Critias | Page 3

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This etext was prepared by Sue Asscher

CRITIAS
by Plato

Translated by Benjamin Jowett

INTRODUCTION AND ANALYSIS.
The Critias is a fragment which breaks off in the middle of a sentence. It was designed to
be the second part of a trilogy, which, like the other great Platonic trilogy of the Sophist,

Statesman, Philosopher, was never completed. Timaeus had brought down the origin of
the world to the creation of man, and the dawn of history was now to succeed the
philosophy of nature. The Critias is also connected with the Republic. Plato, as he has
already told us (Tim.), intended to represent the ideal state engaged in a patriotic conflict.
This mythical conflict is prophetic or symbolical of the struggle of Athens and Persia,
perhaps in some degree also of the wars of the Greeks and Carthaginians, in the same
way that the Persian is prefigured by the Trojan war to the mind of Herodotus, or as the
narrative of the first part of the Aeneid is intended by Virgil to foreshadow the wars of
Carthage and Rome. The small number of the primitive Athenian citizens (20,000),
'which is about their present number' (Crit.), is evidently designed to contrast with the
myriads and barbaric array of the Atlantic hosts. The passing remark in the Timaeus that
Athens was left alone in the struggle, in which she conquered and became the liberator of
Greece, is also an allusion to the later history. Hence we may safely conclude that the
entire narrative is due to the imagination of Plato, who has used the name of Solon and
introduced the Egyptian priests to give verisimilitude to his story. To the Greek such a
tale, like that of the earth-born men, would have seemed perfectly accordant with the
character of his mythology, and not more marvellous than the wonders of the East
narrated by Herodotus and others: he might have been deceived into believing it. But it
appears strange that later ages should have been imposed upon by the fiction. As many
attempts have been made to find the great island of Atlantis, as to discover the country of
the lost tribes. Without regard to the description of Plato, and without a suspicion that the
whole narrative is a fabrication, interpreters have looked for the spot in every part of the
globe, America, Arabia Felix, Ceylon, Palestine, Sardinia, Sweden.
Timaeus concludes with a prayer that his words may be acceptable to the God whom he
has revealed, and Critias, whose turn follows, begs that a larger measure of indulgence
may be conceded to him, because he has to speak of men whom we know and not of gods
whom we do not know. Socrates readily grants his request, and anticipating that
Hermocrates will make a similar petition, extends by anticipation a like indulgence to
him.
Critias returns to his story, professing only to repeat what Solon was told by the priests.
The war of which he was about to speak had occurred 9000 years ago. One of the
combatants was the city of Athens, the other was the great island of Atlantis. Critias
proposes to speak of these rival powers first of all, giving to Athens the precedence; the
various tribes of Greeks and barbarians who took part in the war will be dealt with as
they successively appear on the scene.
In the beginning the gods agreed to divide the earth by lot in a friendly manner, and when
they had made the allotment they settled their several countries, and were the shepherds
or rather the pilots of mankind, whom they guided by persuasion, and not by force.
Hephaestus and Athena, brother and sister deities, in mind and art united, obtained