On the Tragedy of Atlantis
by William Lyon Shoestrap
Last Sunday, we read in a story by Mr. Xi Jinping that ‘history and reality have proven that a nation which abandons or betrays its own history and culture cannot prosper, and is likely to end in tragedy’ – that is, if we don’t possess a true (non-fictitious) cultural confidence, then our nation may likely end in a tragedy. And I wanted to continue thinking about that a little more, on that idea of tragedy if we abandon our true cultural history.
So, today, we have another report from our resident sleuth and prognosticator, William Lyon Shoestrap.
On the Tragedy of Atlantis, by William Lyon Shoestrap
If you’ve been, like me, mulling over this idea of tragedy, while looking over today’s sea of troubled world affairs, it would seem to resemble a big wave that was sweeping over the planet – a wave that seemed to be coming from the northern part of America, that swept across the Atlantic ocean until it hit the shores of the British isles, before it moved on across the European continent and on to the Asian heartland.
And as I started to daydream about this ‘Atlantean’ wave, it recalled a memory of an earlier ‘Atlantean’ wave of five hundred years ago, but a wave that came in the opposite direction – it came from the Atlantean shores of the British isles, and France, and Spain, and Portugal and swept across the Atlantic ocean to the shores of America. But it came in a flood of mixed waves – some came in waves of ‘colonization’ with some good intentions and friendliness; while some came in waves of ‘conquest’ with some bad intentions and greediness.
And my dreaming sailed even farther back in time, to those old passed-on-down myths of Atlantis that I had read ages ago. And so I decided to go back and reread some of these stories, especially that first time that this myth of the Atlanteans was heard, as told to us by that great story teller, Plato (almost two thousand years ago).
And I found a story of his called Timaeus, where he told us about one of the great thinkers of ancient Greece, Solon, who wrote a constitution for his city of Athens to save it from decay and tragedy.
Now, Solon had travelled to Egypt to a city called Sais where he talked with some ancient priests about their stories of antiquity. And one old Egyptian priest told him this story, from the sacred Egyptian writings, about how Athens and Sais were first begun. Both cities had as their guardian, Athena (as she was known in Greek) or Neith (as she was known in Egyptian) who founded and educated them: Sais, 8000 years ago and Athens, 9000 years ago. But where did this ‘colonizing’ wave, of these two cities come from?
Well, Plato doesn’t really tell us, other than from Athena / Neith, but I’m assuming that it might have come from the ‘east’, because when the priest was telling Solon the story about the beginnings of Sais, and of their laws and arts, he talked about the soldiers, and said that their armor, shields and darts, were first used in Asia.
But I’m also assuming that it might have come from the ‘west’ from a flourishing culture named ‘Atlantis’.
But later on in this Timaeus story, it tells us that what came from the ‘west’ was not looking too good. The priest was telling Solon about the deeds of Athens, and that there was one deed that surpassed all of them in magnitude and virtue – when the Atlanteans ‘a mighty and warlike power’ spread themselves in ‘a hostile fury’ to subjugate all of Libya [i.e. northern Africa] as far as Egypt, and all of Europe as far as Italy, and then tried to conquer all the lands within the Mediterranean sea.
There’s that ‘Atlantean’ wave that I was dreaming about, and it seems so similar – that story of 10,000 years ago and the story of today.
But the army of Athens surpassed all others in ‘magnanimity and skill’ and was able to stop the Atlanteans and to liberate all the peoples who dwelt within the Pillars of Hercules.
So, this Atlantean people, in a wave of ‘conquest’ that was trying to enslave all of the peoples living along the Mediterranean sea of Europe, Libya, and Asia, was finally stopped by the ‘magnanimity’ [honor] of Athens - the wave of conquest was stopped by honor. Now, that’s a good idea, that I’ll have to remember - how Tragedy was stopped by Honor.
Remind me later, that I’ll have to mention it to our friend, Xi Jinping. But I think he already knows this. It’s funny, but the Chinese probably think of us, Canadians and Americans, in the same way that the Egyptians thought of the Greeks – “O Solon, you Greeks are always children, nor is there any such thing as an aged Grecian among you! … Because all your souls are juvenile; neither containing any ancient opinion derived from remote tradition, nor any discipline hoary from its existence in former periods of time.”
Anyway, I still wanted to know more about where these Atlanteans came from, and if they were always so arrogant like that.
Now, Plato gives us another story of his, called Critias, where the story told to Solon by the Egyptian priest is continued.
So in the Critias, Plato is telling us a story, a story that was told to Socrates by Critias, a story that Critias was told by his grandfather, a story that his grandfather was told by his friend Solon, a story that Solon was told by an ancient priest of Egypt, a story that this priest of Egypt was told through their sacred writings that were kept to preserve the ancient stories of antiquity. OK, I got it.
Now, it seems that the first king of the Atlanteans was Atlas, and that’s who the island of Atlantis and the Atlantic ocean are named after. And apparently, Atlas was a good king, and his descendants extended their civilization as far as Egypt and Italy. They possessed much wealth, had rich mines and fertile pastures with tamed animals and bountiful fruit trees. They built palaces and temples made from stone, brass, silver and gold, and built chariots and sailing ships. (all good, so far)
And for many generations “as long as the nature of God was sufficient for them” – as long as they looked towards higher ideals of beauty, truth and goodness, then “all these things were increased through common friendship, in conjunction with virtue” – their society progressed towards ‘a more perfect union’ (as we would say, today).
But what happened to this Atlantean culture – that went from raising and instructing new cities, to attempting to conquer and enslave other cities?
When “that portion of divinity vanished from among them … they acted in a disgraceful manner … with an unjust desire of possessing and transcending in power” – when they stopped thinking of higher ideals and saw the possession of things as more important than being honorable.
Perhaps, we can assume that Plato had wished to show us what happens to a civilization when it no longer thinks about divine and honorable things, and instead worships fleeting and narcissistic things and so, it allows its culture to decay; and to show us what destruction awaits such a cultural degeneration.
The civilization of the Atlanteans of 11,000 years ago was finally broken by earthquakes, deluges and desolation - that they were not prepared for.
What will happen to our modern Atlanteans? Will they be broken by a financial earthquake, or a tsunami of unpayable debts, or a volcano of political corruption?
Here is a short excerpt from a speech given during a debate by a young Abraham Lincoln that is so apropos to today’s shortfalls by many of our so-called political leaders, and of the danger of our modern volcano!!!
“I know that the great volcano at Washington, aroused and directed by the evil spirit that reigns there, is belching forth the lava of political corruption, in a current broad and deep, which is sweeping with frightful velocity over the whole length and breadth of the land, bidding fair to leave unscathed no green spot or living thing, while on its bosom are riding like demons on the waves of Hell, the imps of that evil spirit, and fiendishly taunting all those who dare resist its destroying course, with the hopelessness of their effort; and knowing this, I cannot deny that all may be swept away. Broken by it, I, too, may be; bow to it I never will …”
I’ve heard that Lincoln, like Plato, was also a great story teller.