Critias | Page 8

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.
CRITIAS: 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 I 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 the 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 (Cp.
Polit.) 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 (Cp. Arist. Metaphys.), and when they see that the necessaries of life have
already been provided, but not before. And this is the 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