| The scientific method is nothing more than a system of rules to keep us from lying to each other.
Kenneth S. Norris
Lost and Found
There is only one scientifically certified sunken continent in the World. It is called the Mascarene Sea-plateau of the Western Indian Ocean. It was formed when the Indian Sub-continent separated from Africa and drifted up into Asia. As the landmass of India drifted across the Western Indian Ocean, a long slender ribbon of land broke loose and became a most unusually shaped island, something resembling pulled taffy. Over time, this large elongated fragment of continental rock, floated down to the Equator and sank. Surprisingly, geological estimates say that the island submerged right around the time when Plato says that Atlantis sank. But knowing where and when the island sank is all quite moot however, because this is the World’s only sunken continent – there are no others. This means that if the sunken Mascarene Continent is not Atlantis then, Atlantis could never have existed. Did you ever dream that finding Atlantis could be this easy? So then, going forward now, let us see if our planet’s only sunken continent can verify all of the other things that Plato had to say about Atlantis.
Aside from sinking into the sea, our lost continent had one more globally unique feature. Plato says that Atlantis was the home to elephants. He writes:
Moreover, there was a great number of elephants in that island, for as there was provision for all sorts of animals, both for those which live in mountains and on the plains, so there was for the largest and most voracious of all.[i]
The geographically unique thing about the elephant is that they can only be found in and around the lands that border the Indian Ocean. With Africa as her western shore, India up north, and Southeast Asia to the east, these are the only places on Earth where elephants exist. This means therefore, that if there ever was an island inhabited by elephants, then that island could only have existed in the Indian Ocean. But that being said however, we now need to ask if it is even possible for an elephant to migrate on to an oceanic island. The elephant after all, is an animal that swims only a little better than it can fly. But surprise, surprise, there is one place on Earth where elephants still live on tropical islands. You will find pachyderms living on some of the islands of Indonesia. But the elephants of Indonesia did not swim or fly to their oceanic refuges. The Indonesian elephant had a more practical method of emigrating across the sea. They just happened to be living there before Mother Nature decided to turn their part of the Asian mainland into an oceanic archipelago.
Now that we know the method by which elephants can exist on oceanic islands, let us go one step further. In regards to elephants, the sunken Mascarene Continent and Indonesia share a common genesis. Both were once connected to elephant mainlands. The Mascarene Continent was once part of Africa and India, whereas Indonesia was once part of Southeast Asia. Thus, it would be a safe to say that the pachyderms of Atlantis Island must have been marooned there in the same manner that elephants became marooned on Indonesian islands.
Unlike his statement about the conspicuous elephant, Plato’s next Atlantic clue is much harder to discern. Nevertheless however, once all of its parts are explored and revealed, it will establish the Mascarene Continent as Atlantis far better than any sea-faring elephant. According to Plato, Atlantic farmers could harvest their crops twice in the same year. This he says was possible because the Island was blessed with agricultural water, in copious quantities, all year long. He writes:
Twice in the year they gathered the fruits of the earth – in winter having the benefits of the rains of heaven, and in summer the water which the land supplied by introducing streams from the canals.[ii]
Plato’s agricultural vision of Atlantis is not as simple as it sounds. It is actually fraught with many environmental restrictions. Take for example, the irrigating springs that suddenly came to life in the summer. Plato’s exact words are, the water which the land supplied by introducing streams from the canals. On islands, springs and streams do not suddenly emerge without reason. Before a spring can bubble to life, it first needs a source of water, usually rain or snowmelt. And since we are talking about summertime in the elephant tropics, this source of summer springs could only have been rain. This suggests that Plato’s Atlantis was a very rainy place indeed, a place where seasonal rains came twice a year, once during winter and again in summer.
There is only one place on Earth where a winter monsoon is followed by a summer monsoon. And that place is the Mascarene Islands of the Western Indian Ocean. These tiny islands were once the mountaintops of a great lost continent. But the thing that makes these two yearly monsoons uniquely Atlantic, is that each monsoon comes from the opposite direction during opposite seasons of the same year. One monsoon arrives during the winter from the west, while another monsoon arrives in the summer from the east. In understanding the reversing action of these two monsoons, we can now establish why it rained on the city of Atlantis only during the winter months and not the summer.
Originally, the Mascarene Continent was a very large and elongated island that ran north to south. This north/south alignment of the island formed a perfect intersection point for monsoons that blew east and west. As the low, moisture-laden clouds of the monsoon came in off the ocean, these clouds were soon caught up by the mountains that ran like a spine down the long island. Blocked by these mountains, the damp wind condensed its moisture as rain before blowing over to the other side of the island. Consequently, the rains fed by the summer monsoon would have fallen in the eastern half of the island, while the rains fed by the winter monsoon would have fallen on the western side of the mountains. This means therefore, that if it rained in the city of Atlantis only during the winter, then the city of Atlantis must have been located on the western side, the side that was windward during the winter monsoon. So now that we know which side of the mountains the city of Atlantis was located, let us see how the summer rain falling on the wrong side of the island, managed to enter the Atlantic city as underground streams.
Hydro-geologists explain that underground springs form when the rock substratum is cracked and fractured. Like a sponge, rainwater is absorbed into the fractured rock and is sent flowing down the system of cracks to emerge at its lowest point as an underground spring. Generally, fractures tend to run down in the direction of the slope, but Plato’s Atlantic springs behaved differently. The granitic fracturing on Atlantis was so severe that the rain falling on the eastern side of the mountains ran the other way, traversing through the mountains and gushing forth on the mountain’s dry western flank. This sort of granitic fracturing, the kind that reaches down into the deepest bowels of mountains, indicates that a heavier than normal geologic force was applied, perhaps the sort of force that rips continents apart. And the Mascarene Continent is exactly that, a left-over fragment of Africa’s continental tug-of-war with India.
So far, the Mascarene Continent has passed every test for Atlantis. Here is the World’s only scientifically certified sunken continent. Here was an island that surely supported elephants before it sank. And now we discover that it is the only place on Earth where two reversing monsoons come twice in the year, and during the appropriate seasons. This large collection of geo-specific data should be more than enough to satisfy the Atlantic equation. But Plato however, has one last bit of evidence to offer that will verify the Mascarene Continent as Atlantis Island beyond every shadow of a doubt.
According to Plato, the continent of Atlantis was huge; greater in extent than Libya and Asia put together. But then he says something which at first sounds rather odd. He says that the city of Atlantis sat in the middle of this enormous island but was only fifty stadia from the sea. When you convert fifty stadia into Western increments of measure you wind up with a distance of only six miles. How then, could the city of Atlantis be at the geographical center of a huge continental mass, and still be just six miles from the sea?
Actually, there is only one geographical configuration that will allow for Plato’s wild assertion. If the island was shaped like an hour glass, pinched in the middle by an isthmus, then like the city of Panama, which is straddled by North and South America, the city of Atlantis then, could have sat in the isthmian neck of a large island and still be right next to the sea. And that is exactly how the sunken Mascarene Island is shaped. It was a continental fragment which had been pulled and stretched by drifting continents. So add this sunken isthmus to our list of Atlantic conditions and the great mystery is solved. Atlantis lies under the Mascarene Islands, on the southern edge of the Erythraean Sea[iii], the other sea, the true ocean.
We have just discovered that the Mascarene Sea Plateau, the World’s only sunken continent, is Plato’s Atlantis. But more significantly however, we found that the sunken island was perfectly described by a man who had never seen the great island and whose data was nine thousand years old. Oral or not, this is the greatest feat ever in the history of History. Our evidence indicates that someone has recorded the scientific data of an event that occurred over 11,000 years ago, simply by remembering it in his head. But how is that even possible? How do you record scientific data for eleven thousand years without a written language of any kind? Well, in the next chapter, Plato will show us exactly how it was done. But before we go on to this next chapter however, there is still one more puzzling question about this chapter that begs resolution. One has to wonder, how something as clear and concise as Plato’s history, became so confused and twisted? Here is what I have found.
Prior to the voyage of the Hokule’a, the Prehistoric Theory was in absolute control. Back then, you either accepted the Prehistoric Theory as a scientific fact, or the scientific community would have nothing to do with you. Even today, the idea of Prehistory continues to rule over Western Science like Zeus over Olympus. But still however, even back then, there were a few rebels. And although these rebels all did kowtow before the over-arching theory of Prehistory, they still hoped that one snippet of Plato’s history might somehow have retained some historic virtue. And this one snippet of data is a passage that I call, the classic paragraph. This paragraph not only inspired every Atlantic location theory into existence, but it was also thought to be the only fragment of text that was true. But alas, was it? Let us investigate.
The key in understanding Plato’s Atlantic Dialogues is to realize that his data was presented in the form of a dialogue. Dialogues are part drama, part lecture and part history. Unless you understood the emotional dynamic of the speaker presenting the historical lecture, the dialogue’s true message would almost surely be lost. I will present this classic paragraph in its entirety a little further on in this reading. But for now though, let us explore the drama of Plato’s Atlantic Dialogues, and discover how emotions played a significant role in the confusion.
According to the story-line of Plato’s dialogue, an Athenian scholar named Solon, once journeyed to the Egyptian city-state of Sais. Ancient Greeks refer to Solon as being the wisest of the seven wisest men of ancient Greece. As for the city-state of Sais, it’s temple was renowned for its collection of very ancient histories, and Solon was intent on coming away with some. And so, Solon begins fishing for ancient Egyptian histories. He baits his hook by wandering the halls of the Egyptian temple, lustily shouting out his Athenian genealogy. But he soon discovers however, that his crude boastings have back-fired – his clever trick has worked too well. Solon’s words ignites the ire of an elder priest and he quickly receives the mother of all history lessons. The Egyptian high priest’s agitation is clearly visible the moment he speaks. Take a look at how the Egyptian elder priest responds to Solon audacious geneology:
Oh Solon, Solon, you Hellenes are never anything but children, and there is not an old man among you. Solon in return asked him what he meant. I mean to say, he replied, that in mind you are all young; there is no old opinion handed down among you by ancient tradition, nor any science that is hoary with age. And I will tell you why.[iv]
From this point on, Solon is blasted in a scathing barrage of historic and scientific reckonings; about global droughts, a world war, a civilization ending flood, and to top it all off, a sinking continent. As we engage the classic paragraph, the high priest is about to upload the details about the sinking of Atlantis. Keep in mind that although this paragraph is filled with monstrously long sentences, it is only a small part of what the Sais priest had to say. It should show however, the fiery nature of Solon’s Egyptian history lesson.
Many great and wonderful deeds are recorded of your state in our histories. But one of them exceeds all the rest in greatness and valour. For these histories tell of a mighty power which unprovoked made an expedition against the whole of Europe and Asia, and to which your city put an end. (1)This power came forth out of the Atlantic Ocean, for in those days the Atlantic was navigable; (2)and there was an island situated in front of the straits which are called by you the pillars of Hercules; (3)the island was larger than Libya and Asia put together, (4)and was the way to other islands, and from these you might pass the whole of the opposite continent (5)which surrounds the true ocean; for this sea within the Straits of Hercules is only a harbour, having a narrow entrance, but the other is a real sea, and the surrounding land maybe most truly called a boundless continent. Now in this land of Atlantis there was a great and wonderful empire which had rule over the whole island and several others, and over parts of the continent, and furthermore, the men of Atlantis had subjected the parts of Libya within the columns of Hercules as far as Egypt, and of Europe as far as Tyrrhenia. This vast power, gathered into one, endeavoured to subdue at a blow our country and yours and the whole of the region within the straits; and then, Solon, your country shone forth, in the excellence of her virtue and strength, among all mankind. She was pre-eminent in courage and military skill, and was the leader of the Hellenes. And when the rest fell off from her, being compelled to stand alone, after having undergone the very extremity of danger, she defeated and triumphed over the invaders, and preserved from slavery those those who were not subjugated, and generously liberated all the rest of us who dwell within the pillars. But afterwards there occurred violent earthquakes and floods; and in a single day and night of misfortune all your war-like men in a body sank into the earth, and the island of Atlantis in like manner disappeared in the depth of the sea. For which reason the sea in those parts is impassable and impenetrable because there is a shoal of mud in the way, and this was caused by the subsidence of the island.[v]
As you can see, Solon is defiled by a data dump of mythic proportions. The Sais priest compresses the complete history of the Atlantic-Hellene War (something that took the entire Dialogue of Critias to explain), into one paragraph. I believe that this was done in an attempt to overwhelm the wily Solon. Moreover, in his zeal to embarrass Solon, the Egyptian priest may have used every sophisticated Egyptian term he could think of just to further chide the bragging Athenian. Assuming that the Egyptian priest was indeed trying to beguile the wisest of the seven wisest men of ancient Greece, can you imagine what that must have done to the poor English translators who came along 2000 years later. These emotions, ignited by dueling intellects, is what I believe to be at the heart of the Atlantic confusion.
So then, with the emotional state of the Egyptian priest in mind, let us now exhume the classic paragraph and see what we can find. After reading the entire paragraph you will find that only the fourth sentence delivers any facts about the location of Atlantis Island – a 106 word sentence. It begins by saying that a mighty power (1) came forth out of the Atlantic Ocean. And just like that, we have our first dilemma. The problem here is the term Atlantic. Atlantic Ocean has two possible meanings. It could mean the Atlantic Basin of today, or it could mean the ocean of the Atlantic Empire. Fortunately for us however, Plato relieves us of our confusion. In the other Atlantic dialogue entitled, Critias, we read that the first born son of Poseidon was called Atlas and that after him the whole island and ocean were called Atlantic[vi]. Obviously, Plato was referring to the ocean that contained the Atlantic island and not to the ocean expanse that we now personify as the Atlantic Ocean.
The sentence continues and says, (2) there was an island situated in front of the strait of Hercules. This island sounds like the Rock of Gibraltar except that as the passage continues, the island of Gibraltar is described as being, (3) larger than Libya and Asia put together. Clearly, there is something very wrong with the translator’s interpretation. After all, it would have been as obvious to Plato as it is to you and I that the Rock of Gibraltar was never larger than Libya and Asia put together. Athenian sailors could have informed Plato of this. We can only surmise then, that this part of the dialogue has an interpretational flaw. Perhaps Gibraltar represented some boundary of the Atlantic Empire. Maybe all Atlantic colonies were viewed as part of an Atlantic archipelago. Who knows? All we can say for sure is that this part of the classic paragraph makes no sense at all. Therefore, let us refrain from making any rash judgments about passages (2) and (3) at this time, and proceed on to more discernible data.
Sentence four continues and states that by passing the island of Atlantis, you were on your, (4) way to other islands, and from which, you might pass the whole of the opposite continent.
Finally, Plato provides two solid facts about the location of Atlantis Island. First he says that Atlantis Island was somewhere near the opposite continent. And second, that it was possible to voyage around, the whole of the opposite continent. Now Plato wrote his Atlantic Dialogues while he was in Greece. Therefore, the continent directly opposite of Greece can only be the continent of Africa. Moreover, the African landmass is almost completely surrounded by water. There can be no doubt about this clue; the opposite continent is Africa. And that also means that Atlantis Island is somewhere near Africa.
The fourth sentence ends by saying that Africa, (5) surrounds the true ocean. It says that the Mediterranean Sea, within the straits of Hercules is only a harbour, having a narrow entrance. The true ocean on the other hand was a real sea, encircled by a boundless continent. Now if Plato says that the Mediterranean is not the true ocean, then we are left with only one other possibility, the Erythraean Sea. The Erythraean Sea consists of the Persian Gulf, the Red Sea and the Arabian Sea. Furthermore, if you look on a map of the Western Indian Ocean, you will notice that the Erythraean Sea is flanked on three sides by Africa, India and Asia. If you can imagine a continent the size of Java resting in the gap of this Afro-Indian horseshoe, then the ring of boundless continents is complete and the riddle is solved. Once again we have been led back to the only sunken continent on Earth, the Mascarene Sea-plateau.
For centuries, Western scientists have insisted that Atlantis was either lost or that it never existed. Yet we have just shown that it was never lost and that it did exist. But this new set of scientific findings is far too surreal to make any sense. Does Western Science truly expect us to believe that the reason why Atlantis was never found was because someone goofed? I think not. Someone, somewhere, at some time, must have tested Plato’s History for truth. Furthermore, with our satellite eyes from space, an underwater continent the size of Java could never have hidden itself from this stifling scientific gaze. Something else is afoot here; but what?
Strangely enough, in ancient times, another set of curious cultural circumstances took place. Shortly after the history of Atlantis had been given to Socrates, he was imprisoned and accused of sedition. The Athenian Government demanded that Socrates recant his words or be subjected to an excruciating death – hemlock poisoning. But Socrates refuses to recant, and in a samurai-like gesture of selfless virtue, he demands the poison. After Socrates’ gruesome death the Atlantic History is left incomplete. Could it be that after witnessing his mentor’s agonized writhing, Plato chose to stop writing the history rather than share the same cruel fate as Socrates?
But fear not my friends, for the myth of Atlantis is not as incomplete as we have been led to believe. Furthermore, many revolutionary scientific discoveries have been made in recent years which now support Plato’s Atlantic findings rather than deny it. For example, only one hundred years ago, the idea that a continent could float, drift and sink, was considered lunacy. But today however, the Continental Drift theory is the grand unifying theory in every study of the Earth. In readings to follow, we shall pursue and present more of these visionary changes to Western Science, in an attempt to recover more missing parts of the great history. Ultimately these discoveries, and their consequence, will make a compelling solution for the strange cultural events associated with the story of Atlantis.
[i] The Dialogues of Plato Vol. IItranslated into English by Benjamin Jowett; Random, New York, 1937, p. 78
[ii] The Dialogues of Plato Vol. IItranslated into English by Benjamin Jowett; Random, New York, 1937, 32
[iii] The Erythraean Sea is an Arabian name for an ancient body of water consisting of the Persian Gulf, the Red Sea and the Arabian Sea.
[iv] The Dialogues of Plato: Volume II; translated into English by Benjamin Jowett, ibid. pp.8-9.
[v] The Dialogues of Plato: Volume II; ibid. pp 10-11.
[vi] The Dialogues of Plato: Volume II. Ibid. pp. 77-78.
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Advance Warning
Now that the whole world knows where the island of Atlantis is located, I reckon that the mad gold rush will begin. But before this environmental train wreck begins in earnest however, in the name of Science, please read this first. There is an important technicality about the gold of Atlantis that you really should know about before you gamble away your life savings.
According to Plato, Atlantis had but one golden treasure. It was housed in the temple of Poseidon and Cleito, and what a treasure it was. Plato describes the building that housed the treasure as being 600 feet long and 300 feet wide, and was completely gilded over in silver, gold and orichalcum (a kind of primitive copper). Inside this literally shining temple was a titan sized golden statue of Poseidon[i], driving a chariot of six winged horses. But that’s not all. Positioned around Poseidon were one hundred Nereid, riding on the backs of dolphins, also made of solid gold. Now that you understand how massive this pile of gold truly was, let me explain that important technicality.
The mountaintops of the Mascarene Continent form islands which maybe the most beautiful places on Earth. But let us suppose however, that you do not care about such things, and for that much gold you are willing to grind all of this endangered coral reef right down to its granitic base. Well, if you intend to search for the lost gold of Atlantis by dredging for it, then there are two things you should keep in mind. The first is all about size. The sunken continent is blanketed by 50,000 square miles of thick coral reef. Even at the cut-rate price of 20 million dollars per mile square, it would cost you a trillion dollars to remove it all.
The second very important thing to consider is all about Alexander the Great. And that’s because, after spending your trillion dollars, all that you may discover is that the golden treasure of Atlantis has already been carted away thousands of years ago by Alexander the Great. Think about it. Socrates taught Plato. Plato taught Aristotle. Aristotle taught Alexander. If ever there was a man who knew where to look and had the means of getting there, it was Alexander the Great. This would explain why Alexander centered his conquests on the lands of the Erythraean Sea rather than the Mediterranean. The celebrated PBS Television Network once presented a biography on Alexander the Great. The program explained that when Alexander invaded the Indus River Valley, his goal was not conquest. Instead, he intended to loot and ransack all of the Indus Valley settlements he could find as he marched his army down to the Western Indian Ocean. Upon reaching the mouth of the Indus, Alexander had planned to rendezvous with his navy. Once there, he would simply load up the ships with his army and their precious spoils, and sail back to Mesopotamia. But when Alexander arrives at the Indian Ocean however, his ships were not there. To make matters worse, the lands into which Alexander had just robbed were now united into a massive army, and they were coming after him. Alexander could wait no longer, and he was forced to retreat along the lifeless desert coast of Western Pakistan and Iraq. Alexander dies soon after reaching Babylon. The next time Alexander’s navy is again sighted in Mesopotamia, Alexander is dead. The PBS program did not say where the conqueror’s great navy was, or what it was doing, while Alexander was retreating and thirsting next to the sea. But maybe Plato has the answer.
According to Plato, Atlantis did not sink too deeply into the sea. It became an impassable and impenetrable, shoal of mud. The massive golden temple of Atlantis may well have been mere inches below the surface of the sea. Maybe its copper plated stone roof still shown above the waves. There is the distinct possibility that the fabled wealth of Alexander may be based upon the sacking of a partially submerged Atlantis. It would certainly explain why the massive golden statues of Poseidon and his one hundred golden Nereid, were never found on the World’s only sunken continent.
[i] Plato says that the height of the statue was so tall Poseidon’s head touched the temple’s ceiling.
Socrates: Shall we say that we know everything which we see and hear? for example, shall we say that not having learned, we do not hear the language of foreigners when they speak to us? or shall we say that we not only hear, but know what they are saying? Or again, if we see letters which we do not understand, shall we say that we do not see them? or shall we aver that, seeing them we must know them?
Theaetetus: We shall say, Socrates, that we know what we actually see and hear of them? that is to say, we see and know the figure and colour of the letters, and we hear and know the elevation and depression of the sound of them; but we do not perceive by sight or hearing, or know that which grammarians and interpreters teach about them.[1]
True Mythology
Although Atlantis played a large role in Plato’s dialogue of Timaeus, the island’s sinking however, was far less than half the story. In truth, the Atlantic Dialogues were about the complete and utter destruction of Atlantis and Greece by water, and the devistating cultural collapse that ensued. And that is why researchers seem to struggle with Timaeus – it sounds an awful lot like the Great Flood of the Bible. But the deluge described in the Timaeus however, differs from the Biblical version of the Great Flood in one significant regard. The Greek Flood Myth describes the event using very specific scientific details about its affects, and names the specific places it affected. Given this greater than normal scientific resolution, the Greek Flood Myth becomes an extremely easy case to prove, or disprove. Read on to see what I mean.
In the first chapter we were rewarded when we performed a scientific control experiment and compared Plato’s data to modern scientific data. Therefore, let us continue our control experiment in this chapter. Let us see just how far modern science will go in validating the science of Plato’s Flood Myth. The results will astound you. The upcoming quotation is taken from the dialogue of Timaeus, in it Plato describes the Grecian Peninsula before and after the great flood of Zeus, he writes:
How shall I establish my words? and what part can be truly called a remnant of the land that then was? The whole country is only a long promontory extending far into the sea away from the rest of the continent, while the surrounding basin of the sea is everywhere deep in the neighborhood of the shore. Many great deluges have taken place during the nine thousand years, for that is the number of years which have elapsed since the time of which I am speaking; and during all this time and through so many changes, there has never been any considerable accumulation of the soil coming down from the mountains, as in other places, but the earth has fallen away all around and sunk out of sight. The consequence is, that in comparison of what then was, there are remaining, as they may be called, as in the case of small islands, all the richer and softer parts of the soil having fallen away, and the mere skeleton of the land being left. But in the primitive state of the country, its mountains were high hills covered with soil, and the plains, as they are called by us of Phelleus were full of rich earth, and there was an abundance of wood in the mountains. Of this last traces still remain, for although some of the mountains now only afford sustenance to bees, not so long ago there were still to be seen roofs of timber cut from trees growing there, which were of a size sufficient (c)to cover the largest houses; and there were many other high trees, cultivated by man and bearing abundance of food for cattle. Moreover, the land reaped the benefit of the annual rainfall, not as now losing the water which flows off the bare earth into the sea, but, having abundant supply in all places, and receiving it into herself and treasuring it up in the close clay soil, it let off into the hollows the streams which it absorbed from the heights, providing everywhere abundant fountains and rivers, of which there still may be observed sacred memorials in places where fountains once existed; and this proves the truth of what I am saying.[2]
Plato says that the Grecian Peninsula no longer looks the same way it did in the prehistoric past. The Greece we see today is mostly rocky knobs and small rocky islands. Plato describes them as, the bones of the wasted body, the mere skeleton of the land being left. But before the great flood however, Plato describes the pre-flood Grecian Peninsula as a much greater landmass, one that was full of rich earth and gushing with fountains and springs. He describes how the high hills were covered in timber grand enough to cover the largest houses. He also describes how the giant timber was forested, and the hillsides grazed by cattle. Today we know that the practice of over-foresting and over-grazing, especially on steep hills covered in soil, is a very dangerous thing to do. It is the primary cause of deadly landslides. And according to Plato, that is exactly what came next. When the great rains fell, it turned all the rich earth into mud, slid it into the rivers, and flushed it out to sea.
Now if a storm with enough water volume to wash the Grecian Peninsula to bare rock did indeed occur, it is safe to assume that the storm damaged peninsula of Greece would not be the only evidence of such a devastating deluge’s passing. A torrential downpour of this magnitude would have left more than one footprint as it stomped its way across the Mediterranean. Therefore, if the washed-out peninsula of Greece is footprint number one, where is footprint number two? Well, footprint number two is in Africa, and it is called the Sahara Desert.
At first, scientists were puzzled by the existence of oases in the Saharan Desert. It amazed them to find artesian wells and dried out lake beds in one of the driest places on Earth. For a long time it was a mystery as to how all of this water managed to get here. But after years of research, this is what they found.
At a Saharan dig site, along the banks of a dried up artesian lake, archaeologists discovered many settlement sites. Their initial belief was that these settlements kept relocating further down the bank of the desert lake so as to be closer to an ever dwindling water supply. But the archaeological evidence however, soon began to show a different sequence of events. Radiocarbon dating showed that the settlements had moved up the lake shore as well as down. The evidence showed that the lake dwellers were forced to move their settlements up and out of the way of the rising lake waters, several times.
Confronted by such irrefutable data and with no other source of water available, the scientists were forced to conclude that all this water fell from the sky as rain. Moreover, by calibrating the distances that the settlements had to move to escape the rising lake shore, this rainfall amounts were considerable. But strangely however, the scientific community did not call these great rainy-periods, deluges. They call these rainy epochs, pluvial. There was the Abbassia Pluvial (120,000 and 90,000 years ago), the Mousterian Pluvial (50,000 and 30,000 years ago), and the Neolithic Subpluvial (ca. 7000-6000 B.C.). So much rain fell from the sky that each pluvial left huge artesian lakes, all across the Saharan Desert. Dr. Michael Hoffman explains:
Abbassia Pluvial
This pluvial, which prevailed for nearly 30,000 years between 120,000 and 90,000 years ago, succeeded a 400,000 year drought and in its wake sent late Acheulean peoples out into the former wastes in search of large grazing animals.[3]
Mousterian Pluvial
Such were the conditions at the height of the Mousterian Pluvial, between 50,000 and 30,000 years ago, when lakes, springs and lush grasslands covered much of the Sahara, even surpassing the conditions that had prevailed in the heyday of the earlier Abbassia Pluvial.[4]
Neolithic Subpluvial
A second factor that must be considered when trying to understand the Aterian is that its spread occurred in conjunction with the climatic improvement brought about by the Mousterian Subpluvial, and followed hard on the heels of a slightly earlier expansion of Mousterian peoples out on to the newly greened savannas of the Sahara. The relationship between the Mousterian and Aterian industries and the people who used them around 45,000 years ago foreshadows a much later Saharan development that occurred at the beginning of the Neolithic Subpluvial (ca. 7000-6000 B.C.) when farming and herding replaced hunting and gathering and ultimately laid the foundations for the agricultural civilization of the Nile Valley itself.[5]
According to Dr. Michael A. Hoffman, each pluvial transformed the desert into a lush savanna filled with large artesian lakes complete with crocodiles. So much rain fell in the Saharan Desert during the Neolithic Subpluvial that people are still drinking from its rain puddles some nine thousand years later. But was this Neolithic Subpluvial of the Sahara the same flood that washed away the Hellene Peninsula? Let us find out.
Ironically, Plato’s flair for recording event details so precisely makes the task of verifying his pluvial data very easy. In the blue highlighted section, Plato covers what the Sais Egyptian priest had to say about deluges, while the data in the yellow highlighted section covers worldwide conflagrations. Plato writes:
0 Solon, Solon, you Hellenes are never anything but children, and there is not an old man among you. Solon in return asked him what he meant. I mean to say, he replied, that in mind you are all young; there is no old opinion handed down among you by ancient tradition, nor any science that is hoary with age. And I will tell you why, There have been, and will be again, many destructions of mankind arising out of many causes; the greatest have been brought about by the agencies of fire and water, and other lesser ones by innumerable causes There is a story, which even you have preserved, that once upon a time Phaethon, the son of Helios, having yoked the steeds in his father’s chariot, because he was not able to drive them in the path of his father, burnt up all that was on the earth, and was himself destroyed by a thunderbolt. Now this has the form of a myth, but really signifies a declination of the bodies moving in the heavens around the earth, and a conflagration of things upon the earth, which recurs after long intervals; at such times those who live upon the mountains and in dry and lofty places are more liable to destruction than those who dwell by rivers or on the seashore. And from this calamity the Nile, who is our neverending saviour, delivers and preserves us. When, on the other hand, the gods purge the earth with a deluge of water the survivors in your country are herdsmen and shepherds who dwell on the mountains, but those who, like you, live in cities are carried into 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, (d)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 exists, 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 (c) you and other nations are beginning to be provided with letters and the other requisites of civilized life, (b) 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 your which you have just now recounted for us Solon, they are no better than the tales of children In the first place (a) you remember a single deluge only, but there have been many previous ones; in the next place you do not know that there formerly dwelt m 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, and is said to have performed the noblest deeds and to have had the fairest constitution of any which tradition tells, under the face of heaven.[6]
The blue text makes four specific claims about deluges. First, the Egyptian high priest tells Solon that the Greeks remember only one deluge, when in fact, (a) there were many previous ones. Then, the Egyptian cleric states that these deluges recurred, (b) after the usual interval. Thirdly, the last of these recurring deluges, had destroyed the Hellenes just as they were (c) beginning to be provided with letters. And lastly, the Sais Egyptian explained that Egypt was always spared from these great recurring deluges because, in Egypt, water had a (d) tendency to come up from below.
When we compare Plato’s pluvial data to modern scientific findings, the similarities are breathtaking. For example, scientists say that there were three pluvial; The Abbassia Pluvial, the Mousterian Pluvial and the Neolithic Subpluvial, while the Sais Egyptian data concurs by saying that there were many previous ones.
Scientists say that the first pluvial occurred between 120,000 and 90,000 years ago, the second between 50,000 and 30,000 years ago, and the third about 7000-6000 B.C. This calculates to a pluvial cycle of about every 45,000 years. How did the Egyptian priest put it; after the usual interval?
Scientists say that the last pluvial age occurred around 7000-6000 B.C. and to which the Egyptian data again concurs. The priest stated that the last of these great rains fell just when the Greeks were just beginning to read and write, about 7000-6000 years B.C. The Sais Egyptian account even describes the artesian action of pluvial driven Saharan oases, as Plato says; having a tendency to come up from below.
This oral and then written scientific account of a weather cycle which initially began 100,000 years ago may sound ludicrious, but however, modern scientific data now confirms the same environmental details and in the same scientific sequence of events. But how can this be? – without any written means of communication, the scientific data of a 100,000 year old weather event was perfectly preserved? This discovery not only defies everything the Prehistoric Theory stands for, it actually suggests that an oral history was far more proficient at preserving scientific data than a written one. After all, written histories can only account for events that occurred since its birth, around 7000 years ago. Plato’s history documents an event that occurred 100,000 years ago. Does this mean then that prehistoric Egyptian Man was infinitely more advanced than we are today? Now can you see the paradox? If it can be proved that Early Man historically preserved the data about an event that occurred 100,000 years ago, then everything based on the Prehistoric paradigm would suddenly become obsolete, irrelevant, pure nonsense. Every science based upon this false belief would have be be torn down, re-assessed, and re-built from the ground up. Therefore, let us make doubly sure about Plato’s facts before prematurely dismantling the very cornerstone of Western Civilization.
But to that end however, we need not look very far. Plato’s Timaeus, makes one more stunning statement about recurring deluges. It states that there were only and exactly three extra-ordinary inundations, Plato writes:
. . . and then there occurred the extra-ordinary inundation, which was the third before the great destruction of Deucalion.[7]
According to Grecian Mythology, Deucalion is listed as a survivor of the great flood of Zeus. And the Timaeus plainly states that the destruction of Deucalion came after the third extra-ordinary inundation. Clearly, Plato’s deluge count is three.
In the previous chapter, we were totally blown away when we discovered that Plato’s oral history had proved scientifically reliable about a sinking continent that occurred eleven thousand years ago. But now we have discovered that this same history also documents the passing of three Saharan pluvial events with the oldest one occurring 100,000 years ago. Now it would be ridiculous for us to believe that people from the Stone Age could have accomplished this magnificent historiological feat without some sort of mnemonic aid even if that mnemonic aid was not a written language. So how then could the ancients have done this? According to Plato, Stone Age people did this using a set of anthropomorphic symbols, more commonly referred to as myths. In the blue highlighted section of the quotation, Plato explains how mythic symbolism could be decrypted into historic and scientific data.
There is a story, which even you have preserved, that once upon a time Phaethon, the son of Helios, having yoked the steeds in his father’s chariot, because he was not able to drive them in the path of his father, burnt up all that was on the earth, and was himself destroyed by a thunderbolt. Now this has the form of a myth, but really signifies a declination of the bodies moving in the heavens around the earth, and a conflagration of things upon the earth, which recurs after long intervals; at such times those who live upon the mountains and in dry and lofty places are more liable to destruction than those who dwell by rivers or on the seashore.
Plato explains that the myth of Phaethon is all about an ancient celestial observation. The ancients noticed that when the bodies moving in the heavens around the earth began to fade out of sight, a global conflagration engulfs the Earth. The account even describes the places that are perilous to live and the places that are safe. If this statement is as true as Plato’s other declarations, then we may have just been warned about an impending global catastrophe. Please, allow me to explain.
The most contentious debate in Science these days is the question of global warming. Some scientists believe that the Earth’s rising global temperature is a natural rise, and that the temperature will gradually go back down. But other scientists strongly disagree. Most experts believe that the planet’s rising temperature is caused by industrial pollution, or to be more precise, the unnatural accumulation of carbon in the atmosphere. Now because we have proven Plato’s claim about 100,000 year old pluvials are true, it would behoove us to believe in his global conflagration cycle as well. Besides, it may prove to be an easy thing to verify. We could examine ice core samples which are presently mapping the planet’s weather history over great time. Then by searching back in time in increments of long intervals, we may be able to find scientific evidence of Plato’s global conflagration claim.
This investigation is critically important to us because, if our planet’s current temperature rise is only the beginning of the next Phaethonic conflagration cycle and not due to high quantities of carbon in the atmosphere, then the carbon-based industrialization of the planet could continue to expand unabated. However, if our planet’s current rise in temperature is indeed caused by carbon pollution and not a Phaethonic conflagration event, then the environmental consequences would be most dire. What do you suppose would happen if the global conflagration cycle of Phaethon should come upon us when greenhouse gases are at the highest levels the world has ever seen? Would global warming now become global cooking, increasing our peril perhaps two or three times, maybe more? I don’t know about you, but knowing about these new possibilities suddenly makes me want to examine ice cores or to take up star-gazing for bodies moving in the heavens around the earth.
Here is just one possible way in which ancient mythologies could be used to save and enrich our lives. There is still a whole universe of such possibilities yet to explore. In the next chapter for example, we shall examine the greatest of these cultural consequences, the Atlantic Consequence; perhaps our doom, perhaps our salvation. But for now however, we still have a few more things to say about the internal workings of Myth.
According to Plato’s definition of Mythology, myths were used to convert raw scientific data into anthropomorphic symbols called, deities – mythological beings that mimicked the principles and properties of a particular historic or scientific understanding. They cleverly transformed raw scientific data, into supernatural beings with human qualities and characteristics. It was so much easier to remember a myth rather than raw data. This mythological principle is not unlike Writing, but instead of written symbols, you substituted mnemonic ones – like drawing pictures with words rather than with ink. Providing that you had been taught to interpret these anthropomorphic mnemographs, it was just like reading written words. And any scholar, schooled in this discipline, could easily de-code scientific data hidden within the myth. It was a simple memory formula to remember complex scientific data, a format that programmed a human brain much the same way as software programs a personal computer – without software, computer data becomes nothing more than a senseless set of ones and zeros.
To better appreciate the genius of oral historiology, let’s examine another Grecian myth. Let us explore the myth about the Muses. The Muses were nine sister deities that ruled over every facet of Grecian Culture. Their names were, Calliope (for epic poetry), Clio (for history), Erato (for love poetry), Euterpe (for lyric poetry), Melpomene (for tragedy), Polyhymnia (for sacred song), Terpsichore (for dancing), Thalia (for comedy and pastoral poetry), and Urania (for astrology). But although the realm of interest for each sister varied greatly from the others, they still had one very basic thing in common. They all shared the same parents. Zeus, most naturally, was the father. But their mother was a deity named Mnemosyne, the goddess of Memory. Perhaps Mnemosyne was once a real woman who became deified, after she had invented the mnemonic myth technique. And perhaps that is how she gave birth to her Muse daughters. By creating these human-like female deities, they too could give birth to other related aspects of Grecian Culture and thereby making intricate historical and scientific connections easy to remember just by recalling the geneology. It was in this way that the myth of the Muses had the power to collect all historical and scientific knowledge into a single data base, a single mythological family. When gathered in this way, and formed up into the larger family of Zeus, the father of the Muses, it has the potential of being a complete encyclopedia of everything. By poetically humanizing all the forces of God and Nature and Man, into anthropomorphial deity symbols, they could reduce every scrap of cultural data into compact data-storage formulas called myths. From this family of Zeus, the prehistoric Hellenes could retrieve the complete history of their entire culture, from memory. To see the advantages of this mnemonic encyclopedia of everything, just walk into any library. Burdened by the megatons of books and charts and manuscripts, is our culture, – a culture too literate, too wordy for its own good. No one individual could ever read the quadrillions of pages of printed paper. Or more impossible still, to carry this knowledge everywhere they went. And this then, was the magnitude of the mythological achievement. The knowledge of everything, reduced into the mind of a single individual. Science, math, history, art, music, and religion, were never broken apart into lone unrelatable entities. Mythology made all data contiguous, unified into one belief. God created all things, and so all things must belong to the family of God. No, Mythology was not a religion, it was Historiology.
If we do discover a complete theory (of everything) … we shall all, philosophers, scientists and just ordinary people, be able to take part in the discussion of why it is that we and the universe exist. If we find the answer to that, it would be the ultimate triumph of human reason … for then we would truly know the mind of God.[8] Stephen Hawking
Addendum
Incontravertibly then, the theory of Prehistory is dead. But hopefully however, we shall not lose sight of what the critical issue is here. Understandably, some of us may only feel rage for the invaders who brutally forced their ancestors to conform to Western ways and ideas. But whatever may, or may not have been done in the name of Prehistory however, it is all just water under the bridge today. No amount of retribution will ever undo the heinous atrocities that culturally unstable men did back then out of ignorance. But this new knowledge however, may have the power to stop the heinous things that culturally unstable men continue to do to each other today. And while it might soothe the spirit to lament and grieve the cultural injustices of the past, it is unwise to lose focus of what could be achieved in the future because of these discoveries. For instance, imagine if we could somehow resurrect the cultural knowledge of these civilizations that existed for over 90,000 years – would it mean that we could raise our cultural consciousness to that highly evolved level in just a matter of days? In just 2000 years we went from horse-drawn wagons to rocket ships to the moon. What might a civilization have learned after 90,000 years of cultural evolution?
To see what this could bring, proceed to the next chapter, the Atlantic Consequence. There we shall be able to isolate the root of Man’s cultural insanity – why we allow absolute power to corrupt absolutely. For without this knowledge, we shall never be able to break free from the cycle of rising and falling cultures. We shall never be able to defeat that monster lurking in the shadows of our fallen and forgotten civilizations.
[1]The Dialogues of Plato: Vol. II; translated into english by Benjamin Jowett; ibid. p. 165.
[2]The Dialogues of Plato:Vol. II; translated by Benjamin Jowett; ibid., p. 75.
[3]Egypt Before the Pharaohs: the Prehistoric Foundations of Egyptian Civilization; by Michael A. Hoffman, ibid., p. 57.
[4]Egypt Before the Pharaohs: the Prehistoric Foundations of Egyptian Civilization; by Michael A. Hoffman, ibid, p. 59.
[5]Egypt Before the Pharaohs: the Prehistoric Foundations of Egyptian Civilization; by Michael A. Hoffman, ibid., p. 68.
[6]The Dialogues of Plato: Vol. II, translated into English by Benjamin Jowett, ibid., pp. 8-9.
[7]The Dialogues of Plato:Vol. II; translated into english by Benjamin Jowett, ibid., p. 76.
[8]This quotation was taken from a Time Magazine article entitled, A Brief History of Time, by Stephen Hawking. Time Magazine Dec. 23rd issue, 1991; p. 58.
The Atlantic Consequence
Any and all Atlantic data comes to us through a teacher named Critias. Critias is the one who tells us about his famous ancestor Solon, and about the great history that Solon found in Egypt. It is during the Critias dialogue that everything stops, mid-sentence, and just as Critias is about to explain the Great War, the Great Flood and the all-important cultural aftermath. But while the dialogue of Critias remains unfinished, in the dialogue of Timaeus however, there is a complete rendition of the Atlantic History, albeit a very condensed version of the story. Nevertheless however, when we piece together all of this Atlantic data, the picture it creates shows us why Socrates chose to seppuku rather than acquiesce to the wishes of the Athenian Government. His death was all about the Great War and Zeus’ revilement of it.
Critias explained how Zeus became enraged when his two favorite children, Atlantis and Hellas[i], decided to war. Not just a case of fratricide, or a feud between rival clans, this time, it was a true World War. It was the World’s two greatest and oldest super-powers of their age, vying in bloody battle, to decide the absolute kingship of the known world. And as punishment for this, Zeus destroyed all the combatants by flooding their homelands; erasing their cultural presence so completely it was as though they never existed. The whole island of Atlantis was pushed down into the Erythraean Sea, while the great peninsula of Hellas (antediluvian Greece) was liquefied into the Aegean Sea. What greater evidence can there be for the existence of God than this; God’s anger over the Great War caused both cultures to be destroyed, by water, on the same day. But as apocalyptic as God’s retribution was however, He did not kill everyone. In Greece, there were survivors.
In Greece the flood survivors were herders and shepherds. They endured because their homes were built on the firm rock of the mountains. But these mountain dwelling survivors however, were not well educated. They were not historians or scholars or aristocrats. They were herders and farmers, men who worked with their hands, not with their minds. They were never taught to interpret the data of ancient myths. And while they easily remembered the poetic stories (like the myth of Phaethon), they could not extract the history and science that had been encrypted into them. The men who possessed this culturally sophisticated skill had all been deluged away, along with the great cities in which they lived. Metaphorically speaking, the great central computer of antediluvian Greece was destroyed, and so too went the data of a thousand centuries.
And so, the mighty Hellene Civilization had to begin all over again like children – cultural orphans who were only capable of mimicking the simplest of Hellene cultural achievements. These survivors remembered how their fathers had tended sheep and cattle, and so they did not starve. They remembered how their mothers had sewn dresses, and so they did not go naked. They built homes like their parents, and so had shelter. Simple survival skills were all that remained. But did I say simple? In truth, these inventions were extremely powerful – tools and techniques which emerged only after millions of years of evolution. Take the practice of Herding for example. The preservation of Herding spared the Hellene flood survivors an eon’s worth of hunting lessons. The uses of Fire did not have to be re-invented, or re-learned. Things like home-building and tool-making as well as countless other highly technical industries, survived by sheer imitation alone. The hoary cultural mind of the Hellenes may have gone away but their most powerful inventions and technologies still remained.
But farm tools and sewing needles were not the only things to survive. In the flotsam of their fallen civilization, they also recovered weapons. And with these artifacts of War to remind them, they could not help but follow in the same ungodly practices which had taken their great ancestors, only this time, there was a horrible twist. The decision to make War was no longer guided by wise men with tens of thousands of years of cultural teachings behind them. War was now decided by horribly retarded cultural leaders who had no History to speak of; people who could not even remember why War had been invented in the first place. They were like abandoned children, playing with the deadly weapons of their long-dead cultural fathers. And so, armed with the war-tools of a forgotten age, these unschooled heathens went out into the World and savaged-out huge empires seemingly overnight, only to let them collapse again through cultural ignorance. Perfected battle technologies, created instant empires, while cultural stupidity instantly tore them back down. Kingdoms came; kingdoms went – up, down, up, down. Who was King; who was not King? In His ire, God extinguished the light of civilization, and in that penal darkness, avarice and warfare ran amuck. And this is how the World has progressed ever since sunken Atlantis, if war upon war upon war can truly be called progress. The once smooth, ever-upward arc of antediluvian cultural development suddenly plunged and went static – sharply rising, sharply falling, with every new war – conflict after conflict, buckling the continuity of civilized existence, like massive shock waves on some seismograph of Culture; each new temblor recording the ever higher tolls of violence and misery and death.
This then was the true message of the Atlantic Dialogues. When Atlantis and Hellas fell, a massive schism formed between Man’s level of Science and his level of Culture. Highly evolved, highly advanced technologies which had taken a thousand millennia to invent and perfect, were now wielded by people who were ignorant of their purpose or invention. But this imbalance between Science and Culture however, is not the Atlantic Consequence. According to Critias, the one thing that brought down all of civilization in the Late Pleistocene, was Avarice. Think about it, is not War the highest form of Avarice. Avarice caused the Great War, and war destroyed Atlantis and Hellas, just as it has destroyed every civilization ever since.
Avarice, it seems, is the prime rule of humanity, from the most isolated and primitive tribe, to the most advanced techno-culture. It is the base cause for all of our cultural woes. Our lust for accumulating wealth justifies every immoral thing we do or have ever done. Even in these times of relative peace, Greed continues to methodically destroy us. For example, rather than balance or even improve the Earth’s ecology for the common good, we overwhelm and consume it for profit. Moreover, the blinding greed of big business continues to deny destabilizing our planet’s weather apparatus despite overwhelming scientific evidence to the contrary. Hurricanes, droughts and floods are now growing in frequency and intensity, but our World leaders still cling to their over-riding desire for wealth. If one were so inclined, you could find countless examples of how Greed is pulling us closer to global cultural collapse. It explains why doctors try to weaponize diseases rather than cure them. It explains why some have too much to eat and other have too little. It explains why the oceans are dying. It explains why we are warring ourselves to death. Is this madness? Of course it’s madness and yet, Avarice fiats everything, even our doom.
If War is the most perfect form of Avarice then, World War II was the apex of this form. But despite all of the depravity that went on during this war, a little recognized fact about the political leadership of the Western World has gone unnoticed. Owing to German concentration camps and the incendiary carpet bombing of cities, 30 million non-combatants were murdered. Compare that to the only 25 million soldiers, sailors and airmen who died in combat. This disparity in the death toll between civilians and soldiers points to a very scary thing about Western governance. All of the nations who participated in this war were polar opposites when it came to their political views; Socialist/Fascist, Kingship/Democracy. But no matter how radically divergent one government was to the other however, these adversaries all shared one thing in common. Each and every World leader employed the same heinous strategy to win; kill women, their babies and the aged. Perhaps the modern day descendants of the Atlantic Civilization are right; it matters not how you are led, what matters is the virtue of the one who leads.
Is it not strange that all of these things should manifest now, just as we are about to confront global calamities the likes of which Man has never faced before? It almost seems orchestrated. Was the first deadly spear thrust of the Atlantic War just the opening move of a 13,000 year old sequence of events, cumulating in the planet-wide collapse of human culture? Is this the Judgement Day that ancient scripture is referring to; when Greed will determine how we, as a species, lives or dies? Maybe this will put things into better perspective for you. It seems that the orphaned baby who once toyed with swords and spears, is now starving to death, clutching a nuclear detonator, in a world of filth and disease and injustice. How’s that for scary?
And so here we are, stuck in this thirteen thousand year old rut. Albert Einstein once defined insanity as, doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. By Professor Einstein’s definition then, if we continue to enforce our for-profit cultural paradigm, civilizations and empires will continue to fall. But what other cultural paradigm is there?
Well, it may interest you to know that the prehistoric Atlantic Civilization almost survived intact into the 20th Century. Even today they still cling strongly to their ancient beliefs despite the oppressive influences of Western capitalism. Their core value is not money. What, they treasure is righteousness. Ironically, righteousness is something that money can buy. About this I will say no more, at this time. The current cultural identity of the Atlantic people must remain guarded until they can be protected from unintentional destruction from tourists, migrants and entrepreneurs.
But the curious thing however, is this. Is it not amazing that these two cultural antitheses should confront each other again after so long a time? How utterly ironic – it started with them, and it may all end with them. And it stands to reason that it will be just as untenable today as it was back then. The one big difference however, between the conflict then, and the conflict upcoming, is that the capitalistic Grecian model has proved dramatically unreliable time and time again, while Atlantic cultural values have endured to this day.
To end our discussion, let us finally put the mystery of Socrates’ death to rest. To do this, let us begin by establishing the historical events that took place during Socrates’ time. Here then, are the facts. In 470 B.C., (just 20 years after the great Athenian victory at Marathon) Socrates was born. At this time, Athens was busy re-establishing her colonies in Asia Minor and instituting new ones in the Aegean and beyond (see Delian League). In his life, Socrates would see the rise of Athens, its golden age, and her utter downfall. In 431 B.C. the Peloponnesian War began in earnest. Socrates fights in three battles (Potidaea 432 B.C., Amphipolis 424 B.C. and Delium 424 B.C.), and each time he is recognized for his valor. In 421 B.C., the Treaty of Nicias was signed and the war was halted for a time. But even after the signing of this treaty however, there was still tension, and small skirmishes did occur. It was an uneasy peace. I believe that it was about this time that the Atlantic History of Solon is presented to Socrates by the scholarly Critias. This, then, is how it all unfolded.
According to Plato’s transcripts, Socrates was interested in presenting something extraordinary at a special festival honoring Athena. This special festival could only have been the Panathenaea, a festival which originated in 566 B.C. and was celebrated ever four years. When we advance the date of this festival forward to the time of Socrates and the Peloponnesian War, we have the date of 418 BC; the 38th Panathenaea. The date of 418 B.C. is timely because it is just three years after the shaky Treaty of Nicias was signed. But the Panathenaea of 418 B.C. had a second significance however. Just three years later, in 415 B.C., the Athenians would launch a disastrous military campaign against the Spartans at Syracuse on the island of Sicily. The timing of these events meant that once Socrates had learned the lesson of the Atlantic History (about God’s repugnance for War and His terrible wrath), Socrates would have tried desperately to stop his countrymen from going to war. He definitely would have tried to stop the 415 B.C. Athenian invasion of Syracuse. But unfortunately however, we know that he failed. And so, when the Athenians attack the Spartans defending Syracuse, they suffer the worst military defeat in Athenian history. Very few men returned from the battle of Syracuse, but worse still, not one trireme in the invading Athenian armada survived. In the end, the Spartans surround and lay siege to Athens, and in 404 B.C. the Athenians surrender. As part of the surrender terms, the Spartans force the Athenians to tear down all of the city’s defenses and thereby insuring that Athens would never rise to power again. Socrates was put to death four years later in 399 B.C. So what then might have been the seditious words that Socrates proclaimed? I believe that Socrates simply told the ruling Athenian council, I told you so, and his fate was sealed.
Composition still under construction.
[i] Timaeus; by Plato, translated into english by Benjamin Jowett. Pp. 10-11. Critias, by Plato, translated into english by Benjamin Jowett. P.84. The Dialogues of Plato; Vol. II. Random House, NY, NY; 1937 reprint of 1892 edition. |
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