Atlantis: The Antedeluvian World | Page 7

on to speak of antiquity, he began to
tell about the most ancient things in our part of the world--about Phoroneus, who is called
'the first,' and about Niobe; and, after the Deluge, to tell of the lives of Deucalion and
Pyrrha; and he traced the genealogy of their descendants, and attempted to reckon bow
many years old were the events of which he was speaking, and to give the dates.
Thereupon, one of the priests, who was of very great age; said, 'O Solon, Solon, you
Hellenes are but children, and there is never an old man who is an Hellene.' Solon,
bearing this, said, 'What do you mean?' 'I mean to say,' he replied, 'that in mind you are
all young; there is no old opinion handed down among you by ancient tradition, nor any
science which is hoary with age. And I will tell you the reason of this: there have been,
and there will be again, many destructions of mankind arising out of many causes. There
is a story which even you have preserved, that once upon a time Phaëthon, the son of
Helios, having yoked the steeds in his father's chariot, because he was not able to drive
them in the path of his father, burnt up all that was upon the earth, and was himself
destroyed by a thunderbolt. Now, this has the form of a myth, but really signifies a

declination of the bodies moving around the earth and in the heavens, and a great
conflagration of things upon the earth recurring at long intervals of time: when this
happens, those who live upon the mountains and in dry and lofty places are more liable to
destruction than those who dwell by rivers or on the sea-shore; and from this calamity the
Nile, who is our never-failing savior, saves and delivers us. When, on the other hand, the
gods purge the earth with a deluge of water, among you herdsmen and shepherds on the
mountains are the survivors, whereas those of you who live in cities are carried by the
rivers into the sea; but in this country neither at that time nor at any other does the water
come from above on the fields, having always a tendency to come up from below, for
which reason the things preserved here are said to be the oldest. The fact is, that wherever
the extremity of winter frost or of summer sun does not prevent, the human race is always
increasing at times, and at other times diminishing in numbers. And whatever happened
either in your country or in ours, or in any other region of which we are informed--if any
action which is noble or great, or in any other way remarkable has taken place, all that
has been written down of old, and is preserved in our temples; whereas you and other
nations are just being provided with letters and the other things which States require; and
then, at the usual period, the stream from heaven descends like a pestilence, and leaves
only those of you who are destitute of letters and education; and thus you have to begin
all over again as children, and know nothing of what happened in ancient times, either
among us or among yourselves. As for those genealogies of yours which you have
recounted to us, Solon, they are no better than the tales of children; for, in the first place,
you remember one deluge only, whereas there were many of them; and, in the next place,
you do not know that there dwelt in your land the fairest and noblest race of men which
ever lived, of whom you and your whole city are but a seed or remnant. And this was
unknown to you, because for many generations the survivors of that destruction died and
made no sign. For there was a time, Solon, before that great deluge of all, when the city
which now is Athens was first in war, and was preeminent for the excellence of her laws,
and is said to have performed the noblest deeds, and to have had the fairest constitution
of any of which tradition tells, under the face of heaven.' Solon marvelled at this, and
earnestly requested the priest to inform him exactly and in order about these former
citizens. 'You are welcome to hear about them, Solon,' said the priest, 'both for your own
sake and for that of the city; and, above all, for the sake of the goddess who is the
common patron and protector and educator of both our cities. She founded your city a
thousand years before ours, receiving from the Earth and Hephæstus the seed of your race,
and then she founded ours, the constitution of which is set down in our sacred