth in their season from all the ten portions,
to be an offering to each of the ten. Here was Poseidon's own temple
which was a stadium in length, and half a stadium in width, and of a
proportionate height, having a strange barbaric appearance. All the
outside of the temple, with the exception of the pinnacles, they
covered with silver, and the pinnacles with gold. In the interior of
the temple the roof was of ivory, curiously wrought everywhere with
gold and silver and orichalcum; and all the other parts, the walls and
pillars and floor, they coated with orichalcum. In the temple they
placed statues of gold: there was the god himself standing in a
chariot - the charioteer of six winged horses - and of such a size that
he touched the roof of the building with his head; around him there
were a hundred Nereids riding on dolphins, for such was thought to
be the number of them by the men of those days. There were also in the
interior of the temple other images which had been dedicated by
private persons. And around the temple on the outside were placed
statues of gold of all the descendants of the ten kings and of their
wives, and there were many other great offerings of kings and of
private persons, coming both from the city itself and from the foreign
cities over which they held sway. There was an altar too, which in
size and workmanship corresponded to this magnificence, and the
palaces, in like manner, answered to the greatness of the kingdom
and the glory of the temple.
In the next place, they had fountains, one of cold and another
of hot water, in gracious plenty flowing; and they were wonderfully
adapted for use by reason of the pleasantness and excellence of
their waters. They constructed buildings about them and planted
suitable trees, also they made cisterns, some open to the heavens,
others roofed over, to be used in winter as warm baths; there were the
kings' baths, and the baths of private persons, which were kept apart;
and there were separate baths for women, and for horses and cattle,
and to each of them they gave as much adornment as was suitable. Of
the water which ran off they carried some to the grove of Poseidon,
where were growing all manner of trees of wonderful height and beauty,
owing to the excellence of the soil, while the remainder was
conveyed by aqueducts along the bridges to the outer circles; and
there were many temples built and dedicated to many gods; also gardens
and places of exercise, some for men, and others for horses in both of
the two islands formed by the zones; and in the centre of the larger
of the two there was set apart a race-course of a stadium in width,
and in length allowed to extend all round the island, for horses to
race in. Also there were guardhouses at intervals for the guards,
the more trusted of whom were appointed - to keep watch in the lesser
zone, which was nearer the Acropolis while the most trusted of all had
houses given them within the citadel, near the persons of the kings.
The docks were full of triremes and naval stores, and all things
were quite ready for use. Enough of the plan of the royal palace.
Leaving the palace and passing out across the three you came to
a wall which began at the sea and went all round: this was everywhere
distant fifty stadia from the largest zone or harbour, and enclosed
the whole, the ends meeting at the mouth of the channel which led to
the sea. The entire area was densely crowded with habitations; and the
canal and the largest of the harbours were full of vessels and
merchants coming from all parts, who, from their numbers, kept up a
multitudinous sound of human voices, and din and clatter of all
sorts night and day.
http://sacred-texts.com/cla/plato/critias.htm
Atlantean architecture, from Plato's Critias.
Last time we reviewed the ancient Athenians. This time we explore the island city of Atlantis itself.
Poseidon had five sets of twin sons with a mortal woman named Cleito, and their firstborn son was named Atlas, after whom Atlantis and The Atlantic Ocean was so named, and each successive firstborn son of line his became king.
The island was rich in resources, chiefly in orichalcum, a glowing red metal more precious than gold. The ground was fertile, providing many plants and animals, including elephants.
The city is measured in stadia, a unit of length about 185 meters, 607 feet, or just over two hundred yards. On the island there were three rings of water nested inside each other, probably successive volcanic rims. The order goes like this: The Atlantic Ocean, The Island of Atlantis, the outer lake, the outer ring, the middle channel, the inner ring, the innermost moat, and finally the central island.
Next time we review the history of The Kings of Atlantis.
http://sacred-texts.com/cla/plato/critias.htm
The Island of Atlantis,
a Legendary Passage,
from Plato's Critias,
trans. by Benjamin Jowett.
Yet, before proceeding further in the narrative, I ought to
warn you, that you must not be surprised if you should perhaps hear
Hellenic names given to foreigners. I will tell you the reason of
this: Solon, who was intending to use the tale for his poem,
enquired into the meaning of the names, and found that the early
Egyptians in writing them down had translated them into their own
language, and he recovered the meaning of the several names and when
copying them out again translated them into our language. My
great-grandfather, Dropides, had the original writing, which is
still in my possession, and was carefully studied by me when I was a
child. Therefore if you hear names such as are used in this country,
you must not be surprised, for I have told how they came to be
introduced.
The tale, which was of great length, began as follows:-
I have before remarked in speaking of the allotments of the
gods, that they distributed the whole earth into portions differing in
extent, and made for themselves temples and instituted sacrifices. And
Poseidon, receiving for his lot the island of Atlantis, begat children
by a mortal woman, and settled them in a part of the island, which I
will describe. Looking towards the sea, but in the centre of the whole
island, there was a plain which is said to have been the fairest of
all plains and very fertile. Near the plain again, and also in the
centre of the island at a distance of about fifty stadia, there was
a mountain not very high on any side.
In this mountain there dwelt one of the earth born primeval men
of that country, whose name was Evenor, and he had a wife named Leucippe,
and they had an only daughter who was called Cleito. The maiden had
already reached womanhood, when her father and mother died; Poseidon
fell in love with her and had intercourse with her, and breaking the
ground, inclosed the hill in which she dwelt all round, making
alternate zones of sea and land larger and smaller, encircling one
another; there were two of land and three of water, which he turned as
with a lathe, each having its circumference equidistant every way from
the centre, so that no man could get to the island, for ships and
voyages were not as yet. He himself, being a god, found no
difficulty in making special arrangements for the centre island,
bringing up two springs of water from beneath the earth, one of warm
water and the other of cold, and making every variety of food to
spring up abundantly from the soil. He also begat and brought up
five pairs of twin male children; and dividing the island of
Atlantis into ten portions, he gave to the first-born of the eldest
pair his mother's dwelling and the surrounding allotment, which was
the largest and best, and made him king over the rest; the others he
made princes, and gave them rule over many men, and a large territory.
And he named them all; the eldest, who was the first king, he
named Atlas, and after him the whole island and the ocean were called
Atlantic. To his twin brother, who was born after him, and obtained as
his lot the extremity of the island towards the Pillars of Heracles,
facing the country which is now called the region of Gades in that
part of the world, he gave the name which in the Hellenic language
is Eumelus, in the language of the country which is named after him,
Gadeirus. Of the second pair of twins he called one Ampheres, and
the other Evaemon. To the elder of the third pair of twins he gave the
name Mneseus, and Autochthon to the one who followed him. Of the
fourth pair of twins he called the elder Elasippus, and the younger
Mestor. And of the fifth pair he gave to the elder the name of
Azaes, and to the younger that of Diaprepes. All these and their
descendants for many generations were the inhabitants and rulers of
divers islands in the open sea; and also, as has been already said,
they held sway in our direction over the country within the Pillars as
far as Egypt and Tyrrhenia.
Now Atlas had a numerous and honourable family, and they retained
the kingdom, the eldest son handing it on to his eldest for many
generations; and they had such an amount of wealth as was never before
possessed by kings and potentates, and is not likely ever to be again,
and they were furnished with everything which they needed, both in the
city and country. For because of the greatness of their empire many
things were brought to them from foreign countries, and the island
itself provided most of what was required by them for the uses of
life. In the first place, they dug out of the earth whatever was to be
found there, solid as well as fusile, and that which is now only a
name and was then something more than a name, orichalcum, was dug
out of the earth in many parts of the island, being more precious in
those days than anything except gold. There was an abundance of wood
for carpenter's work, and sufficient maintenance for tame and wild
animals. Moreover, there were a great number of elephants in the
island; for as there was provision for all other sorts of animals,
both for those which live in lakes and marshes and rivers, and also
for those which live in mountains and on plains, so there was for
the animal which is the largest and most voracious of all. Also
whatever fragrant things there now are in the earth, whether roots, or
herbage, or woods, or essences which distil from fruit and flower,
grew and thrived in that land; also the fruit which admits of
cultivation, both the dry sort, which is given us for nourishment
and any other which we use for food - we call them all by the common
name pulse, and the fruits having a hard rind, affording drinks and
meats and ointments, and good store of chestnuts and the like, which
furnish pleasure and amusement, and are fruits which spoil with
keeping, and the pleasant kinds of dessert, with which we console
ourselves after dinner, when we are tired of eating - all these that
sacred island which then beheld the light of the sun, brought forth
fair and wondrous and in infinite abundance. With such blessings the
earth freely furnished them; meanwhile they went on constructing their
temples and palaces and harbours and docks. And they arranged the
whole country in the following manner:
First of all they bridged over the zones of sea which surrounded
the ancient metropolis, making a road to and from the royal palace. And
at the very beginning they built the palace in the habitation of the
god and of their ancestors, which they continued to ornament in
successive generations, every king surpassing the one who went
before him to the utmost of his power, until they made the building
a marvel to behold for size and for beauty. And beginning from the sea
they bored a canal of three hundred feet in width and one hundred feet
in depth and fifty stadia in length, which they carried through to the
outermost zone, making a passage from the sea up to this, which became
a harbour, and leaving an opening sufficient to enable the largest
vessels to find ingress. Moreover, they divided at the bridges the
zones of land which parted the zones of sea, leaving room for a single
trireme to pass out of one zone into another, and they covered over
the channels so as to leave a way underneath for the ships; for the
banks were raised considerably above the water. Now the largest of the
zones into which a passage was cut from the sea was three stadia in
breadth, and the zone of land which came next of equal breadth; but
the next two zones, the one of water, the other of land, were two
stadia, and the one which surrounded the central island was a
stadium only in width. The island in which the palace was situated had
a diameter of five stadia. All this including the zones and the
bridge, which was the sixth part of a stadium in width, they
surrounded by a stone wall on every side, placing towers and gates
on the bridges where the sea passed in. The stone which was used in
the work they quarried from underneath the centre island, and from
underneath the zones, on the outer as well as the inner side. One kind
was white, another black, and a third red, and as they quarried,
they at the same time hollowed out double docks, having roofs formed
out of the native rock. Some of their buildings were simple, but in
others they put together different stones, varying the colour to
please the eye, and to be a natural source of delight. The entire
circuit of the wall, which went round the outermost zone, they covered
with a coating of brass, and the circuit of the next wall they
coated with tin, and the third, which encompassed the citadel, flashed
with the red light of orichalcum.
The palaces in the interior of the citadel were constructed on
this wise: - in the centre was a holy temple dedicated to Cleito and
Poseidon, which remained inaccessible, and was surrounded by an
enclosure of gold; this was the spot where the family of the ten
princes first saw the light, and thither the people annually brought
the fruits of the earth in their season from all the ten portions,
to be an offering to each of the ten. Here was Poseidon's own temple
which was a stadium in length, and half a stadium in width, and of a
proportionate height, having a strange barbaric appearance. All the
outside of the temple, with the exception of the pinnacles, they
covered with silver, and the pinnacles with gold. In the interior of
the temple the roof was of ivory, curiously wrought everywhere with
gold and silver and orichalcum; and all the other parts, the walls and
pillars and floor, they coated with orichalcum. In the temple they
placed statues of gold: there was the god himself standing in a
chariot - the charioteer of six winged horses - and of such a size that
he touched the roof of the building with his head; around him there
were a hundred Nereids riding on dolphins, for such was thought to
be the number of them by the men of those days. There were also in the
interior of the temple other images which had been dedicated by
private persons. And around the temple on the outside were placed
statues of gold of all the descendants of the ten kings and of their
wives, and there were many other great offerings of kings and of
private persons, coming both from the city itself and from the foreign
cities over which they held sway. There was an altar too, which in
size and workmanship corresponded to this magnificence, and the
palaces, in like manner, answered to the greatness of the kingdom
and the glory of the temple.
In the next place, they had fountains, one of cold and another
of hot water, in gracious plenty flowing; and they were wonderfully
adapted for use by reason of the pleasantness and excellence of
their waters. They constructed buildings about them and planted
suitable trees, also they made cisterns, some open to the heavens,
others roofed over, to be used in winter as warm baths; there were the
kings' baths, and the baths of private persons, which were kept apart;
and there were separate baths for women, and for horses and cattle,
and to each of them they gave as much adornment as was suitable. Of
the water which ran off they carried some to the grove of Poseidon,
where were growing all manner of trees of wonderful height and beauty,
owing to the excellence of the soil, while the remainder was
conveyed by aqueducts along the bridges to the outer circles; and
there were many temples built and dedicated to many gods; also gardens
and places of exercise, some for men, and others for horses in both of
the two islands formed by the zones; and in the centre of the larger
of the two there was set apart a race-course of a stadium in width,
and in length allowed to extend all round the island, for horses to
race in. Also there were guardhouses at intervals for the guards,
the more trusted of whom were appointed - to keep watch in the lesser
zone, which was nearer the Acropolis while the most trusted of all had
houses given them within the citadel, near the persons of the kings.
The docks were full of triremes and naval stores, and all things
were quite ready for use. Enough of the plan of the royal palace.
Leaving the palace and passing out across the three you came to
a wall which began at the sea and went all round: this was everywhere
distant fifty stadia from the largest zone or harbour, and enclosed
the whole, the ends meeting at the mouth of the channel which led to
the sea. The entire area was densely crowded with habitations; and the
canal and the largest of the harbours were full of vessels and
merchants coming from all parts, who, from their numbers, kept up a
multitudinous sound of human voices, and din and clatter of all
sorts night and day.
http://sacred-texts.com/cla/plato/critias.htm
Thursday, September 21, 2017
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.
http://sacred-texts.com/cla/plato/critias.htm
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
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