Atlantis: The Antideluvian World

I >> Ignatius Donnelly >> Atlantis: The Antideluvian World

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Produced by Norman Wolcott

ATLANTIS: THE ANTEDILUVIAN WORLD.

BY IGNATIUS DONNELLY.

The world has made such comet-like advance
Lately on science, we may almost hope,
Before we die of sheer decay, to learn
Something about our infancy; when lived
That great, original, broad-eyed, sunken race,
Whose knowledge, like the sea-sustaining rocks,
Hath formed the base of this world's fluctuous lore
--FESTUS.

Frontpiece: The Profile of Atlantis

CONTENTS.

PART I.

THE HISTORY OF ATLANTIS.

I. THE PURPOSE OF THE BOOK

II. PLATO'S HISTORY OF ATLANTIS

III. THE PROBABILITIES OF PLATO'S STORY

IV. WAS SUCH A CATASTROPHE POSSIBLE?

V. THE TESTIMONY OF THE SEA

VI. THE TESTIMONY OF THE FLORA AND FAUNA

PART II.

THE DELUGE.

I. THE DESTRUCTION OF ATLANTIS DESCRIBED IN THE DELUGE LEGENDS

II. THE DELUGE OF THE BIBLE

III. THE DELUGE OF THE CHALDEANS

IV. THE DELUGE LEGENDS OF OTHER NATIONS

V. THE DELUGE LEGENDS OF AMERICA

VI. SOME CONSIDERATION OF THE DELUGE LEGENDS

PART III

THE CIVILIZATION OP THE OLD WORLD AND NEW COMPARED.

I. CIVILIZATION AN INHERITANCE

II. THE IDENTITY OF THE CIVILIZATIONS OF THE OLD WORLD AND THE NEW

III. AMERICAN EVIDENCES OF INTERCOURSE WITH EUROPE OR ATLANTIS

IV. CORROBORATING CIRCUMSTANCES

V. THE QUESTION OF COMPLEXION

VI. GENESIS CONTAINS A HISTORY OF ATLANTIS

VII. THE: ORIGIN OF OUR ALPHABET

VIII. THE BRONZE AGE IN EUROPE

IX. ARTIFICIAL DEFORMATION OF THE SKULL

PART IV.

THE MYTHOLOGIES OF THE OLD WORLD A RECOLLECTION OF ATLANTIS.

I. TRADITIONS OF ATLANTIS

II. THE KINGS OF ATLANTIS BECOME THE GODS OF THE GREEKS

III. THE GODS OF THE PHOENICIANS ALSO KINGS OF ATLANTIS

IV. THE GOD ODIN, WODEN, OR WOTAN

V. THE PYRAMID, THE CROSS, AND THE GARDEN OF EDEN

VI. GOLD AND SILVER THE SACRED METALS OF ATLANTIS

PART V.

THE COLONIES OF ATLANTIS.

I. THE CENTRAL AMERICAN AND MEXICAN COLONIES

II. THE EGYPTIAN COLONY

III. THE COLONIES OF THE MISSISSIPPI VALLEY

IV. THE IBERIAN COLONIES OF ATLANTIS

V. THE PERUVIAN COLONY

VI. THE AFRICAN COLONIES

VII. THE IRISH COLONIES FROM ATLANTIS

VIII. THE OLDEST SON OF NOAH

IX. THE ANTIQUITY OF SOME OF OUR GREAT INVENTIONS

X. THE ARYAN COLONIES FROM ATLANTIS

XI. ATLANTIS RECONSTRUCTED

PART I. THE HISTORY OF ATLANTIS.

CHAPTER I.

THE PURPOSE OF THE BOOK.

This book is an attempt to demonstrate several distinct and novel
propositions. These are:

1. That there once existed in the Atlantic Ocean, opposite the mouth
of the Mediterranean Sea, a large island, which was the remnant of
an Atlantic continent, and known to the ancient world as Atlantis.

2. That the description of this island given by Plato is not, as
has been long supposed, fable, but veritable history.

3. That Atlantis was the region where man first rose from a state
of barbarism to civilization.

4. That it became, in the course of ages, a populous and mighty
nation, from whose overflowings the shores of the Gulf of Mexico,
the Mississippi River, the Amazon, the Pacific coast of South
America, the Mediterranean, the west coast of Europe and Africa, the
Baltic, the Black Sea, and the Caspian were populated by civilized
nations.

5. That it was the true Antediluvian world; the Garden of Eden;
the Gardens of the Hesperides; the Elysian Fields; the Gardens of
Alcinous; the Mesomphalos; the Olympos; the Asgard of the traditions
of the ancient nations; representing a universal memory of a great
land, where early mankind dwelt for ages in peace and happiness.

6. That the gods and goddesses of the ancient Greeks, the Phoenicians,
the Hindoos, and the Scandinavians were simply the kings, queens,
and heroes of Atlantis; and the acts attributed to them in mythology
are a confused recollection of real historical events.

7. That the mythology of Egypt and Peru represented the original
religion of Atlantis, which was sun-worship.

8. That the oldest colony formed by the Atlanteans was probably in
Egypt, whose civilization was a reproduction of that of the Atlantic
island.

9. That the implements of the "Bronze Age" of Europe were derived
from Atlantis. The Atlanteans were also the first manufacturers
of iron.

10. That the Phoenician alphabet, parent of all the European
alphabets, was derived from au Atlantis alphabet, which was also
conveyed from Atlantis to the Mayas of Central America.

11. That Atlantis was the original seat of the Aryan or Indo-European
family of nations, as well as of the Semitic peoples, and possibly
also of the Turanian races.

12. That Atlantis perished in a terrible convulsion of nature, in
which the whole island sunk into the ocean, with nearly all its
inhabitants.

13. That a few persons escaped in ships and on rafts, and, carried
to the nations east and west the tidings of the appalling catastrophe,
which has survived to our own time in the Flood and Deluge legends
of the different nations of the old and new worlds.

If these propositions can be proved, they will solve many problems
which now perplex mankind; they will confirm in many respects the
statements in the opening chapters of Genesis; they will widen the
area of human history; they will explain the remarkable resemblances
which exist between the ancient civilizations found upon the opposite
shores of the Atlantic Ocean, in the old and new worlds; and they
will aid us to rehabilitate the fathers of our civilization, our
blood, and our fundamental ideas--the men who lived, loved, and
labored ages before the Aryans descended upon India, or the Phoenician
had settled in Syria, or the Goth had reached the shores of the
Baltic.

The fact that the story of Atlantis was for thousands of years
regarded as a fable proves nothing. There is an unbelief which
grows out of ignorance, as well as a scepticism which is born of
intelligence. The people nearest to the past are not always those
who are best informed concerning the past.

For a thousand years it was believed that the legends of the buried
cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum were myths: they were spoken of
as "the fabulous cities." For a thousand years the educated world
did not credit the accounts given by Herodotus of the wonders of
the ancient civilizations of the Nile and of Chaldea. He was called
"the father of liars." Even Plutarch sneered at him. Now, in the
language of Frederick Schlegel, "the deeper and more comprehensive
the researches of the moderns have been, the more their regard
and esteem for Herodotus has increased." Buckle says, "His minute
information about Egypt and Asia Minor is admitted by all geographers."

There was a time when the expedition sent out by Pharaoh Necho to
circumnavigate Africa was doubted, because the explorers stated that
after they had progressed a certain distance the sun was north of
them; this circumstance, which then aroused suspicion, now proves
to us that the Egyptian navigators had really passed the equator,
and anticipated by 2100 years Vasquez de Gama in his discovery of
the Cape of Good Hope.

If I succeed in demonstrating the truth of the somewhat startling
propositions with which I commenced this chapter, it will only
be by bringing to bear upon the question of Atlantis a thousand
converging lines of light from a multitude of researches made by
scholars in different fields of modern thought. Further investigations
and discoveries will, I trust, confirm the correctness of the
conclusions at which I have arrived.

CHAPTER II.

PLATO'S HISTORY OF ATLANTIS.

Plato has preserved for us the history of Atlantis. If our views
are correct, it is one of the most valuable records which have come
down to us from antiquity.

Plato lived 400 years before the birth of Christ. His ancestor,
Solon, was the great law-giver of Athens 600 years before the
Christian era. Solon visited Egypt. Plutarch says, "Solon attempted
in verse a large description, or rather fabulous account of the
Atlantic Island, which he had learned from the wise men of Sais,
and which particularly concerned the Athenians; but by reason
of his age, not want of leisure (as Plato would have it), he was
apprehensive the work would be too much for him, and therefore did
not go through with it. These verses are a proof that business
was not the hinderance:

"'I grow in learning as I grow in age.'

And again:

"'Wine, wit, and beauty still their charms bestow,
Light all the shades of life, and cheer us as we go.'

"Plato, ambitious to cultivate and adorn the subject of the Atlantic
Island, as a delightful spot in some fair field unoccupied, to which
also be had some claim by reason of his being related to Solon,
laid out magnificent courts and enclosures, and erected a grand
entrance to it, such as no other story, fable, or Poem ever had.
But, as he began it late, he ended his life before the work, so
that the more the reader is delighted with the part that is written,
the more regret he has to find it unfinished."

There can be no question that Solon visited Egypt. The causes of
his departure from Athens, for a period of ten years, are fully
explained by Plutarch. He dwelt, be tells us,

"On the Canopian shore, by Nile's deep mouth."

There be conversed upon points of philosophy and history with the
most learned of the Egyptian priests. He was a man of extraordinary
force and penetration of mind, as his laws and his sayings, which
have been preserved to us, testify. There is no improbability in
the statement that be commenced in verse a history and description
of Atlantis, which be left unfinished at his death; and it requires
no great stretch of the imagination to believe that this manuscript
reached the bands of his successor and descendant, Plato; a scholar,
thinker, and historian like himself, and, like himself, one of the
profoundest minds of the ancient world. the Egyptian priest had
said to Solon, "You have no antiquity of history, and no history of
antiquity;" and Solon doubtless realized fully the vast importance
of a record which carried human history back, not only thousands
of years before the era of Greek civilization, but many thousands
of years before even the establishment of the kingdom of Egypt; and
be was anxious to preserve for his half-civilized countrymen this
inestimable record of the past.

We know of no better way to commence a book about Atlantis than by
giving in full the record preserved by Plato. It is as follows:

'Critias'. Then listen, Socrates, to a strange tale, which is, however,
certainly true, as Solon, who was the wisest of the seven sages,
declared. He was a relative and great friend of my great-grandfather,
Dropidas, as be himself says in several of his poems; and Dropidas
told Critias, my grandfather, who remembered, and told us, that
there were of old great and marvellous actions of the Athenians,
which have passed into oblivion through time and the destruction
of the human race and one in particular, which was the greatest
of them all, the recital of which will be a suitable testimony of
our gratitude to you....

'Socrates'. Very good; and what is. this ancient famous action of
which Critias spoke, not as a mere legend, but as a veritable action
of the Athenian State, which Solon recounted!

'Critias'. I will tell an old-world story which I heard from an
aged man; for Critias was, as be said, at that time nearly ninety
years of age, and I was about ten years of age. Now the day was that
day of the Apaturia which is called the registration of youth; at
which, according to custom, our parents gave prizes for recitations,
and the poems of several poets were recited by us boys, and many
of us sung the poems of Solon, which were new at the time. One of
our tribe, either because this was his real opinion, or because he
thought that he would please Critias, said that, in his judgment,
Solon was not only the wisest of men but the noblest of poets. The
old man, I well remember, brightened up at this, and said, smiling:
"Yes, Amynander, if Solon had only, like other poets, made poetry
the business of his life, and had completed the tale which he brought
with him from Egypt, and had not been compelled, by reason of the
factions and troubles which he found stirring in this country when
he came home, to attend to other matters, in my opinion be would
have been as famous as Homer, or Hesiod, or any poet."

"And what was that poem about, Critias?" said the person who
addressed him.

"About the greatest action which the Athenians ever did, and which
ought to have been most famous, but which, through the lapse of
time and the destruction of the actors, has not come down to us."

"Tell us," said the other, "the whole story, and bow and from whom
Solon heard this veritable tradition."

He replied: "At the head of the Egyptian Delta, where the river Nile
divides, there is a certain district which is called the district
of Sais, and the great city of the district is also called Sais,
and is the city from which Amasis the king was sprung. And the
citizens have a deity who is their foundress: she is called in
the Egyptian tongue Neith, which is asserted by them to be the same
whom the Hellenes called Athene. Now, the citizens of this city
are great lovers of the Athenians, and say that they are in some
way related to them. Thither came Solon, who was received by them
with great honor; and be asked the priests, who were most skilful
in such matters, about antiquity, and made the discovery that neither
he nor any other Hellene knew anything worth mentioning about the
times of old. On one occasion, when he was drawing them on to
speak of antiquity, he began to tell about the most ancient things
in our part of the world--about Phoroneus, who is called 'the
first,' and about Niobe; and, after the Deluge, to tell of the
lives of Deucalion and Pyrrha; and he traced the genealogy of their
descendants, and attempted to reckon bow many years old were the
events of which he was speaking, and to give the dates. Thereupon,
one of the priests, who was of very great age; said, 'O Solon,
Solon, you Hellenes are but children, and there is never an old man
who is an Hellene.' Solon, bearing this, said, 'What do you mean?'
'I mean to say,' he replied, 'that in mind you are all young;
there is no old opinion handed down among you by ancient tradition,
nor any science which is hoary with age. And I will tell you the
reason of this: there have been, and there will be again, many
destructions of mankind arising out of many causes. There is a
story which even you have preserved, that once upon a time Phaëthon,
the son of Helios, having yoked the steeds in his father's chariot,
because he was not able to drive them in the path of his father,
burnt up all that was upon the earth, and was himself destroyed
by a thunderbolt. Now, this has the form of a myth, but really
signifies a declination of the bodies moving around the earth and
in the heavens, and a great conflagration of things upon the earth
recurring at long intervals of time: when this happens, those who
live upon the mountains and in dry and lofty places are more liable
to destruction than those who dwell by rivers or on the sea-shore;
and from this calamity the Nile, who is our never-failing savior,
saves and delivers us. When, on the other hand, the gods purge the
earth with a deluge of water, among you herdsmen and shepherds on
the mountains are the survivors, whereas those of you who live in
cities are carried by the rivers into the sea; but in this country
neither at that time nor at any other does the water come from above
on the fields, having always a tendency to come up from below, for
which reason the things preserved here are said to be the oldest.
The fact is, that wherever the extremity of winter frost or of
summer sun does not prevent, the human race is always increasing
at times, and at other times diminishing in numbers. And whatever
happened either in your country or in ours, or in any other region
of which we are informed--if any action which is noble or great,
or in any other way remarkable has taken place, all that has been
written down of old, and is preserved in our temples; whereas you
and other nations are just being provided with letters and the
other things which States require; and then, at the usual period,
the stream from heaven descends like a pestilence, and leaves only
those of you who are destitute of letters and education; and thus
you have to begin all over again as children, and know nothing of
what happened in ancient times, either among us or among yourselves.
As for those genealogies of yours which you have recounted to us,
Solon, they are no better than the tales of children; for, in the
first place, you remember one deluge only, whereas there were many
of them; and, in the next place, you do not know that there dwelt
in your land the fairest and noblest race of men which ever lived,
of whom you and your whole city are but a seed or remnant. And
this was unknown to you, because for many generations the survivors
of that destruction died and made no sign. For there was a time,
Solon, before that great deluge of all, when the city which now is
Athens was first in war, and was preeminent for the excellence of
her laws, and is said to have performed the noblest deeds, and to
have had the fairest constitution of any of which tradition tells,
under the face of heaven.' Solon marvelled at this, and earnestly
requested the priest to inform him exactly and in order about these
former citizens. 'You are welcome to hear about them, Solon,' said
the priest, 'both for your own sake and for that of the city; and,
above all, for the sake of the goddess who is the common patron and
protector and educator of both our cities. She founded your city
a thousand years before ours, receiving from the Earth and Hephæstus
the seed of your race, and then she founded ours, the constitution
of which is set down in our sacred registers as 8000 years old.
As touching the citizens of 9000 years ago, I will briefly inform
you of their laws and of the noblest of their actions; and the
exact particulars of the whole we will hereafter go through at
our leisure. in the sacred registers themselves. If you compare
these very laws with your own, you will find that many of ours are
the counterpart of yours, as they were in the olden time. In the
first place, there is the caste of priests, which is separated from
all the others; next there are the artificers, who exercise their
several crafts by themselves, and without admixture of any other;
and also there is the class of shepherds and that of hunters, as
well as that of husbandmen; and you will observe, too, that the
warriors in Egypt are separated from all the other classes, and are
commanded by the law only to engage in war; moreover, the weapons
with which they are equipped are shields and spears, and this the
goddess taught first among you, and then in Asiatic countries, and
we among the Asiatics first adopted.

"'Then, as to wisdom, do you observe what care the law took from
the very first, searching out and comprehending the whole order
of things down to prophecy and medicine (the latter with a view to
health); and out of these divine elements drawing what was needful
for human life, and adding every sort of knowledge which was
connected with them. All this order and arrangement the goddess
first imparted to you when establishing your city; and she chose
the spot of earth in which you were born, because she saw that the
happy temperament of the seasons in that land would produce the
wisest of men. Wherefore the goddess, who was a lover both of war
and of wisdom, selected, and first of all settled that spot which
was the most likely to produce men likest herself. And there you
dwelt, having such laws as these and still better ones, and excelled
all mankind in all virtue, as became the children and disciples
of the gods. Many great and wonderful deeds are recorded of your
State in our histories; but one of them exceeds all the rest in
greatness and valor; for these histories tell of a mighty power
which was aggressing wantonly against the whole of Europe and Asia,
and to which your city put an end. This power came forth out of
the Atlantic Ocean, for in those days the Atlantic was navigable;
and there was an island situated in front of the straits which you
call the Columns of Heracles: the island was larger than Libya and
Asia put together, and was the way to other islands, and from the
islands you might pass through the whole of the opposite continent
which surrounded the true ocean; for this sea which is within the
Straits of Heracles is only a harbor, having a narrow entrance,
but that other is a real sea, and the surrounding land may be most
truly called a continent. Now, in the island of Atlantis there was
a great and wonderful empire, which had rule over the whole island
and several others, as well as over parts of the continent; and,
besides these, they subjected the parts of Libya within the Columns
of Heracles as far as Egypt, and of Europe as far as Tyrrhenia.
The vast power thus gathered into one, endeavored to subdue at one
blow our country and yours, and the whole of the land which was
within the straits; and then, Solon, your country shone forth,
in the excellence of her virtue and strength, among all mankind;
for she was the first in courage and military skill, and was the
leader of the Hellenes. And when the rest fell off from her, being
compelled to stand alone, after having undergone the very extremity
of danger, she defeated and triumphed over the invaders, and
preserved from slavery those who were not yet subjected, and freely
liberated all the others who dwelt within the limits of Heracles.
But afterward there occurred violent earthquakes and floods, and
in a single day and night of rain all your warlike men in a body
sunk into the earth, and the island of Atlantis in like manner
disappeared, and was sunk beneath the sea. And that is the reason
why the sea in those parts is impassable and impenetrable, because
there is such a quantity of shallow mud in the way; and this was
caused by the subsidence of the island.' ("Plato's Dialogues," ii.,
617, Timæus.....

"But in addition to the gods whom you have mentioned, I would
specially invoke Mnemosyne; for all the important part of what I
have to tell is dependent on her favor, 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. To that task, then, I will at once address myself.

"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 all those who dwelt outside the Pillars
of Heracles and those who dwelt within them: this war I am now
to describe. Of the combatants on the one side the city of Athens
was reported to have been the ruler, and to have directed the
contest; the combatants on the other side were led by the kings of
the islands of Atlantis, which, as I was saying, once had an extent
greater than that of Libya and Asia; and, when afterward sunk
by an earthquake, became an impassable barrier of mud to voyagers
sailing from hence to the ocean. The progress of the history will
unfold the various tribes of barbarians and Hellenes which then
existed, as they successively appear on the scene; but I must begin
by describing, first of all, the Athenians as they were in that
day, and their enemies who fought with them; and I shall have to
tell of the power and form of government of both of them. Let us
give the precedence to Athens....

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 in all the ages and changes of things
there has never been any settlement of the earth flowing down from
the mountains, as in other places, which is worth speaking of; it
has always been carried round in a circle, and disappeared in the
depths below. The consequence is that, in comparison of what then
was, there are remaining in small islets only the bones of the wasted
body, as they may be called, all the richer and softer parts of
the soil having fallen away, and the mere skeleton of the country
being left....

"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 farther in the narrative,
I ought to warn you that you must not be surprised if you should
bear Hellenic names given to foreigners. I will tell you the
reason of this: Solon, who was intending to use the tale for his
poem, made an investigation into the meaning of the names, and
found that the early Egyptians, in writing them down, had translated
them into their own language, and be recovered the meaning of the
several names and retranslated them, and copied them out again in
our language. My great-grandfather, Dropidas, had the original
writing, which is still in my possession, and was carefully studied
by me when I was a child. Therefore, if you bear names such as are
used in this country, you must not be surprised, for I have told
you the reason of them.

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