In the image of which Plato depicted Atlantis. Atlantis - Exact Location Established

Since antiquity, there have been ongoing disputes about the legendary Atlantis and its ancient civilization. More than 6 thousand volumes of books have been written about Atlantis. Dozens of academicians, hundreds of doctors of sciences of Russia took part in the research of the topic, having written more than 215,000 articles. But did this mysterious civilization exist at all? If yes, when and where? How to interpret the testimonies of the ancients? And - most importantly - what practical significance does, if it has, now, the fact of the existence of this country in ancient times?

My plans do not include attempts to conduct my own research and write an essay on the epochal mystery of Atlantis. I will only try to acquaint curious readers with some of the hypotheses existing in the world of scientists. And only on some of them I will express my personal opinion. The legend of Atlantis - a sunken island where a highly developed civilization once existed, where a strong, enlightened and happy people lived - the Atlanteans - has been worrying mankind for more than two thousand years. The primary source of information about Atlantis is the writings of the ancient Greek scientist Plato.

He lived in the 4th century BC, he told us about Atlantis in the form of conversations-dialogues ("Plato's Dialogues"). Two books of the thinker - Timaeus and Critias - contain a story about Atlantis by Plato's contemporary, the writer and politician Critias, who heard in childhood from his grandfather, and he, in turn, from "the wisest of the seven wise "- the Athenian legislator Solon. Solon became aware of this from the Egyptian priests.

The dialogue "Timaeus" begins with the arguments of Socrates and Timaeus about the best state structure. Having briefly described the ideal state, Socrates complains about the abstractness and schematic nature of the picture obtained and expresses a desire “to listen to a description of how this state behaves in the struggle with other states, how it enters the war in a worthy manner, how during the war its citizens do what what befits them, according to their training and education, whether on the battlefield or in negotiations with each of the other states. Responding to this wish, the third participant in the dialogue, the Athenian political figure Critias, recounts the story of the war between Athens and Atlantis, allegedly from the words of his grandfather Critias the Elder, who, in turn, recounted to him the story of Solon, heard last from the priests in Egypt.

The meaning of the story is this: once, Athens was the most glorious, powerful and virtuous state in the world. Atlantis was their main rival. "This island was larger than Libya and Asia combined." A “kingdom of amazing size and power” arose on it, which owned all of Libya to Egypt and Europe to Tirrenia (western Italy). All the forces of this kingdom were thrown into the enslavement of Athens. The Athenians rose to defend their freedom at the head of the Hellenes (ancient Greeks); and although all their allies betrayed them, they alone, thanks to their valor and virtue, repulsed the invasion.

The Atlanteans were crushed, and the peoples enslaved by them were freed. After that, however, a grandiose natural disaster occurred, as a result of which the entire Athenian army perished in one day, and Atlantis sank to the bottom of the sea.

The dialogue "Critias", with the same participants, serves as a direct continuation of the "Timaeus" and is entirely devoted to the story of Critias about ancient Athens and Atlantis. Athens then (before the earthquake and flood) was the center of a large and extraordinarily fertile country; they were inhabited by a virtuous people who established an ideal (from Plato's point of view) state structure. Namely, everything was controlled by rulers and warriors who lived separately from the main agricultural and handicraft mass, - on the Acropolis, - by the community (Acropolis is a hill in Athens, on which the main temple of the ancient Greeks, the Parthenon, was erected and is still located). Modest and virtuous Athens is opposed by the haughty and powerful Atlantis.

The ancestor of the Atlanteans, according to Plato, was the god of the seas, Poseidon, who met with the mortal girl Kleito, who gave birth to ten divine sons from him. The eldest of them was called Atlant, after his name the island was named Atlantis, and the sea - the Atlantic.

There was also a temple dedicated to Poseidon; there was something barbaric in the appearance of the building. The entire outer surface of the temple, except for the acroteria, they laid out with silver, the acroteria with gold; inside the eye was an ivory ceiling, all decorated with gold, silver and orichalcum, and the walls, pillars and floors were completely lined with orichalcum (aurichalcum, literally "golden copper" - approx. The author of the article).

They also put golden statues there: the god himself on a chariot, ruling with six winged horses and reaching his head to the ceiling, around him there are a hundred Nereids on dolphins (for people in those days imagined their number as such) ... Outside, around the temple, there were golden images of wives and all those who descended from the ten kings, as well as many other expensive offerings from the kings and from individuals of this city and those cities that were subject to it.

The altar was proportionate in size and decoration to this wealth; likewise, the royal palace was in due proportion, both with the greatness of the state, and with the decoration of the sanctuaries.

From Plato's Dialogues

According to Plato, Atlantis was located in the Atlantic Ocean beyond Gibraltar and died about 12 thousand years ago (between 9750 and 8570 BC). The Critias dialogue gives a detailed description of Atlantis, its relief, cities, and social system. And before that follows an equally detailed story about the ancient homeland of the Athenians (the current Attica - or even Greece, - according to Critias, "only the skeleton of a body exhausted by an illness, when all the soft and fat earth was washed away and only one skeleton is still in front of us"), about its capital with the Acropolis, which is much larger than the current one, about its inhabitants - "the leaders of all other Hellenes by the good will of the latter" (testimony of Critias). The code of laws that Poseidon himself gave to the Atlanteans was inscribed on a high orichalcum pillar, installed in the middle of the island. Atlantis was ruled by ten kings - each with his own part of the island. Once every five or six years they gathered behind this pillar. Here they "conferred about common affairs, or they sorted out whether anyone had committed any misconduct, and they made a court."

The Atlanteans were distinguished by their nobility and lofty way of thinking, “looking at everything except virtue with disdain, they valued little that they had a lot of gold and other possessions, were indifferent to wealth as a burden, and did not fall to the ground in the intoxication of luxury, losing power over oneself.

But “nature inherited from God” was depleted, “repeatedly dissolving in mortal impurity, and human disposition prevailed” - and then the Atlanteans “were unable to endure their wealth any longer and lost their decency”, losing the most beautiful of their values, although they “seemed most beautiful and happiest just when they were seething with unbridled greed and power.

Time passed - and the Atlanteans changed, filled with "the wrong spirit of self-interest and power." They began to use their knowledge and the achievements of their culture for evil.

Atlantis had a strong army and navy, consisting of one thousand two hundred warships. And so all this cohesive power was thrown at one blow to plunge into slavery both your and our lands and all the countries on this side of the strait in general. It was then, Solon, that your state showed the whole world a brilliant proof of its valor and strength; surpassing all in fortitude and experience in military affairs, it first stood at the head of the Hellenes, but because of the betrayal of the allies, it turned out to be left to itself, faced extreme dangers alone, and yet defeated the conquerors and erected victorious trophies. Those who were not yet enslaved, it saved from the threat of slavery; all the rest, no matter how much we lived on this side of the Pillars of Heracles, it generously made free.

Testimony of Timaeus

In the end, Zeus became angry with the Atlanteans, and "in one day and a disastrous night, the island of Atlantis disappeared, plunging into the sea." According to Plato, this happened in the 10th millennium BC.

And the debate about whether Atlantis really existed or was invented by Plato began in ancient times.

Afterword

It is natural to assume that after reading the article, the reader will have a reasonable question: What is the purpose of the proposed series of publications on the portal. As mentioned in the annotation to the article, more than 6 thousand volumes of books have been published about Atlantis, hundreds of thousands of articles have been written. Not only venerable scientists, but also science fiction writers, journalists, and poets took part in writing articles and books. So is it still necessary to produce articles, especially not for a professional researcher, not for a geocachingist and not for a columnist?

The fact is that when selecting materials for publications, I came across a great many sources (books, reviews, abstracts, portals), each of which sometimes contains up to several hundred pages. Often texts are repeated to a large extent. Reading and analyzing these materials is a laborious and tedious task. Therefore, I wanted to write a small series of articles that would give the most general ideas about the legendary Atlantis in an extremely compressed form (about the hypotheses of its location on the planet, the causes and time of death, about earthly civilizations and cataclysms, etc.). This is not an easy task, and therefore I am not sure if I can handle it. However, I will try if I see readers' interest in continuing the story. In each article, I intend to provide links to sources of information that, if desired, inquisitive readers can find and get more complete and in-depth knowledge about Atlantis.

The article uses sources from the Internet:

Plato on Atlantis (original from the Timaeus and Critias dialogues)
Atlantis. Wikipedia
A.M. Kondratov. "Atlantis of the Tethys Sea"
Historical portal
Article "Renaissance Titans"
Ancient Greece. Wikipedia
Encyclopedia "Circumnavigation". Atlantis (Alexander Gorodnitsky)

To be continued

Help of the World Encyclopedia of Travel

Pythagoreans led a special way of life, they had their own special daily routine. The Pythagoreans had to start the day with verses: “Before you get up from the sweet dreams cast by the night, think, spread out what things the day has prepared for you.”

Weird, but in the section "Ancient Greece" (in the same Wikipedia) the historical periods of Greece are somewhat (!) Later:

This is completely inconsistent in time with Plato's dialogues.

To be continued

In the works of some ancient Greek historians, geographers, mythographers, mathematicians, theologians and astronomers, there are references to one state that has sunk into oblivion: the legendary island of Atlantis. About two thousand years ago, Plato, Herodotus, Diodorus and other respected authors wrote about him in their writings.

Ancient authors about the sunken island of Atlantis

Basic information about the lost Atlantis is contained in the writings of Plato. In the dialogues Timaeus and Critias, he talks about an island state that existed about 11,500 years ago.

According to Plato, the god Poseidon was the ancestor of the Atlanteans. He connected his life with a mortal girl who bore him ten sons. When the children grew up, the father divided the island between them. The best part of the land went to the eldest son of Poseidon: Atlan.

Atlantis was a powerful, wealthy and populous state. Its inhabitants built a serious system of defense against external enemies and built a network of circular canals leading to the sea, as well as an internal port.

Large cities were distinguished by amazing architectural structures and beautiful sculptures: temples made of gold and silver, golden statues and statues. The island was very fertile, with a varied natural world; in the bowels of the earth, people mined copper and silver.

The Atlanteans were a warlike people: the army of the state included a navy of 1000 ships, the number of crews was equal to 240 thousand people; The ground army consisted of 700 thousand people. The descendants of Poseidon fought successfully for many years, conquering new territories and wealth; so it was until Athens stood in their way.

The Athenians, in order to defeat the Atlanteans, created a military alliance with the peoples of the Balkan Peninsula. But on the day of the battle, the allies refused to fight, and the Athenians were left face to face with the enemy. The fearless courageous Greeks defeated the aggressor and liberated the peoples previously enslaved by him.

But early Greek warriors rejoiced at their achievements: they decided to intervene in the affairs of people, who had been following the inhabitants of Atlantis for the last centuries. Zeus considered that the Atlanteans had become greedy, greedy, depraved and decided to punish them to the fullest extent by flooding the island along with its inhabitants and the Athenians who did not have time to celebrate the victory.

Here is what Plato writes about Atlantis in his two writings. At first glance, this is just a beautiful legend, an interesting fairy tale. There is no direct evidence for the existence of Atlantis in ancient times, nor any reference to authoritative sources.

But these two dialogues survived not only Plato himself, but also two millennia more - during this time many disputes and theories regarding the lost state arose.

Plato's student Aristotle, who listened to the speeches of the Platonist philosophers for about 20 years, eventually categorically rejected the existence of Atlantis, stating that the dialogues "Timaeus" and "Critias" are just an invention, the nonsense of an old man.

It was because of Aristotle that Atlantis was talked about reluctantly, in an undertone until the end of the 18th century. After all, this venerable philosopher enjoyed unquestioned authority in Europe, especially in the Middle Ages. All statements of Aristotle were perceived by Europeans as the ultimate truth.

So why was Aristotle so sure that Atlantis was fiction, because he did not have irrefutable evidence of this? Why was he so harsh in his judgments? Some sources claim that the philosopher simply did not like his mentor, so he decided in this way to spoil the authority of Plato in the eyes of his admirers and admirers.

Mentions of Atlanteans in the writings of other ancient authors

Other ancient authors wrote very little about Atlantis: Herodotus claimed that the Atlanteans had no names, did not see and were defeated by troglodytes - cavemen; according to the stories of Diodorus, the inhabitants of Atlantis fought with the Amazons. Posidonius, who was interested in the causes of land subsidence, believed that Plato's story was plausible.

Proclus in his writings reports on one follower of the ancient thinker: an Athenian Krantor.

Allegedly, he specially went to 47 years after the death of the philosopher to find evidence in favor of the existence of an island state; returning from a trip, Crantor said that in one of the ancient temples he saw columns with inscriptions retelling the historical events described by Plato.

Search for Atlantis

It is quite difficult to indicate the exact location of the lost Atlantis: there are many hypotheses about where the flooded state may be.

Plato wrote that a huge island was once in the ocean behind the Pillars of Hercules (i.e., behind Gibraltar). But his searches in the area of the Canary, Balearic, Azores and British Islands did not lead to anything.

Some researchers suggest looking for the remains of the material culture of the Atlanteans in the Black Sea, linking the flooding of the island with the "Black Sea flood" that occurred 7-8 millennia ago - then the sea level in less than a year rose, according to various estimates, from 10 to 80 meters.

There is a hypothesis according to which Antarctica is the lost Atlantis. Scientists who adhere to this theory believe that Antarctica in ancient times was shifted to the south pole due to a lithospheric shift or a sharp shift in the earth's axis as a result of a collision of our planet with a large cosmic body.

There is also an opinion that traces of Atlantis can be found in South America or Brazil. But most interpreters of Plato's dialogues are sure: the lost island should be looked for only in the Atlantic Ocean.

In recent decades, the lost state has been looking for many expeditions, most of which returned empty-handed. True, from time to time the whole world is disturbed by news about the found traces of a flooded island.

Have the Russians found Atlantis?

In 1979, a Soviet expedition, while testing a diving bell, accidentally discovered some objects in the Atlantic Ocean that looked like the ruins of an ancient city.

The action unfolded just behind the “Pillars of Hercules” indicated by Plato, 500 km from Gibraltar, above the Amper seamount, which protruded above the surface of the ocean many millennia ago, but then for some reason went under water.

Three years later, the Soviet ship "Rift" went to the same place to explore the ocean floor with the help of the Argus submersible. The aquanauts were amazed by what they saw; from their words, they opened the panorama of the city ruins: the remains of rooms, squares, streets.

But the expedition, which took place in 1984, did not justify the hopes of the researchers: an analysis of two stones raised from the ocean floor showed that it was just volcanic rock, solidified lava, and not the creation of human hands.

The opinion of modern scientists about Atlantis

Atlantis is a fantasy

Most modern historians and philologists are convinced that Plato's dialogues are just a beautiful legend, of which the philosopher has many. There are no traces of this state either in Greece, or in the west of Europe, or in Africa - this is confirmed by archaeological excavations.

The opinion of scientists that Atlantis is only a figment of the imagination is also based on the following: the philosopher writes about the network of canals built on the island, about the inner port, but such large-scale projects in ancient times were beyond the power of people.

Plato indicated the approximate date of the island's sinking into the ocean depths: 9000 years before he wrote the dialogues (i.e., approximately 9500 BC). But this contradicts the data of modern science: at that time, humanity was just emerging from the Paleolithic era. It is not easy to believe that somewhere in those days there lived a people who overtook the entire human race in their development by thousands of years.

Many scientists are convinced that Plato, when writing his works, took as a basis some of the events that took place during his lifetime: for example, the defeat of the Greeks when they tried to conquer the island of Sicily and the flooding of the town of Gelika as a result of an earthquake followed by a flood.

Other researchers believe that the basis for the works of the philosopher was the volcanic eruption on the island of Santorini, which subsequently hit the coast of Crete and other islands of the Mediterranean Sea - this disaster led to the decline of the developed Minoan civilization.

The version is supported by the following fact: the Minoans really fought against the Archeans who inhabited Greece in ancient times and were even defeated by them (just like the Atlanteans were defeated by the Greeks in the dialogues Timaeus and Critias).

In general, many researchers of the thinker's works believe that Plato, being a utopian idealist, with his writings only wanted to call his contemporaries to build an ideal exemplary humane state in which there would be no place for dictatorship, violence and tyranny.

However, the philosopher himself in the dialogues constantly emphasizes that Atlantis is not just a legend, but an island state that once really existed.

Plato doesn't lie

Some researchers nevertheless admit that there is a grain of truth in the writings of the ancient thinker. Excavations carried out in recent years by archaeologists have helped scientists obtain new information about the life and technical achievements of our ancestors living 5-10 thousand years ago.

Modern archaeologists find the remains of grandiose structures created by ancient people everywhere: in Egypt, Sumer, Babylon. Tunnels for collecting groundwater, many kilometers of adits, stone dams, man-made lakes - all these structures operated long before the birth of Plato.

Consequently, the philosopher's dialogues cannot be attributed to fiction only on the grounds that mankind 11 millennia ago was unable to build a network of canals and bridges: recent archaeological excavations prove the opposite.

In addition, since the works of Plato rewritten more than once have come down to us, it is likely that over the two millennia there has been a confusion with dates.

The fact is that in the system of Egyptian hieroglyphs, the number "9000" is indicated by lotus flowers, and the number "900" - rope knots; supporters of the existence of Atlantis believe that the later scribes of the dialogues could easily confuse symbols so similar to each other, thus pushing back the historical event several thousand years ago.

On top of that, Plato, who belongs to a highly revered family in ancient Greece, in his dialogues refers to his ancestor: the wisest of the "seven wise men" legislator Solon. And the ancient Greeks were very kind to their roots, tried to protect the sacred memory of their relatives. Would Plato, given his moral qualities, refer to Solon in his works, because if the whole story with Atlantis is just a fiction, he would tarnish the name of the wisest representative of the family?

Afterword

Atlantis has been shrouded in a halo of mystery for many centuries. People have been trying to find the suddenly disappeared state for almost two thousand years: some - wanting to take possession of the treasures described by Plato, others - out of scientific interest, others - just out of curiosity.

In the 50s of the last century, even a doctrine called "atlantology" appeared, its main task is to identify true information about Atlantis in historical sources and mythical legends.

The debate about whether the mysterious land once existed or the ancient Greek thinker simply invented it does not subside to this day. Various theories are born and die, conjectures appear and disappear. Some of them are supported by science, while others are more like a beautiful fairy tale.

Perhaps our children or grandchildren will solve the riddle of Atlantis. But it may turn out that another two thousand years will pass, and the mystery of the lost island will remain unsolved, and our descendants, just like we are today, will be tormented by conjectures and assumptions.

ARTICLE IN VIDEO FORMAT

Critias (excerpt from "Dialogues" about Atlantis)

(excerpt from "Dialogues" about Atlantis)

Timaeus, Critias, Socrates, Hermocrates

Timaeus. Oh, Socrates, how the traveler rejoices after taking a breath after a long journey, I feel the same joy now, having brought my reasoning to the end. But to God, who has been in deeds since ancient times, and in the word that has arisen now, recently, I offer up a prayer: may those of our speeches that are said as they should be, he will turn us to salvation, and if we said something awkwardly against our will, let it be for us due punishment! And the due punishment for the one who sings out of tune is to teach him the tune; so that henceforth we may speak correctly about the birth of the gods, may in answer to our prayer be granted to us a healing potion, of all potions, the most perfect and best, knowledge! Having made a prayer, by agreement we pass the word to Kritia.

Critias. I will accept the word, Timaeus, but, as you yourself asked for indulgence at the beginning, referring to the immensity of your subject, so I will do the same. Considering what I have to say, I think I have the right to demand even more indulgence. I myself know that my request is, perhaps, vain and excessively strange, but I have to express it. It’s good for you: who, being in their right mind, will undertake to prove that you spoke incorrectly? But my task, as I will try to prove, is more difficult, and therefore requires more indulgence.

You see, Timaeus, it is easier for someone who talks to people about the gods to inspire confidence in his speeches than for someone who talks with us about mortals, for when the listeners are deprived of experience and knowledge in something, this gives the one who takes it into his head to speak before them about it, great freedom of action. And what our information about the gods is, we ourselves understand this. To make clearer what I mean, I invite you to pay attention with me to the following thing. Everything we say is in some way an imitation and a reflection; meanwhile, if we consider the work of painters on the image of divine and human bodies from the point of view of the ease or difficulty with which it is possible to inspire the audience with the appearance of complete similarity, we will see that, if it is a question of land, mountains, rivers and forests, as well as about the whole firmament with everything that exists on it and walks on it, we are satisfied if the painter is able to even come close to the likeness of these objects; and, as we cannot know anything about them with sufficient certainty, we do not check or denounce what is written, but tolerate obscure and deceptive shadow writing. On the contrary, if someone begins to depict our own bodies, we vividly feel the omissions, we are always very attentive to them and we are severe judges of those who do not achieve resemblance in everything and not completely.

The same is easy to see with regard to reasoning: we approve of speeches about celestial and divine objects, if they show even the slightest probability, we carefully check speeches about mortal and human things. Therefore, you should have indulgence to what I now have to say without any preparation, even if I cannot achieve conformity in everything: think that the mortal is not easy, but, on the contrary, it is difficult to represent in accordance with probability. All this I have said, Socrates, in order to remind you of the indicated circumstance and to demand no less, but even more indulgence for what I have to tell. If it seems to you that I rightly demand a gift, give it to me freely.

Socrates. Ah, Critias, why don't we give it to you? And let the third Hermocrates also receive the same gift from us. It is clear that a little later, when it is his turn to speak, he will ask for the same thing as you. Now, so that he may afford another introduction, and not be forced to repeat it, let him build his speech as if he had already received indulgence for it. So be it, my dear Critias, I will tell you in advance how the audience of this theater is disposed: the previous poet had an amazing success with them, and if only you are able to continue, indulgence is guaranteed to you.

Hermocrates. Of course, Socrates, your words apply to me, not only to him. Well, timid men have never erected trophies, Critias, and therefore you should boldly take up your speech and, calling for the help of Peon and the Muses, present and sing the virtues of ancient citizens.

Critias. It is good for you to be brave, dear Hermocrates, when you are placed in the back ranks and another soldier is standing in front of you. Well, you still have to test my position. As for your consolations and encouragement, then you need to heed them and call on the help of the gods of those whom you named, and others, especially Mnemosyne. Perhaps the most important thing in my speech depends entirely on this goddess. After all, if I correctly recall and retell what was told by the priests and brought here by Solon, I will almost be sure that our theater will consider me tolerably fulfilled my task. So, it's time to start, there is nothing to delay any longer.

First of all, let us briefly recall that, according to legend, nine thousand years ago there was a war between those peoples who lived on the other side of the Pillars of Hercules, and all those who lived on this side: we have to tell about this war. It is reported that at the head of the latter waged war, bringing it to the very end, our state, and at the head of the first kings of the island of Atlantis; as we have already mentioned, it was once an island larger than Libya and Asia, but now it has collapsed due to earthquakes and turned into impassable silt, blocking the way for sailors who would try to sail from us to the open sea, and making navigation unthinkable. Numerous barbarian tribes, as well as those Greek peoples who then existed, will be discussed in detail in the course of the presentation, but it is necessary to tell about the Athenians and their opponents in this war at the very beginning, describing the forces and state structure of each side. Let us render this honor first to the Athenians and tell about them.

As you know, the gods divided among themselves by lot all the countries of the earth. They did this without strife: it would be wrong to imagine that the gods do not know what is appropriate for each of them, or that they are able, knowing that a thing should belong to another, yet start a strife about this thing. So, having received the desired share by right of lot, each of the gods settled in his own country; having settled down, they began to nurture us, their property and pets, as shepherds nurture their flock. But if these latter act on bodies with bodily violence and graze cattle by means of a scourge, then the gods chose, as it were, the place of a helmsman, from where it is most convenient to direct an obedient living being, and acted by conviction, as if by a rudder of the soul, as their plan prompted them. Thus they ruled over the whole race of mortals.

The island-state of Atlantis was first told to the world in 355 BC. e. the ancient Greek scientist Aristocles, known to mankind under the name Plato of Athens (428 or 427 - 348 or 347 BC), a student of the greatest philosopher of that moment Socrates (470-399 BC). Plato's pope, Ariston, came from the family of the last Athenian king Codras. Plato's maternal ancestor, Perictione, (his great-great-grandfather) was the legislator Solon (640-559 BC), who traveled widely and, starting from about 570 BC. e., spent about 10 years in the country of the pharaohs in Egypt. There Solon talked with the priests of the goddess Neith about ancient times and got acquainted with documents related to the distant past of Greece, Egypt and ... Atlantis.

In 404 BC. e. as a very young man, Plato witnessed the capture of Athens by the troops of Sparta. Thus ended the Peloponnesian War.

The democratic system in Athens was destroyed, and power in the city passed to 30 tyrants. Among them was a relative and friend of Plato, Critias the Younger, who was the first uncle. However, a year later, in a battle with the democrats, Critias was killed and democracy in Athens again triumphed.

The young Plato had to leave Athens for a long time. It was then that during his travels he visited Syracuse, many Mediterranean cities and countries, including Egypt, where the "wisest of the seven wise" Hellas Solon once studied.

Any story about Atlantis begins with a mention of two (out of ten extant) philosophical dialogues of Plato - "Timaeus" and "Critias", which are a retelling of the lessons of Socrates to his students. This immutable rule is followed by both supporters and opponents of the existence of the legendary country in the past in the Atlantic.

Plato wrote these dialogues towards the end of his life. In the first of them, Timaeus, a description of the Athenian state at war with the Atlanteans is given, and in the second, Critias, Atlantis is described. Both of these dialogues form a single cycle with another (third!) Plato's dialogue - "The State", which, with reference to Socrates, tells about the "journey" to the afterlife. Consequently, the dialogues "State", "Timaeus" and "Critias" are interconnected, the same persons talk in them.

Actually, the story of Atlantis itself became known from Plato only 200 years after Solon's visit to Egypt and almost 50 years after Plato's travel to this country. However, he did not say a word about whether he himself had a chance to see the documents about Atlantis, which the Egyptian priests had, or not.

True, from both dialogues it follows that the legend of Atlantis and the reasons for its death was known to Plato before traveling to Egypt.

The whole myth about this island-state of Atlantis and the catastrophe that befell it is narrated by Plato in paragraphs 20d-26e of the Timaeus and 108d-121c of the Critias.

In the Timaeus dialogue, the role of the narrator is assigned to the poet and historian Critias the Younger, who was one of the students of Socrates who were present at this conversation. Critias tells his teacher and two of his friends (Timaeus and Hermocrates) the "ancient legend" that he heard in childhood from his grandfather Critias Sr., to whom Solon himself passed it on.

Critias addresses Socrates with the following words:

“Listen, Socrates, a legend, although very strange, but undoubtedly true, as Solon, the wisest of the seven wise men, once testified. He was a relative and a great friend of our great-grandfather Dropid... and he told our grandfather Critias that in ancient times great and admirable deeds were accomplished by our city, which were then forgotten due to the passage of time and the death of people..."

The great and wise Solon once traveled to Egypt, namely, to the city of Sais, located “at the top of the Delta, where the Nile diverges into separate streams”, the patroness of which is the goddess Neith, “and in Hellenic, according to the locals, this is Athena” .

Solon said that there "he was received with great honor." Once, "when ... he set out to ask about ancient times the most knowledgeable among the priests," then "he had to make sure that neither he himself, nor any of the Hellenes in general, it can be said, knows almost nothing about these subjects" . And then one of the priests exclaimed: “Ah, Solon, Solon! You Hellenes remain forever children, and there is no elder among the Hellenes. And the reason for this is that the minds of the Hellenes do not retain in themselves "no tradition, from time immemorial passed from generation to generation, and no teaching, gray-haired from time to time."

According to the Egyptian priests - civilizations are mortal. Many of them died because of the great fires that occur due to the stars deviating from their paths. Others perish, "when ... the gods, creating cleansing over the Earth, flood it with waters." In Egypt, however, there are temples that have never been threatened by either the flames of fires or the waters of floods, and in them records have been preserved in which all the wonderful earthly events are recorded.

These texts speak not only of many floods, but also of the state "which is now known by the name of Athens." Tradition ascribes to him such unprecedented deeds, "which are more beautiful than anything we know under heaven." It was Athens, before the most devastating flood, "put the limit to the insolence of countless military forces sent to conquer all of Europe and Asia." And these military forces kept the path from one of the islands of the Atlantic Sea.

“Across this sea (the Atlantic. - A.V.) in those days it was possible to cross, because there was also an island (Atlantis. - A.V.), which lay in front of that strait, which is called in your language the Pillars of Hercules (Abilik rocks and Kalpa of the Strait of Gibraltar. - A. V.). This island exceeded Libya and Asia in size (the ancient Greeks called Libya and Asia, respectively, the inhabited territories of Africa without Egypt and the peninsula of Asia Minor. - A.V.), taken together, and it was quite easy for travelers of that time to move to other islands from it (now mostly flooded. - A.V.), and from the islands - to the entire opposite mainland (America. - A.V.), which covered that sea, which really deserves such a name (after all, the sea on this side of the said strait is only a bay with a certain narrow passage into it, while the sea on the other side of the said strait is the sea in the proper sense of the word (Atlantic Ocean. - A.V.), as well as the land surrounding it can truly and quite rightly be called a mainland. on this island, called Atlantis, a great and admirable union of kings appeared, whose power extended over the whole island, to many other islands and to part of the mainland (America. - A.V.), and moreover, on this one with side of the strait, they owned Libya up to Egypt and Europe up to Tirrenia (a region in Central Italy, off the coast of the Tyrrhenian Sea. - A. V.) ... "

The above quote is interesting for us because it refers not only to the location of Atlantis, but also to its size. So, according to Plato, it clearly follows that Atlantis was in the Atlantic Ocean and not just anywhere, but only in front of the Strait of Gibraltar. This is where you need to look for it. However, we will return to this issue many times in the future.

As for the size of Atlantis, the information obtained from Plato's dialogues is, indeed, extremely contradictory. The fact is that the value of the stage, a given unit of measurement of distances, as it turned out, changes in the required significant sizes. By the way, a stadion was equal to that segment of the path that a person walks with an even step during the full sunrise of the Sun's disk above the horizon line, i.e. within two minutes. In ancient Hellas, for example, there were two whole stages: 178 meters - Attic and 193 meters - Olympic. The next stage, equal to 98 meters, was in Egypt. It is clear that this fact is very important for us, since the very legend of Atlantis came to us from Egypt, and, apparently, in the future we need to use these meanings of the "Egyptian" stage.

Thus, if we take into account only the inhabited areas of the territory of "Libya and Asia taken together" and the fact reported by Plato that Atlantis extended in one direction for three thousand stadia (about 300 kilometers), and in the other - for two thousand (about 200 kilometers), it turns out that Atlantis, however, was necessary as a large island, but nevertheless its size is somewhat exaggerated.

According to Plato, the island of Atlantis itself had the shape of a regular oblong rectangle.

Framed on three sides by mountains that protected the island from the northern winds, it was open to the sea from the south side. Along the border of the plain and the mountains, a canal of grandiose dimensions ran: about 25 meters deep, about 100 meters wide and about 1000 kilometers long. From the bypass channel, straight channels were cut across the entire plain, which also had access to the sea. Forests felled in the mountains were rafted along these channels. Here is briefly everything that Plato told us in general about the island-state of Atlantis.

Further, the Timaeus says that the Atlanteans intended to enslave all the countries and lands that did not submit to them on this side of the Strait of Gibraltar with one blow. The Athenian state at first led the union of the Hellenes, which opposed this plan, “but because of the betrayal of the allies, it turned out to be left on its own, faced extreme dangers alone and still defeated the conquerors ...” However, “later, when the time came for unprecedented earthquakes and floods , in one terrible day, all your military strength was swallowed up by the gaping earth; likewise, Atlantis disappeared, plunging into the abyss (let us pay special attention to the fact that it does not say about the disappearance of the island of Atlantis within one day. - A.V.) ... After which the sea in those places (we are talking here only about entering Gibraltar from the Atlantic. - A.V.) has become unnavigable and inaccessible to this day due to the shallowing caused by the huge amount of silt that the settled island left behind ... ". This passage in Timaeus, in fact, ends the story of Atlantis, however, the text of the dialogue continues ...

A large amount of silt on the other side of the Strait of Gibraltar, together with Plato, was also reported by his students Aristotle and Theophrastus. This circumstance may cause bewilderment in the modern reader: what kind of silt in the Atlantic Ocean, in fact, can we talk about? However, this misunderstanding dissipates upon closer acquaintance with a modern map of the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean. The volcanic underwater ridge, which occupies the entire mid-central part of the ocean, is capable of ejecting such an amount of light material, for example, such as pumice, during an eruption, which can not only make navigation difficult, but also make it impossible in a particular area.

There is another story about the island-state in Plato's dialogue Critias, where Critias the Younger is talking to Hermocrates.

Critias reminds the interlocutor of what was told earlier to him and Socrates: about the existence of the island, its size and location, the war with Athens and the reasons for the subsequent disappearance. Having listed these events, Critias continues his story, describing in detail the ancient homeland of the Athenians (present-day Attica is “only the skeleton of a body exhausted by illness, when all the soft and fat earth was washed away and only one skeleton is also in front of us”); its capital with an acropolis much larger than the current one, and its inhabitants - "the leaders of all other Hellenes by the good will of the latter."

After that, Critias tells what Atlantis was like at the moment when "the gods divided among themselves by lot all the countries of the earth."

The climate of Atlantis was exceptionally mild. No winter, the sky is always blue. Its shores, composed of white, black and red rocks, abruptly cut off to the sea, so that the island was mountainous. However, among the mountains lay vast plains with highly fertile lands.

“So Poseidon, having received Atlantis as his inheritance, populated it with his children, conceived from a mortal woman, approximately in this place of the city: at an equal distance from the coast and in the middle of the whole island there was a plain, according to legend, more beautiful than all other plains and very fertile, and again in the middle of this plain, about fifty stadia from its edges, stood a mountain, low on all sides. On this mountain lived one of the men who were born there at the very beginning by the earth, named Evenor, and with him the wife of Leucippe, their only daughter was called Cleito. When the girl had already reached marriageable age, and her mother and father had died, Poseidon, inflamed with lust, united with her: he strengthened the hill on which she lived, separating it from the island in a circle and enclosing it alternately with water and earthen rings (there were earthen two, and water - three) large or smaller, drawn at an equal distance from the center of the island, as if by a compass. This barrier was insurmountable for people ... "

Further, Poseidon gave a well-maintained appearance to an island in the middle of the plain, exuded two springs from the earth - one with warm water, and the other with cold - and forced the earth to give varied and sufficient food for life.

“Having given birth to a couple of male twins five times, Poseidon raised them and divided the entire island of Atlantis (in this case, the whole country is meant. - A.V.) into ten parts, and to the one of the older couple who was born first ( his name was Atlas, but he should not be confused with another Atlas, the brother of Prometheus and the father of the Hesperides, who held the vault of heaven on his shoulders in the far west. - A.V.), he gave his mother's house and the surrounding possessions as the largest and best share and put his king over the rest...

A particularly numerous and revered family descended from Atlantis, in which the oldest was always the king and transferred the royal dignity to the oldest of his sons, from generation to generation retaining power in the family, and they accumulated such wealth that no royal dynasty has ever had in the past, and hardly ever will be the same, for they had at their disposal everything that was prepared both in the city and throughout the country. Much was imported to them from subject countries, but the island itself provided most of the necessities for life, first of all, all types of fossil hard and fusible metals, including what is now known only by name, but then existed in reality: native orichalcum, extracted from the bowels of the earth in different parts of the island. The forest in abundance supplied everything that was needed for the work of the builders, as well as for feeding domestic and wild animals. There were even a great many elephants on the island, because there was enough food not only for all other living creatures that inhabit the swamps, lakes and rivers, mountains or plains, but also for this beast, of all the animals, the most significant and voracious.

The land of Atlantis was rich in incense, which was found and cultivated in roots, herbs, wood, oozing resins, flowers or fruits. Yes, and "every fruit and cereal nurtured by man", from which food and bread were prepared - the sea canal hippodrome all this grew on the island "beautiful, amazing and abundant." Using these beautiful gifts of the earth, the kings of Atlantis built various sanctuaries, palaces, harbors, shipyards and put the whole country in order. First of all, they threw numerous bridges over the water channels that surrounded the ancient metropolis, thereby creating a path connecting the capital with these areas.

“They mined white, black and red stone in the bowels of the middle island and in the bowels of the outer and inner earthen rings, and in the quarries, where there were double recesses covered from above with the same stone, they arranged parking for ships. If some of their own buildings they made simple, then in others they skillfully combined stones of various colors for fun, giving them a natural charm; they also covered the walls around the outer earthen ring around the entire circumference in copper, applying the metal in molten form, the wall of the inner shaft was covered with tin casting, and the wall of the acropolis itself was covered with orichalcum, emitting a fiery brilliance.

The main royal dwelling was built where the abode of God and ancestors had previously been. It was arranged as follows. In the middle stood the sacred temple of Kleito and Poseidon, surrounded by a golden fence. There was also a temple dedicated to one Poseidon. The outside of his building was covered with silver, and the pillars at its corners were made of gold. Inside the temple was impressive: an ivory ceiling adorned with gold, silver and orichalcum; walls, internal columns and floor were dressed in the same orichalcum.

Inside the temple was a huge golden statue of Poseidon. Standing in a chariot and touching the ceiling with his head, he drove six winged horses, surrounded by Nereids swimming on dolphins. There were many other statues in the temple donated by private individuals, and outside it were golden images of the royal wives and all their descendants, who were born from the ten kings of Atlantis. In addition, near the temple were images of individuals from the capital city and from other cities dominated by Atlantis.

There were two springs at the service of the kings - one with warm, and the other with cold water. She, who had an amazing taste and had healing properties, was taken to reservoirs and to the sacred grove of Poseidon - a group of various tree species of extraordinary beauty and height.

Thanks to the constant improvements of the rulers, who tried to surpass their predecessor, the building of the palace turned into a structure of amazing size and beauty. This is how the place where the kings of Atlantis lived was arranged.

From the sea to the very last of the three water rings of the capital, which were approximately 100, 200 and 300 meters wide, respectively, the Atlanteans dug a canal, which was about 100 meters wide, more than 30 meters deep and about 5 kilometers long. Thus, in the first from the sea and the widest canal, a large harbor was created, continuously filled with ships, on which merchants arrived from everywhere in such a multitude that talking, noise and knocking were constantly heard here day and night.

A formidable force was the army of the Atlanteans. Their fleet, for example, consisted of 1,200 ships and 240,000 sailors. True, it is difficult to imagine a fleet of more than a thousand ships, and a quarter of a million sailors is too much even for the entire country of Atlantis.

Indeed, in those ancient times, when, according to modern ideas, the population of the entire Earth was only a few million people, Atlantis could have no more than two or three million inhabitants. And with whom could such a large fleet fight? However, let's listen further to Plato.

Further in the dialogue, Critias describes "the nature of the countryside and how it was arranged." As already noted, the entire region was very high above sea level. The plain surrounding the city was itself surrounded by mountains. The length around the perimeter of this quadrangular area was about a thousand kilometers (10,000 stadia). Each section of the plain “had to supply one warrior-leader, and the size of each section was ten by ten stades, and in total there were sixty thousand; and that uncountable number of simple warriors, which was recruited from the mountains and from the rest of the country, according to the number of participants, was distributed among the leaders.

As you can see, the land army of Atlantis can be characterized only with the help of fantastic figures. It numbered more than 700 thousand people. Only a very large modern power can do this. Therefore, the given data can only testify to one thing: Plato's figures are clearly overestimated, approximately 100 times! However, this is only our assumption and it is not possible to prove it. And that's why you have to believe Plato...

The laws in Atlantis were established in accordance with the prescription of the god Poseidon and were inscribed "by the first kings on the orichalcum stele, which stood in the center of the island - inside the temple of Poseidon." In this temple, all ten kings of Atlantis met once every five or six years to "confer on common concerns, to sort out whether any of them had committed any violation, and to judge." Before proceeding to court, they, armed only with sticks and lassoes, caught a bull in the grove at the sanctuary of Poseidon, after which he was “led to the stele and stabbed over its top, so that the blood dripped onto the letters”, took the appropriate oath and “sat down on the ground with an oath fire and at night, having extinguished all the lights in the temple, they performed judgment and were subjected to judgment if one of them violated the law.

However, “the share inherited from God weakened, repeatedly dissolving in a mortal admixture, and the human temper prevailed, then they were no longer able to endure their wealth and lost their decency.” The rulers of Atlantis lost their best value, however, and "seemed to be the most beautiful and happiest of all just when unbridled greed was seething in them."

“And so Zeus, the god of the gods, observing the laws, being perfectly able to see what we were talking about, thought about the glorious family that had fallen into such miserable depravity, and decided to impose punishment on him, so that he, having sobered up from trouble, learned goodness. Therefore, he called all the gods to the most glorious of his abode, established in the center of the world, from which you can see everything involved in the birth, and addressed the audience with these words ... "

With these lines about Zeus and his punishment, the Critias dialogue ends, i.e. it was left unfinished. We will never know for sure what Plato wanted to say with this unfinished phrase. Shortly thereafter, Plato died.

It is interesting in this case to highlight that the dialogue Critias was not the last work of the philosopher: the Laws were written after him. Therefore, the version that the Critias dialogue is not completed due to Plato's lack of time for this work is untenable. Most likely, the end of the dialogue was subsequently lost, as happened with some other works of Plato.

From what is told about Atlantis in Timaeus and the beginning of Critias, we still know that the last words of Zeus predetermined the fate of this legendary country. Zeus, according to ancient Greek myths, more than once imposed punishment on the human race.

It is necessary to remember Deucalion's flood, Zeus's attempt to destroy the old kind of people and "plant" a new one. The Trojan War, in its essence, is also a consequence of the prayer of Mother Earth, Gaia, to Zeus to punish people for their wickedness.

Zeus sent his own punishing lightning bolts to Atlantis, as a result of which this island country disappeared completely and irrevocably in the depths of the sea ... The god of the gods Zeus severely punished when it came to making people "more moderate and wise"!

The island-state of Atlantis was first told to the world in 355 BC. e. the ancient Greek scientist Aristocles, known to mankind under the name Plato of Athens (428 or 427 - 348 or 347 BC), a student of the greatest philosopher of that time Socrates (470-399 BC). Plato's father, Ariston, came from the family of the last Athenian king Codras. Plato's maternal ancestor, Perictione, (his great-great-grandfather) was the legislator Solon (640-559 BC), who traveled extensively and, starting around 570 BC. e., spent about 10 years in the country of the pharaohs in Egypt. There Solon talked with the priests of the goddess Neith about ancient times and got acquainted with documents related to the distant past of Greece, Egypt and ... Atlantis.

In 404 BC. e. as a very young man, Plato witnessed the capture of Athens by the troops of Sparta. Thus ended the Peloponnesian War.

True, from both dialogues it follows that Plato knew the legend of Atlantis and the reasons for its death even before traveling to Egypt.

The whole myth about this island-state of Atlantis and the catastrophe that befell it is narrated by Plato in paragraphs 20d-26e of the Timaeus and 108d-121c of the Critias.

Critias addresses Socrates with the following words:

“Listen, Socrates, the legend, although very strange, is certainly true, as Solon, the wisest of the seven wise men, once testified. He was a relative and a great friend of our great-grandfather Dropid... and he told our grandfather Critias that in ancient times great and admirable deeds were accomplished by our city, which were later forgotten due to the passage of time and the death of people... "

Solon said that there "he was received with great honor." Once, "when ... he set out to ask about ancient times the most knowledgeable among the priests," then "he had to make sure that neither he himself, nor any of the Hellenes in general, it can be said, knows almost nothing about these subjects." And then one of the priests exclaimed: “Ah, Solon, Solon! You Hellenes remain forever children, and there is no elder among the Hellenes. And the reason for this is that the minds of the Hellenes do not retain in themselves "no tradition, from time immemorial passed from generation to generation, and no teaching, gray-haired from time to time."

These texts speak not only of many floods, but also of the state "which is now known by the name of Athens." Tradition ascribes to him such unusual deeds, "which are more beautiful than anything we know under heaven." It was Athens, before the most devastating flood, "put the limit to the insolence of countless military forces sent to conquer all of Europe and Asia." And these military forces kept the path from one of the islands of the Atlantic Sea.

“It was possible to cross this sea (Atlantic. - A.V.) in those days, because there was still an island (Atlantis. - A.V.) lying in front of that strait, which is called in your language the Pillars of Heracles (Abilik rocks and Calpa of the Strait of Gibraltar - A. V.). This island exceeded in size Libya and Asia (Libya and Asia, respectively, the ancient Greeks called the inhabited territories of Africa without Egypt and the peninsula of Asia Minor. - A.V.), taken together, and it was easy for travelers of that time to move to other islands (nowadays larger partly flooded. - A.V.), and from the islands - to the entire opposite mainland (America. - A.V.), which covered that sea, which really deserves such a name (after all, the sea on this side of the said strait is only a bay with a certain narrow passage into it, while the sea on the other side of the said strait is the sea in the proper sense of the word (Atlantic Ocean. - A.V.), as well as the land surrounding it can truly and quite rightly be called a mainland. on the island called Atlantis, a great and admirable union of kings arose, whose power extended to the whole island, to many other islands and to part of the mainland (America. - A.V.), and moreover, on this side of the strait they owned Libya up to Egypt and Europe up to Tirrenia (a region in Central Italy, off the coast of the Tyrrhenian Sea. - A. V.) ... "

The above quotation is interesting for us because it refers not only to the location of Atlantis, but also to its size. So, according to Plato, it clearly follows that Atlantis was in the Atlantic Ocean and not just anywhere, but only in front of the Strait of Gibraltar. This is the place to look for it. However, we will return to this issue more than once in the future.

As for the size of Atlantis, the information obtained from Plato's dialogues is indeed extremely contradictory. The fact is that the value of the stage, this unit of measurement of distances, as it turned out, changes in fairly significant sizes. By the way, a stadion was equal to that segment of the path that a person walks with a uniform step during the full sunrise of the disk of the Sun above the horizon, that is, within two minutes. In ancient Hellas, for example, there were two whole stages: 178 meters - Attic and 193 meters - Olympic. Another stage, equal to 98 meters, was in Egypt. It is clear that this fact is very important for us, since the very legend of Atlantis came to us from Egypt and, apparently, we will need to use these meanings of the "Egyptian" stage in the future.

Thus, if we take into account only the inhabited areas of the territory of "Libya and Asia combined" and the fact reported by Plato that Atlantis extended in one direction for three thousand stadia (about 300 kilometers), and in the other - for two thousand (about 200 kilometers), it turns out that Atlantis, although it was a fairly large island, but still its size is somewhat exaggerated.

According to Plato, the island of Atlantis itself had the shape of a regular oblong rectangle.

Further, the Timaeus says that the Atlanteans intended to enslave all the countries and lands that did not submit to them on this side of the Strait of Gibraltar with one blow. The Athenian state at first led the union of the Hellenes, which opposed this plan, “but because of the betrayal of the allies, it turned out to be left to its own devices, faced extreme dangers alone and still defeated the conquerors ...” However, “later, when the time came for unprecedented earthquakes and floods, for one terrible day, all your military strength was swallowed up by the cracked earth; likewise, Atlantis disappeared, plunging into the abyss (let us pay special attention to the fact that it does not say about the disappearance of the island of Atlantis within one day. - A.V.) ... After that, the sea in those places (we are talking here only about the entrance to Gibraltar from the Atlantic. - A.V.) has become unnavigable and inaccessible to this day due to the shallowing caused by the huge amount of silt that the settled island left behind ... ". This passage in Timaeus, in fact, ends the story of Atlantis, although the text of the dialogue continues ...

A large amount of silt on the other side of the Strait of Gibraltar, along with Plato, was also reported by his students Aristotle and Theophrastus. This circumstance may cause bewilderment in the modern reader: what kind of silt in the Atlantic Ocean, in fact, can we talk about? However, this misunderstanding dissipates upon closer acquaintance with a modern map of the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean. A volcanic underwater ridge, occupying the entire mid-central part of the ocean, is capable of ejecting such an amount of light material, such as pumice, during an eruption, which can not only impede navigation, but also make it impossible in a particular area.

Another story about the island-state is contained in Plato's dialogue Critias, where Critias the Younger has a conversation with Hermocrates.

Critias reminds the interlocutor of what was previously told to him and Socrates: about the existence of the island, its size and location, the war with Athens and the reasons for the subsequent disappearance. Having listed these events, Critias continues his story, describing in detail the ancient homeland of the Athenians (present-day Attica is “only the skeleton of a body exhausted by illness, when all the soft and fat earth was washed away and only one skeleton is still in front of us”); its capital with an acropolis much larger than the current one, and its inhabitants - "the leaders of all other Hellenes by the good will of the latter."

After this, Critias tells what Atlantis was like at the moment when "the gods divided among themselves by lot all the countries of the earth."

The climate of Atlantis was exceptionally mild. No winter, the sky is always blue. Its shores, composed of white, black and red rocks, cut off steeply to the sea, so that the island was mountainous. However, among the mountains lay vast plains with very fertile lands.

“So Poseidon, having received Atlantis as his inheritance, populated it with his children, conceived from a mortal woman, approximately in this place of the city: at an equal distance from the coast and in the middle of the whole island there was a plain, according to legend, more beautiful than all other plains and very fertile, and again in the middle of this plain, about fifty stadia from its edges, stood a mountain, low on all sides. On this mountain lived one of the men who were born there at the very beginning by the earth, named Evenor, and with him the wife of Leucippe, their only daughter was called Cleito. When the girl had already reached marriageable age, and her mother and father had died, Poseidon, inflamed with lust, united with her: he strengthened the hill on which she lived, separating it around the circle from the island and enclosing it alternately with water and earthen rings (there were earthen two, and water - three) large or smaller, drawn at an equal distance from the center of the island, as if by a compass. This barrier was insurmountable for people ... "

“Having given birth to a couple of male twins five times, Poseidon raised them and divided the entire island of Atlantis (in this case, the whole country is meant. - A.V.) into ten parts, and to the one of the older couple who was born first ( his name was Atlas, but he should not be confused with another Atlas, the brother of Prometheus and the father of the Hesperides, who held the vault of heaven on his shoulders in the far west. - A.V.), he gave his mother’s house and surrounding possessions as the largest and best share and put his king over the rest...

A particularly numerous and revered family originated from Atlantis, in which the oldest was always king and transferred the royal dignity to the oldest of his sons, from generation to generation retaining power in the family, and they accumulated such wealth that no royal dynasty had ever had in the past. and hardly ever again, for they had at their disposal everything that was prepared both in the city and throughout the country. Much was imported to them from subject countries, but most of the necessities for life were provided by the island itself, first of all, any kind of fossil hard and fusible metals, including what is now known only by name, but then existed in reality: native orichalcum, extracted from the bowels of the earth in various places on the island. The forest in abundance supplied everything that was needed for the work of the builders, as well as for feeding domestic and wild animals. There were even a great many elephants on the island, for there was enough food not only for all other living creatures that inhabit the swamps, lakes and rivers, mountains or plains, but also for this beast, of all the animals, the largest and gluttonous.

The land of Atlantis was rich in incense, which was found and cultivated in roots, in herbs, in wood, in oozing resins, in flowers or fruits. Yes, and "every fruit and cereal nurtured by man", from which food and bread were prepared - the sea canal hippodrome - all this grew on the island "beautiful, amazing and abundant." Using these beautiful gifts of the earth, the kings of Atlantis built various sanctuaries, palaces, harbors, shipyards and put the whole country in order. First of all, they threw numerous bridges over the water channels that surrounded the ancient metropolis, thereby creating a path connecting the capital with these areas.

“They mined white, black and red stone in the bowels of the middle island and in the bowels of the outer and inner earthen rings, and in the quarries, where there were double recesses covered from above with the same stone, they arranged parking for ships. If some of their buildings they made simple, then in others they skillfully combined stones of different colors for fun, giving them a natural charm; they also covered the walls around the outer earthen ring around the entire circumference in copper, applying the metal in molten form, the wall of the inner shaft was covered with tin casting, and the wall of the acropolis itself was covered with orichalcum, emitting a fiery brilliance.

The main royal dwelling was built where the abode of God and ancestors had previously been. It was arranged as follows. In the middle stood the sacred temple of Kleito and Poseidon, surrounded by a golden fence. There was also a temple dedicated to one Poseidon. The outside of his building was covered with silver, and the pillars at its corners were made of gold. Inside the temple was magnificent: an ivory ceiling, adorned with gold, silver and orichalcum; walls, internal columns and floor were also covered with orichalcum.

Inside the temple was a huge golden statue of Poseidon. Standing in a chariot and touching the ceiling with his head, he drove six winged horses, surrounded by Nereids swimming on dolphins. There were also many other statues donated by private individuals in the temple, and on the outside were golden images of the royal wives and all their descendants, who were born from the ten kings of Atlantis. In addition, near the temple were images of individuals from the capital city and from other cities dominated by Atlantis.

There were two springs at the service of the kings - one with warm water and the other with cold water. She, who had an amazing taste and had healing properties, was taken to reservoirs and to the sacred grove of Poseidon - a group of different tree species of extraordinary beauty and height.

From the sea to the very last of the three water rings of the capital, which were approximately 100, 200 and 300 meters wide, respectively, the Atlanteans dug a canal, which was about 100 meters wide, more than 30 meters deep and about 5 kilometers long. Thus, in the first and widest channel from the sea, a large harbor was created, constantly filled with ships, on which merchants arrived from everywhere in such a multitude that conversation, noise and knocking were constantly heard here day and night.

After all, in those ancient times, when, according to modern ideas, the population of the entire Earth was only a few million people, Atlantis could have no more than two or three million inhabitants. And with whom could such a large fleet fight? However, let's listen further to Plato.

Further in the dialogue, Critias describes "the nature of the countryside and how it was arranged." As already noted, this whole region was very high above sea level. The plain surrounding the city was itself surrounded by mountains. The circumference of this quadrangular area was about a thousand kilometers (10,000 stadia). Each section of the plain “was to supply one warrior-leader, and the size of each section was ten by ten stadia, and in total there were sixty thousand; and that uncountable number of simple warriors, which was recruited from the mountains and from the rest of the country, according to the number of participants, was distributed among the leaders.

As you can see, the land army of Atlantis can be characterized only with the help of fantastic figures. It numbered over 700 thousand people. Only a very large modern power can do this. Therefore, the given data can only testify to one thing: Plato's figures are clearly overestimated, about 100 times! However, this is only our assumption and it is not possible to prove it. And that's why you need to believe Plato...

The laws in Atlantis were established in accordance with the prescription of the god Poseidon and were inscribed "by the first kings on the orichalcum stele, which stood in the center of the island - inside the temple of Poseidon." In this temple, all ten kings of Atlantis met once every five or six years to "confer on common concerns, to analyze whether any of them had committed any violation, and to make judgment." Before proceeding to court, they, armed only with sticks and lassoes, caught a bull in the grove at the sanctuary of Poseidon, then they “brought it to the stele and stabbed it over its top, so that the blood dripped onto the letters”, took the appropriate oath and “sat down on earth with an oath fire and at night, having extinguished all the lights in the temple, they performed judgment and were subjected to judgment if any of them violated the law.

However, "the share inherited from God weakened, dissolving many times in mortal admixture, and the human temper prevailed, then they were no longer able to endure their wealth and lost their decency." The rulers of Atlantis lost their most beautiful value, although they "seemed to be most beautiful and happiest just when unbridled greed was seething in them."

“And so Zeus, the god of the gods, observing the laws, being well able to see what we were talking about, thought about a glorious family that had fallen into such miserable depravity, and decided to impose punishment on him, so that he, having sobered up from trouble, learned goodness. Therefore, he called all the gods to the most glorious of his abode, established in the center of the world, from which you can see everything involved in the birth, and addressed the audience with these words ... "

With these lines about Zeus and his punishment, the Critias dialogue ends, that is, it remains unfinished. We will never know exactly what Plato wanted to say with this unfinished phrase. Shortly thereafter, Plato died.

It is interesting in this case to note that the dialogue Critias was not the last work of the philosopher: the Laws were written after him. This means that the version that the Critias dialogue is not completed due to Plato's lack of time for this work is untenable. Most likely, the end of the dialogue was subsequently lost, as happened with some other works of Plato.

Suffice it to recall Deucalion's flood, Zeus's attempt to destroy the old race of people and "implant" a new one. The Trojan War, in its essence, is also a consequence of the prayer of Mother Earth, Gaia, to Zeus to punish people for their wickedness.

Zeus sent his punishing lightning bolts to Atlantis, as a result of which this island country disappeared forever in the depths of the sea ... The god of the gods Zeus severely punished when it came to making people "more moderate and wise"!