Critias (Plato)

See also: Critias (homonymy)

Atlantic Critias or (in Greek old Κριτίας ἢ Ἀτλαντικός / Kritiás ề Atlantikós ) is a dialog of Plato.

The characters of the dialog are Timée, Socrate, Hermocrate and Critias.

Plato, in Timée and the Critias , sticks to the description of an ideal Cité. The Greek Philosophe works towards in these two works a precise end: to show with the Man S of his time that in old times the Greece had been able to overcome powerful enemies, ordered by fabulous kings. These delivers S thus constitute a warning statement against a possible decline of the Greek city, for little which it gives up the principles which made its force.

In the Critias , Plato brings precise details on the organization of the kingdom of the Atlantis. Moreover, it specifies that the Egyptians were the first to write this history. That this one passed to Greece, nothing astonishing: there were constant relationships between the two residents of the the Mediterranean.

It is still Critias which speaks:

“the gods divided, by drawing lot, all the ground in batches, larger here, smaller elsewhere. Poséidon of the sea installed, in certain place of this island, the children whom it had generated of a woman mortal (…) on a mountain one of the men lived then who, in this country, were at the origin born of the ground. Its name was Événor, and he lived with a woman, Leucippe. They gave rise to an only daughter, Clitô (…) Poséidon wished it and is linked with it. However, the height on which she lived, the god strengthened it and insulated it in circle. For this purpose, it made enclosures of sea and ground, small and large (…) Poséidon embellishes the island, it made spout out two sources of water, one hot, the other cold one, and made push on the ground of the feeder plants of any kind. There, it generated and raised five generations of male and twin children. It divided the Atlantis island into ten parts. The elder one became king, above all the others. it did those of the vassal princes (…) On all, it imposed names: oldest, the king, accepted the name which was used to indicate all this island and the sea that one calls the Atlantic, because the name of the first king was Atlas. ”

As for the nine brothers, their names derive qualities from the people telamon:

  • Eumélos ( Εὔμηλος / Eúmêlos , “with the beautiful ewes”), twin of Atlas;
  • Amphérès ( Ἀμφήρης / Amphễrês , “adjusted well on the two sides”, while speaking about a rudder);
  • Évaimon ( Εὐαίμων / Euaímôn , “of good race”);
  • Mnéséas ( Μνησέας / Mnêséas , “which covets”);
  • Autochtonos ( Αὐτόχθονος / Autokhtonos , “born from the ground, indigenous”);
  • Élasippos ( Ἐλάσιππος / Elásippos , “leader of horses”);
  • Mestor ( Μήστωρ / Mêstôr , “adviser”, one of the épiclèse S of Zeus);
  • Azaès ( Ἀζάης / Azáês , “with the dark skin”);
  • Diaprépès ( Διαπρέπης / Diaprépês , “the splendid one”).

The material description of the kingdom follows then:

“the kings had wealths of such abundance that never undoubtedly before them null royal house did not have the similar ones and that null will not have any easily such in the future. The island provided them all hard or malleable metals lead and the tin which one can Initially extract from the mines, that of which we know nothing any more but the name, the Orichalque or coppers pure; they was most invaluable, after gold, of metals which existed in this time. The island provided with prodigality all that drilled can give of materials suitable for the work of the carpenters. In the same way, it nourished in sufficiency all the pets or savages. It still gave and the cultivated fruits, and the seeds which were made to nourish us and from which we draw the flours. Thus, collecting on their ground all these richnesses, the inhabitants of Atlantis built the temples, the palates of the kings, the ports. ”

But, like always, after the splendor of the be occurs the Automne of the decline:

“During many generations, the kings listened to the laws and remained attached to the divine principle to which they were related. but when the divine element had suddenly decreased in them, by the effect of the crossing with many mortals. they fell into indecency…”

The Critias stops there. Either Plato never wrote the continuation, in which it was to detail the war of the Athenians against the Telamones, or this one was lost. The same doubt remains as for the existence of the third dialog, the Hermocrate , which should in all logic supplement the triptych.

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