Atlantis: The Antedeluvian WorldDonnelly, Ignatius
History
Atlantis: The Antedeluvian World
Donnelly, Ignatius
Atlantis (Legendary place); Deluge; Ethnology
In the legends of the Chibchas of Bogota we seem to have distinct
reminiscences of Atlantis. Bochica was their leading divinity. During
two thousand years he employed himself in elevating his subjects. He
lived in the sun, while his wife Chia occupied the moon. This would
appear to be an allusion to the worship of the sun and moon. Beneath
Bochica in their mythology was Chibchacum. In an angry mood he brought a
deluge on the people of the table-land. Bochica punished him for this
act, and obliged him ever after, like Atlas, to bear the burden of the
earth on his back. Occasionally be shifts the earth from one shoulder to
another, and this causes earthquakes!
Here we have allusions to an ancient people who, during thousands of
years, were elevated in the scale of civilization, and were destroyed by
a deluge; and with this is associated an Atlantean god bearing the world
on his back. We find even the rainbow appearing in connection with this
legend. When Bochica appeared in answer to prayer to quell the deluge he
is seated on a rainbow. He opened a breach in the earth at Tequendama,
through which the waters of the flood escaped, precisely as we have seen
them disappearing through the crevice in the earth near Bambyce, in
Greece.
The Toltecs traced their migrations back to a starting-point called
"Aztlan," or "Atlan." This could be no other than, Atlantis. (Bancroft's
"Native Races," vol. v., p. 221.) "The original home of the Nahuatlacas
was Aztlan, the location of which has been the subject of much
discussion. The causes that led to their exodus from that country can
only be conjectured; but they may be supposed to have been driven out by
their enemies, for Aztlan is described as a land too fair and beautiful
to be left willingly in the mere hope of finding a better." (Bancroft's
"Native Races," vol. v., p. 306.) The Aztecs also claimed to have come
originally from Aztlan. (Ibid., p. 321.) Their very name, Aztecs, was
derived from Aztlan. (Ibid., vol. ii., p. 125). They were Atlanteans.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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