Whereas in this land, neither then nor
at any other time, does the water come down from above on the
fields, having always a tendency to come up from below; for which
reason the traditions preserved here are the most ancient.
The fact is, that wherever the extremity of winter frost or of
summer does not prevent, mankind exist, sometimes in greater,
sometimes in lesser numbers. And whatever happened either in your
country or in ours, or in any other region of which we are
informed-if there were any actions noble or great or in any other
way remarkable, they have all been written down by us of old, and
are preserved in our temples. Whereas just when you and other
nations are beginning to be provided with letters and the other
requisites of civilized life, after the usual interval, the
stream from heaven, like a pestilence, comes pouring down, and
leaves only those of you who are destitute of letters and
education; and so you have to begin all over again like children,
and know nothing of what happened in ancient times, either among
us or among yourselves. As for those genealogies of yours which
you just now recounted to us, Solon, they are no better than the
tales of children. In the first place you remember a single
deluge only, but there were many previous ones; in the next
place, you do not know that there formerly dwelt in your land the
fairest and noblest race of men which ever lived, and that you
and your whole city are descended from a small seed or remnant of
them which survived. And this was unknown to you, because, for
many generations, the survivors of that destruction died, leaving
no written word. For there was a time, Solon, before the great
deluge of all, when the city which now is Athens was first in war
and in every way the best governed of all cities, is said to have
performed the noblest deeds and to have had the fairest
constitution of any of which tradition tells, under the face of
heaven.
Solon marvelled at his words, and earnestly requested the
priests to inform him exactly and in order about these former
citizens. You are welcome to hear about them, Solon, said the
priest, both for your own sake and for that of your city, and
above all, for the sake of the goddess who is the common patron
and parent and educator of both our cities. She founded your city
a thousand years before ours, receiving from the Earth and
Hephaestus the seed of your race, and afterwards she founded
ours, of which the constitution is recorded in our sacred
registers to be eight thousand years old. As touching your
citizens of nine thousand years ago, I will briefly inform you of
their laws and of their most famous action; the exact particulars
of the whole we will hereafter go through at our leisure in the
sacred registers themselves. If you compare these very laws with
ours you will find that many of ours are the counterpart of yours
as they were in the olden time. In the first place, there is the
caste of priests, which is separated from all the others; next,
there are the artificers, who ply their several crafts by
themselves and do not intermix; and also there is the class of
shepherds and of hunters, as well as that of husbandmen; and you
will observe, too, that the warriors in Egypt are distinct from
all the other classes, and are commanded by the law to devote
themselves solely to military pursuits; moreover, the weapons
which they carry are shields and spears, a style of equipment
which the goddess taught of Asiatics first to us, as in your part
of the world first to you. Then as to wisdom, do you observe how
our law from the very first made a study of the whole order of
things, extending even to prophecy and medicine which gives
health, out of these divine elements deriving what was needful
for human life, and adding every sort of knowledge which was akin
to them. All this order and arrangement the goddess first
imparted to you when establishing your city; and she chose the
spot of earth in which you were born, because she saw that the
happy temperament of the seasons in that land would produce the
wisest of men. Wherefore the goddess, who was a lover both of war
and of wisdom, selected and first of all settled that spot which
was the most likely to produce men likest herself. And there you
dwelt, having such laws as these and still better ones, and
excelled all mankind in all virtue, as became the children and
disciples of the gods.
Many great and wonderful deeds are recorded of your state in
our histories. But one of them exceeds all the rest in greatness
and valour. For these histories tell of a mighty power which
unprovoked made an expedition against the whole of Europe and
Asia, and to which your city put an end. This power came forth
out of the Atlantic Ocean, for in those days the Atlantic was
navigable; and there was an island situated in front of the
straits which are by you called the Pillars of Heracles; the
island was larger than Libya and Asia put together, and was the
way to other islands, and from these you might pass to the whole
of the opposite continent which surrounded the true ocean; for
this sea which is within the Straits of Heracles is only a
harbour, having a narrow entrance, but that other is a real sea,
and the surrounding land may be most truly called a boundless
continent. Now in this island of Atlantis there was a great and
wonderful empire which had rule over the whole island and several
others, and over parts of the continent, and, furthermore, the
men of Atlantis had subjected the parts of Libya within the
columns of Heracles as far as Egypt, and of Europe as far as
Tyrrhenia. This vast power, gathered into one, endeavoured to
subdue at a blow our country and yours and the whole of the
region within the straits; and then, Solon, your country shone
forth, in the excellence of her virtue and strength, among all
mankind.
