MYTHOLOGY OF ATLANTIS

Many critics of Atlantis insist that, besides Plato's dialogues, Timaeus and Critias, there is no other independent evidence provided by ancient authorities on the matter. Nothing could be farther away from the truth. Indeed, the ancient myths and traditions of most nations center on the legend of the Flood and on the destruction of Paradise, the original focus of Civilization that is no other than Atlantis.

Now, the Terrestrial Paradise — and not the Celestial one, by the way —is the Garden of Eden where Man originated and first rose above the beasts of the field. However, we agree that the Terrestrial Paradise, despite its unequivocal reality, has been spiritualized by many, and hence can hardly be invoked as "hard" proof of the former existence of Atlantis.

For that purpose, we gathered in the present chapter some passages of ancient historians who wrote on Atlantis and related matters, hausting from sources and traditions independent of the ones utilized by Plato. We do it in a schematic, listed way, in order to facilitate the comparison. Of course, the concise style adopted here impossibilitates any explanations, and the themes touched are more study guides than anything else. The reader interested in further details is encouraged to quest the original sources or, if incapable of that, to read the more detailed accounts in other works of ours. The Pillars of Atlantis

• Proclus, a commentator of Plato's works, affirms that Crantor too visited Sais, in Egypt, as Solon had done 300 years before. There, the Egyptian priests showed him a golden pillar inscripted with hieroglyphs that recorded in detail the history of Atlantis exactly as they had told it to his famous predecessor.

• Manetho, the Egyptian chronicler, confirms the existence of such pillars and claims that, shortly before the Flood, Thoth-Hermes inscribed in stelae (pillars) the epitome of the ancient wisdom, so that the ancient knowledge should not be lost in the cataclysm.

• Josephus, the Jewish historian contemporaneous with Christ, reports that Seth (Thoth?) "in order that wisdom and astronomical knowledge should not perish in the cataclysm.. made two pillars, one of stone the other of brick in which he inscribed this knowledge for posterity, said pillars existing in the land of Siriad to this day".

• Herodotus (Hist. II:58) personally saw, in Tyre (Phoenicia), in a temple of Hercules, "two pillars, one of pure gold, the other of emerald, which shone with great brilliancy at night." Such Pillars of Hercules were erected by the Phoenicians just about everywhere they settled. But they did it particularly at crucial straits linking two seas, as was the case of Gibraltar, the Bosphorus, etc. The twin pillars commemorated, according to experts, the two founders of Atlantis, Hercules and Atlas.

• Alexander, the Great, personally saw and inspected, according to his historians, many such giant pillars of gold bearing strange scripts in the extremities of India. He went beyond the pillars of Hercules and Dionysus as the limits of their exploits towards the Orient (the Indies), and even left his own pillars as a testimony of his feat. Now, Dionysus is the divine alias of Atlas, the elder twin of Hercules. So, just as we had the Pillars of Hercules and Atlas in Gibraltar, marking the western extreme of their ancient exploits, we also have their eastern counterparts in the extremities of the Indies, marking the true site of Atlantis.

• Plato affirms, in his Critias, that the Atlantean kings inscribed in golden pillars their laws, edicts and judicial decisions, in a strange ritual involving the sacrifice of a bull dedicated to Poseidon. This type of ritual is characteristic of the Indies, where it is called Gomedha This sacrifice commemorates the death of Paradise (Gomeda-dvipa), which seems to be no other than Atlantis itself. A well-known instance of such inscribed pillars in India is the Pillar of Delhi, erected by King Ashoka, to commemorate his victory over his enemies. Though made of steel, the Pillar of Delhi is a peerless technological feat of antiquity, one that many experts associate with Atlantis. The pillar is forged from a single piece of steel, and is stainless, having defied the centuries without any oxidation at all. No one in antiquity could have matched this feat of the Hindus, which certainly obtained this sophisticated technology in Atlantis.

• Another puzzling technology that proves the superior metallurgical skill of the Atlanteans is the "orichalch" that Plato mentions as covering the walls of Atlantis. Rather than the foolish idea of "mountain copper" — for copper ores, as indeed most metals, normally come from the mountains — the true etym of the name is as in the Latin spelling aurichalcum, that is, "golden copper", or "golden bronze". In reality the word pertains to brass, an alloy of copper and zinc that resembles gold, just as Plato states. Brass was only developed again in modern times, due to insuperable technological difficulties. And the secret of its technology was passed on by the Hindus, who got it directly from Atlantis, where else? The fact that Plato knew of it, and attributed its technology to Atlantis can, hence, hardly be doubted.

• Plato tells how the walls of Atlantis were clad with gold, silver, bronze, tin and orichalch. This fact attests Atlantis' enormous mineral wealth, at an epoch when no one else had yet developed these sophisticate technologies. Bronze, an alloy of copper and tin, was used in enormous quantities during the Bronze Age. The sources of these metals and, particularly, tin, have never been adequately identified. The Koltepe mines in Anatolia (Turkey) were a puny affair, those of Tartessos (Spain) were purely legendary, and those of Cornwall (England) were discovered only after the Bronze Age had declined. All that tin traditionally came from the legendary "Islands of Tin", the Cassiterides. These mysterious islands were also called Tarshish, Tartessos, "Islands of Metals", etc.. Their existence is stated in the Bible and other sources which are hard to doubt. As we detail elsewhere, Tarshish was in reality the same as Punt (Indonesia), even today the world's greatest supplier of tin. So, if Plato is indeed right, we are led to conclude that Atlantis was in fact Indonesia.

• Plato affirms that the demise of Atlantis took place "9,000 years before the times of Solon". Now, Solon visited Egypt at about 600 BC, which adds to a total of about 11,600 BP (Before Present). Now, this is precisely the date of the cataclysmic ending of the Pleistocene Ice Age, as given by the geologic record. So, we are led to conclude that Plato's date is correct, and that the Greek philosopher indeed knew what he was talking about.

• Strabo, the Greek geographer and historian, tells us that 2,600 years before his time, certain navigants crossed beyond the Pillars of Hercules, and dealt with the Tartessians. Now, these Tartessians — who are often identified with the Atlanteans — had, he affirms, written records of their history that amounted to 7,000 years before their own time. Again, this adds to a date of about 11,600 BP, precisely as preconized by Plato for the Atlantean cataclysm, for Strabo flourished in the times of Christ.

• Arnobius, a Christian bishop of the fourth century AD, told in one of his sermons concerning the catastrophes that have previously destroyed human civilization, that "ten thousand years ago, a vast number of men burst forth from the island which is called Atlantis of Neptune, as Plato tells us, and utterly ruined and blotted out countless nations." Again, the date given by Arnobius turns out to be precisely the one of 11,600 BC. Though Arnobius' relation seems to be based on that of Plato, he had access to sources now lost that apparently confirmed Plato's disclosure in an independent way.

• Manetho, the Egyptian historian, places the start of the dynasty of the "Spirits of the Dead" 5,813 years before Menes, the first king of unified Egypt. Now, Menes flourished between 3,100 and 3,800 BC or perhaps, even earlier, as some specialists claim. Again, this gives a date between 11,000 and 11,600 BC, in close agreement with the one given by Plato. It is quite probable that the "Spirits of the Dead" of Manetho were indeed the survivors of the Atlantean cataclysm, the same dead ancestors that the Romans called Lemures or Lares.

• The Hindu traditions on the Yugas, as well as the similar ones of the Persians, hold that the eras of mankind last about 12,000 years each. On the other hand, these and other traditions maintain that we now enter, in the year 2,000, the final millennium of the present era, which started just after the demise of Atlantis. So, once again, we are led to the conclusion that the Atlantean cataclysm took place between 11,000 and 12,000 years ago.

• The Codex Troano of the Mayas, translated by Augustus le Plongeon, the celebrated Mayanist, recounts the tragedy of Lemurian Atlantis, which sunk away in a terrible cataclysm. It tells that millions of people died in the cataclysm, and that the event took place "8,060 years before the writing of this book." Supposing that the codex was written at about 1,500 BC, the start of the pre-classic Era, when the Mayan (Olmec) civilization sprung, we get a date for the cataclysm of about 11,600 BP. This is in perfect agreement with the date given by Plato. As is known, the Mayas originally came to America from an overseas paradise called Aztlan which sunk away underseas. Aztlan in visibly no other thing than Plato's Atlantis. Except that Aztlan was located beyond the Pacific, rather than the Atlantic Ocean.

• The Ramayana — the book that tells the destruction of Lanka by Rama and Hanumant — affirms that this war took place some 10,000 years before its own times. Now, the experts agree that the Ramayana was written at about 300 BC by Valmiki. Thus, the destruction of Lanka — which is no other thing than the one of Atlantis — took place at about 12,000 BP or so, in fair agreement with the date given by Plato.

• Hindu traditions affirm that the first sangham (poetic academy) lasted for 4,400 years. The second one for 3,700 years. And the third and last one, which ended at about the start of the Christian era, lasted for 1,850 years. This yields at total of 11,900 BP for the start of the sanghams which, tradition holds, began shortly after the Flood. Considering that the Flood corresponds to the cataclysm that destroyed Atlantis, this Hindu tradition on the poetic academics confirms the date of Plato with excellent accuracy.

• The end of the Pleistocene Ice Age — the date of whose closely coincides with the one of 11,600 BP given by Plato for Atlantis' demise — also marks the rise of agriculture, of city-building and of the Neolithic both in the Old and the New Worlds. According to a universal tradition, civilization was brought just about everywhere by white, blond, blue-eyed, titanic giants. These giants are no other than the Atlanteans fleeing their destroyed Paradise and moving into their new homelands in order to make a fresh start. As if to confirm this worldwide tradition, it is at this date that we start to find fossil skeletons of Cro-Magnoid men, so often equated with the Atlanteans. And these are found precisely the sites connected with the rise of the Neolithic and of Civilization

• Arthur Posnansky — the German-Bolivian archaeologist who long studied Tiahuanaco, the site of origin of the Incan civilization of Peru and Bolivia — concluded that this region of the Andes was formerly a seaport which suffered an uplift of about 3,000 meters. This cataclysm happened at about 11 or 12 thousand years ago, precisely the epoch of the Atlantean demise.

• Bruce Heezen, the famous oceanographer of the Lamont Geological Observatory, showed that sea-level underwent a rise of about 100 to 150 meters worldwide at about 11,600 BP. This rise resulted from the meltwaters of the Ice Age glaciers that covered a substantial portion of the continents in the temperate regions of the world and which were up to a few kilometers in thickness. Heezen also pointed out that this rise of sea-level was sufficient to drown most low-lying coastal regions of the planet. In particular, the region that now forms the South China Sea averages under 60 meters or so in depth. Thus, this region — precisely the one which we preconize to have been the site of Atlantis — got submerged by the rising waters, just as affirmed by Plato.

• Turning to Egyptian traditions, the source on which Plato bases his legend of Atlantis. The famous zodiac of Dendera — which was copied from far older versions whose origins are lost in the night of times — indicates that the constellation Leo lay at the vernal point in the epoch of its start. Now, the era of Leo centers at about 11,720 BC, in close agreement with the date given by Plato for the end of Atlantis and the start of the present era. What event but the cataclysmic end of the Pleistocene Ice Age and the consequent demise of Atlantis could better serve for the new start of times marked in that famous zodiac?

• Makrisi, a famous Arab historian of Egypt, affirms that "fire issued from the sign of Leo to destroy the world." This conflagration apparently confirms the above connection between the star of Dendera's zodiac and the Atlantean cataclysm disclosed by Plato. The Arabs conquered Egypt, and inherited its magnificent culture and traditions, and it is quite likely that Makrisi was basing himself on them.

• A Coptic papyrus indicates the same date for the Atlantean cataclysm. According to it: "the Flood will take place when the heart of the Lion (Aldebaran) enters the start of the head of Cancer". In other words, the papyrus affirms that when the vernal point coincided with the center of Leo — an event that took place some 11,600 years ago — the Flood took place, destroying Atlantis and ending the Pleistocene Ice Age, which had lasted for some 2.5 millions of years. In the terrible event, a great many species of mammals and other creatures became extinct all over the world. This fact attests the universal character of the tragedy.

• The Oera Linda book — a collection of Frisian traditions related to the Flood — describes a terrible cataclysm of cosmic scale that took place in the far past and which destroyed "Atland". In its own words:

During the whole summer, the sun hid itself behind the clouds, as if unwilling to shine upon the earth. In the middle of the quietude, the earth began to quake as if it was dying. The mountains opened up to vomit forth fire and flames. Some of them sunk under the earth while in other places mountains rose out of the plains... Atland disappeared, and the wild waves rose so high over the hills and dales that everything was buried under the seas. Many people were swallowed up by the earth, and others who had escaped the fire perished in the waters.

• The Mayas tell, in their myths of origin, of a mysterious island or continent called Aztlan whence they originally came. They were driven out by the volcanic cataclysm that destroyed their land. Their homeland later sunk underseas, forcing them to leave. They came by sea, via the Pacific Ocean, in their rafts and catamarans, stopping for several years in islands of that ocean. Their voyage is recorded in documents such as the Codex Boturini, as well as in many other registers. There can be very little doubt that Aztlan is anything other than Atlantis. Furthermore, the western location of Aztlan, and the volcanic nature of the cataclysm that sunk it away leave no room for doubt that if it is indeed Atlantis, the lost continent was situated in the Far East, probably in the Indonesian region.

• The Hindu traditions speak of Atala, a sunken Paradise lying in the Far East. Atala is one of the seven paradisial Hells (lokas) of the Hindus. These were the archetypes of the Seven Isles of the Blest of the Greeks and of the Seven Atlantic Islands of Medieval Traditions. Atala is often identified with Sutala ("the Foundation Land") which is the name the Hindus gave to their pristine Paradise. Its name means, in Sanskrit, "nowhere" or, yet, "sunken land". This etym is the same as the Greek one of Utopia or Erewhon of Gnostic traditions. In other words, traditions of a sunken Paradise such as the Elysium (or Isles of the Blest) of the Greeks, the Amenti or Punt of the Egyptians, the Eden of the Jews and the Dilmun of the Babylonians all spring from that of the Atala or Sutala of the ancient Hindus.

• The ancient and the Medieval maps of the world, just as those of the Age of Navigations, invariably showed a group of islands called "Atlantic Islands". These islands were usually seven, and were often equated with the Seven Islands of the Blest of Greek traditions or with the Seven Dvipas ("Paradisial Islands") of the Hindus. In reality, these islands correspond to the remains of sunken Atlantis. They are the volcanic peaks of the sunken continent that remained emerse when the rest of that land foundered in the seas. The Occult traditions of the ancient navigants derived from those of the Phoenicians and other ancient nations that did a regular commerce with the Indies in antiquity, and that guarded the naval route to the Indies as the best kept secret ever.

• The Atlantic Ocean derives its name from the Atlanteans who, alone of all nations, dared to navigate these far off waters. Only the Atlanteans mastered the secrets of Celestial Navigation that are a basic requirement for this kind of undertaking. In contrast to its present acception, the name of the Atlantic Ocean (or "Ocean of the Atlanteans") embodied the whole ocean that encircled the ancient world (Eurasia and Africa). It consisted of the union of the coterminous Atlantic and Indian Oceans. The Atlantic Ocean of the ancients was also dubbed "Outer Ocean", "Kronius Ocean", "Mare Oceanum", "Mare Magnum" or "World Encircling Ocean", names that indeed disclose its circular nature.

• Not only Plato, but other contemporary writers such as Herodotus, Aristotle, Hecateus of Miletus and Skylax of Carianda explicitly utilized that name of "Atlantic Ocean", which indeed dates from before the times of Plato. Plato specifically acknowledges the fact that the name is due to Atlas and the Atlanteans. Earlier authors such as Homer and Hesiod spoke of the Circular Ocean that surrounded the whole (ancient) world and which was the site of some sunken islands or a continent vaguely associated with Atlantis. The notion had come to Greece and Egypt from Indian traditions concerning the Açayana ("World Encircling Ocean") and the paradisial sunken realms such as the "White Islands" (Saka-dvipa).

• Hindu traditions speak of partly sunken islands of the ocean called by names such as Atala, Patala, Shveta-Dvipa ("Pure Land") or Saka-Dvipa ("White Islands"). These paradisial islands were the remains of a vast sunken continent which they called Rutas. This sunken continent they sited somewhere in the outer ocean that encircled the (ancient) world. The sinking of this vast continent was ascribed to the collapse of its Holy Mountain, called Meru or Atalas. This collapse also caused the skies to fall and to asphyxiate that paradisial land which subsequently sunk in the (Indian) ocean. It is from this myth of Atala and its Holy Mountain, Atalas, that the Greeks got their myths on Atlas and on Atlantis.

• Greek myths tell the legend of the Atlantides, the seven beautiful daughters of the Titan Atlas, the founding father of Atlantis. The Atlantides are also called Pleiades or Hesperides, and personify the seven Islands of the Blest, which the Greeks obscurely placed in the Outer Ocean (Atlantic). These Islands of the Blest became vaguely confused with the Canary Islands. But after these islands were discovered and proved rather barren, the Atlantic Islands receded to remoter regions, and figured just about everywhere in the ancient maps. But they kept the ancient tradition on the seven islands which were the remains of sunken Atlantis.

• In Greek myths, the Seven Pleiades (or Atlantides) were turned into the famous constellations after they drowned in the Outer Ocean, preferring death to dishonor in the hands of their cruel persecutor, Orion, the Hunter. As the Hesperides, the seven sisters were the guardians of the Seven Islands of the Blest, where stood the Gardens of Atlas, their father. The Garden of the Hesperides was placed, according to Eustatius, in agro Atlantis "in the fields of Atlas" (or Atlantis?), in the neighborhood of Mt. Atlas. More exactly, this fabulous garden was the Garden of Eden of the Judeo-Christians. It was also the Garden of Avalon of the Celts, the Garden of Idun of the Germans, the Hades (or Islands of the Blest) of the ancient Greeks, etc. All these were indeed disguises of Plato's Atlantis which, after its sinking, became the Realm of the Dead, the paradisial islands that we now equate with Hell.

• As we said above, the Greeks copied their legends on Atlas and Atlantis from the Hindu ones on Atalas (Shiva) and on Atala, the sunken paradise of the Hindus. As in the Greek traditions, Atalas — whose name is Sanskrit and means "Pillar" — was deemed to be the "Pillar of the World", just as was Atlas in Greece. Atala was, like Atlantis, a sunken continent destroyed by a fiery cataclysm, and which lay in the Outer Ocean. Since the Greek legend is of Hindu origin and was simply transferred to their western region when the Greeks moved to their present whereabouts, it is idle to quest for Atlantis in the ocean nowadays called Atlantic. Instead, we must seek Atlantis in the ocean which the Hindus called "Ocean of the Atlanteans" or "Western Ocean", and which is none other than the Indian Ocean.

• The Hindus have many traditions on a sunken continent that was the paradisial region where mankind and civilization first originated. One such was Tripura, "the Triple City". When we recall the fact that Atlantis was, like Tripura, a triple city with metallic walls and golden palaces, we cannot but conclude that the two traditions, if indeed based on actual fact, refer to the one and same thing. Moreover, as happened with Atlantis, the inhabitants of Tripura were originally extremely pious. But, with the passage of time, they also became evil and perverse, and were destroyed by Shiva. It is because of this feat that Shiva got the epithet of Tripurantaka ("Destroyer of Tripura"). As with Lanka (see below) and Atlantis, Tripura was built upon a mountain so lofty, that it was said to reside in the skies.

• Another Hindu legend on a sunken empire that was the archetype of Atlantis concerns Lanka, and is told in detail in the Ramayana. The saga of the destruction of Lanka by Rama and Hanumant was the original on which Homer's Illiad was based. Just as the Ramayana tells the story of Lanka and the rescue of Shita, the spouse of Rama kidnapped by the evil Ravana, the Illiad recounts the destruction of Troy and the rescue of the fickle Helen, kidnapped by Paris. Troy, with its bronzy walls and golden palaces was just one of the many allegories of Atlantis. In contrast to the small village discovered by Schliemann in Turkey, the true Troy lay in the Outer Ocean. It was a magnificent capital and sank into the ocean after its destruction and incending in the great war with the "Greeks" of an earlier age. The parallels between Troy and Atlantis are too many to be discarded. And those between Plato's Atlantis and the Lanka of the Hindus show, in an unequivocal manner, that it is in the Far Orient and the underseas, and not in the Mediterranean region, that we must quest for the real Troy and the real Atlantis.

• The Mahabharata, the other great Hindu classical saga that completes the Ramayana, tells of the mighty empire of Krishna and its destruction in the great war between the Lunars and the Solars (the Kurus and Pandus). This great war is, like the one of Lanka or that of Troy, the true archetype on which Plato based his history of Atlantis. Hastinapura, the capital of the Pandu empire, was the "City of the Pillars" (Hastina-pura) or, yet, the "City of the Nagas". These two are epithets associated with the Atlanteans and with the Pillar of Heaven in the Far East. The Mahabharata also tells of Dvaraka, the capital of Krishna, located in an island in the middle of the seas. Krishna's capital, Dvaraka, sunk underseas when the divine hero died in the great war, more or less in the way Atlantis went under, according to Plato.

• Dravidian traditions speak of a vast sunken continent towards the south-east of India called Rutas. The Dravidas claim to have moved to India from that continent when it sunk away underseas, in a great cataclysm. The name of Rutas apparently relates to the Sanskrit radix rudh ("red"), and the Dravidian ruta ("to be red", "to burn"). These etyms evoke the "Island of Fire" and may be an allusion to the fabulous "Land of the Reds" that was one of the many mystic names of Atlantis in the ancient traditions. Indeed, the Dravidas claimed to have been Kshatryias ("Warriors"), an Indian caste whose heraldic colour is the red one.

• The Phoenicians — whose name also means "reds" in Greek — claimed, like the Dravidas, to have come from an "Island of Fire" located beyond the Indian Ocean (or Erythraean) overseas. That means the Indies, indeed located in this "Ocean of the Reds" (Erythraean). Hence, the Phoenician homeland seems to be originally the same as the Rutas (or "Island of Fire") of the Dravidas. The Egyptians too called themselves "Reds" (Rot or Khem, in their tongue). And they also claimed to have come from this "Island of Fire" in the Indian (or Erythraean) overseas. Would all the traditions of these virtuous nations be lying? Or is it that we interpret their myths erroneously?

• The Celts, like so many nations, claimed to have come from a land in the overseas which foundered in the seas by virtue of a terrible cataclysm. This Paradise they called by many names such as "Isle of Glass" (Ynis Wydr), "Island of the Women", "Avalon", Emhain, Ys, etc. The legend of the sinking of Ys, in particular, is closely reminescent of the sinking of Atlantis in the volcanic conflagration reported by Plato. The Celts also called their sunken land by the name of Cantref Gwaelod meaning "Country of the Bottom" according to Jean Markale, the eminent Celtist. Now, this is precisely the meaning of the name of Atala, the sunken Paradise of the Hindus that we commented above. Atala was the archetype of Plato's Atlantis, whose name (a-tla) also embodies the same signification in Greek.

• In the Mabinogion, the Celtic book of origins, it is stated that the Celts originally came from "the island of Defrobani, the Country of Summer and land of the Cimmerians". Now, "Defrobani" can only be the island of Taprobane, as many experts concluded. Taprobane — that the ancient authors equated with the site of the Terrestrial Paradise and of the fall of Adam — is no other than the island of Sumatra which is indeed the site of Atlantis.

• The Cimmerians, who are deemed to have been the ancestors of the Celts, are the "peoples of the haze" that Homer equates to the somber region of Hell. They figure in numerous ancient traditions and the "somber haze" that covered their region are indeed a reference to the cloud of volcanic smoke that covered Atlantis for a long time after its destruction. Cimmeria is the same as the dark Tartarus or Erebus (Erebodes = "Darkness") of Hesiod and Homer, which equated it with the Abode of the Dead. In Homer, the Scheria of the Phaeacians, a sort of Paradise, is placed just beyond the dark mists of Mount Erebus and the currents of the circular Oceanus which closely corresponds to the analogous features of Atlantis.

• Accordingly, the Egyptians spoke of the mysterious Hanebut (or Haunebut), a people who lived beyond the Indian Ocean, in the region of Amenti (or Punt). The name of the Hanebut means "People of the Haze" or "People of the Pillar [of Atlas]" (Hau-nabha in Sanskrit and Dravida, the t ending merely marking out the feminine gender in Egyptian). This enigmatic people was said to live under a dark haze which the light of the sun never penetrated, just as in Cimmeria. As for Punt and Amenti, the Egyptians affirmed that the region of the Hanebut was real and could indeed be visited, as they often did. As we show elsewhere, the elusive Hanebut were indeed the same as the people of Punt who, as the Gerzeans, invaded and conquered Upper Egypt in pre-Dynastic times, and who were later expelled when Egypt was unified by King Menes, "the Greek". Not impossibly, this great prehistoric war was the same one mentioned by Plato as the "War of Atlantis", when the Egyptians and the "Greeks" united to expell the Atlantean invader.

• Most ancient nations spoke of a similar region in the overseas covered by a dark haze or mist that can only be volcanic smoke. Thus, the Polynesians spoke of Hawaiki, a large island or continent to the west, beyond the ocean (Pacific). Hawaiki was said to be their destroyed homeland, in Indonesia, and was deemed to have been a veritable Paradise before its destruction by a huge volcanic cataclysm. This cataclysm sunk away most of its land, and smothered it in cinders and smoke. The destruction of Hawaiki took place during a great war, just as was the case with Atlantis.

• The remains of Hawaiki, the Polynesian Paradise, became equated with a sort of Hades or Hell, as in Greek and other legends. It is interesting to note how, in the Western traditions, Paradise and its remains are located towards the East and the Orient, whereas in the Far East and in Oceania, the opposite is true, and these are located towards the West and the Occident. In other words, the universal traditions concur that Paradise and its infernal remainders are located in a region that can be no other than Indonesia, the true "Navel of the World". The American Indians — who lay in an intermediate position — were confused about the issue. Those on the Pacific coast pointed towards the West, whereas those of the Atlantic coast pointed to a region beyond the Atlantic Ocean and probably further away, across the Indian Ocean as well, in Indonesia.

• The Romans — or, rather, their predecessors, the Etruscans — had traditions concerning their coming from an overseas land submerged under the seas in a cataclysm shortly after or during a great war. They were led by Aeneas, and came in a great fleet of ships from a region located outside the Pillars of Hercules. The itinerary of Aeneas is unclear, as is often the case of the heroes provenient from Atlantis. Aeneas is said to have come from sunken Troy, in the outskirts of the ocean, leading the Romans to their Promised Land. Alternatively, he is said to have come from Mt. Ida, that is the primordial Paradise of the Greeks and Romans, and which seems to be the same Eden of Judeo-Christian traditions.

• One should keep in mind that the true Troy (see above) lay not in Turkey as archaeologists pretend, but beyond the Ocean (Indian), as is clear from the texts of Homer, Virgil and others. To start with, Troy lay "beyond the ocean", which is not the case of Hissarlik. Secondly, it was a great walled metropolis, and not the shoddy village (several) found by Schliemann in Turkey. Thirdly, Homer's Troy — like that of Aeneas, but in contrast to Hissarlik — lay on the coast, and was indeed a seaport attacked from the seasby the Greeks. The true Troy sunk away under the seas, and should not be expected to be found that easily, on dry ground.

• The same is true of the "Sicily" from where Aeneas departed a second time. This is indeed the Thrinacia of the Outer Ocean visited by Odysseus, by the Argonauts and other heroes of the ancients. Its name means "Trident", an allusion of the Triple Mountain of Lanka (Mt. Trikuta), and not indeed to the roughly triangular shape of Sicily. It would have been stupid of Virgil to claim that Aeneas departed from Sicily and crossed the entire ocean in order to get to Rome, only a few kilometers away.

• The legend of this primordial Thrinacia was transferred by the Greeks and the Romans to Sicily, with disastrous results such as the one just mentioned. It was there that the famous duel of Zeus and Typhon was held to have taken place. This same duel is told, in the Vedas, as the formidable combat of Indra and Vritra, which the Greeks adapted into that of Zeus and Typhon. Again, the Hindu myth was turned into the combat of Hercules and the giant Caccus, and into the war of the Gods agaisnt the Giants. As in India, these formidable combats are an allegory of the war of Atlantis.

• More exactly yet, the combats mentioned above, and others such, allegorize the foundering of Atlantis, and the war of the elements in fury. Atlantis was destroyed by Fire (Volcanic) and Water (Oceanic), and the event is universally commemorated as the Cosmogonic Hierogamy of Fire and Water. In India, Vritra represents the Fiery element, whereas Indra represents the Watery one. In Greece, Poseidon (or Typhon, his alias) represented the Watery element, whereas Zeus and his thunder represented Celestial Fire. This combat led to the destruction of the world and the start of a new era. Hence, the event is universally commemorated at the start of the New Year, a ritual equivalent of the New Era.

• The Greeks too, like so many ancients nations, claimed to have originally come from an overseas Paradise that can be no other than Atlantis itself. Plato tells of a primeval, ante-Diluvian "Athens" that also sunk in the Atlantean cataclysm. This cataclysm forced the Atlanteans to emigrate, probably into India and Egypt at first and, later, into the Mediterranean region. These traditions of the Greeks are supported by the Hindu ones on the Yavanas ("Greeks", "Aryans") who once lived in the island of Yava (Java) and with whom the Dravidian races were in constant war.

• The Yavanas were also called Yonas, a name that closely evokes the one of the Ionians or Greeks. It may well be the case that these Yonas were the same as the Oannés who civilized the Babylonians, or as the peoples of Aeneas (*Oaeneas?) and other Civilizing Heroes of the ancient nations. Ultimately, this word derives from the Sanskrit Yoni and the Dravida Ya-vanna, a term designating the Great Mother and, more exactly, the Cosmic Womb. The Great Mother (Dana, Danu) is the eponymous goddess of the Danaans (= Danavas = Greeks ) and of the Tuatha Dι Danaan. The Great Virgin Mother is an allegory of Lemurian Atlantis, and Earth's Vagina allegorizes the giant chasm (the Vadava-mukha or "Submarine Mare") that engulfed Lemurian Atlantis, just as the Great Father (Shiva) and his giant phallus are allegorized by Mt. Atlas.

• Plato speaks of Gadeiros, the twin brother of Atlas. Gadeiros ruled over one of the ten Atlantean realms and apparently revolted against his elder brother in the famous war of Atlantis. Gadeiros is no other than Hercules, and both these names mean "cow-herder". The allusion is to the tenth labor of Hercules, where the Hero leads the cattle of Geryon from the sunken island of Erytheia. Erytheia means "the Land of Sunrise". From there the Greeks originally came, led by Hercules, into their new Promised Land, that of Greece. The "cattle" driven by Hercules is indeed the Greek people. And the Greek hero is no other than one of the Hindu twins, Nakula and Sahadeva. These twin gods were also the true archetypes of "twins" such as Hercules and Atlas, Castor and Pollux, the Ashvins, and many others, everywhere.

• The Indians of the Brazilian Amazon jungle — Tucanos, Desanas, Barasanas, etc. — claimed to have come from a sunken Paradise, destroyed and submerged by the Flood. This Paradise they called by many names such as Yvymaraney ("Evil-less Land" or "Pure Land"), or Emekho Patolé ("Navel of the Universe"). They affirm to have come in ships not unlike the Ark of Noah and to have crossed an "Ocean of Milk" (Diá Alpikun Dihtalu) which is closely reminescent of the ocean of the same name of the Hindus. The Hindus called their primordial Paradise by names such as Shveta-dvipa ("Pure Land"), in close correspondence with their counterparts in the Americas. In their legends, the Hindus also hold that the Ocean of Milk was the site of Paradise destroyed and sunken in the war of the Gods against the Devils (see next entry).

• Shveta-dvipa, the Hindu Paradise, was placed in the Ocean of Milk (Dugdha Samudra), just as in the Amerindian myths. This "milk" or "cream" is actually the scum of pumice stone which covered the seas of Atlantis, rendering then "inavigable", just as reported by Plato. The Hindu myth entitled The Churning of the Ocean of Milk allegorizes the sinking of Atlantis in the Flood. In this allegory Mt. Mandara (or Meru) replaces Mt. Atlas. The Turtle (Kurma, the second avatar of Vishnu) that dives to the bottom of the waters represents Atlantis sunken in the Ocean of Milk. Likewise, Vasuki (or Shesha, the King of the Nagas), the serpent that serves as the churning rope, represents Atlas in his serpentine avatar. In other words, the myth of The Churning of the Ocean of Milk is a Cosmogony, a poetic licence telling the destruction of Paradise (Atlantis) and the rebirth of the world from the fragments of the former one, destroyed in consequence of the war of the Gods and the Devils (Devas and Asuras).

• All over the world — from the Amazonian jungle to the plains of Babylon and to the sandy deserts of Egypt and the Near East — we find allusions to sunken golden realms that are often likened to Hell or Hades. Such hells are the Realm of the Dead. They are, most often, felicitous regions where the dead ancestors spend a carefree, perpetual existence. All such traditions ultimately derive from Atlantis-Eden, the continent submerged by the Flood and lost in the Far Orient since the dawn of times. Such golden realms very real and are no other than Atlantis itself. They comprise, among others, the Suvarna-dvipa ("Golden Isles") of the Hindus, the Chryse Chersonesos ("Golden Peninsula") of the Greeks, the Aigeia of Poseidon, the Aiaia of the Argonauts, the Eldorado of Amerindian traditions, the Apsu or, rather "House of the Apsu" (Ezuap) of Babylonian traditions, the subterranean Vara (or "fortress") of Yima, the Flood Hero of the Persians, etc. Rather than sheer legends, all such traditions are true, holy history. They all derive, quite directly, from the myth of Atlantis. And their true source are the Hindu traditions such as those recounted in the Ramayana and the Mahabharata (see above).

• According to Cel. Braghine, who wrote a famous book on Atlantis (The Shadow of Atlantis, Northants (USA), 1980), certain Venezuelan Indians called Paria lived in a region called Atlan. The Parias were white-skinned and possessed traditions of a great cataclysm that destroyed their original homeland. This was a huge island or continent beyond the ocean inhabited by a very advanced, saintly race not unlike the Atlanteans. The Toltecs, who were the predecessors of the Mayas, also spoke of a similar sunken continent which they called Aztlan, as we discussed further above. The Nahautls, the Mayas and the Aztecs also spoke of White Civilizing Heroes that came from this sunken region, and whom they named Quetzalcoatl, Kukulkan, Gucumatz, Bochica, etc. These names mean, in their tongues, "Feathered Dragon", an etym that literally translates that of Naga (or "Dragon") which we encounter in the legends of the Old World and, above all, of the Far East.

• The myth of the Celestial Jerusalem, told in the Book of Revelation, stems directly from the Hindu traditions on Lanka, the "Queen of the Waves". Lanka, whose history is told in the Ramayana, was the actual archetype of Plato's Atlantis, as well as Homer's Troy. Lanka was built upon a lofty mountain (Mt. Trikuta = Mt. Atlas or Meru), and was said "to fly in the air, scratching the belly of heaven". Hindu myths also tell how Lanka, with "its towers and walls of stone clad with metal" was pulled out of the summit of the Holy Mountain (Meru) by the North Wind (Vayu) and thrown into the seas, where it drowned with all its vast population. Interestingly enough, the same myth, with Atlas (i. e., Atlantis) substituting for Lanka, is also encountered in Greece. Atlas, often identified with Hesperus, the Evening Star, was thrown into the ocean by Boreas, the North Wind who is the Greek counterpart of Vayu. There Atlas drowned, and was to be found no more, just as happened with Lanka and, indeed, with Atlantis.

• Other Hindu legends tell of Agartha (or Shambhalla), the subterranean realm of the King of the World. According to this tradition, it is from Shambhalla that is to surge Kalkin, ("the White Knight") for the final battle of the end of times. Kalkin, the White Knight, is to lead his hosts, the Sons of Light, to victory against the Sons of Darkness. The myth of Shambhalla is the archetype from which were copied the similar ones of the Essenes and of the Christians. Again, as with the Celestial Jerusalem of St. John's Revelation, the myth of Kalkin prefigures the Second Coming of Jesus Christ. Many experts have correlated the traditions of Agartha and Shambhalla with those of Atlantis and the Celestial Jerusalem. In fact, Atlantis too will resurge in the end of times (now?) in precisely the same manner prescribed for the Celestial Jerusalem of the Book of Revelation. Then, will the Golden Age be restored to the world, for Atlantis is truly the Paradise Lost we all have been expecting for so long.

• Celtic traditions often speak of an "Island of the Lions". This mysterious island appears in Hindu traditions as Saka-dvipa or Simhala-dvipa ("Island of the Lions", in Sanskrit). This "Island of the Lions" also figures in many other different traditions. In Celtic traditions, the Island of the Lions also called Avalon. The name of Avalon has been interpreted both as "Land of the Apple Trees" and as "Island of the Lions" (Ava-lon). This paradisial island is also called Lyonesse (Lyon-ys or "Island of the Lions") or Llyn Llion ("Lake Lion"), the lake which reputedly overwhelmed the whole world with its waters when it overflowed, causing the Flood.

• The "Island of the Lions" just mentioned (see above item) is no other than the Simhala-dvipa (or Serendip) of the Hindus. Serendip is indeed the "Island of the Seres" (Seren-dip), which is the same as Taprobane (Sumatra). The Seres are "the people of the silk" (serica = "silk", in Latin). They are described as a blond, blue-eyed, tall people by Pliny, Solinus and others. As we just said, Serendip is the same as Taprobane or Sumatra, and should not be confused with Shri Lanka (Ceylon), its Indian counterpart. The word "lion", in India, is synonymous with "hero" (gandha or simha in Skt., singa in Dravida, etc.), so that the name of Simhala-dvipa indeed means "Island of the Heroes". And these "Heroes" of old are no other than those of Atlantis, destroyed in the Flood, as mentioned in the Book of Genesis (ch. 6).

• Several ancient authors also identify Serendip with the Hevilat of the Bible, one of the four regions of Eden. The region of Hevilat (or Havila) was famous for its gold and for being encircled by the river Phison. Josephus, the famous Jewish historian, identifies the Phison with the Ganges river, in a way that leaves no doubt about its Indian location. The bdellium and the gemstones produced in Hevilat — and which are Indian exclusivities in antiquity — are also telltale of its true location in the Indies. The geography of the region of Paradise is also identical to that of the Indian region under discussion, and which is that of South India and neighboring Burma. Hence, it seems safe to conclude that Eden was indeed located in the Indies.

• As a matter of fact, "Eden" and "India" are synonymous and derive from a Sanskrit radix ind (or endh and, hence, edhen), meaning "fire". Eden is the famous "Island of Fire" of so many ancient myths. This Island of Fire is quite often identified with Atlantis and, obscurely, with Eden itself, as in the famous text of Ezekiel mentioned further above. It was also identified with the "Atlantic Islands" which, as we already said, are indeed the "Seven Islands of the Atlanteans". This Island of Fire was also often called "Brazil" or "Ys Brazil" by the Celts and other nations. The name was later applied by mistake to the country of Brazil, after the Americas were discovered. But this legendary Atlantic island appeared in all Medieval maps of the Atlantic region far before the discovery of the Americas by Columbus. The name of Brazil derives from an ancient root, bras, meaning "fire", "firebrand", "ember", being the legendary "Island of Fire" of the ancient traditions.

• The river Phison that, in the Biblical account of Paradise, encompassed Hevilat, closely recalls the River Oceanus that encircled Hades, according to Homer and Hesiod. It also recalls the circular canal which, according to Plato, also encircled the whole of Atlantis. In fact, some authorities identify the River Oceanus with the triple circular canals surrounding Atlantis. This idea is literally taken from the Hindu Dvipas ("Paradise-Islands"), which are similarly enclosed. Moreover, the idea of a river that surrounded Paradise — which, later, after its destruction, became the Realm of the Dead — is also of Indian origin, and dates from Vedic times. The Rig Veda and other Hindu traditions of high antiquity tell of the Vaitarani ("Encloser"), the river that surrounded the destroyed Paradise of the Asuras. As in the traditions of Atlantis reported by Plato, or in those of Paradise reported by other authorities, the Vaitarani formed an impassable barrier around this region.

• In the Bible, a legend related to the one of Avalon (see above) tells of Kadesh, also called Kadesh, the Holy (Kadesh Barnea). In Kadesh Barnea there was a lake or fountain that overflowed and flooded the whole region, destroying Paradise. Kadesh is no other than the Cades or Gades that, in Phoenician traditions is the alias of Atlantis. Kadesh (or Gades or Gadeiros) is also the name of Hercules, here identified with the twin brother of Hercules, and co-ruler of Atlantis. The name of Gadeiros is an epithet of Hercules that means, just as the name of the hero, "Cow-herder". This is a Phoenician translation of the name of Govinda (Krishna), the great god of the Hindus. The epithet commemorates the role of Hercules as the "cow-herder" that led the Greek people away from Atlantis, as we mentioned further above.

• Agastya is one of the most celebrated of Hindu rishis ("sages"). He was the son of Varuna, just as Atlas was the one of Poseidon. Poseidon, the oceanic God of the Greeks and the founder of Atlantis, is the counterpart of Varuna, the marine god of the Hindus. Agastya is the great Civilizing Hero of the Dravidas of South India, just as Atlas was the one of the Greeks. A celebrated Hindu myth tells how Agastya once humbled a lofty mountain that rose too high, disturbing the gods in heaven. Another Hindu myth tells how Agastya jumped into the Southern Sea and drowned, becoming a marine deity. The name of Agastya, in Sanskrit, means "the mountain that sunk (underseas)", precisely the idea conveyed by the myth of Atlantis. In other words, Agastya is a Hindu alias and predecessor of Atlas, the mountain that collapsed and sunk underseas, taking the realm of Atlantis with itself.

• Agastya is also as a personification of the star Canopus, the main one of the constellation Argonavis. The Argonavis is one of the most important constellations in the southern hemisphere. Its main star, Canopus, is second only to Sirius, its twin, which is the largest star in the whole sky. And the Southern Sea where Agastya-Canopus-Atlas drowned is the Indian Ocean, the eastern extension of the Atlantic Ocean of the ancients. Canopus was deemed an alias of either Hercules or Atlas, the twin kings of Atlantis represented by Sirius and Canopus, the two Celestial "dogs". So, as we see, the myth of the Argonavis, the one of Sirius and Canopus, and that of the quest of Paradise are indeed allegories of Atlantis-Paradise, and of its foundering in the dawn of times, when our sacred myths were composed.

• Moreover, Canopus was the (Southern) Pole Star of the epoch of Atlantis, some 12,000 years ago. This means that Canopus was indeed the "Pillar of Heaven" in the times of Atlantis, for the skies turned upon it as an axis or "pole". Indeed, certain icons of Atlas, such as the famous Farnesian marble, represent Atlas supporting the world precisely from the position of Canopus, in the Argonavis constellation. This fact confirms the identification Atlas = Canopus, the Pillar (or "Pole") of the Skies. Osiris too, and Agastya, and other personifications of Atlantis and of the star Canopus, were often identified with the "Pillar of Heaven". The myths of the Polynesians tell how they navigated by the star Canopus, the (southern) "Pole of the Skies" in those Atlantean times.

• Canopus and Osiris were later identified with the Canopic jars, where the mummified viscera of the dead were buried in Egypt. These Canopic jars, with their holes plugged with wax, were the equivalent of the "Magic Calabashes" that the Polynesians used in their stellar navigations to the distant isles of Paradise. The Magic Calabashes were indeed, as some researchers have recently found out, ingenious clepsydras, sextants and compasses used in the determinations required for Celestial navigation. Indeed, the word "Canopus" means "measuring device" in Greek, attesting its true function in Celestial navigation. This fact is further attested by the use of Canopic jars in casting oracles such as directions in the high seas. In this they resembled the "talking heads" with which the Canopic jars were usually topped. Their use in mummification — where they were said to guide the pharaoh in his return trip to Paradise — is again suggestive of the pristine role of Canopic jars as "Magic Calabashes", used in the Celestial navigation required for the return trip to Paradise.

• The superior technology of the Magic Calabashes of the Polynesians and the Canopic Jars of the Egyptians for Celestial navigation is clearly an Atlantean legacy, as so many. And the art of Celestial Navigation — kept secret for obvious reasons — was invented by the Atlanteans, according to tradition. It is the product of a superior technology which only the Atlanteans could have developed so early in time. The Egyptians, as the Polynesians, inherited it from Atlantis, and used them in their oceanic navigations to Paradise, that is, to Punt in ancient Egypt, and to Hawaiki in Polynesia. In both cases, this means Indonesia, the true site of Paradise, as all traditions tell us.

• Canopus was the pilot of the Argo ship, a role he still plays in the Celestial Ship represented by the Argonavis constellation. The Argonavis ("Ship Argos") was the ship of the Argonauts in their expedition in the quest of the Golden Fleece. And the Golden Fleece is an allegory of Eden, Avalon, Idun, and other such Paradises. There grew the Golden Apples which Diodorus explains as synonymous of the Golden Apples, for in Greek melon means both "apple" and "sheep". Moreover, the Golden Apples served for the fabrication of the Elixir of Life, the contents of the Holy Grail. Hence, all these quests of Paradise are indeed the one of the Elixir of Life and, more exactly, of Atlantis, its true name. Such is the reason why we all are so charmed with the search of this Paradise of which all traditions speak, from the dawn of times.

• The Celestial Ship of the Argonauts, the Argonavis, is represented in the skies as a sunken ship, in the very bottom of heaven. It is an allegory of sunken Atlantis, likewise lost in the bottom of the (Indian) Ocean. Canopus is often identified with Argus, and is identified with the pilot (or the admiral) of the Argonavis, so called in his honor. He is also said to have been the pilot of Osiris in his expedition to the Indies (Paradise!). Canopus was also the pilot of Menelaos, in his return trip from sunken Troy (Atlantis!).

• Other legends make of Canopus-Argus the co-ruler of Osiris in primordial Egypt. He ended by usurping Osiris' throne, and kidnapping Isis, the queen. But he was ultimately defeated and killed by the outraged king. All this is, indeed, but a confused, obscure copy of the plot of the Ramayana. And the primordial "Egypt" in question is no other than Lanka, "the Queen of the Waves". Golden, proud, invincible Lanka; Lanka, the Beautiful; Lanka, the Queen of the Waves; Lanka, the Bride of the King, was the true archetype of Atlantis and of the Celestial Jerusalem. Lanka was also Paradise, the birthplace of Humanity and Civilization, the true "Land of the Gods" of so many mythologies.

• According to Noel, the French mythologist, "Canopus" means "Island of Gold" in Egyptian. But that is precisely the meaning of the name of the Hindu Paradise, called Suvarna-Dvipa in Sanskrit. Suvarna-Dvipa was, as is so often the case, located in Indonesia, the true site of Eden. Canopus is also a name of Hercules in some traditions. And Hercules was Gadeiros, the twin brother and co-ruler with Atlas of the Atlantean empire. Again, the most diverse traditions concur to validate the equation Paradise = Eden = Atlantis = Indonesia.

To end this summary exegesis of several myths on Atlantis from many parts of the world, a concluding word seems in order. When we compare the above and other accounts, we see that they all concern a primordial Paradise where humanity and civilization first started. And it is clear that this Paradise is far more than a fable. We are fully convinced that anyone who studies our work in detail with an open mind and heart will not fail to be convinced that Atlantis was in fact the same as Eden or Paradise.

We also believe that the dedicated student will find that Plato only briefly lifted the hem of the veil of Isis, and that the Atlantean tradition was the subject matter of the ancient Mystery Religions. These mysteries passed into Judeo-Christianism in a highly distorted form, becoming a mere chimaera. But myths, the superb legacy of our elders, are founded on actual fact. And that fact is the reality of Atlantis and its ineluctable location in the now sunken plains of the South China Sea, in the region of Indonesia. There lies Paradise Lost, which can be reborn if only we dare to believe in its reality. The time is now, when Aquarius is already dawning.

And who is Aquarius, pray? He is the Golden Boy, of whom Virgil speaks in his famous IV Eclogue, perhaps the most superb of all prophecies of the Millennium. Virgil's poem starts with the (Latin) phrase: Iam redit et Virgo! ("See! The Virgin returns!"). Yes, Aquarius is both the Golden Boy and the Golden Girl, for he is the Androgyne. The fusion of the two sexes indeed represents the reunion of the twin Atlantises separated from each other from the dawn of times. But now, they again reunite, Lamb and Wolf, to enjoy the last thousand years yet alloted this age, and to cause the Golden Age to revive. Prophecies do come true only because they are self-fulfilling. They are the "personifications of desire", the egregoras and kamarupas that only exist if we believe in them. Too bad for those who dont, for we will not allow them to take Aquarius away from us.

Copyright © 1997 Nunes dos Santos, Webmaster: Bernardo de Pádua dos Santos.