Plato
CRITIAS
translated
by Benjamin Jowett
Persons of the
Dialogue :
CRITIAS ; HERMOCRATES ; TIMAEUS ;
SOCRATES.
Timaeus. How thankful I am,
Socrates, that I have arrived at last, and, like a weary traveller after a long
journey, may be at rest ! And I pray the being who always was of old, and
has now been by me revealed, to grant that my words may endure in so far as they
have been spoken truly and acceptably to him ; but if unintentionally I
have said anything wrong, I pray that he will impose upon me a just retribution,
and the just retribution of him who errs is that he should be set right.
Wishing, then, to speak truly in future concerning the generation of the gods, I
pray him to give me knowledge, which of all medicines is the most perfect and
best. And now having offered my prayer I deliver up the argument to Critias, who
is to speak next according to our agreement.
Critias. And I, Timaeus,
accept the trust, and as you at first said that you were going to speak of high
matters, and begged that some forbearance might be shown to you, I too ask the
same or greater forbearance for what I am about to say. And although I very well
know that my request may appear to be somewhat and discourteous, I must make it
nevertheless. For will any man of sense deny that you have spoken well ? I
can only attempt to show that I ought to have more indulgence than you, because
my theme is more difficult ; and I shall argue that to seem to speak well
of the gods to men is far easier than to speak well of men to men : for the
inexperience and utter ignorance of his hearers about any subject is a great
assistance to him who has to speak of it, and we know how ignorant we are
concerning the gods. But I should like to make my meaning clearer, if Timaeus,
you will follow me. All that is said by any of us can only be imitation and
representation. For if we consider the likenesses which painters make of bodies
divine and heavenly, and the different degrees of gratification with which the
eye of the spectator receives them, we shall see that we are satisfied with the
artist who is able in any degree to imitate the earth and its mountains, and the
rivers, and the woods, and the universe, and the things that are and move
therein, and further, that knowing nothing precise about such matters, we do not
examine or analyze the painting ; all that is required is a sort of
indistinct and deceptive mode of shadowing them forth.
But when a person
endeavours to paint the human form we are quick at finding out defects, and our
familiar knowledge makes us severe judges of any one who does not render every
point of similarity. And we may observe the same thing to happen in
discourse ; we are satisfied with a picture of divine and heavenly things
which has very little likeness to them ; but we are more precise in our
criticism of mortal and human things. Wherefore if at the moment of speaking I
cannot suitably express my meaning, you must excuse me, considering that to form
approved likenesses of human things is the reverse of easy. This is what I want
to suggest to you, and at the same time to beg, Socrates, that I may have not
less, but more indulgence conceded to me in what I am about to say. Which
favour, if I am right in asking, I hope that you will be ready to
grant.
Socrates. Certainly,
Critias, we will grant your request, and we will grant the same by anticipation
to Hermocrates, as well as to you and Timaeus ; for I have no doubt that
when his turn comes a little while hence, he will make the same request which
you have made. In order, then, that he may provide himself with a fresh
beginning, and not be compelled to say the same things over again, let him
understand that the indulgence is already extended by anticipation to him. And
now, friend Critias, I will announce to you the judgment of the theatre. They
are of opinion that the last performer was wonderfully successful, and that you
will need a great deal of indulgence before you will be able to take his
place.
Hermocrates. The warning,
Socrates, which you have addressed to him, I must also take to myself. But
remember, Critias, that faint heart never yet raised a trophy ; and
therefore you must go and attack the argument like a man. First invoke Apollo
and the Muses, and then let us hear you sound the praises and show forth the
virtues of your ancient citizens.
Crit. Friend
Hermocrates, you, who are stationed last and have another in front of you, have
not lost heart as yet ; the gravity of the situation will soon be revealed
to you ; meanwhile I accept your exhortations and encouragements. But
besides the gods and goddesses whom you have mentioned, I would specially invoke
Mnemosyne ; for all the important part of my discourse is dependent on her
favour, and if I can recollect and recite enough of what was said by the priests
and brought hither by Solon, I doubt not that I shall satisfy the requirements
of this theatre. And now, making no more excuses, I will
proceed.
Let me begin by
observing first of all, that nine thousand was the sum of years which had
elapsed since the war which was said to have taken place between those who dwelt
outside the Pillars of Heracles and all who dwelt within them ; this war I
am going to describe. Of the combatants on the one side, the city of Athens was
reported to have been the leader and to have fought out the war ; the
combatants on the other side were commanded by the kings of Atlantis, which, as
was saying, was an island greater in extent than Libya and Asia, and when
afterwards sunk by an earthquake, became an impassable barrier of mud to
voyagers sailing from hence to any part of the ocean. The progress of the
history will unfold the various nations of barbarians and families of Hellenes
which then existed, as they successively appear on the scene ; but I must
describe first of all Athenians of that day, and their enemies who fought with
them, and then the respective powers and governments of the two kingdoms. Let us
give the precedence to Athens.
In the days of old
the gods had the whole earth distributed among them by allotment. There was no
quarrelling ; for you cannot rightly suppose that the gods did not know
what was proper for each of them to have, or, knowing this, that they would seek
to procure for themselves by contention that which more properly belonged to
others. They all of them by just apportionment obtained what they wanted, and
peopled their own districts ; and when they had peopled them they tended
us, their nurselings and possessions, as shepherds tend their flocks, excepting
only that they did not use blows or bodily force, as shepherds do, but governed
us like pilots from the stern of the vessel, which is an easy way of guiding
animals, holding our souls by the rudder of persuasion according to their own
pleasure ; — thus did they guide all mortal creatures. Now different gods
had their allotments in different places which they set in order. Hephaestus and
Athene, who were brother and sister, and sprang from the same father, having a
common nature, and being united also in the love of philosophy and art, both
obtained as their common portion this land, which was naturally adapted for
wisdom and virtue ; and there they implanted brave children of the soil,
and put into their minds the order of government ; their names are
preserved, but their actions have disappeared by reason of the destruction of
those who received the tradition, and the lapse of ages. For when there were any
survivors, as I have already said, they were men who dwelt in the
mountains ; and they were ignorant of the art of writing, and had heard
only the names of the chiefs of the land, but very little about their actions.
The names they were willing enough to give to their children ; but the
virtues and the laws of their predecessors, they knew only by obscure
traditions ; and as they themselves and their children lacked for many
generations the necessaries of life, they directed their attention to the supply
of their wants, and of them they conversed, to the neglect of events that had
happened in times long past ; for mythology and the enquiry into antiquity
are first introduced into cities when they begin to have leisure, and when they
see that the necessaries of life have already been provided, but not before. And
this is reason why the names of the ancients have been preserved to us and not
their actions. This I infer because Solon said that the priests in their
narrative of that war mentioned most of the names which are recorded prior to
the time of Theseus, such as Cecrops, and Erechtheus, and Erichthonius, and
Erysichthon, and the names of the women in like manner. Moreover, since military
pursuits were then common to men and women, the men of those days in accordance
with the custom of the time set up a figure and image of the goddess in full
armour, to be a testimony that all animals which associate together, male as
well as female, may, if they please, practise in common the virtue which belongs
to them without distinction of sex.
Now the country was
inhabited in those days by various classes of citizens ; — there were
artisans, and there were husbandmen, and there was also a warrior class
originally set apart by divine men. The latter dwelt by themselves, and had all
things suitable for nurture and education ; neither had any of them
anything of their own, but they regarded all that they had as common
property ; nor did they claim to receive of the other citizens anything
more than their necessary food. And they practised all the pursuits which we
yesterday described as those of our imaginary guardians.
Concerning the
country the Egyptian priests said what is not only probable but manifestly true,
that the boundaries were in those days fixed by the Isthmus, and that in the
direction of the continent they extended as far as the heights of Cithaeron and
Parnes ; the boundary line came down in the direction of the sea, having
the district of Oropus on the right, and with the river Asopus as the limit on
the left. The land was the best in the world, and was therefore able in those
days to support a vast army, raised from the surrounding people. Even the
remnant of Attica which now exists may compare with any region in the world for
the variety and excellence of its fruits and the suitableness of its pastures to
every sort of animal, which proves what I am saying ; but in those days the
country was fair as now and yielded far more abundant produce. How shall I
establish my words ? and what part of it can be truly called a remnant of
the land that then was ? The whole country is only a long promontory
extending far into the sea away from the rest of the continent, while the
surrounding basin of the sea is everywhere deep in the neighbourhood of the
shore. Many great deluges have taken place during the nine thousand years, for
that is the number of years which have elapsed since the time of which I am
speaking ; and during all this time and through so many changes, there has
never been any considerable accumulation of the soil coming down from the
mountains, as in other places, but the earth has fallen away all round and sunk
out of sight. The consequence is, that in comparison of what then was, there are
remaining only the bones of the wasted body, as they may be called, as in the
case of small islands, all the richer and softer parts of the soil having fallen
away, and the mere skeleton of the land being left. But in the primitive state
of the country, its mountains were high hills covered with soil, and the plains,
as they are termed by us, of Phelleus were full of rich earth, and there was
abundance of wood in the mountains. Of this last the traces still remain, for
although some of the mountains now only afford sustenance to bees, not so very
long ago there were still to be seen roofs of timber cut from trees growing
there, which were of a size sufficient to cover the largest houses ; and
there were many other high trees, cultivated by man and bearing abundance of
food for cattle. Moreover, the land reaped the benefit of the annual rainfall,
not as now losing the water which flows off the bare earth into the sea, but,
having an abundant supply in all places, and receiving it into herself and
treasuring it up in the close clay soil, it let off into the hollows the streams
which it absorbed from the heights, providing everywhere abundant fountains and
rivers, of which there may still be observed sacred memorials in places where
fountains once existed ; and this proves the truth of what I am
saying.
Such was the
natural state of the country, which was cultivated, as we may well believe, by
true husbandmen, who made husbandry their business, and were lovers of honour,
and of a noble nature, and had a soil the best in the world, and abundance of
water, and in the heaven above an excellently attempered
climate.
Now the city in
those days was arranged on this wise. In the first place the Acropolis was not
as now. For the fact is that a single night of excessive rain washed away the
earth and laid bare the rock ; at the same time there were earthquakes, and
then occurred the extraordinary inundation, which was the third before the great
destruction of Deucalion. But in primitive times the hill of the Acropolis
extended to the Eridanus and Ilissus, and included the Pnyx on one side, and the
Lycabettus as a boundary on the opposite side to the Pnyx, and was all well
covered with soil, and level at the top, except in one or two places. Outside
the Acropolis and under the sides of the hill there dwelt artisans, and such of
the husbandmen as were tilling the ground near ; the warrior class dwelt by
themselves around the temples of Athene and Hephaestus at the summit, which
moreover they had enclosed with a single fence like the garden of a single
house. On the north side they had dwellings in common and had erected halls for
dining in winter, and had all the buildings which they needed for their common
life, besides temples, but there was no adorning of them with gold and silver,
for they made no use of these for any purpose ; they took a middle course
between meanness and ostentation, and built modest houses in which they and
their children’s children grew old, and they handed them down to others who were
like themselves, always the same. But in summer-time they left their gardens and
gymnasia and dining halls, and then the southern side of the hill was made use
of by them for the same purpose. Where the Acropolis now is there was a
fountain, which was choked by the earthquake, and has left only the few small
streams which still exist in the vicinity, but in those days the fountain gave
an abundant supply of water for all and of suitable temperature in summer and in
winter.
This is how they
dwelt, being the guardians of their own citizens and the leaders of the
Hellenes, who were their willing followers. And they took care to preserve the
same number of men and women through all time, being so many as were required
for warlike purposes, then as now — that is to say, about twenty thousand. Such
were the ancient Athenians, and after this manner they righteously administered
their own land and the rest of Hellas ; they were renowned all over Europe
and Asia for the beauty of their persons and for the many virtues of their
souls, and of all men who lived in those days they were the most illustrious.
And next, if I have not forgotten what I heard when I was a child, I will impart
to you the character and origin of their adversaries. For friends should not
keep their stories to themselves, but have them in common.
Yet, before
proceeding further in the narrative, I ought to warn you, that you must not be
surprised if you should perhaps hear Hellenic names given to foreigners. I will
tell you the reason of this : Solon, who was intending to use the tale for
his poem, enquired into the meaning of the names, and found that the early
Egyptians in writing them down had translated them into their own language, and
he recovered the meaning of the several names and when copying them out again
translated them into our language. My great-grandfather, Dropides, had the
original writing, which is still in my possession, and was carefully studied by
me when I was a child. Therefore if you hear names such as are used in this
country, you must not be surprised, for I have told how they came to be
introduced. The tale, which was of great length, began as follows :
—
I have before
remarked in speaking of the allotments of the gods, that they distributed the
whole earth into portions differing in extent, and made for themselves temples
and instituted sacrifices. And Poseidon, receiving for his lot the island of
Atlantis, begat children by a mortal woman, and settled them in a part of the
island, which I will describe. Looking towards the sea, but in the centre of the
whole island, there was a plain which is said to have been the fairest of all
plains and very fertile. Near the plain again, and also in the centre of the
island at a distance of about fifty stadia, there was a mountain not very high
on any side.
In this mountain
there dwelt one of the earth born primeval men of that country, whose name was
Evenor, and he had a wife named Leucippe, and they had an only daughter who was
called Cleito. The maiden had already reached womanhood, when her father and
mother died ; Poseidon fell in love with her and had intercourse with her,
and breaking the ground, inclosed the hill in which she dwelt all round, making
alternate zones of sea and land larger and smaller, encircling one
another ; there were two of land and three of water, which he turned as
with a lathe, each having its circumference equidistant every way from the
centre, so that no man could get to the island, for ships and voyages were not
as yet. He himself, being a god, found no difficulty in making special
arrangements for the centre island, bringing up two springs of water from
beneath the earth, one of warm water and the other of cold, and making every
variety of food to spring up abundantly from the soil. He also begat and brought
up five pairs of twin male children ; and dividing the island of Atlantis
into ten portions, he gave to the first-born of the eldest pair his mother’s
dwelling and the surrounding allotment, which was the largest and best, and made
him king over the rest ; the others he made princes, and gave them rule
over many men, and a large territory. And he named them all ; the eldest,
who was the first king, he named Atlas, and after him the whole island and the
ocean were called Atlantic. To his twin brother, who was born after him, and
obtained as his lot the extremity of the island towards the Pillars of Heracles,
facing the country which is now called the region of Gades in that part of the
world, he gave the name which in the Hellenic language is Eumelus, in the
language of the country which is named after him, Gadeirus. Of the second pair
of twins he called one Ampheres, and the other Evaemon. To the elder of the
third pair of twins he gave the name Mneseus, and Autochthon to the one who
followed him. Of the fourth pair of twins he called the elder Elasippus, and the
younger Mestor. And of the fifth pair he gave to the elder the name of Azaes,
and to the younger that of Diaprepes. All these and their descendants for many
generations were the inhabitants and rulers of divers islands in the open
sea ; and also, as has been already said, they held sway in our direction
over the country within the Pillars as far as Egypt and
Tyrrhenia.
Now Atlas had a
numerous and honourable family, and they retained the kingdom, the eldest son
handing it on to his eldest for many generations ; and they had such an
amount of wealth as was never before possessed by kings and potentates, and is
not likely ever to be again, and they were furnished with everything which they
needed, both in the city and country. For because of the greatness of their
empire many things were brought to them from foreign countries, and the island
itself provided most of what was required by them for the uses of life. In the
first place, they dug out of the earth whatever was to be found there, solid as
well as fusile, and that which is now only a name and was then something more
than a name, orichalcum, was dug out of the earth in many parts of the island,
being more precious in those days than anything except gold. There was an
abundance of wood for carpenter’s work, and sufficient maintenance for tame and
wild animals. Moreover, there were a great number of elephants in the
island ; for as there was provision for all other sorts of animals, both
for those which live in lakes and marshes and rivers, and also for those which
live in mountains and on plains, so there was for the animal which is the
largest and most voracious of all. Also whatever fragrant things there now are
in the earth, whether roots, or herbage, or woods, or essences which distil from
fruit and flower, grew and thrived in that land ; also the fruit which
admits of cultivation, both the dry sort, which is given us for nourishment and
any other which we use for food — we call them all by the common name pulse, and
the fruits having a hard rind, affording drinks and meats and ointments, and
good store of chestnuts and the like, which furnish pleasure and amusement, and
are fruits which spoil with keeping, and the pleasant kinds of dessert, with
which we console ourselves after dinner, when we are tired of eating — all these
that sacred island which then beheld the light of the sun, brought forth fair
and wondrous and in infinite abundance. With such blessings the earth freely
furnished them ; meanwhile they went on constructing their temples and
palaces and harbours and docks. And they arranged the whole country in the
following manner :
First of all they
bridged over the zones of sea which surrounded the ancient metropolis, making a
road to and from the royal palace. And at the very beginning they built the
palace in the habitation of the god and of their ancestors, which they continued
to ornament in successive generations, every king surpassing the one who went
before him to the utmost of his power, until they made the building a marvel to
behold for size and for beauty. And beginning from the sea they bored a canal of
three hundred feet in width and one hundred feet in depth and fifty stadia in
length, which they carried through to the outermost zone, making a passage from
the sea up to this, which became a harbour, and leaving an opening sufficient to
enable the largest vessels to find ingress. Moreover, they divided at the
bridges the zones of land which parted the zones of sea, leaving room for a
single trireme to pass out of one zone into another, and they covered over the
channels so as to leave a way underneath for the ships ; for the banks were
raised considerably above the water. Now the largest of the zones into which a
passage was cut from the sea was three stadia in breadth, and the zone of land
which came next of equal breadth ; but the next two zones, the one of
water, the other of land, were two stadia, and the one which surrounded the
central island was a stadium only in width. The island in which the palace was
situated had a diameter of five stadia. All this including the zones and the
bridge, which was the sixth part of a stadium in width, they surrounded by a
stone wall on every side, placing towers and gates on the bridges where the sea
passed in. The stone which was used in the work they quarried from underneath
the centre island, and from underneath the zones, on the outer as well as the
inner side. One kind was white, another black, and a third red, and as they
quarried, they at the same time hollowed out double docks, having roofs formed
out of the native rock. Some of their buildings were simple, but in others they
put together different stones, varying the colour to please the eye, and to be a
natural source of delight. The entire circuit of the wall, which went round the
outermost zone, they covered with a coating of brass, and the circuit of the
next wall they coated with tin, and the third, which encompassed the citadel,
flashed with the red light of orichalcum.
The palaces in the
interior of the citadel were constructed on this wise : — in the centre was
a holy temple dedicated to Cleito and Poseidon, which remained inaccessible, and
was surrounded by an enclosure of gold ; this was the spot where the family
of the ten princes first saw the light, and thither the people annually brought
the fruits of the earth in their season from all the ten portions, to be an
offering to each of the ten. Here was Poseidon’s own temple which was a stadium
in length, and half a stadium in width, and of a proportionate height, having a
strange barbaric appearance. All the outside of the temple, with the exception
of the pinnacles, they covered with silver, and the pinnacles with gold. In the
interior of the temple the roof was of ivory, curiously wrought everywhere with
gold and silver and orichalcum ; and all the other parts, the walls and
pillars and floor, they coated with orichalcum. In the temple they placed
statues of gold : there was the god himself standing in a chariot — the
charioteer of six winged horses — and of such a size that he touched the roof of
the building with his head ; around him there were a hundred Nereids riding
on dolphins, for such was thought to be the number of them by the men of those
days. There were also in the interior of the temple other images which had been
dedicated by private persons. And around the temple on the outside were placed
statues of gold of all the descendants of the ten kings and of their wives, and
there were many other great offerings of kings and of private persons, coming
both from the city itself and from the foreign cities over which they held sway.
There was an altar too, which in size and workmanship corresponded to this
magnificence, and the palaces, in like manner, answered to the greatness of the
kingdom and the glory of the temple.
In the next place,
they had fountains, one of cold and another of hot water, in gracious plenty
flowing ; and they were wonderfully adapted for use by reason of the
pleasantness and excellence of their waters. They constructed buildings about
them and planted suitable trees, also they made cisterns, some open to the
heavens, others roofed over, to be used in winter as warm baths ; there
were the kings’ baths, and the baths of private persons, which were kept
apart ; and there were separate baths for women, and for horses and cattle,
and to each of them they gave as much adornment as was suitable. Of the water
which ran off they carried some to the grove of Poseidon, where were growing all
manner of trees of wonderful height and beauty, owing to the excellence of the
soil, while the remainder was conveyed by aqueducts along the bridges to the
outer circles ; and there were many temples built and dedicated to many
gods ; also gardens and places of exercise, some for men, and others for
horses in both of the two islands formed by the zones ; and in the centre
of the larger of the two there was set apart a race-course of a stadium in
width, and in length allowed to extend all round the island, for horses to race
in. Also there were guardhouses at intervals for the guards, the more trusted of
whom were appointed — to keep watch in the lesser zone, which was nearer the
Acropolis while the most trusted of all had houses given them within the
citadel, near the persons of the kings. The docks were full of triremes and
naval stores, and all things were quite ready for use. Enough of the plan of the
royal palace.
Leaving the palace
and passing out across the three you came to a wall which began at the sea and
went all round : this was everywhere distant fifty stadia from the largest
zone or harbour, and enclosed the whole, the ends meeting at the mouth of the
channel which led to the sea. The entire area was densely crowded with
habitations ; and the canal and the largest of the harbours were full of
vessels and merchants coming from all parts, who, from their numbers, kept up a
multitudinous sound of human voices, and din and clatter of all sorts night and
day.
I have described
the city and the environs of the ancient palace nearly in the words of Solon,
and now I must endeavour to represent the nature and arrangement of the rest of
the land. The whole country was said by him to be very lofty and precipitous on
the side of the sea, but the country immediately about and surrounding the city
was a level plain, itself surrounded by mountains which descended towards the
sea ; it was smooth and even, and of an oblong shape, extending in one
direction three thousand stadia, but across the centre inland it was two
thousand stadia. This part of the island looked towards the south, and was
sheltered from the north. The surrounding mountains were celebrated for their
number and size and beauty, far beyond any which still exist, having in them
also many wealthy villages of country folk, and rivers, and lakes, and meadows
supplying food enough for every animal, wild or tame, and much wood of various
sorts, abundant for each and every kind of work.
I will now describe
the plain, as it was fashioned by nature and by the labours of many generations
of kings through long ages. It was for the most part rectangular and oblong, and
where falling out of the straight line followed the circular ditch. The depth,
and width, and length of this ditch were incredible, and gave the impression
that a work of such extent, in addition to so many others, could never have been
artificial. Nevertheless I must say what I was told. It was excavated to the
depth of a hundred, feet, and its breadth was a stadium everywhere ; it was
carried round the whole of the plain, and was ten thousand stadia in length. It
received the streams which came down from the mountains, and winding round the
plain and meeting at the city, was there let off into the sea. Further inland,
likewise, straight canals of a hundred feet in width were cut from it through
the plain, and again let off into the ditch leading to the sea : these
canals were at intervals of a hundred stadia, and by them they brought down the
wood from the mountains to the city, and conveyed the fruits of the earth in
ships, cutting transverse passages from one canal into another, and to the city.
Twice in the year they gathered the fruits of the earth — in winter having the
benefit of the rains of heaven, and in summer the water which the land supplied
by introducing streams from the canals.
As to the
population, each of the lots in the plain had to find a leader for the men who
were fit for military service, and the size of a lot was a square of ten stadia
each way, and the total number of all the lots was sixty thousand. And of the
inhabitants of the mountains and of the rest of the country there was also a
vast multitude, which was distributed among the lots and had leaders assigned to
them according to their districts and villages. The leader was required to
furnish for the war the sixth portion of a war-chariot, so as to make up a total
of ten thousand chariots ; also two horses and riders for them, and a pair
of chariot-horses without a seat, accompanied by a horseman who could fight on
foot carrying a small shield, and having a charioteer who stood behind the
man-at-arms to guide the two horses ; also, he was bound to furnish two
heavy armed soldiers, two slingers, three stone-shooters and three javelin-men,
who were light-armed, and four sailors to make up the complement of twelve
hundred ships. Such was the military order of the royal city — the order of the
other nine governments varied, and it would be wearisome to recount their
several differences.
As to offices and
honours, the following was the arrangement from the first. Each of the ten kings
in his own division and in his own city had the absolute control of the
citizens, and, in most cases, of the laws, punishing and slaying whomsoever he
would. Now the order of precedence among them and their mutual relations were
regulated by the commands of Poseidon which the law had handed down. These were
inscribed by the first kings on a pillar of orichalcum, which was situated in
the middle of the island, at the temple of Poseidon, whither the kings were
gathered together every fifth and every sixth year alternately, thus giving
equal honour to the odd and to the even number. And when they were gathered
together they consulted about their common interests, and enquired if any one
had transgressed in anything and passed judgment and before they passed judgment
they gave their pledges to one another on this wise : — There were bulls
who had the range of the temple of Poseidon ; and the ten kings, being left
alone in the temple, after they had offered prayers to the god that they might
capture the victim which was acceptable to him, hunted the bulls, without
weapons but with staves and nooses ; and the bull which they caught they
led up to the pillar and cut its throat over the top of it so that the blood
fell upon the sacred inscription. Now on the pillar, besides the laws, there was
inscribed an oath invoking mighty curses on the disobedient. When therefore,
after slaying the bull in the accustomed manner, they had burnt its limbs, they
filled a bowl of wine and cast in a clot of blood for each of them ; the
rest of the victim they put in the fire, after having purified the column all
round. Then they drew from the bowl in golden cups and pouring a libation on the
fire, they swore that they would judge according to the laws on the pillar, and
would punish him who in any point had already transgressed them, and that for
the future they would not, if they could help, offend against the writing on the
pillar, and would neither command others, nor obey any ruler who commanded them,
to act otherwise than according to the laws of their father Poseidon. This was
the prayer which each of them offered up for himself and for his descendants, at
the same time drinking and dedicating the cup out of which he drank in the
temple of the god ; and after they had supped and satisfied their needs,
when darkness came on, and the fire about the sacrifice was cool, all of them
put on most beautiful azure robes, and, sitting on the ground, at night, over
the embers of the sacrifices by which they had sworn, and extinguishing all the
fire about the temple, they received and gave judgment, if any of them had an
accusation to bring against any one ; and when they given judgment, at
daybreak they wrote down their sentences on a golden tablet, and dedicated it
together with their robes to be a memorial.
There were many
special laws affecting the several kings inscribed about the temples, but the
most important was the following : They were not to take up arms against
one another, and they were all to come to the rescue if any one in any of their
cities attempted to overthrow the royal house ; like their ancestors, they
were to deliberate in common about war and other matters, giving the supremacy
to the descendants of Atlas. And the king was not to have the power of life and
death over any of his kinsmen unless he had the assent of the majority of the
ten.
Such was the vast
power which the god settled in the lost island of Atlantis ; and this he
afterwards directed against our land for the following reasons, as tradition
tells : For many generations, as long as the divine nature lasted in them,
they were obedient to the laws, and well-affectioned towards the god, whose seed
they were ; for they possessed true and in every way great spirits, uniting
gentleness with wisdom in the various chances of life, and in their intercourse
with one another. They despised everything but virtue, caring little for their
present state of life, and thinking lightly of the possession of gold and other
property, which seemed only a burden to them ; neither were they
intoxicated by luxury ; nor did wealth deprive them of their
self-control ; but they were sober, and saw clearly that all these goods
are increased by virtue and friendship with one another, whereas by too great
regard and respect for them, they are lost and friendship with them. By such
reflections and by the continuance in them of a divine nature, the qualities
which we have described grew and increased among them ; but when the divine
portion began to fade away, and became diluted too often and too much with the
mortal admixture, and the human nature got the upper hand, they then, being
unable to bear their fortune, behaved unseemly, and to him who had an eye to see
grew visibly debased, for they were losing the fairest of their precious
gifts ; but to those who had no eye to see the true happiness, they
appeared glorious and blessed at the very time when they were full of avarice
and unrighteous power. Zeus, the god of gods, who rules according to law, and is
able to see into such things, perceiving that an honourable race was in a woeful
plight, and wanting to inflict punishment on them, that they might be chastened
and improve, collected all the gods into their most holy habitation, which,
being placed in the centre of the world, beholds all created things. And when he
had called them together, he spake as follows —
The rest of the Dialogue
of Critias has been lost.