Atlantis: The Antedeluvian WorldDonnelly, Ignatius
History
Atlantis: The Antedeluvian World
Donnelly, Ignatius
Atlantis (Legendary place); Deluge; Ethnology
And that this is not all surmise is shown by the fact that a city of
India, in the time of Alexander the Great, defended itself by the use of
gunpowder: it was said to be a favorite of the gods, because thunder and
lightning came from its walls to resist the attacks of its assailants.
As the Hebrews were a branch of the Phoenician race, it is not surprising
that we find some things in their history which look very much like
legends of gunpowder.
When Korah, Dathan, and Abiram led a rebellion against Moses, Moses
separated the faithful from the unfaithful, and thereupon "the ground
clave asunder that was under them: and the earth opened her mouth, and
swallowed them up, and their houses, and all the men that appertained
unto Korah, and all their goods.... And there came out a fire from
the Lord, and consumed the two hundred and fifty men that offered
incense.... But on the morrow all the congregation of the children of
Israel murmured against Moses and against Aaron, saying, Ye have killed
the people of the Lord." (Numb. xvi., 31-41.)
This looks very much as if Moses had blown up the rebels with gunpowder.
Roger Bacon, who himself rediscovered gunpowder, was of opinion that the
event described in Judges vii., where Gideon captured the camp of the
Midianites with the roar of trumpets, the crash caused by the breaking
of innumerable pitchers, and the flash of a multitude of lanterns, had
reference to the use of gunpowder; that the noise made by the breaking
of the pitchers represented the detonation of an explosion, the flame of
the lights the blaze, and the noise of the trumpets the thunder of the
gunpowder. We can understand, in this wise, the results that followed;
but we cannot otherwise understand how the breaking of pitchers, the
flashing of lamps, and the clangor of trumpets would throw an army into
panic, until "every man's sword was set against his fellow, and the host
fled to Beth-shittah;" and this, too, without any attack upon the part
of the Israelites, for "they stood every man in his place around the
camp; and all the host ran and cried and fled."
If it was a miraculous interposition in behalf of the Jews, the Lord
could have scared the Midianites out of their wits without the smashed
pitchers and lanterns; and certain it is the pitchers and lanterns
would not have done the work with out a miraculous interposition.
Having traced the knowledge of gunpowder back to the most remote times,
and to the different races which were descended from Atlantis, we are
not surprised to find in the legends of Greek mythology events described
which are only explicable by supposing that the Atlanteans possessed the
secret of this powerful explosive.
A rebellion sprang up in Atlantis (see Murray's "Mannal of Mythology,"
p. 30) against Zeus; it is known in mythology as the "War of the
Titans:"
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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