Atlantis: The Antedeluvian WorldDonnelly, Ignatius
History
Atlantis: The Antedeluvian World
Donnelly, Ignatius
Atlantis (Legendary place); Deluge; Ethnology
It is not impossible that our division of the year into twelve parts is
a reminiscence of the twelve gods of Atlantis. Diodorus Siculus tells us
that among the Babylonians there were twelve gods of the heavens, each
personified by one of the signs of the zodiac, and worshipped in a
certain month of the year. The Hindoos had twelve primal gods, "the
Aditya." Moses erected twelve pillars at Sinai. The Mandan Indians
celebrated the Flood with twelve typical characters, who danced around
the ark. The Scandinavians believed in the twelve gods, the Aesir, who
dwelt on Asgard, the Norse Olympus. Diligent investigation may yet
reveal that the number of a modern jury, twelve, is a survival of the
ancient council of Asgard.
"According to the traditions of the Phoenicians, the Gardens of the
Hesperides were in the remote west." (Murray's "Mannal of Mythology," p.
258.) Atlas lived in these gardens. (Ibid., p. 259.) Atlas, we have
seen, was king of Atlantis. "The Elysian Fields (the happy islands) were
commonly placed in the remote west. They were ruled over by Chronos."
(Ibid., p. 60.) Tartarus, the region of Hades, the gloomy home of the
dead, was also located "under the mountains of an island in the midst of
the ocean in the remote west." (Ibid., p. 58.) Atlas was described in
Greek mythology as "an enormous giant, who stood upon the western
confines of the earth, and supported the heavens on his shoulders, in a
region of the west where the sun continued to shine after he had set
upon Greece." (Ibid., p. 156.)
Greek tradition located the island in which Olympus was situated "in the
far west," "in the ocean beyond Africa," "on the western boundary of the
known world," "where the sun shone when it had ceased to shine on
Greece," and where the mighty Atlas "held up the heavens." And Plato
tells us that the land where Poseidon and Atlas ruled was Atlantis.
"The Garden of the Hesperides" (another name for the dwelling-place of
the gods) "was situated at the extreme limit of Africa. Atlas was said
to have surrounded it on every side with high mountains." (Smith's
"Sacred Annals, Patriarchal Age," p. 131.) Here were found the golden
apples.
This is very much like the description which Plato gives of the great
plain of Atlantis, covered with fruit of every kind, and surrounded by
precipitous mountains descending to the sea.
The Greek mythology, in speaking of the Garden of the Hesperides, tells
us that "the outer edge of the garden was slightly raised, so that the
water might not run in and overflow the land." Another reminiscence of
the surrounding mountains of Atlantis as described by Plato, and as
revealed by the deep-sea soundings of modern times.
Chronos, or Saturn, Dionysos, Hyperion, Atlas, Hercules, were all
connected with "a great Saturnian continent;" they were kings that ruled
over countries on the western shores of the Mediterranean, Africa and
Spain. One account says:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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