Religion and Government
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Each of the ten kings ruled over the men and most of the laws in his own particular portion and throughout his own city, punishing and putting to death whomsoever he willed. But their authority over one another and their mutual relations were governed by the precepts of Poseidon, as handed down to them by the law and by the records inscribed by the first princes on a pillar of orichalcum, which was placed within the temple of Poseidon in the center of the island.
(Critias 119 C-D)
According to Plato, the rules pertaining to temple sacrifices and governing practices were written on the sacred pillar and it was there that the ten kings assembled periodically to council about public affairs. The meetings were alternatively held every fifth and sixth year. The ten kings began with a prayer and then hunted for a sacrificial bull outside the city with only staves and nooses. After capturing the bull, it was brought to the temple where its throat was cut on the orichalcum pillar. Wine was mixed with the blood and after swearing to obey the laws and punish transgressors, each king drank with the remainder of the liquid poured into a sacred fire. They then conferred through the night settling disagreements and rendering judgments, writing their decisions on a golden tablet. Plato cited their most important laws as these: They would not take up arms against each other; all kings would aid any other king who was in danger; no king could put another to death without consent of more than half of the ten; and the royal branch of Atlas was the acknowledged leader of the empire.
While many writers have described Plato’s Atlantis as a sacrificial bull cult, it is important to understand that in any eleven-year period, only two bulls would be sacrificed.
The War Against the Mediterranean and the Demise of Atlantis
Plato asserted that Atlantis existed for a vast time period covering many generations. The people of Atlantis were noble and gentle, and maintained a link to their divine nature almost until the end:
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… the inherited nature of God remained strong in them, they were submissive to the laws and kindly disposed to their divine kindred. For the intents of their hearts were true and in all ways noble, and they showed gentleness joined with wisdom in dealing with the changes and chances of life and in their dealings with one another.
(Critias, 120 D)
Plato doesn’t specify precisely how the Atlanteans fell from their noble and gentle ways, but greed and the desire for more possessions and power were involved. Over time, as their wealth and power grew, “the portion of divinity within them was now becoming faint and weak …” As they gradually expanded their influence, the Atlanteans eventually began a war to take over the entire Mediterranean. Plato is silent on when this war began or on other details of it. But he related that the Greeks played a key role in resisting the Atlantean war machine. Plato ended his tale of Atlantis by saying that Zeus decided to punish the Atlanteans for this unforgivable transgression and their fall from divinity. But Plato never finished Critias, and the tale is ended immediately after Zeus gathered the other gods to tell them of his decision. The final three words of Critias, ending his tale of Atlantis, are: “he spake thus: …”
The actual destruction of Atlantis is detailed by Plato in Timaeus. As mentioned previously, Plato hinted that an object from the heavens was involved in the destruction. That idea fits the statement that Zeus had decided to punish Atlantis for its “evil plight.” There is no detail in the story hinting if the destruction came immediately after the war, sometime later, or might have served as a final blow to end the war. But in 9600 B.C., some time after the defeat of Atlantis by the Greeks,
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… there occurred portentous earthquakes and floods, and on one grievous day and night befell them, when the whole body of your warriors was swallowed up by the earth, and the island of Atlantis in like manner was swallowed up by the sea and vanished; wherefore also the ocean at that spot has now become impassible and unsearchable, being blocked by the shoal mud which the island created as it settled down.
(Timaeus 25 D)
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From Plato to the Americas–Atlantis Discovered?
Brasseur de Bourbourg held that Atlantis was an extension of America, which stretched from Central America and Mexico, far into the Atlantic, the Canaries, Madeiras and Azores being the only remnants, which were not submerged.
Lewis Spence (1920) The Encyclopedia of the Occult
Speculations and debate on Plato’s Atlantis commenced the moment he first related the tale. As others retold the intriguing story, again and again, virtually everyone who was educated in ancient Greece became aware of it. The story was especially controversial because the Greeks’ knowledge of world history and geography was very limited and mostly inaccurate. This fact led to two distinct positions on the authenticity of the story—a situation that persists to this day.
Aristotle, Plato’s influential student, believed that the Atlantis story was fictional, but Aristotle also stated that Troy was completely fictional. Crantor, the first commentator on Plato, visited Sais around 280 B.C. and confirmed that the story was completely accurate. The Greek biographer Plutarch also wrote that the story was true. While the ancients debated the reality of Atlantis without the ability to assess the vast range of information that was available from various cultures, modern researchers have been able to examine nearly every ancient text for clues about Atlantis. Modern scholars have made extensive studies of ancient records and have concluded that there are literally hundreds of hints about Atlantis and other significant details from Plato’s story that can be found in numerous texts and records.
One of the very best sources for these ancient records is the meticulous research presented by Andrew Collins in his 436-page book, Gateway to Atlantis. Collins found that the existence of Atlantis was “openly debated during the third century A.D. among the philosophers in the Platonic Academy attached to … Alexandria.” Collins also discovered many references to ancient voyages that seemed to have been made to the Americas and unknown islands even before Plato lived. A few of these will be summarized here.
In 425 B.C. a Carthaginian named Hanno made a voyage down the Atlantic coast of Africa with 60 ships. Hanno reported that a temple of Poseidon was found on an island off the coast of Africa. Around 8 B.C. the Greek historian Diodorus Siculus wrote about mysterious islands called the Atlantides and mentioned that one of the sons (Atlas) of a Titan god ruled those islands. Siculus wrote of islands located well into the Atlantic Ocean, mentioning one “large and fruitful island” located “many” days sail from Africa. Siculus also chronicled an incident in which Phoenician mariners were pushed across the ocean by a storm and after many days landed on the “large, fruitful island.” Another Greek historian, Hellanicus, wrote about the Atlantides in a work he titled Atlantis, sometime around 400 B.C. Plutarch also mentioned the accidental discovery of islands across the Atlantic around 80 B.C. There are many other similar references in ancient texts and readers are referred to Collins’ book.
Despite consistent reports of strange islands lying well into the Atlantic Ocean, the people of the ancient world found the idea of Atlantis without definitive support. From the time of Plato to the 1500s, speculation on Atlantis was limited and was eclipsed by more important issues. The rise of Christianity, the fall of the Roman Empire, the struggles in Europe, plagues, and the ensuing dark ages plunged the world into a knowledge vacuum that persisted for centuries until the Renaissance. Then, with the “discovery” of the Americas, the idea that Atlantis might really have existed became an intriguing topic because many people believed Atlantis had been discovered!
The Americas and Atlantis
When Christopher Columbus returned to Spain in March