Atlantis: The Antedeluvian WorldDonnelly, Ignatius
History
Atlantis: The Antedeluvian World
Donnelly, Ignatius
Atlantis (Legendary place); Deluge; Ethnology
"There were tales of personal visits and adventures of the gods among
men, taking part in battles and appearing in dreams. They were conceived
to possess the form of human beings, and to be, like men, subject to
love and pain, but always characterized by the highest qualities and
grandest forms that could be imagined." (Ibid.)
Another proof that the gods of the Greeks were but the deified kings of
Atlantis is found in the fact that "the gods were not looked upon as
having created the world." They succeeded to the management of a world
already in existence.
The gods dwelt on Olympus. They lived together like human beings; they
possessed palaces, storehouses, stables, horses, etc.; "they dwelt in a
social state which was but a magnified reflection of the social system
on earth. Quarrels, love passages, mutual assistance, and such instances
as characterize human life, were ascribed to them." (Ibid., p. 10.)
Where was Olympus? It was in Atlantis. "The ocean encircled the earth
with a great stream, and was a region of wonders of all kinds." (Ibid.,
p. 23.) It was a great island, the then civilized world. The encircling
ocean "was spoken of in all the ancient legends. Okeanos lived there
with his wife Tethys: these were the Islands of the Blessed, the garden
of the gods, the sources of the nectar and ambrosia on which the gods
lived." (Murray's "Mythology," p. 23.) Nectar was probably a fermented
intoxicating liquor, and ambrosia bread made from wheat. Soma was a kind
of whiskey, and the Hindoos deified it. "The gods lived on nectar and
ambrosia" simply meant that the inhabitants of these blessed islands
were civilized, and possessed a liquor of some kind and a species of
food superior to anything in use among the barbarous tribes with whom
they came in contact.
This blessed land answers to the description of Atlantis. It was an
island full of wonders. It lay spread out in the ocean "like a disk,
with the mountains rising from it." (Ibid.) On the highest point of this
mountain dwelt Zeus (the king), "while the mansions of the other deities
were arranged upon plateaus, or in ravines lower down the mountain.
These deities, including Zeus, were twelve in number: Zeus (or Jupiter),
Hera (or Juno), Poseidon (or Neptune), Demeter (or Ceres), Apollo,
Artemis (or Diana), Hephæstos (or Vulcan), Pallas Athena (or Minerva),
Ares (or Mars), Aphrodite (or Venus), Hermes (or Mercury), and Hestia
(or Vesta)." These were doubtless the twelve gods from whom the
Egyptians derived their kings. Where two names are given to a deity in
the above list, the first name is that bestowed by the Greeks, the last
that given by the Romans.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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