In My Opinion This May Be Explained From What Is Said
By Plato In His _Timaeus_, And The Subsequent Dialogue Entitled _Atlantis_.
He Says:
"That the Egyptians report, to the honour of the Athenians, that
they contributed to defeat certain kings who came
With a numerous army by
sea from the great island of Atlantis, which, beginning beyond the Pillars
of Hercules, is larger than all Asia and Africa together, and is divided
into ten kingdoms which Neptune gave among his ten sons, Atlas, the eldest,
having the largest and most valuable share." Plato adds several remarkable
particulars concerning the customs and riches of that island; especially
concerning a magnificent temple in the chief city, the walls of which were
entirely covered over with gold and silver, having a roof of copper, and
many other circumstances which are here omitted for the sake of brevity;
though it is certain that several customs and ceremonies mentioned by
Plato are still practised in the provinces of Peru. Beyond the great
island of Atlantis, there were other large islands not far distant from
the _Firm Land_, beyond which again was the _True Sea_. The following are
the words which Plato attributes, in his Timaeus, to Socrates, as spoken
to the Athenians. "It is held certain, that in ancient times your city
resisted an immense number of enemies from the Atlantic Ocean, who had
conquered almost all Europe and Asia. In those days the _Straits_ were
navigable, and immediately beyond them there was an island, commencing
almost at the _Pillars of Hercules_, which was said to be larger than Asia
and Africa united; from whence the passage was easy to other islands near
and opposite to the continent of the _True Sea_." A little after this
passage, it is added. "That nine thousand years before his days, a great
change took place, as the sea adjoining that island was so increased by
the accession of a prodigious quantity of water, that in the course of one
day it swallowed up the whole island; since when that sea has remained so
full of shallows and sand banks as to be no longer navigable, neither has
any one been able to reach the other islands and the _Firm Land_."
Some authors hare believed this recital to be merely allegorical, while
most of the commentators on Plato considered it as a real historical
narrative. The _nine thousand years_, mentioned by Plato, must not be
considered as an indication of this discourse being fabulous; since,
according to Eudoxus, we must understand them as lunar years or _moons_,
after the Egyptian mode of computation, _or nine thousand months_, which
are _seven hundred and fifty years_. All historians and cosmographers,
ancient as well as modern, have concurred to name the sea by which that
great island was swallowed up, the _Atlantic Ocean_, in which the name of
that ancient island is retained, giving a strong evidence of its former
existence. Adopting, therefore the truth of this historical fact, it must
be granted that this island of Atlantis, beginning from the Straits of
Gibraltar near Cadiz, must have stretched a vast way from north to south,
and from east to west, since it was larger than all Asia and Africa.
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