Atlantis

" When the great gods divided the Cosmos between them, Poseidon the Lord of the Ocean took possession of a chain of islands stretching from Spain to central America. The largest of these islands was as big as the whole of Asia Minor.

When Poseidon inspected his new domain he found the islands to be more beautiful than anywhere else in the world. Every leaf on every tree glistened as brilliantly as an emerald, and the rolling pasturelands were as sleek and green as the waves of a summer sea. The flowers were so richly scented that they made the warm air as intoxicating as wine. Great herds of tame cattle grazed the pastures, the water in the streams was as clear as crystal and as fragrant as clover, while the hillsides shone with veins of white, black, and red marble and with deposits of every kind of precious metal.
The great god discovered that the people of the islands were singularly handsome and intelligent, but so newly created that they had no leaders or social organisation. They had not even given a name to their island home.

As Poseidon explored the land he came to a hill rising from the very center of the largest island, and he climbed through its flowering forests until, close to summit, he found the abode of the most beautiful woman he had ever seen. She told him her name was Cleito. The dazzling glance of her sea-blue eyes, and the sumptuous beauty of her face and form, aroused such lust in the potent deity that he conquered her without delay. She responded ardently to his power and splendour and in due course bore him ten fine sons. They named the firstborn Atlas, and Poseidon named the islands and the surrounding ocean in honour of his son. They became Atlantis while the oceanis the Atlantic.

Poseidon is the most violent and most jealous of the gods, distrustful of all mortals including Cleito, and so he isolated her upon her hill by digging three great moats around it. Each was about a kilometre wide, and separated from the others by a circle of land of the same width. Thus the Hill of Cleito was surrounded by great concentric circles of land and water. When Poseidon's ten sons grew to maturity he made them all into kings, each with responsibility for one-tenth of Atlantis. Under his orders they formed themselves into a council, led by Atlas, to rule the nation for the benefit of all its people. The Atlanteans were so vigorous and intelligent, so adept at developing their arts and technology and so industrious in exploiting the resources of the islands, that they soon established the world's first and finest civilisation.

With Poseidon's permission, and under the guidance of the ten kings, they built a magnificent city upon the circles of earth surrounding the Hill of Cleito. Atlantean architects used the red, black and white marble of their county to design buildings of dazzling splendour, with the three colours artfully blended or contrasted to attract and please the eye.
On the hill of Cleito they built her a great palace, and this together with the palaces of the ten kings and the temple of Poseidon all blazed with inlays of gold and precious stones.

The principle temple to Poseidon was the wonder of all the world. The pinnacled roof was so high that clouds drifted around its spires, and it contained an enormous image of Poseidon riding in his chariot attended by sea nymphs and dolphins. The unique beauty of the city, on its circles of land linked by great bridges across the circles of water, was further enhanced by brilliant gardens, groves of flowering trees, and innumerable sparkling fountains.
Great universities, observatories, libraries, laboratories and academies for people of all ages showed that Atlantis was the well-spring of human arts and sciences.
Portions of the city were devoted to commerce and industry, because the Atlanteans used the discoveries of their scientists and technologists as the basis of a flourishing trade with other nations. They dug a great canal from the city to the sea, so that ships could sail right up to the water-circles and pass from one to another by tunnels dug through the land-circles.

Visitors to the city wrote enthusiastically of its beautiful women and handsome men; of the freedom they enjoyed under the laws of the ten kings; of the skilled craftsmen who wrought in base and precious metals, and of fresh sea breezes which cleared the smoke of their foundries from the air; of the busy markets where countryfolk sold the rich and colourful produce of their farms; and of the frequent festivals which brought throngs of Atlanteans singing and dancing into the streets. The greatest of these festivals was staged once every five years, when the ten kings assembled in Poseidon's temple for their quinquennial parliament.
While they deliberated, stockmen drove a number of splendid bulls in from the outlying ranches and corralled them within the temple grounds. Great crowds assembled to admire these monstrous animals with their sleek hides and sword-like crescent horns, while warriors and nobleman prepared for the bull-hunt.
When the parliament was over, the bulls were released and the hunters chased them barehanded through the temple grounds, dodging their charges as they attempted to seize one and throw it to the ground. At last a group of hunters would manage to corner a bull and wrestle it to the ground, and the animal was then sacrificed to the glory of Poseidon. The other bulls were taken back to their ranches and the festival concluded with a great public banquet.

The scientists and technocrats of Atlantis were not jealous of their skills and learning. They acted as industrial missionaries who spread their knowledge all over the known world. They taught the Egyptians and the Mayans how to build pyramids and the Greeks how to construct Atlantes, the sculptured figures of males which support the architraves of temples and other buildings. They spread their knowledge of metallurgy, astronomy, medicine, magnetism, and many other arts and sciences, wherever the ships of Atlantis could sail. They invented reading and writing, mathematics, agriculture, architecture, and all the concepts of human civilisation.

It was rumoured also that Atlantean scientists expected to discover the mystic force which powers the Cosmos, and that when they had harnessed this force there would be no limit to human achievements.

For many centuries, Atlantis was the center of the world.
The peace and security of the nation were protected by a great army and navy, too strong to be challenged by any other country, and the Atlanteans enjoyed long contented lives of achievement and prosperity. But, about 1200 centuries ago, the parliament of the the Ten Kings began to alter its attitude towards the outside world. In one of the quinquennial parliaments, the kings decided that it was not enough for the Atlanteans to spread their civilisation far and wide. Those who benefited from the Atlantean technocracy should also become its subjects and pay tribute to their imperial masters.
Thus the Atlanteans embarked upon the conquest of the world. their ships took expeditionary forces to Central and South America, where they overwhelmed the Incas, Aztecs, and Mayas and sent rich booty back to Atlantis. Another force conquered the whole of North Africa, and regrouped in Egypt so that they might invade Greece and then sweep eastwards through the kingdoms of Asia.

In about 9500 BC, a great Atlantean invasion fleet sailed into the bat of Athens, where a vastly outmubered force of Athenians waited to resist them. When the two armies clashed the arrows flew in such clouds that they darkened the sky, the hooves of the chariot horses were like thunder upon Olympus, the brazen armour of the Atlanteans dazzled the eye and their spearheads seemed as multitudinous as wheat growing in a field.
But the Athenians fought desperately in defence of their city-state and at last the massed batalions of Atlantis faltered, fell back, and turned in headlong retreat towards their ships.

The Atlantean fleet was about to set sail when the whole sky turned the colour of dry blood, and a mass of black clouds swept across it with such a dreadful sound as had never been heard before. The seas rose in gigantic waves which swallowed the entire fleet, while the whole world reverberated with earthquakes and the ocean roared and rushed from one sea to another like water swilling around in an immense bowl. For days on end it seemed the whole Cosmos would fly apart. The skies deluged the earth with water, the mountains shuddered and cracked apart, the oceans were a torment of monstrous waves.
When at last the seas became calm again a few battered ships crept into port. They brought the news that Atlantis had disappeared, and that the Atlantic Ocean rolled over the place where this magnificent empire once flourished in all its glory.

Ever since those days, historians have debated the reason why Atlantis was obliterated. Some say that Poseidon was angered by the Athenian victory, and punished his people with total destruction. Others say that an Atlantean scientist had discovered the forbidden secrets of the Cosmos, and released the forces which may eventually destroy the whole of mankind