As the present civilisation collapses, and a New Age prepares to rise from its ashes, our collective pain is immense.The great gurus teach us the way forward More>>
The Atlanteans are credited with establishing the world's first and
finest civilization, which lay within the Pillars of Heracles and
stretched as far as Egypt and Tyrrhenia.
According to Plato's Dialogues, it was Poseidon who begat the first
generation of the island race with children of Cleito—the daughter
of Evenor and Leucippe, primitive inhabitants of the island. The couple
gave birth to five pairs of male twins, the eldest of them named Atlas—the
Titan who is said to have supported the sky in Greek mythology—after
whom the surrounding ocean was called Atlantic and the island, Atlantis.
The descendants
of King Atlas and his brothers held sway over this divine island-continent
for many generations. They were blessed by Poseidon in all that they
undertook to do and were guided by the ten kings. The land too had enormous
riches to offer its people—verdant forests filled with fruits and
flowers, animals and birds, medicinal herbs, precious minerals, lakes
and rivers. All this natural wealth culminated in the prosperity of
the Atlanteans, who busied themselves in building magnificent temples,
palaces, docks and harbors.
In Critias, Plato says that the Atlantean architects used the
red, black and white marble of their land to create buildings of dazzling
splendor. On the hill of Cleito, which formed the Atlantean metropolis,
they built her a great palace. This palace, together with the palaces
of the ten kings and the temple of Poseidon blazed with inlays of gold
and precious stones. The principal temple to Poseidon was the wonder
of the entire world. It seems that the pinnacled roof was so high that
clouds drifted around its spires, and it had an enormous image of Poseidon
riding in his chariot attended by sea nymphs and dolphins.
The enchanting beauty of the city of Atlantis lay on its concentric
circles of land and water encircling the metropolitan center, which was
linked all around by great bridges. Its charm was further enhanced by
fragrant gardens and groves of flowering trees interspersed with sparkling
fountains. The city was also dotted with universities, observatories,
libraries, laboratories and various academies for the arts and sciences.
The walls
encircling the rings of sea were covered with brass, tin and orichalcum—the
rare and precious Atlantean mineral. Double docks were built on the
outermost circle of the sea and complicated passages were cut for harbors
running right across the whole land.
The holy
temple dedicated to Cleito and Poseidon was placed right at the center
of the citadel, surrounded by statues of gold and other precious materials.
The palaces of the ten kings were built around this main temple and
the main square was where other nations brought their tributes and the
Atlanteans their produce.
Visitors to
the city of Atlantis wrote ecstatically about its beautiful people—the
freedom they enjoyed under the lenient laws of the ten kings, the skill
of their craftsmen, the fresh sea breeze, the munificence of the land.
But above all, they remarked on the busy markets places, where country
folk sold the rich and colorful produce of their farms, and the communal
festivals, which brought throngs of Atlanteans singing and dancing into
their city streets.
The greatest of these Atlantean festivals was staged once every five years,
when the ten kings assembled in Poseidon's temple to conduct their five-year
parliament. While they deliberated, stockmen drove in a number of splendid
bulls from the outlying ranches and corralled them within the temple grounds.
Great crowds assembled to admire these splendid beasts with their sleek
hides and sword-like crescent horns, while warriors and noblemen prepared
for the bull fight. When the parliament was over, the bulls were released
and the hunters chased them barehanded through the temple grounds, dodging
their charges as they attempted to seize one and throw it to the ground.
At last a group of hunters would manage to corner a bull and wrestle it
to the ground, and the animal was then sacrificed to the glory of Poseidon.
The other bulls were taken back to their ranches and the festival concluded
with a great public banquet.
The country immediately surrounding the city was a level plain, hemmed
in by mountains, which descended to the sea. The land was even and of
an oblong shape. The surrounding mountainside was wildly beautiful with
lakes, valleys, abundant trees and animal life. Beyond the mountains were
prosperous villages and green meadows, where rich country folk tended
their lands and worked with domesticated animals.
The oblong Atlantean plain was fashioned by nature and by the labors of
many generations of kings. It was watered by a number of mountain streams,
which wound round the plain before flowing down to the city center, where
they were let off into the sea.
Further inland, a network of straight canals were dug out of the plain
and let off into ditches leading to the sea. These canals were used for
transporting logs of mountain wood to the city, country produce to the
ships at harbor and people to and from the city. Twice a year the land
was harvested—in summer when the mountain streams inundated the land
and in winter when the rains came.
The general populace was distributed into districts and villages, which
were governed by local leaders. It was also up to the leader of each division
to recruit men fit for military service.
Atlantis was considered to be the repository of ancient knowledge.
It was looked upon as an ancient continent that ruled the world many millennia
ago, with a navigational base at its center. Atlantis has also
been spoken of as an ancient base for other worlds, akin to a prehistoric
world power of sorts.
The scientists
and innovators of Atlantis, apparently, acted as technological
missionaries who spread their knowledge of metallurgy, astronomy, medicine
and navigation, among other skills all over the known world. They are
credited with teaching the Egyptians and the Mayans how to build pyramids
and the Greeks how to construct their finely sculpted figures and temples.
They are also credited with the invention of reading and writing, mathematics,
agriculture, architecture, and all noble concepts of human civilization.
It was also believed that the Atlanteans were on the threshold of discovering
the mystic force behind the Cosmos—and if they had harnessed this
force there would have been no limit to human achievements!
For many centuries,
Atlantis was the center of the world. Thanks to a great army and
a navy, too strong to be challenged by any other nation, Atlanteans enjoyed
long contented lives of peace and security.
