The Story Of The Island Kingdom Of Atlantis As Told By The Critias Of Plato

Critias, ' one of Plato's late dialogues, contains the story of the mighty island kingdom Atlantis and its attempt to conquer Athens. 'Critias' is the second of a projected trilogy of dialogues, preceded by 'Timaeus' and followed by 'Hermocrates, ' though the latter was possibly never written and 'Critias' was left incomplet

Ambitious scholiasts, men of a small sub-race born but yesterday, and one of the latest issues of the Aryan stock, took upon themselves to overturn the religious thought of the world, and succeeded. For nearly two thousand years they impressed thinking Humanity with the belief in the existence of Satan. Plato merged the history of Atlantis, which covered several million years, into one event which he located on one small island about the size of Ireland, whereas the priests spoke of Atlantis as a continent vast as all Asia and Libya put together. The statements of Herodotus that the Atlantes who were vegetarians, whose sleep was never disturbed by dreams, and who cursed the sun because his excessive heat scorched and tormented them, are all based on moral and psychic facts and not on physiological disturbance. Atlas is the old continents of Lemuria and Atlantis, combined and personified in one symbol. He supports the sacred islands and continents on its shoulders. The poets attribute to Atlas a superior wisdom and a thorough acquaintance with the depths of the ocean because both Lemuria and Atlantis bore races instructed by divine masters; and both were transferred to the bottom of the seas, where they now slumber until their next reappearance above the waters. The feet of Atlas tread the earth while his shoulders support the celestial vault, an allusion to the gigantic peaks of the Lemurian and Atlantean continents. Proud Atlas, having sunk one third of its size into the waters, its two parts remained as a heirloom of Atlantis. Atlas and the Teneriffe Peak, now two of the dwarfed relics of the lost continents, were thrice as lofty during the day of Lemuria and twice as high in that of Atlantis. Alchemy had its birth-place in Atlantis during the Fourth Race, and had only its renaissance in Egypt. So secret was the knowledge of the last islands of Atlantis, on account of the superhuman powers possessed by its inhabitants (the last direct descendants of Divine Kings) that to divulge its whereabouts and existence was punished by death. To the uninitiated profane the dead letter was religion, and interpretation a sacrilege. Dead letter could neither edify nor uplift him. But to initiated philosopher Hesiod’s Theogony is as historical as any history can be. Poseidon-Neptune, the grandson of Ouranos, is the Hindu Idaspati, and identical with Narayana, the mover in (not on) the waters. Ouranos was the first astronomical teacher of men because he is one of the seven Dhyani-Chohans overseeing that second race. Ouranos gave birth to the Saturnian Titans of the Third Race, and it is they who mutilated him. For when creation by divine will was superseded by physical procreation, they needed Ouranos no more. Poseidon-Neptune and Nereus, who fathered the Nereids, are one: the former is the ruler or spirit of Atlantis before the beginning of its submersion; the latter, after. Poseidon is the titanic strength of the living race; Nereus, its spirit reincarnated in the subsequent Fifth or Aryan Race. Poseidon is of the earth earthy, strong and self-asserting, sensual, jealous, and vindictive, because he symbolises the spirit of the Atlantean Race that lives above the surface of the seas and which is composed of giants, the children of Eurymedon, the race that fathered Polyphemus and the one-eyed Cyclopes. The key to the mysteries of the Christian as well as of the Grecian Theogonies and Sciences, is the Secret Doctrine of the prehistoric nations. The standing army of Atlantis is given as upwards of a million men; its navy as 1,200 ships plus 240,000 men. Such statements are quite inapplicable to Poseidonis, a small island state of about the size of Ireland! Ethnologically, the seven daughters of Atlas or Atlantides are the seven sub-races, as they are credited with having married gods and having become mothers of famous heroes, the founders of many nations and cities. Astronomically, the Atlantides have become the seven Pleiades. Esoterically, the two are connected with the destinies of nations, as shaped by past events according to Karmic law. The Secret Doctrine shows that the founders of the Root-Races have all been connected with the Polar Star. The Aryan race was born and developed in the far north, however, after the sinking of Atlantis its tribes emigrated south into Asia. Hence Prometheus is son of Asia, and Deukalion, his son, the Greek Noah. Cyclopes, the beloved priests of Apollo, were the last three sub-races of the northern race, the Lemurians. The single eye stands for the all-penetrating spiritual eye, which atrophied when their pastoral life evolved into the sensual culture of the Atlanteans, only to be replaced by the outward-looking eyes of lust and greed. Odysseus-Ulysses belongs to the cycle of the heroes of the Atlantean Fourth Race. His adventure with the pastoral giants is an allegory of the gradual passage from the Cyclopean civilization of stone and colossal buildings to the sophisticated culture and physical proclivities of the Atlanteans. That other allegory, which makes Apollo kill the Cyclops to avenge the death of his son Asklepios (by Zeus with a lightning bolt fashioned by Cyclopes) refers to the Hyperborean Arimaspian Cyclopes, the last race endowed with the Wisdom-eye. In his occult aspect, Apollo is patron of Number Seven. Cosmically and astronomically, he is the Sun personified. Psychically and spiritually, his significance is far more important. The Greeks naturalised the gods they “borrowed” and made Hellenes of them, and the moderns helped them. To make a difference between Lemuria and Atlantis, the ancient writers referred to the latter as the northern or Hyperborean Atlantis, and to the former as the Southern one. Geologically, Leto-Latona is the Hyperborean Continent and its Race. The quarrel of Latona with Niobe, the Atlantean race, allegorizes the history of the two continents. Latona-Lemuria is transformed into Niobe-Atlantis, over which her son Apollo, or the Sun, reigns with an iron rod, truly, since Herodotus makes the Atlantes curse his too great heat. The Lemuro-Atlantean, is the first physical race, though the third and the fourth in number. The Lemurians, as also the early Atlanteans, were divided into two opposing fraternities, the Sons of Darkness, and the Sons of Light. There were terrible battles between the two. The island of Delos, the Asteria of the Greek mythology, was never in Greece, a country which, in its day, was not yet in existence, not even in its molecular form. Diodorus Siculus and Pliny place Delos in the Northern seas. One calls it royal; the other, the royal island of gods. Because the divine dynasties of the kings of Atlantis proceeded from that place. Occult records and linguistic evidence indicate that gods, religious beliefs, and myths have all come from the north, which was also the cradle of physical man. The Hyperboreans, the Cimmerians, the Arimaspoi, and the Scythians were descendants of the last Atlantean sub-races. But they were neither known to, nor communicating with, the Greeks. The Pelasgians, a remnant of an Atlantean sub-race, were certainly one of the root-races of future Greece. Noah’s Deluge is astronomical and allegorical but not mythical. However, the allegory about the antediluvian giants and their achievements in sorcery is no myth. Poseidon is not only the personation of the spirit and race of Atlantis, but also of the vices of the Nephilim giants of Genesis. The bestiality of the Satyrs was real, not allegorical. Esoteric records show these hairy Satyrs to be the last descendants of those Lemuro-Atlantean races, which begot children on female animals, of species now long extinct. They paid a very heavy price for their unnatural union. The whole globe is convulsed periodically; and has been so convulsed, since the appearance of the First Race, four times. Yet, though the whole face of the earth was transformed thereby each time, the conformation of the Arctic and Antarctic poles has but little altered. Continents perish in turn by fire and water: either through earthquakes and volcanic eruptions, or by sinking and the great displacement of waters. The three “imprisoned” polar giants, Briareus, Kottos, and Gyges, are three polar lands which have changed form several times, at each new cataclysm or disappearance of one continent to make room for another. When lesser gods and titans rebelled against Zeus, he hurled Lemuria amid thunder and lightning to the bottom of the seas, so as to make room for Atlantis, which was to be submerged and perish in its turn. The geological upheaval and deluge of Thessaly was a repetition on a small scale of the great cataclysm; and remaining impressed on the memory of the Greeks, was merged by them into, and confused with, the general fate of Atlantis. All continents are formed from North to South. And the tallest men are those in Northern countries, while the smallest are Southern Asiatics. Thus also the giants of Atlantis, as well as the Titans of Hesiod, are all Northerners.

Two late dialogues of Plato designed to be part of a trilogy that the philosopher did not finish, "Timaeus" and "Critias" utilize a few select men to theorize on the natural world and to tell a story of the lost city of Atlantis. "Timaeus" is a treatise, written in Socratic dialogue form in 360 BC, that speculates on the nature of the physical world, the purpose of the universe, properties of the universe, the creation of the world, the soul, the elements, and the golden ratio. It is followed by the dialogue "Critias", which tells the tale of the powerful island kingdom of Atlantis. Though the people are the offspring of a god, their human nature begins to corrupt them. They attempt to conquer Athens but fail because of the Athenians' well-ordered society. Just as Zeus begins to decree their punishment, however, the incomplete work comes to an end. Though not extant, this pair of dialogues is clearly the writing of a brilliant mind posing and considering creative ideas. This edition is printed on premium acid-free paper and follows the translations with introductions of Benjamin Jowett.

Go where we may, to explore the antiquities of America — whether of Northern, Central, or Southern America — we are first of all impressed with the magnitude of these relics of ages and races unknown, and then with the extraordinary similarity they present to the mounds and ancient structures of old India, of Egypt, and even of some parts of Europe. Whoever has seen one of these mounds has seen all. Whoever has stood before the cyclopean structures of one continent can have a pretty accurate idea of those of the other. Only be it said — we know still less of the age of the antiquities of America than even of those in the Valley of the Nile, of which we know next to nothing. But their symbolism — apart from their outward form — is evidently the same as in Egypt, India, and elsewhere. Equalling Egypt in the immensity of her cyclopean structures, Peru surpasses her in their number; while Cholula exceeds the grand pyramid of Cheops in breadth, if not in height. However, Incan history only dates back to the eleventh century A.D. Judged by their exclusive privileges, power, and “infallibility,” Incas are the antipodal counterpart of the Brahmanical caste of India. On the other hand, Manco Cápac is the exact counterpart of the Chinese Fohi, the Hindu Buddha, the terrestrial Osiris of Egypt, the Quetzalcoatl of Mexico, the Votan of Central America. The theory of cycles is the only plausible theory to solve the great problems of humanity, the rise and fall of numberless nations and races, and the ethnological differences among the latter, and the two-sided question — incessant progress on the one side and an irresistible decadence on the other of the cycle. The extraordinary similarity of the Aryan with the South American tradition suggests that the old Solar and Lunar races, Suryavansha and Chandravansha, have already reappeared in the New World. For America was once united with Europe, Asia, Africa and Australia. That man has lived in America, at least 50,000 years ago, is now proved scientifically and remains a fact beyond doubt or cavil. Must we still locate a geographical Eden in the East, and suppose a land equally adapted to man and as old geologically, must wait the aimless wanderings of the “lost tribe of Israel” to become populated?

The power of names is great, and was known since the first men were instructed by the divine masters. As Solon had studied it, he translated the Atlantean names into names devised by himself. The so-called barbaric peoples, the physical and political representatives of the nascent Aryan race speaking a now extinct Aryan language that stood before this division of nations, had a higher civilization as a root race and its sub-races than has yet been found in the geological strata. We, who place the origin of the Pelasgians far beyond the Biblical ditch of historic chronology, have reasons to believe that the “most barbarous language” mentioned by Herodotus was simply the primitive and now extinct pure Aryan tongue that preceded the Vedic Sanskrit. Pelasgians were a remnant of an Atlantean sub-race. The Aeolic was neither the language of Æschylus, nor the Attic, nor even the old speech of Homer — it was Vedic Sanskrit. In old Greece barbarous names were sacred and it was unlawful to change them. Yet, the Greeks got in the habit of twisting primeval names. They even besmirched their noble ancestry by belittling their Hierophants as Troglodytes. Three Hierarchs represented Budhistical and Brahmanical power in Greece. While the political power of Sri-B’dho-Lemos or Triptolemos was formidable, the cave-dwelling Budhist Priests or Sroo-cula-dutæ, Lords of the Cave, who protected their secret doctrines from profanation, are today belittled as Troglodytai. Further examples of the profound Brahmanical influence in Greece are the Goghos or Cow-Killer that became Kakos, i.e., bad. Soo-Bhoo-ya or one engaged in abstract meditation became Sophos, i.e., Wise. Despatis or Land-Lord became Despotes, thus marking the transition from Oligarchic privilege to Democratic tyranny.

The old Greeks and Romans were the last sub-race of the Atlantean Race, already swallowed up in one of the early sub-races of the Aryan stock, one that had been gradually spreading over the continent and islands of Europe, as soon as they had begun to emerge from the seas. Of a single sub-race of the Aryan Race of Humanity, the progenitors of the Egyptians, Phœnicians, Greeks, and the northern stocks had emigrated from the lofty plateau of Asia westward and settled in the emerging new lands of Europe. Phœnicians were Cyclopes, a one-eyed race of giants. Millennia later, other Atlantean offshoots began invading the new continent. There were wars in which the newcomers were defeated and fled in faraway lands. The Trojan War typifies a historical event that survived in the memory of men as legend. It took place 8 millennia ago. Occult records make no difference between the Atlantean ancestors of the old Greeks and those of the Romans. While profane ethnologists rely solely on relics, when available, the Occultist traces the auric shades and colour gradations of the living man back to his parent stem and tribe. The Egyptians were much older than the Greeks. The Egyptian Zodiac is at least 75 millennia old; the Greek, 17 millennia old.