Timaeus. How thankful
I am, Socrates, that I have arrived at last,
and, like a weary traveller after a long
journey, may be at rest! And I pray the being
who always was of old, and has now been by me
revealed, to grant that my words may endure in
so far as they have been spoken truly and
acceptably to him; but if unintentionally I have
said anything wrong, I pray that he will impose
upon me a just retribution, and the just
retribution of him who errs is that he should be
set right. Wishing, then, to speak truly in
future concerning the generation of the gods, I
pray him to give me knowledge, which of all
medicines is the most perfect and best. And now
having offered my prayer I deliver up the
argument to Critias, who is to speak next
according to our agreement.
Critias. And I, Timaeus, accept the
trust, and as you at first said that you were
going to speak of high matters, and begged that
some forbearance might be shown to you, I too
ask the same or greater forbearance for what I
am about to say. And although I very well know
that my request may appear to be somewhat and
discourteous, I must make it nevertheless. For
will any man of sense deny that you have spoken
well? I can only attempt to show that I ought to
have more indulgence than you, because my theme
is more difficult; and I shall argue that to
seem to speak well of the gods to men is far
easier than to speak well of men to men: for the
inexperience and utter ignorance of his hearers
about any subject is a great assistance to him
who has to speak of it, and we know how ignorant
we are concerning the gods. But I should like to
make my meaning clearer, if Timaeus, you will
follow me. All that is said by any of us can
only be imitation and representation. For if we
consider the likenesses which painters make of
bodies divine and heavenly, and the different
degrees of gratification with which the eye of
the spectator receives them, we shall see that
we are satisfied with the artist who is able in
any degree to imitate the earth and its
mountains, and the rivers, and the woods, and
the universe, and the things that are and move
therein, and further, that knowing nothing
precise about such matters, we do not examine or
analyze the painting; all that is required is a
sort of indistinct and deceptive mode of
shadowing them forth. But when a person
endeavours to paint the human form we are quick
at finding out defects, and our familiar
knowledge makes us severe judges of any one who
does not render every point of similarity. And
we may observe the same thing to happen in
discourse; we are satisfied with a picture of
divine and heavenly things which has very little
likeness to them; but we are more precise in our
criticism of mortal and human things. Wherefore
if at the moment of speaking I cannot suitably
express my meaning, you must excuse me,
considering that to form approved likenesses of
human things is the reverse of easy. This is
what I want to suggest to you, and at the same
time to beg, Socrates, that I may have not less,
but more indulgence conceded to me in what I am
about to say. Which favour, if I am right in
asking, I hope that you will be ready to grant.
Socrates. Certainly, Critias, we will
grant your request, and we will grant the same
by anticipation to Hermocrates, as well as to
you and Timaeus; for I have no doubt that when
his turn comes a little while hence, he will
make the same request which you have made. In
order, then, that he may provide himself with a
fresh beginning, and not be compelled to say the
same things over again, let him understand that
the indulgence is already extended by
anticipation to him. And now, friend Critias, I
will announce to you the judgment of the
theatre. They are of opinion that the last
performer was wonderfully successful, and that
you will need a great deal of indulgence before
you will be able to take his place.
Hermocrates. The warning, Socrates, which
you have addressed to him, I must also take to
myself. But remember, Critias, that faint heart
never yet raised a trophy; and therefore you
must go and attack the argument like a man.
First invoke Apollo and the Muses, and then let
us hear you sound the praises and show forth the
virtues of your ancient citizens.
Crit. Friend Hermocrates, you, who are
stationed last and have another in front of you,
have not lost heart as yet; the gravity of the
situation will soon be revealed to you;
meanwhile I accept your exhortations and
encouragements. But besides the gods and
goddesses whom you have mentioned, I would
specially invoke Mnemosyne; for all the
important part of my discourse is dependent on
her favour, and if I can recollect and recite
enough of what was said by the priests and
brought hither by Solon, I doubt not that I
shall satisfy the requirements of this theatre.
And now, making no more excuses, I will proceed.
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.
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.
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.