The Labour of the Sun

Symbolic Analysis of the Current World Events

By Goro Adachi
February 15, 2002

Pillars of Hercules

The great philosopher Plato told us in his writings that there was once a great civilization called Atlantis -- an antediluvian 'island' -- that was situated beyond the 'Pillars of Hercules', now called the Strait of Gibraltar at the western extremity of the Mediterranean Sea. Supposedly, it was destroyed in a catastrophe comparable to that of the biblical Great Flood. True or not, this tale has fascinated many minds and spawned a countless number of books as well as a major Hollywood animation film, 'Atlantis', released just last year. The recent years saw a great surge in people's interest in the subject thanks largely to certain predictions made by the famous American 'Sleeping Prophet', Edgar Cayce many decades ago. While the track record of his predictions has not been stellar, his apparent psychic abilities demonstrated elsewhere warranted for many that his information about the 'resurrection' of Atlantis should be taken seriously.

The influential prophecy was that, basically, around the turn of the millennium, archaeological evidence of the lost civilization would surface along with the discovery of its 'Hall of Records' -- an Atlantean 'black box' -- that supposedly contains vital information about the world that came and went before ours. In Cayce's own confusing words:

Around the year 1998 certainly saw variously activities that were apparently attempts to 'fulfill' Cayce's prediction. Of course, no Atlantis resurrection occurred and most involved are now inclined, in an ad hoc fashion, to interpret Cayce's words as indicating that the rising of the Atlantis is to begin or be underway around 1998 -- which actually should have been the view all along in light of Cayce's nearly indecipherable wording.

Just as when the widespread millennial anticipation of some major earth-shaking events had largely faded, however, the year 2001 brought us the world-changing event of 9-11 in NYC and Washington DC. Certainly, this was one of the biggest events that the US had ever experienced. It made the proud and seemingly invincible nation stop laughing and curl itself into a survival mode - at least for a while. Of course, this event, however profound and shocking it was, was not anything related to the idle issue of some mythical world from beyond history.

Or, was it?

The most tangible geographical clue as to the position of Atlantis is the Pillars of Hercules. These can be conceived of as twin towers marking the Strait of Gibraltar, the narrow gate between the Mediterranean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean. The location is immediately north of the Atlas Mountains in northwestern Africa which has been identified with Hercules. This mountain range is also personified by Atlas in Greek mythology, the first king of Atlantis, who was condemned to support the sphere of heavens on his shoulders for eternity. And yet another alter ego of these is the air god of Egyptian mythology, Shu, who was visualized as a pillar connecting (or separating) earth and the sky. So, clearly, the notion of a tall pillar is deeply embedded here in association with Atlantis. Or more specifically, the idea being conveyed seems to be twin towers considering the twin Pillars of Hercules and the fact that Hercules himself was a twin (Robert Graves, The White Goddess, p.125). Further reinforcing this view are the Masonic 'Antediluvian Pillars' -- interchangeable with the two pillars of Jachin and Boaz --that are said to have come from the time before the Flood, or from 'Atlantis'. Since these Antediluvian Pillars (or Enoch's Pillars) were originally constructed for the purpose of preserving the knowledge of the pre-Flood realm, they are analogous to the Atlantean 'Hall of Records'. The Atlantean 'black box' and twin pillars are therefore clearly inseparable.

So, we are forced to wonder if the 9-11 destruction of the WTC twin towers are related to the anticipated millennial 'Atlantis event'.

The 11th Labour

It is a widely known fact that the 9-11 terrorist attacks were heavily intertwined, for some reason, with the number '11'. On the 11th day of the month, an airline jet designated 'Flight 11' crashed into one of the WTC twin towers which visually form the number '11', to give just some examples. So, it is intriguing to find out that, in Greek myth, it was during his '11th Labour', out of 12 Labours in all, that Hercules came to Mount Atlas. And his mission here was to fetch fruit from the golden apple-tree planted in Hera's garden on the slopes of the mountain. This he accomplished with the help of Atlas, freed temporarily from carrying the celestial globe while Hercules held it for him. That apples should figure in this particular Labour compounds the synchronicity as NYC, the city of the WTC towers, has the nickname the 'Big Apple'.

Interestingly, immediately after getting the apple, Hercules went on to free Prometheus chained to the Caucasus Mountains. Prometheus, the greatest benefactor of mankind, had been confined there by Zeus for stealing 'fire' for us -- which should sound familiar to those following the Salt Lake City Winter Olympics, the official slogan of which is 'Light the Fire Within' (and the theme of the grand opening ceremony was clearly Prometheus imparting divine fire to humans). This seemingly weak association actually gets a big boost from the fact that the 11th Labour involved an Olympic-like wrestling match between Hercules and Antaeus. In fact, the Olympic Games have been thought to signify the death and 'election' of none other than Hercules.

The indications are that the U.S. Olympic Games' close proximity in space and time to the 9-11 twin-tower destruction has some important underlying symbolic 'message' -- and we will have some insights into this below.

'King of Terror'

According to mythologist Robert Graves, "'Hercules in Classical Greece became in fact another name for the Sun...the Sun and the Ark are, indeed, the most important elements of the Hercules myth" (ibid., pp.133,145). The Ark connection certainly correlates well with what was discussed in my previous article 'Mystery, Babylon the Great'. The sun connection, on the other hand, contributes to a remarkable associative web that provides a solution to one of those mysterious pieces of the 'puzzle'.

For a long time, people all over the world have been trying to figure out the meaning of the phrase, 'King of terror', that appears in Nostradamus' most famous prophetic quatrain, designated X-72. This is, of course, the dreaded '1999' prediction.

Century X-72
L'an mil neuf cens nonante neuf sept mois,
Du ciel viendra vn grand Roy d'effrayeur:
Resusciter le grand Roy d'Angolmois,
Auant apres Mars regner par bon-heur.
The year 1999 seven months,
From the sky will come a great King of terror:
To bring back to life the great King of Angolmois,
Before after Mars to reign by good luck

Popular interpretations of this were that it predicted a rock from space hitting the earth, a nuclear attack, the coming of the 'Antichrist', and such. People -- including most of the so-called "experts" (more accurately, 'Nosta-dumbasses') -- sure had fun with those simplistic views, until the year 1999 came and went without anything of such magnitude occurring.

Did Nostradamus 'miss' with this quatrain? Should Nostradamus be considered a discredited "prophet"?

Frankly, he might as well be disregarded. It's about time those one-dimensional thinking Nostradumbasses got a wake-up call and be disenchanted. This is not to say that there isn't a prophetic quality to the quatrains -- just not in the form, or level, that most people automatically assume. My personal position is this: everything is "prophetic" (i.e. 'signs are everywhere if you have the eyes to see'); this quality is pronounced when the element of creativity is involved; and since poems are the result of a very creative mental process, quatrains of Nostradamus should easily contain seeds of the future, even if he wasn't a "prophet" per se. There is a deep, multifaceted philosophy behind this view, but we will not go into that here.

Ironically, interest in Nostradamus was resurrected with a vengeance immediately following '9-11'. For weeks, if not months, after the event, Nostradamus books were the fastest selling items in book stores, including Amazon.com which listed as many as five Nosty books in its top-10 sellers. Even my website became inaccessible for days because it was getting just too many hits. The cause of the frantic public reaction was to be traced back to, of course, fake quatrains. Most notably, there was one quatrain that got a lot of attention which turned out to be something a skeptic made up (before 9-11) to demonstrate that a vaguely worded prediction would fit some events sooner or later. This person's 'poem' would quickly prove to describe the terrorist attacks rather neatly (thus making his point), but I personally see it as an amusing example how a poeticized brain with room for spontaneity tends to resonate with the 'future', even if not consciously intended.

The '9-11' event, in my view, also 'resurrected', specifically, Quatrain X-72. It now makes a good, poetic/symbolic sense from many angles.

It turns out that the 'King of terror' is an epithet related to Ra, the sun-god of Egyptian mythology who is called the 'lord of terror' in the Pyramid Texts. Since the sun is closely associated with Hercules, who in turn is linked to Atlantis and the WTC-tower destruction, we have here the first sign of X-72's relevance. And of course the fact that the 'King of terror' is to come "from the sky" evokes the 'kamikaze' airplanes, masterminded by the 'king of terrorists' (Osama bin Ladin), that assaulted the twin towers. It may also be noted that 'airplanes' are a potent metaphor for Shu, the god of air, i.e. the 'air plane' (air dimension). Shu is none other than the pillar equatable with the Atlantean/Herculean pillars, thus relatable also to, again, the WTC twin towers.

Line 3, 'To bring back to life the great King of Angolmois', reinforces the connection because in the early days of the New World, the region of NYC was given the name  'Angoulême'. The attached notion of resurrection is also fitting as it relates to the idea of the millennial Atlantean 'resurrection', and it conjures up Osiris, the Egyptian god of the dead and resurrection. It may be said that Osiris embodies the 'second coming' of the paradisical antediluvian golden age, i.e. 'Atlantis', which in the terminology of ancient Egypt would be called Zep Tepi, the 'First Time', which was the Age of Osiris. In a way, the whole ancient Egyptian theology was centered around the idea of Osirian resurrection - the cyclical return of the golden age, symbolized in nature by the annual flooding of the Nile which brought the gift of fertile silt to the land of Egypt. Amazingly, this association is corroborated by Line 2's 'King of terror'. Like Ra, Osiris is viewed as the 'Lord of Terror' in the Egyptian Book of the Dead:

"Hail, Lord of Terror..."
Who is this Lord of Terror?
"...It is the Heart of Osiris..."

The fact that the Great Sphinx at Giza has the Arabic epithet, 'Father of Terrors', reiterates the Osirian connection, especially considering that the Sphinx is a form of Horus, the son of Osiris, whose life-mission is to bring back the 'First Time' of Osiris, or to resurrect his father murdered by Seth.

The Great Sphinx/'Father of Terrors' and Horus also happen to be closely associated, if not equated, with Mars which was called 'Horus of Horizon' as well as 'Horus the Red'. We also know that the name of the Egyptian capital adjacent to Giza, 'Cairo', denotes 'Mars'. And on Mars are purported artificial "monuments" at Cydonia which includes the famous 'Face on Mars'. This 'Face' was rephotographed in 2001 by Mars Global Surveyor and was revealed/confirmed to have, apparently, a dual nature: its eastern side is leonine and its western hominid. Note that the lion-man combination directly reflects the duality of the Great Sphinx that has a lion's body and man's head. The connection is even geodetically supported, as researchers have found that the tangent of Cydonia's latitude equals the cosine of the latitude of Giza/Sphinx (both equaling e/pi).

The striking revelation here is that the latitude of Cydonia, ~40.8 N, directly relates to the WTC destruction in NYC, in that, simply put, NYC sits on the very same latitude! And relevant here also is the fact that Cairo, the 'city of Mars', was originally called 'Babylon'. In my previous article, 'Mystery, Babylon the Great', I identified NYC as the modern Babylon and its twin towers as the modern version of the Tower of Babel. Clearly, then, Mars is a 'King of terror' -- which, come to think of it, is very natural in view of the fact the Red Planet is indeed metaphorically the 'king' of the two Martian satellites Phobos ('fear') and Deimos ('terror').

The multi-layered connection is rather overwhelming, and sure enough, this is echoed by X-72's Line 4 which specially mentions Mars: 'Before after Mars to reign by good luck'. Mars being the Greek god of war, the line also hints at the involvement of war, thus is nicely relatable to America's on-going 'war against terror'

This leaves us only Line 1: 'The year 1999 seven months'. Obviously, the indicated timing does not match the 9-11-2001 date. What does this mean? Saying 'close enough', for me, just does not cut it.

The 2-Year Offset Scheme

This problem perplexed me for a long time. But rather than forcing a contrived interpretation upon it, I decided to just patiently wait for the answer to make itself known to me (and I felt quite confident that I would get the answer sooner or later). It was on February 7 (2002) that the answer finally began to appear, thanks to an article by Robert Bauval (the brain behind the Orion Correlation Theory) posted on a online message board. It was titled "SATAN’S CALLING CARD SEPTEMBER 11: A DATE TO REMEMBER" and discussed the symbolism and synchronicity involved in the '9-11' event.

It contained information concerning calendrical issues related to the date, September 11. I learned that ,for the Ethiopian and Coptic/Christian-Egyptian calendars, the Gregorian Sept. 11 almost always marks the New Year's Day. In the year 1999, however, Sept. 11 also coincided with the Jewish New Year, known as Rosh Hashanah. So, here is our first clue as to the connection between 9-11 and 1999. Bauval then goes on to point out that:

...the Jewish ‘New Year’ has a much deeper meaning to orthodox Jews. It is associated to the Messianic Age, and many Jews today actually believe that it will be on that ‘Feast of Trumpets’ that their long awaited Messiah will come and make his appearance on the ‘Temple’ at Jerusalem. This day, it is said, will be the ‘ultimate redemption’ of Israel. Curiously, in recent years fundamental Christians have also associated the 11th September with the Second Coming of Christ, probably to conform with the ‘Rosh Hashanah’ Judaic prophecies but also, apparently, because some believe the true ‘star of Bethlehem’ appeared to the Magi on the 11th September 3 BC in the east, when a bright light was seen at the conjunction of the ‘star of kings’, Regulus, and the ‘planet of kings’, Jupiter, and when the sun, Venus and Mercury were in Virgo.

This is remarkable for two reasons. First, the notion of the 'Second Coming' of Jesus emerging here correlates perfectly with the permeating theme of Osirian (Atlantean) resurrection since Jesus is a version of Osiris (as well as Horus). This is backed up by the fact that many of Jesus' tales and symbols very closely mimic Osiris', just as Moses' birth episode is a mirror image of that of Sargon the Great. Indeed, the Jesus-Osiris connection is reinforced by another comment made by Bauval:

The ‘Beginning of the Year’ or New Year’s Day of the Egyptians was marked by the first dawn rising of Sirius, a star sacred to the goddess Isis, which originally occurred on the day of the summer solstice i.e. on the 21st June Gregorian. This special day was called 1st day of the 1st month of Thoth. But because of the ¼ day difference as well as a small variance the sidereal year and the tropical year, this after all man-made calendar slowly ‘drifted’ away from both the heliacal rising of Sirius and the summer solstice, such that by the early Christian times the 1st of the month of Thoth had drifted to the 11th September Gregorian, which is why the Egyptian-Coptic ‘New Year’ i.e. 1st of Thoth, starts on that date.

Sirius-Isis is the wife of Osiris, and the star's heliacal rising not only marked the New Year but also the beginning of the Nile inundation, which in turn symbolized the reawakened vitality of Osiris, i.e. Osirian resurrection.

The second reason has to do with the speculative date given for the star of Bethlehem, i.e. Jesus' birthday, Sept. 11, 3 BC. This would make the Gregorian calendar 2 to 3 years behind the actual dating from Jesus' birth. So, the Gregorian "year 1999" would correspond to year 2001/2002. The date 9-11-01 would, therefore, be analogous to 9-11-99! Let's take another look at Line 1 of Quatrain X-72:

L'an mil neuf cens nonante neuf sept mois
The year 1999 seven months

Note that 'seven months', or 'seventh month', is originally written 'sept mois'. Its resemblance to 'September' is no coincidence as September was originally the seventh month. So, the line could just as easily and validly translated as 'the year 1999, September'. Combined with the 1999-2001 calendrical correspondence, it would further turn into 'the year 2001, September'. And we know what happened on 9-11-01 and how the event is very effectively described by the rest of the quatrain!

But there is more.

Black Sun, Double Sun

'The year 1999 seven months', if taken literally, points to July/August of that year. Curiously, on August 11, 1999, there was a major total eclipse. It turns out that this, too, strongly resonates with the Osirian resurrection theme. Osiris' death is traditionally associated with a black sun, and the death of his Christianized version, Jesus, is similarly associated with a darkened sun in the Gospels. Needless to say, a total eclipse is in effect a 'black sun'. And, of course, the relevance of the sun is quite directly suggested by Line 2's 'King/Lord of terror' being an epithet of the sun/Ra/Osiris. In a sense, then, the 1999 eclipse was a symbolic omen foreshadowing the more physical manifestation of the death/resurrection of Osiris that was to come on 9-11-01.

The Great Sphinx, the 'Father of Terrors', is also an embodiment of the sun/Horus. Here, we actually find another confirmation of the 2-year offset scheme of X-72. Sphinxes are almost always found in pairs (the one at Giza is a rare exception). This is echoed by the fact that the Sphinx is a form of Atum who in turn is closely connected with Rwty, the 'double-lion'. The double-lion, Aker, also guards the Fifth Division of the Duat, the 'Tomb of Osiris'. Now, in view of the Sphinx/lion-sun interchangeability, the 'double-lion' may be rephrased as 'double-sun'. The sun goes through all the Zodiacal constellations of the ecliptic in one year. So, the expression 'double-sun' may be interpreted as 'two years'. And 1999 plus two years gives us 2001. (Come to think of it, the 'twin' nature of Hercules/sun and the Atlantean/WTC towers has the same implication as well.)

The notion of the 'double sun' next brings our attention to another quatrain, II-41. This is one of the few quatrains that I have found to be relevant to our own time, as can be seen from my previous articles. It specifically mentions 'double sun' (Line 2).

Century II - 41 
La grand' estoille par sept jours bruslera,
Nuee fera deux soleils apparoir:
Le gros mastin toute nuit hurlera,
Quand grand pontife changera de terroir.
The great star will burn for seven days,
The cloud will make double sun appear:
The large mastiff will howl all night
When the great pontiff changes his abode.

What catches our attention here, aside from Line 2, is the reference to the Pope in Line 4. Could it be just a coincidence that the current pope, John Pope II, is called 'De Labore Solis' in St Malachy's remarkably accurate prophetic list of popes from many centuries ago? The Latin motto, De Labore Solis, means 'From the Labour of the Sun', or metaphorically, 'of the Eclipse of the Sun'! Although Pope JPII was indeed born during the solar eclipse of May 18, 1920 (!), the allusion to an solar eclipse/'black sun' here is an amazing confirmation of the foregoing interpretation which centers around Osiris and Hercules. Wait a minute... 'labour of the sun'? Did we not just establish that Hercules personifies the sun and how his (11th) labour relates to the current world events? The 'labour of the sun', in other words, denotes 'Labour of Hercules' so as to confirm our earlier interpretation!

The new and important twist here is the fact that II-41's Line 4 refers to a change of papacy. In other words, we have here a strong indication that the reign of the 'eclipse pope', John Paul II, is coming to an end... soon. But how 'soon'? All the symbolism seemingly suggest that it is to occur concurrently with the unrest caused by the '9-11' terror. In fact, the Salt Lake City Olympics would be an effective time marker for the pope event. This is because 'the Olympic Games were the occasion of... Hercules' death and of the election of his successor' (Graves, The White Goddess, p.132). In light of the inseparable link established between Pope JPII and Hercules, the occasion of the election of the next Hercules signified by the Olympics inevitably implies the election of the next pope! While I cannot say for sure whether the timing of the two events will directly coincide or it will interact in a more indirect fashion, the next major world event is likely to be the exit of Pope John Paul II. And my view is that the election of the next pope will be very strange, not unlike the 2001 US presidential election, as discussed in my Two Suns of Election MM article.

These findings above are really just a by-product of my 'other' research, so I actually have a lot more information that can help paint a clearer 'big picture'. And I hope to share the 'other' findings on this website some time in the future. In the mean time, you can look for more future updates on the issues discussed in this and previous articles.

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Atlántida

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Para otros usos de este término, véase Atlántida (desambiguación).

Atlántida (en griego antiguo Ατλαντίς νῆσος, Atlantís nēsos, ‘isla de Atlas’) es el nombre de una isla mítica^[1] mencionada y descrita en los diálogos Timeo y Critias, textos del filósofo griego Platón.

Los escritos de Platón sitúan la isla «delante de las Columnas de Hércules»;^[2] la describen como «más grande que Libia y Asia juntas»,^[2] y la señalan como una potencia marítima que 9000 años antes de la época del legislador ateniense Solón habría conquistado gran parte de Europa y el norte de África, siendo sólo detenida por una hipotética Atenas prehelénica, después de lo cual habría desaparecido en el mar posiblemente a causa de un violento terremoto y de un gran diluvio, «en un solo día y una noche terribles»^[3] ,aunque esto no esta muy claro

La descripción de los textos de Platón y el hecho de que en ellos parece narrarse una historia verdadera, ha llevado a que, especialmente a partir de la segunda mitad del siglo XIX, durante el Romanticismo, se hayan propuesto numerosas conjeturas sobre la existencia y real ubicación de la isla. No obstante, hoy se sabe que el relato presenta anacronismos y datos imposibles, lo que descartaría su verosimilitud literal. Con todo, se admite la posibilidad de que el mito haya sido inspirado en un fondo de realidad histórica vinculado a alguna catástrofe natural.

Mapa de Athanasius Kircher mostrando una supuesta ubicación de la Atlántida. (Mundus Subterraneus, 1669).

 

Índice

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Relato de Platón[editar]

Artículos principales: Timeo (diálogo) y Critias (diálogo).

Timeo y Critias[editar]

Las fuentes del relato de la Atlántida son el Timeo y el Critias, textos en diálogos del filósofo griego Platón. En ellos, Critias, discípulo de Sócrates, cuenta una historia que de niño escuchó de su abuelo y que éste, a su vez, supo de Solón, el venerado legislador ateniense, a quien se la habían contado sacerdotes egipcios en Sais, ciudad del delta del Nilo. La historia, que Critias afirma verdadera,^[4] se remonta en el tiempo a nueve mil años antes de la época de Solón,^[5] para narrar cómo los atenienses detuvieron el avance del imperio de los atlantes, belicosos habitantes de una gran isla llamada Atlántida, situada más allá de las Columnas de Hércules y que, al poco tiempo de la victoria ateniense, desapareció en el mar a causa de un violento terremoto y de un gran diluvio.^[6]

En el Timeo, Critias habla de la Atlántida en el contexto de un debate acerca de la sociedad ideal. Cuenta cómo llegó a enterarse de la historia y cómo fue que Solón la escuchó de los sacerdotes egipcios. Refiere la ubicación de la isla y la extensión de sus dominios en el mar Mediterráneo, la heroica victoria de los atenienses y, finalmente, cómo fue que el país de los atlantes se perdió en el mar. En el Critias, el relato se centra en la historia, geografía, organización y gobierno de la Atlántida, para luego comenzar a narrar cómo fue que los dioses decidieron castigar a los atlantes por su soberbia, momento en el que el relato se interrumpe abruptamente, quedando la historia inconclusa.

Descripción de la isla[editar]

Los textos de Platón señalan la geografía de la Atlántida como escarpada, a excepción de una gran llanura de forma oblonga de 3000 por 2000 estadios, rodeada de montañas hasta el mar.^[7] A mitad de la longitud de la llanura, el relato ubica una montaña baja de todas partes, distante 50 estadios del mar, destacando que fue el hogar de uno de los primeros habitantes de la isla, Evenor, nacido del suelo.^[8]

Según el Critias, Evenor tuvo una hija llamada Clito. Cuenta este escrito que Poseidón era el amo y señor de las tierras atlantes, puesto que, cuando los dioses se habían repartido el mundo, la suerte había querido que a Poseidón le correspondiera, entre otros lugares, la Atlántida. He aquí la razón de su gran influencia en esta isla. Este dios se enamoró de Clito y para protegerla, o mantenerla cautiva, creó tres anillos de agua en torno de la montaña que habitaba su amada.^[9] La pareja tuvo diez hijos, para los cuales el dios dividió la isla en respectivos diez reinos. Al hijo mayor, Atlas o Atlante, le entregó el reino que comprendía la montaña rodeada de círculos de agua, dándole, además, autoridad sobre sus hermanos. En honor a Atlas, la isla entera fue llamada Atlántida y el mar que la circundaba, Atlántico.^[10] Su hermano gemelo se llamaba Gadiro (Eumelo en griego) y gobernaba el extremo de la isla que se extendía desde las Columnas de Hércules hasta la región que por derivación de su nombre se denominaba Gadírica.^[11]

Favorecida por Poseidón, la isla de Atlántida era abundante en recursos. Había toda clase de minerales, destacando el oricalco (cobre de montaña) más valioso que el oro para los atlantes y con usos religiosos (se especula que el relato hace referencia a una aleación natural del cobre). También había grandes bosques que proporcionaban ilimitada madera; numerosos animales, domésticos y salvajes, especialmente elefantes; copiosos y variados alimentos provenientes de la tierra.^[12]

Tal prosperidad dio a los atlantes el impulso para construir grandes obras. Edificaron sobre la montaña rodeada de círculos de agua una espléndida acrópolis^[13] plena de notables edificios, entre los que destacaban el Palacio Real y el templo de Poseidón.^[14] Construyeron un gran canal, de 50 estadios de longitud, para comunicar la costa con el anillo de agua exterior que rodeaba la metrópolis; y otro menor y cubierto, para conectar el anillo exterior con la ciudadela.^[15] Cada viaje hacia la ciudad era vigilado desde puertas y torres, y cada anillo estaba rodeado por un muro. Los muros estaban hechos de roca roja, blanca y negra sacada de los fosos, y recubiertos de latón, estaño y oricalco. Finalmente, cavaron, alrededor de la llanura oblonga, una gigantesca fosa a partir de la cual crearon una red de canales rectos que irrigaban todo el territorio de la planicie.^[16]

Caída del imperio atlante[editar]

La caída de la Atlántida, por Monsù Desiderio (s. XVII).

Los reinos de la Atlántida formaban una confederación gobernada a través de leyes, las cuales se encontraban escritas en una columna de oricalco, en el Templo de Poseidón.^[17] Las principales leyes eran aquellas que disponían que los distintos reyes debían ayudarse mutuamente, no atacarse unos a otros y tomar las decisiones concernientes a la guerra, y otras actividades comunes, por consenso y bajo la dirección de la estirpe de Atlas.^[18] Alternadamente, cada cinco y seis años, los reyes se reunían para tomar acuerdos y para juzgar y sancionar a quienes de entre ellos habían incumplido las normas que los vinculaban.^[17]

La justicia y la virtud eran propios del gobierno de la Atlántida, pero cuando la naturaleza divina de los reyes descendientes de Poseidón se vio disminuida, la soberbia y las ansias de dominación se volvieron características de los atlantes.^[19] Según el Timeo, comenzaron una política de expansión que los llevó a controlar los pueblos de Libia hasta Egipto y de Europa, hasta Tirrenia. Cuando trataron de someter a Grecia y Egipto, fueron derrotados por los atenienses.^[20]

El Critias señala que los dioses decidieron castigar a los atlantes por su soberbia, pero el relato se interrumpe en el momento en que Zeus y los demás dioses se reúnen para determinar la sanción.^[21] Sin embargo, habitualmente se suele asumir que el castigo fue un gran terremoto y una subsiguiente inundación que hizo desaparecer la isla en el mar, "en un día y una noche terribles", según señala el diálogo en Timeo.^[22]

Recepción del relato de Platón hasta nuestros días[editar]

En la Antigüedad[editar]

Se conservan algunos párrafos de escritores antiguos que aluden a los escritos de Platón sobre la Atlántida. Estrabón, en el siglo I a. C., parece compartir la opinión de Posidonio (c. 135-51 a. C.) acerca de que el relato de Platón no era una ficción.^[23] Un siglo más tarde, Plinio el Viejo nos señala en su Historia Natural que, de dar crédito a Platón, deberíamos asumir que el océano Atlántico se llevó en el pasado extensas tierras.^[24] Por su parte, Plutarco, en el siglo II, nos informa de los nombres de los sacerdotes egipcios que habrían relatado a Solón la historia de la Atlántida: Sonkhis de Sais y Psenophis de Heliópolis.^[25] Finalmente, en el siglo V, comentando el Timeo, Proclo refiere que Crantor (aprox. 340-290 a. C.), filósofo de la Academia platónica, viajó a Egipto y pudo ver las estelas en que se hallaba escrito el relato que escuchó Solón.^[26] Otros autores antiguos y bizantinos como Teopompo,^[27] Plinio,^[28] Diodoro Sículo,^[29] Claudio Eliano^[30] y Eustacio,^[31] entre otros, también hablan sobre la Atlántida, o los atlantes, o sobre una ignota civilización atlántica.

En el Renacimiento[editar]

Si bien conocida, durante la Edad Media la historia de la Atlántida no llamó mayormente la atención. En el Renacimiento, la leyenda fue recuperada por los humanistas, quienes la asumirán unas veces como vestigio de una sabiduría geográfica olvidada y otras, como símbolo de un porvenir utópico. El escritor mexicano Alfonso Reyes Ochoa afirma que la Atlántida, así resucitada por los humanistas, trabajó por el descubrimiento de América.^[32] Francisco López de Gómara en su Historia General de las Indias, de 1552, afirma que Colón pudo haber estado influido por la leyenda atlántida y ve en voz náhuatl atl (agua) un indicio de vínculo entre aztecas y atlantes.^[33] Durante los siglos XVI y XVII, varias islas (Azores, Canarias, Antillas, etc.) figuraron en los mapas como restos del continente perdido. En 1626, el filósofo inglés Francis Bacon pública La Nueva Atlántida (The New Atlantis), utopía en pro de un mundo basado en los principios de la razón y el progreso científico y técnico. En España, en 1673, el cronista José Pellicer de Ossau identifica la Atlántida con la península Ibérica, asociando a los atlantes con los misteriosos tartesios.^[34]

Mapa del imperio atlante. De Atlantis: The Antediluvian World, de Ignatius Donnelly, 1882.

Obra de Ignatius Donnelly[editar]

No será hasta la segunda mitad del siglo XIX, que la historia de la Atlántida adquiera la fascinación que provoca hasta hoy en día. En 1869, Julio Verne escribe Veinte mil leguas de viaje submarino, novela que en su capítulo IX describe un encuentro de los protagonistas con los restos de una sumergida Atlántida. Tiempo después, en 1883, Ignatius Donnelly, congresista norteamericano, pública Atlántida: El Mundo Antediluviano (Atlantis: The Antediluvian World). En dicha obra, Donnelly, a partir de las semejanzas que aprecia entre las culturas egipcia y mesoamericana, hace converger, de modo muchas veces caprichoso, una serie de antecedentes y observaciones que lo llevan a concluir que hubo una región, desaparecida, que fue el origen de toda civilización humana (véase difusionismo) y cuyo eco habría perdurado en la leyenda de la Atlántida. El libro de Donnelly tuvo gran acogida de público (fue reeditado hasta 1976), en una época en que el avance de la ciencia permitía a su hipótesis aparecer seductoramente verosímil. Tanto fue así, que el gobierno británico organizó una expedición a las islas Azores, lugar donde el escritor situaba la Atlántida.^[35]

La Atlántida después de Donnelly, hipótesis sobre la Atlántida en la actualidad[editar]

Artículo principal: Hipótesis sobre la Atlántida

Las conjeturas que postulaban la existencia de la Atlántida como el «continente perdido» fueron invalidadas por la comprobación del fenómeno de la deriva continental durante los años 1950. Por ello, algunas de las hipótesis modernas proponen que algunos de los elementos de la historia de Platón se derivan de mitos anteriores o se refieren a lugares ya conocidos.

Atlántida esotérica[editar]

El éxito de Donnelly motivó a los autores más diversos a plantear sus propias teorías. En 1888, la ocultista Madame Blavatsky publicó La Doctrina Secreta. Allí aludía al El Libro de Dzyan un supuesto documento tibetano cuyo origen remoto estaría en la Atlántida. Según Blavatsky, los atlantes habrían sido una raza de humanos anterior a la nuestra, cuya civilización habría alcanzado un notable desarrollo científico y espiritual.

En 1938, el jerarca nazi Heinrich Himmler organizó, en el contexto del misticismo nacionalsocialista, una serie de expediciones a distintos lugares del mundo en busca de los antepasados atlantes de la raza aria.

 

http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atl%C3%A1ntida