the mountains, but those who, like you, live in cities are
carried by the rivers into the sea. Whereas in this land, neither
then nor at any other time, does the water come down from above
on the fields, having always a tendency to come up from below;
for which reason the traditions preserved here are the most
ancient. The fact is, that wherever the extremity of winter frost
or of summer sun does not prevent, mankind exist, sometimes in
greater, sometimes in lesser numbers. And whatever happened
either in your country or in ours, or in any other region of
which we are informed—if there were any actions noble or great or
in any other way remarkable, they have all been written down by
us of old, and are preserved in our temples. Whereas just when
you and other nations are beginning to be provided with letters
and the other requisites of civilized life, after the usual
interval, the stream from heaven, like a pestilence, comes
pouring down, and leaves only those of you who are destitute of
letters and education; and so you have to begin all over again
like children, and know nothing of what happened in ancient
times, either among us or among yourselves. As for those
genealogies of yours which you just now recounted to us, Solon,
they are no better than the tales of children. In the first place
you remember a single deluge only, but there were many previous
ones; in the next place, you do not know that there formerly
dwelt in your land the fairest and noblest race of men which ever
lived, and that you and your whole city are descended from a
small seed or remnant of them which survived. And this was
unknown to you, because, for many generations, the survivors of
that destruction died, leaving no written word. For there was a
time, Solon, before the great deluge of all, when the city which
now is Athens was first in war and in every way the best governed
of all cities, is said to have performed the noblest deeds and to
have had the fairest constitution of any of which tradition
tells, under the face of heaven. Solon marvelled at his words,
and earnestly requested the priests to inform him exactly and in
order about these former citizens. You are welcome to hear about
them, Solon, said the priest, both for your own sake and for that
of your city, and above all, for the sake of the goddess who is
the common patron and parent and educator of both our cities. She
founded your city a thousand years before ours (Observe that
Plato gives the same date (9000 years ago) for the foundation of
Athens and for the repulse of the invasion from Atlantis
(Crit.).), receiving from the Earth and Hephaestus the seed of
your race, and afterwards she founded ours, of which the