Message #442

[Chronos]

Plato, Critias 108e - 109c & 113c - 121c (trans. Bury) :
"[Sokrates :] If I can sufficiently remember and report the tale once told by the priests and brought hither by Solon, I am wellnigh convinced that I shall appear to the present audience to have fulfilled my task adequately. This, then, I must at once proceed to do, and procrastinate no longer. Now first of all we must recall the fact that 9000 is the sum of years since the war occurred, as is recorded, between the [Atlantes] dwellers beyond the pillars of Herakles and all that dwelt within them; which war we have now to relate in detail. It was stated that this city of ours [Athens] was in command of the one side and fought through the whole of the war, and in command of the other side were the kings of the island of Atlantis, which we said was an island larger than Libya and Asia once upon a time, but now lies sunk by earthquakes and has created a barrier of impassable mud  which prevents those who are sailing out from here to the ocean beyond from proceeding further. Now as regards the numerous barbaric tribes and all the Hellenic nations that then existed, the sequel of our story, when it is, as it were, unrolled, will disclose what happened in each locality; but the facts about the Athenians of that age and the enemies [the Atlantes] with whom they fought we must necessarily describe first, at the outset,--the military power, that is to say, of each and their forms of government. And of these two we must give the priority in our account to the state of Athens.