Post by Xiousia on Sept 26, 2011 15:33:26 GMT 12
VOYAGE TO ATLANTIS
Did the lost continent of Atlantis really exist, or is the account of the island paradise destroyed just a moral tale? The story of Atlantis was first told by the Greek philosopher Plato as a parable to show how heaven punishes those who worship false Gods. But at the same time he hints that the story is true --- the memory of a terrible cataclysm passed down by word of mouth for hundreds of years. Myth or reality, the legend of Atlantis has inspired a search that echoes down the centuries.
"It is 3,500 years ago and the long, lazy Aegean summer is drawing to its close. It is dusk and the rays of the dying sun pick out a tiny island so nearly a perfect circle in its outline, so compellingly lovely with its ochre-coloured volcano rising out of a violet sea, that even among the islands of the Aegean it is outstanding for its beauty.
The swallows streak through the sky, darting and wheeling in the blaze of the setting sun. The branches of the olive tress quiver in the light evening breeze.
The island's harbour is quiet, now that the business of the day is over. The fisherman are going home with their shining, silvery catches. The narrow streets begin to fill with people , laughing and talking. In the doorways of the little houses women sit gossiping and from dozens of tiny workshops all over the town comes the cheerful whirr of the potter's wheel. In the orchards and vineyards, the men are strolling home after the day's labour.
The shadows lengthen as night comes. Then a strange choking heat engulfs the town.
The sea turns to the colour of lead. From deep within the earth comes a muffled rumbling, intermittent at first but soon continuous. Panic seizes the islanders. They sense that the great volcano, whose 1,500-metre peak dominates their lives, is about to erupt and that the god who controls the earth-shaking forces inside the volcano has awoken from his long sleep.
What they could not have known, as they stumbled from their houses clutching a few frantically snatched treasures, was that their town, their island and ultimately their whole civilisation was about to be destroyed by what, according to evidence gathered by volcanologists and seismologists of a later day, has come to rate as one of the most violent volcanic cataclysms the world has ever seen.
First came a choking plume of dark smoke. Then a terrible rain of blazing pumice stone, followed by ash, poured down in between explosions blasting up from the cone. At the height if the cataclysm, the volcano itself exploded under enormous internal pressures.
With a bang that was heard from one end of the mediterranean to the other and must have sounded like the end of the world, most of the island was blasted into dust.
Finally, the magma chamber beneath the volcano emptied, spewing out millions of tonnes of solid rock and, as a result, the great volcano collapsed in on itself, forming a steep-sided caldera or crater, 60 kilometres in circumference. Into this void poured the sea, bringing even more horrors in its wake.
These were the giant tsunamis, tidal waves which are set off by earthquakes or volcanic eruptions and are perhaps the most terrifying forces in nature. Waves as high as 200 metres radiated from the island to strike nearby coasts with a force that has never been equalled. This is how scientists today see the sequence of events that the island 3,500 years ago. An explosion that they estimate produced a destructive force equivalent to 500-1000 atomic bombs.
A terrible darkness, caused by the thick fall of ash, descended on the Aegean, plunging the whole area into a night that was to last for weeks. The ash itself continued to fall for some time and today deposits of it, called tephra, lie more than 60 metres deep on what remains of the island which the Greeks call Kalliste.
Scientists now believe that what happened to Kalliste might be the solution to a riddle that has perplexed historians and geographers since the days of the Greek philosipher Plato (427-347 BC). Plato, one of the fathers of western thought, is our sole direst source for the legend of Atlantis. His fragmentary account of the continent that was swallowed up by the sea still excites the modern mind. Plato's Atlantis was as kind of paradise - a vast island 'larger than Libya and Asia put together' - with magnificant mountain ranges, lush plains which teemed with every variety of animal, including elephants, and luxuriant gardens where the fruit was 'fair and wondrous and in infinite abundance'.
The earth was rich with precious metals, especially the one prized most highly by the ancients, the fabulous, iridescent orichalc, an alloy of copper, perhaps brass. The capital of Atlantis, built in the very centre of the island, was remarkable for the scale and splendour of its public buildings which were designed in an architecturally harmonious blend of white, black and red stone. Even more extraordinary, perhaps, was the plan on which the city had been laid out. It was arranged in five zones built in perfect concentric circles. Its various ports were served by a system of canals. Plato says that the capital's canal and its nearby port were 'full of vessels and merchants coming from all parts, who, from their numbers, kept up a multitudinous sound of human voices, and din clatter... night and day'.
At the heart of the city were the great palace and the temple, which was in more sumptuous: 'All the outside, with the exception of the pinnacles, they covered with silver, and the pinnacles with gold. In the interior of the temple the roof was of ivory, curiously wrought everywhere with gold and silver orichalc; and all the other parts, the walls and pillars and floor, they coated with orichalc.
In the temple they placed statues of gold: there was the god himself standing in a chariot - a charioteer with six winged horses - and of such a size that he touched the roof of the building wih his head; around him there were a hundred Nereids riding on dolphins...' This charioteer was none other than the God of the Sea and Shaker of the Earth, Poseidon. When he and his divine brothers Zues and Hades divided the world between them, Atlantis fell to Poseidon's lot. He became the all-powerful lord of the island which he peopled with his sons, a virtuos race touched with divinity.
The ten kings of Atlantis were immensely rich and powerful but ruled wisely over the enormous colonial empire they built. Numberless generations of Atlanteans lived in peace under a system of laws which had been handed down to them by Poseidon and whose justness comanded universal admiration. These laws were 'inscribed by the first kings on a pillar of orichalc, which was situated in the middle of the island, at the temple of Poseidon'.
But in the end, Atlantean society began to decay. The people started to worship the false gods of wealth, idleness and luxury. Plato, ever a pessimist about human nature, write: 'When the divine portion began to fade away, and became diluted too often and too much with the mortal admixture, and the human nature gained the upper hand, they then, being unable to bear their fortune, behaved in an unseemly manner, and to him who had an eye to see, grew visibly debased, for they were losing the fairest to their precious gifts; but to those who had no eye to see the true happiness, they appeared glorious and blessed at the very time when they were full of avarice and unrighteous power.'
It was during this era of corruption that the Atlanteans embarked on a war of world conquest, launching huge fleets against other islands and enslaving the inhabitants of the coastal settlements of the Mediteranean. The only power that could stand against them was Athens, the city dedicated to Athena, goddess of wisdom, industry and war. The Atlantean hoplites, or heavy infantry, succeeded in stemming the tide of invasion and won a brilliant victory. But this setback was not enough. The gods had perpared a terrible retribution for the men who betrayed the ancient faith of Atlantis.
Plato takes up the story: 'Afterwards there occured violent earthquakes and floods; and in a single day and night of misfortune... the island of Atlantis disappeared into the depths of the sea.'
source: www.angelfire.com/ri/allfantasy/atlantis.html
Did the lost continent of Atlantis really exist, or is the account of the island paradise destroyed just a moral tale? The story of Atlantis was first told by the Greek philosopher Plato as a parable to show how heaven punishes those who worship false Gods. But at the same time he hints that the story is true --- the memory of a terrible cataclysm passed down by word of mouth for hundreds of years. Myth or reality, the legend of Atlantis has inspired a search that echoes down the centuries.
"It is 3,500 years ago and the long, lazy Aegean summer is drawing to its close. It is dusk and the rays of the dying sun pick out a tiny island so nearly a perfect circle in its outline, so compellingly lovely with its ochre-coloured volcano rising out of a violet sea, that even among the islands of the Aegean it is outstanding for its beauty.
The swallows streak through the sky, darting and wheeling in the blaze of the setting sun. The branches of the olive tress quiver in the light evening breeze.
The island's harbour is quiet, now that the business of the day is over. The fisherman are going home with their shining, silvery catches. The narrow streets begin to fill with people , laughing and talking. In the doorways of the little houses women sit gossiping and from dozens of tiny workshops all over the town comes the cheerful whirr of the potter's wheel. In the orchards and vineyards, the men are strolling home after the day's labour.
The shadows lengthen as night comes. Then a strange choking heat engulfs the town.
The sea turns to the colour of lead. From deep within the earth comes a muffled rumbling, intermittent at first but soon continuous. Panic seizes the islanders. They sense that the great volcano, whose 1,500-metre peak dominates their lives, is about to erupt and that the god who controls the earth-shaking forces inside the volcano has awoken from his long sleep.
What they could not have known, as they stumbled from their houses clutching a few frantically snatched treasures, was that their town, their island and ultimately their whole civilisation was about to be destroyed by what, according to evidence gathered by volcanologists and seismologists of a later day, has come to rate as one of the most violent volcanic cataclysms the world has ever seen.
First came a choking plume of dark smoke. Then a terrible rain of blazing pumice stone, followed by ash, poured down in between explosions blasting up from the cone. At the height if the cataclysm, the volcano itself exploded under enormous internal pressures.
With a bang that was heard from one end of the mediterranean to the other and must have sounded like the end of the world, most of the island was blasted into dust.
Finally, the magma chamber beneath the volcano emptied, spewing out millions of tonnes of solid rock and, as a result, the great volcano collapsed in on itself, forming a steep-sided caldera or crater, 60 kilometres in circumference. Into this void poured the sea, bringing even more horrors in its wake.
These were the giant tsunamis, tidal waves which are set off by earthquakes or volcanic eruptions and are perhaps the most terrifying forces in nature. Waves as high as 200 metres radiated from the island to strike nearby coasts with a force that has never been equalled. This is how scientists today see the sequence of events that the island 3,500 years ago. An explosion that they estimate produced a destructive force equivalent to 500-1000 atomic bombs.
A terrible darkness, caused by the thick fall of ash, descended on the Aegean, plunging the whole area into a night that was to last for weeks. The ash itself continued to fall for some time and today deposits of it, called tephra, lie more than 60 metres deep on what remains of the island which the Greeks call Kalliste.
Scientists now believe that what happened to Kalliste might be the solution to a riddle that has perplexed historians and geographers since the days of the Greek philosipher Plato (427-347 BC). Plato, one of the fathers of western thought, is our sole direst source for the legend of Atlantis. His fragmentary account of the continent that was swallowed up by the sea still excites the modern mind. Plato's Atlantis was as kind of paradise - a vast island 'larger than Libya and Asia put together' - with magnificant mountain ranges, lush plains which teemed with every variety of animal, including elephants, and luxuriant gardens where the fruit was 'fair and wondrous and in infinite abundance'.
The earth was rich with precious metals, especially the one prized most highly by the ancients, the fabulous, iridescent orichalc, an alloy of copper, perhaps brass. The capital of Atlantis, built in the very centre of the island, was remarkable for the scale and splendour of its public buildings which were designed in an architecturally harmonious blend of white, black and red stone. Even more extraordinary, perhaps, was the plan on which the city had been laid out. It was arranged in five zones built in perfect concentric circles. Its various ports were served by a system of canals. Plato says that the capital's canal and its nearby port were 'full of vessels and merchants coming from all parts, who, from their numbers, kept up a multitudinous sound of human voices, and din clatter... night and day'.
At the heart of the city were the great palace and the temple, which was in more sumptuous: 'All the outside, with the exception of the pinnacles, they covered with silver, and the pinnacles with gold. In the interior of the temple the roof was of ivory, curiously wrought everywhere with gold and silver orichalc; and all the other parts, the walls and pillars and floor, they coated with orichalc.
In the temple they placed statues of gold: there was the god himself standing in a chariot - a charioteer with six winged horses - and of such a size that he touched the roof of the building wih his head; around him there were a hundred Nereids riding on dolphins...' This charioteer was none other than the God of the Sea and Shaker of the Earth, Poseidon. When he and his divine brothers Zues and Hades divided the world between them, Atlantis fell to Poseidon's lot. He became the all-powerful lord of the island which he peopled with his sons, a virtuos race touched with divinity.
The ten kings of Atlantis were immensely rich and powerful but ruled wisely over the enormous colonial empire they built. Numberless generations of Atlanteans lived in peace under a system of laws which had been handed down to them by Poseidon and whose justness comanded universal admiration. These laws were 'inscribed by the first kings on a pillar of orichalc, which was situated in the middle of the island, at the temple of Poseidon'.
But in the end, Atlantean society began to decay. The people started to worship the false gods of wealth, idleness and luxury. Plato, ever a pessimist about human nature, write: 'When the divine portion began to fade away, and became diluted too often and too much with the mortal admixture, and the human nature gained the upper hand, they then, being unable to bear their fortune, behaved in an unseemly manner, and to him who had an eye to see, grew visibly debased, for they were losing the fairest to their precious gifts; but to those who had no eye to see the true happiness, they appeared glorious and blessed at the very time when they were full of avarice and unrighteous power.'
It was during this era of corruption that the Atlanteans embarked on a war of world conquest, launching huge fleets against other islands and enslaving the inhabitants of the coastal settlements of the Mediteranean. The only power that could stand against them was Athens, the city dedicated to Athena, goddess of wisdom, industry and war. The Atlantean hoplites, or heavy infantry, succeeded in stemming the tide of invasion and won a brilliant victory. But this setback was not enough. The gods had perpared a terrible retribution for the men who betrayed the ancient faith of Atlantis.
Plato takes up the story: 'Afterwards there occured violent earthquakes and floods; and in a single day and night of misfortune... the island of Atlantis disappeared into the depths of the sea.'
source: www.angelfire.com/ri/allfantasy/atlantis.html