lost, because there was no written voice among you. For in the
times before the great flood Athens was the greatest and best of
cities and did the noblest deeds and had the best constitution of
any under the face of heaven.’ Solon marvelled, and desired to be
informed of the particulars. ‘You are welcome to hear them,’ said
the priest, ‘both for your own sake and for that of the city, and
above all for the sake of the goddess who is the common foundress
of both our cities. Nine thousand years have elapsed since she
founded yours, and eight thousand since she founded ours, as our
annals record. Many laws exist among us which are the counterpart
of yours as they were in the olden time. I will briefly describe
them to you, and you shall read the account of them at your
leisure in the sacred registers. In the first place, there was a
caste of priests among the ancient Athenians, and another of
artisans; also castes of shepherds, hunters, and husbandmen, and
lastly of warriors, who, like the warriors of Egypt, were
separated from the rest, and carried shields and spears, a custom
which the goddess first taught you, and then the Asiatics, and we
among Asiatics first received from her. Observe again, what care
the law took in the pursuit of wisdom, searching out the deep
things of the world, and applying them to the use of man. The
spot of earth which the goddess chose had the best of climates,
and produced the wisest men; in no other was she herself, the
philosopher and warrior goddess, so likely to have votaries. And
there you dwelt as became the children of the gods, excelling all
men in virtue, and many famous actions are recorded of you. The
most famous of them all was the overthrow of the island of
Atlantis. This great island lay over against the Pillars of
Heracles, in extent greater than Libya and Asia put together, and
was the passage to other islands and to a great ocean of which
the Mediterranean sea was only the harbour; and within the
Pillars the empire of Atlantis reached in Europe to Tyrrhenia and
in Libya to Egypt. This mighty power was arrayed against Egypt
and Hellas and all the countries bordering on the Mediterranean.
Then your city did bravely, and won renown over the whole earth.
For at the peril of her own existence, and when the other
Hellenes had deserted her, she repelled the invader, and of her
own accord gave liberty to all the nations within the Pillars. A
little while afterwards there were great earthquakes and floods,
and your warrior race all sank into the earth; and the great
island of Atlantis also disappeared in the sea. This is the
explanation of the shallows which are found in that part of the
Atlantic ocean.’