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Difficulties With Dates However, here I have to say that I personally wonder if any part of Atlantis was still in existence during the time of the Aztecs or even their ancestors, the Maya and Olmecs, since they are now believed to have first come upon the scene around 2,000 - 1,500 BC, and the last remnants of Atlantis are claimed by Plato to have sunk in 9,600 BC! I feel that here we may really be looking at a bearded European, quite possibly from Ireland or Britain, according to his description! We know that both the Welsh and Saint Brendan are reputed to have sailed to Central America, as well as other northern people, such as the Vikings from Scandinavia, long before the advent of Columbus. Thus it’s possible that Queltzalcoatl (who is the Kuculcan of the Toltecs, and the Gucumatz of the Maya, but still the “Feathered Serpent” to them all) might possibly have been white-bearded man from northern Europe, (like the Viracocha of the Inca), who taught them the arts of agriculture, science, numbers, and the idea of the calendar. According to Donnelly, the Olmecs and the Xicalaucans were the most important, since they were the forerunners of the Toltecs in Mexico, and “they came from the East in ships or barks to the land of Pochantan, which they proceeded to populate.” Furthermore, according to his introduction of a translation of the “Popol Vuh” by the Abbe Brasseur de Bourburg, (who also translated the Aztec “Codex Chimalpopoca”), both the kingdom of Xibalba and Atlantis itself bore striking parallels: “both countries are magnificently fertile, and abound in the precious metals. The empire of Atlantis was divided into ten kingdoms, governed by five couples of twin sons of Poseidon, the eldest (Atlas) being supreme over the others; and the ten constituted a tribunal that managed the affairs of the empire. Their descendants governed after them. The ten kings of Xibalba*, who reigned (also in couples) under Hun-Came and Vikub-Came (and who together constituted a grand council of the kingdom), certainly furnish curious points of comparison. And there is wanting neither a catastrophe – for Xibalba had a terrific inundation – nor the name of Atlas, of which the etymology is found only in the Nahuatl tongue: it comes from “atl”, “water”, and we know that a city of Atlan** (“near the water”) still existed on the Atlantic side of the Isthmus of Panama at the time of the Conquest.” (Note. * It is interesting to discover, that according to modern Mayan myth, Xibalba was actually the Underworld of the Maya! Could Donnelly have been unaware of this? ** “Atlan”, or “Aztlan”, of course, means “Atlantis”.) Donelly remarks that “Plato tells us that Atlantis and the Atlantic Ocean were so named after Atlas, the eldest son of Poseidon, the founder of the kingdom.” And the prefix (and often suffix also) “Atl” (which means “water”), often crops up in ancient MesoAmerican Nahuatl language of the Aztecs, such as “Quetzelcoatl”, “Ehecatl” and “Omecihuatl” which are all names of Aztec gods. This immediately makes one think again about the possibility of a direct connection between Atlantis and the Meso-Americans, regardless of the apparent wide differences of dates. Could Plato have perhaps been misinformed regarding the date he gave for the demise of Atlantis - or were the last vestigial remnants of the Atlantean Empire still lingering in some modified form among the Maya, the Olmecs, Toltecs, and thus down finally to the Aztecs? We have no way of verifying Plato’s dating of the demise of Atlantis, but we can be much more sure of the Mesoamerican dates, so once again, as with the war between the Athenians and Atlantis, we run into a stone wall in attempting to establish any firm dates on the events surrounding Atlantis. One feasible solution to this conundrum is to consider that Atlantis might possibly have actually been engulfed after the time-slot Plato ascribed to that event, and also possibly after the time of the filling of the Mediterranean Valley by the inflow of the Atlantic Ocean. Such a re-dating, however, would in no way compromise the original existence of the Osirian Empire in the Mediterranean Valley, or of their eventual ascent into Libya and their subsequent settlement in the brand-new land of Egypt. If anything, this would actually serve to enhance the likelihood of Egypt having become an Osirian country whilst Atlantis still existed. This would then account for Sonchis, the chief priest of the holy city of Sais, being so vastly well-informed about Atlantis when he talked with Plato’s great-ancestor, Solon, because Sonchis may have actually visited that land and spoke from his own personal knowledge of it and its people! It would also then allow for a direct hand-to-hand war to be fought between the classical Athenians and Atlantis, since they could sail directly into the Mediterranean Sea up to Greece. So, unless Donnelly can produce a convincing argument against this, further on in his book, I am prepared to stand by the thought that Plato - whilst not a liar - could easily have been given incorrect information as to dates. Thus if we move the final submergence of Atlantis forward by perhaps a few thousand years, we will find that all the pieces of the puzzle fall into place quite well. However, on the other hand, it might well be true that the major sinking of the largest island of Atlantis did occur when Plato said it did, but that some final Atlantean island outposts might still have remained until far more recent times. (His ancestor, Solon, incidentally, was created the sole Archon (Ruling Magistrate) of Athens in 594 BC, and Plato was a noted Greek philosopher some 200 years later.) This is, in fact, borne out quite well by a very close reading of what Critias told his audience in the Dialogues, regarding what Sonchis of Sais told Solon. Sonchis told him in around 550 BC, that 9,000 years had passed since the the war between the Atlanteans and the original Athenians (who subsequently became the Greeks), and that during that 9,000 years “many great deluges had occurred”, and that the consequence was that, in comparison to what Atlantis once was, “and what little now remained (in the form of islets), were like the bones of a wasted body”. Was an Atlantean-Athenian War possible? With regard to the alleged Atlantean–Athenian War. This problem calls for a little applied common sense. It should be noted as a matter of historical fact that Athens in very ancient times was not the powerful city-state we learned about in college. It was the Pelasgian town of Athenae. The Pelasgians were the prehistoric inhabitants of what we now know as Greece and who had originated in west-central Asia. Their occupation of the Athenae region probably dated back to around 4,000–3,500 BC, even before Khem and Kush (later to become Egypt) began to be settled by nomadic farmers. The historically-famed Athenians* did not exist at the time of Atlantis’ demise, so it must have been their ancient Pelasgian precursors from Athenae, who fought the stranded descended remnants of the Atlantean Army, who came overland from their secondary capital in Cadiz or Gades, (named after Gadir, the second son of Poseidon. (Poseidon’s first son, the elder of a pair of twins, was Atlas, who was created the first King of Atlantis, which country was named after him). (*An interesting sidelight in relation to the historically-famed classical Athenians - renowned for their exploit against Troy, circa 1,200 BC, in which they used the ploy of the giant wooden“Trojan Horse” to gain entry into the besieged city. Heinrich Schleimann’s great discovery of ancient Troy was actually made in Turkey, and not in Greece, as so many people tend to imagine!) Donnelly on Racial Appearance In Chapter 5, Donnelly focusses his attention on the racial characteristics of the people of the world at large and how they might have related to those of Atlanteans. He points out the general misconception as to the actual coloring of European and American races, (by which, of course, he means ancient or aboriginal Americans, and not the present complex mixture of racial features and colors seen in modern-day Americans). He shows that although Europe was (in his day) supposed to be exclusively peopled by white men, in reality, every shade of color was represented, from the fairest of Swedes to the darker complexions of Mediterranean coastal inhabitants: “only a shade lighter than the Berbers or Moors, on the opposite side of that sea.” One cannot help but wonder what his reaction would be today to find every major city in every Western nation thronged with people of every imaginable color and race! He continues on to mention that the same gross error has been applied to the idea that all Indians are “red men” of the same hue, from Hudson’s Bay to Patagonia. However, he indicates that “almost every shade, from the ash-color of the Menominees through the cinnamon-red, copper and bronze tints, may be found among the tribes formerly occupying the territory east of the Mississippi, until we reach the dark-skinned Kaws of Kansas, who are nearly as black as the negro.” Then he adds that: “The variety of complexion is as great in South America as among the tribes of the northern part of the continent.” In short, over the following couple of pages he indicates, from several authoritative sources, that the indiginous native Indians of America possess the same degree of wide variation in skin, eye, and hair color as might be found among the races of Europe or the USA! He then continues by discussing the racial types that are said to have descended from Adam, and that not only were his own direct Adamic descent “red” men, with ruddy skins, but so too were the Cushites, Ethiopeans and Phoenicians, whom Donnelly describes as all being of Atlantean stock, as also were the ancient Egyptians. The Arabs, however, (although in my own view of direct Semitic descent, just as were the Hebrews,) were claimed to be distinguished into two races, one red, the other black. He points to the fact that whilst the ancient Egyptians were themselves red men, they recognized four races of men – the red, yellow, black and white men. In Egyptian art, they represented themselves as being red-brown skinned, and they colored the Palestinians as yellow-brown, and the Libyans as yellow-white. But curiously, in all this, Donnelly seems to have overlooked the jet-black Nubians, the blue-black Tuaregs, and the dark-brown Berbers! However, he does mention that “Herodotus tells us that there was a nation of Libyans called the Maxyans, who claimed descent from the people of Troy (the walls of Troy, we shall see, were buit by Poseidon: that is to say, Troy was an Atlantean colony).” But here I must pose an important question: If Donnelly is telling us here that all of these races emanated originally from Atlantis, why does he not include the black men? Especially since the Olmecs seemed to have venerated ebony-black persons of high rank, if not been such themselves! Giant Stone Olmec Heads I believe that we should pay some particular attention to the fact that Negroid people were not only present in Mexico and the Yucatan peninsula some 1500 years BC, but they were regarded as persons of high standing. This is evident from the production of these great solid stone-carved heads, which weighed several tons apiece, and must therefore have been objects of almost religious veneration and great significance. The faces of these heads themselves are quite unmistakably negroid, and they are shown as wearing some form of banded helmet with ear-protectors. These are either soldier’s helmets, or the type of headgear that might be used in certain rough sports, such as football or ice hockey. To my mind, this indicates that they may have represented either a warrior-class of the Olmec race, or possibly a class of Negro superstar sports-heroes, rather after the style of the Harlem Globetrotters. However, before we go leaping to the idea that maybe the Maya and Olmecs were in the habit of importing negroid athletes or warriors, we should also ponder those curious little figurines of Olmec priests, which have been discovered standing in circular groups around some form of totem-stone. These were carved from some jet-black stone and all appear to have deliberately elongated skulls! It is known that many of these curiously elongated skulls have been found, and there is every indication that they are the result of deliberate artificial malformation since infancy. This is still done in certain parts of Asia, by tightly bandaging the feet of growing female children to give them a permanently small and dainty appearance. There is every reason to believe that this same method was used on Mayan and Olmec children to produce the curiously-elongated heads that are so often seen in ancient Mesoamerican drawings and carvings. It’s my guess that this strange deformation was perhaps confined only to the nobility. There is certainly no sign of it in the large helmeted stone Negroid heads found in the jungles around La Venta in Mexico. The presence of Negroid people in Central America is not so surprising when one sees that many modern investigative scholars are coming to the conclusion that the Negros are not necessarily the original indiginous inhabitants of Africa. They are believed to have originated elsewhere – perhaps even in MU, as Chuchward believed - or even in Atlantis, according to some researchers. However, my own theory is that Churchward may have been right, and that, after the Muvian catastrophe, most of the negroid race (many of whom still inhabit the southwestern Pacific region, in places like Fiji, Papua New Guinea, and Australia) fled eastwards instead. After residing in Central America for some generations, they made their way gradually across Atlantis – again taking several generations – and then to Africa, a short boat trip away, where they finally decided to sink their roots. This isn’t any more far-fetched than the Celts of Ireland and Scotland migrating over many generations across the whole of Europe from Central Asia, via the Slavic lands of the southern Danube. Or of the Innuits of northern Canada migrating from northern Asia, via a long-submerged landbridge that existed before the Bering Strait was inundated. Back To Donnelly To continue with our tour of Donnelly’s book. We find that the next few chapters are essentially an attempt to posit the Garden of Eden in Atlantis, as well as the general early history of mankind as outlined in the Book of Genesis. He indicates many parallels between the ancient tribal customs of the world as well as religious similarities. Whilst he offers many seemingly-convincing parallels, even including the development of alphabets and bronze age artifacts, I tend to feel somewhat skeptical in this regard. The nations of the world could just as easily have learned many of these customs, beliefs and metal working skills from foreign visitors, or by visiting other lands themselves. The coincidence of the coming of a wide-spread Bronze Age could very easily have been due simply to the passing on of technology in this manner. It doesn’t necessarily imply that those races were all living together upon one island-continent.
The same thing could have also applied to written alphabets, but I am not convinced at all that the alphabets of the various nations were all stemmed from a single fundamental Atlantean script. And in any case, since Donnelly is so convinced that the Maya or Olmec were essentially Atlantean, why did they not continue to develop a regular written script like so many others did? Instead, their written language degenerated further and further into a system of graphic, technical-looking ikons, rather than the definitely written inscription languages of the Phoenicians, Hebrews and Greeks. The only ones who could in any way be compared to the Mesoamericans in this aspect are the ancient Egyptians, who also relied largely upon hieroglyphs for most public and religiously communicative purposes. But even they eventually developed a “demotic script”, a sloping cursive form of scribing down their hieroglyphs, for the simple sake of speed in setting down lengthy communications, if for no other reason. No doubt the Mayans and their descendants did the same, but materials such as papyrus paper, would not last long in such a humid climate as prevails in Central America. Parchments, kidskins, and pulped reed or other vegetable-based documents seem to have weathered the millennia far better in the Old World than in the New, particularly in the dessicated desert regions of Egypt and the Middle East. But I will concede Donnelly his connections between Egypt and MesoAmerica via Atlantis, since they both have much more in common with each other than either do with any other land. True pictographic icon-based alphabets, pyramid-building, similar royal and priestly classes, and, of course, religions based upon sun-worship, although this latter was not unique to them. Religion. However, one should aways remember that the Churchward’s Lost World of Mu was also renowned as a sun-worshipping civilization, and thus probably comes closer to claiming the origin of this ancient practice. Their God was Ramu, that of the Indian sub-continent was Rama and that of the Peruvians was Raymi, so it isn’t hard to make out a good case for the Egyptian sun-god, Ra, as being rather stemmed from ancient Mu rather than from Atlantis – as also might Atlantean sun-worship also have been! Another Solution! There is only one other way in which this connection could have come about, and that is if we look upon Atlantis as being itself originally an offshoot or colony of Mu! If we could accept this, it would at once solve a multitude of vexing problems and stumbling blocks. It seems obvious to me that, since Donnelly was involved in the pursuit of antiquarian matters so much earlier than Churchward, he simply had no way of making such a connection. However, I am more than happy to offer that connection here and now as an intriguing alternative - and as a solution to the entire puzzle! I will endeavour to elaborate on that particular concept in a further article. But, for the present, I must get on and finish my brief analysis of Donnelly’s great work. Kings and Gods. After discussing the sun-worship of many lands, from Peru, throughout the Mediterranean, to the Middle East and India, Donnelly comments upon Atlantean sun-worship as follows (and I trust that the reader will forgive me if I abbreviate his words): “Sun-worship as the ancient religion of Atlantis, underlies all the superstitions of the colonies of that country. The Samoyed woman says to the sun, “When thou, god, risest, I too rise from my bed.” The Brahmans stand on one foot, with their hands held out before them and their faces turned to the east, adoring the sun. In Germany or France, one may still see the peasant take off his hat to the rising sun. The Romans, even in later times, worshipped the sun as Emesa, under the name of Elagabalus, typified in the form of a black conical stone, which was believed to have fallen from heaven. This was the emblem of Bel (or Baal). Did it have relation to the mounds and pyramids? “Sun-worship was the primitive religion of the red men of America. It was found among all the tribes. The Chichimecs called the sun their father. The Comanches have a similar belief. “But compared with such ancient nations as the Egyptians and Babylonians, the Greeks were as children. Sonchis the high priest of Sais said to Solon: “You Greeks are novices in knowledge of antiquity. You are ignorant of what passed either here or among yourselves in days of old. The history of eight thousand years is deposited in our ancient books, but I can ascend to a much higher antiquity, and tell you what our fathers have done for nine thousand years; I mean their institutions, their laws and their most brilliant acheivements.” “The Greeks, too young to have shared in the religion of Atlantis, but preserving some memory of that great country, proceeded to convert its kings into gods, and to depict Atlantis as the heaven of the human race. Thus we find a great solar or nature worship in the elder nations, while Greece has nothing but an incongruous jumble of gods and goddesses, who are born to eat and drink and make love and ravish and steal and die; and who are worshipped as immortal in presence of the very monuments that testify to their death. “These deities to whom the affairs of the world were intrusted, were, it is believed, immortal, though not eternal in their existence. In Crete there was even a story of the death of Zeus, his tomb being pointed out. “The history of Atlantis is the key of the Greek mythology. There can be no question that these gods of Greece were human beings. The tendency to attach divin e attributes to great earthly rulers is one deeply implante in human nature. The savages who killed Captain Cook firmly believed that he was immortal, that he was yet alive, and would return to punish them. The highly civilized Romans made gods out of their dead emperors. Doctor Livingstone mentions that on one occasion, after talking to a Bushman for some time about the Deity (God), he found that the savage thought he was speaking of the local chief of the district. “We find the barbarians of the Mediterranean coast regarded the civilized people of Atlantis with awe and wonder: “Their physical strength was extraordinary, the earth shaking sometimes under their tread. Whatever was done was done speedily. They moved through space almost without the loss of a moment of time.” This probably alluded to the rapid motion of their sailing vessels. “They were wise, and communicated their wisdom to men.” That is to say, they civilized the people they came into contact. “They had a strict sense of justice, and punished crime rigorously, and rewarded noble actions, though it is true they were less conspicuous for the latter.” We should understand this to mean that where they civilized, they established a government of law, as contradistiguished from the anarchy of barbarism. “There were tales of personal visits and adventures of the gods among men, taking part in battles and appearing in dreams. They were conceived to possess the form of human beings, and to be, like men, subject to love and pain, but always characterized by the highest qualities and grandest forms that could be imagined. “Another proof that the gods of the Greeks were but the deified kings of Atlantis is found in the fact that the gods were not looked upon as having created the world. They succeeded to the management of a world already in existence. “The gods dwelt on Olympus. They lived together like human beings; they possessed palaces, storehouses, stables, horses, etc; they dwelt in a social state which was but a magnified reflection of the social system on earth. Quarrels, love passages, mutual assistance, and such instances as characterize human life, were ascribed to them. “Where was Olympus? It was in Atlantis. It was a great island, the then civilized world. The encircling ocean was spoken of in all the ancient legends. Okeanus lived there with his wife, Tethys. These were the Islands of the Blessed, the garden of the gods, the sources of nectar and ambrosia on which the gods lived. Nectar was probably a fermented intoxicating liquor, and ambrosia a bread made from wheat. Soma was a kind of whiskey, and the hindoos deified it. “The gods lived on nectar and ambrosia” simply meant that these blessed islands were civilized, and possessed a liquor of some sort and a species of food superior to anything in use among the barbarous tribes with whom they came in contact. “This blessed land answers to the description of Atlantis. It was an island full of wonders. It lay spread out in the ocean like a disk,with mountains rising from it. On the highest point of this mountain dwelt Zeus (the king), while the mansions of the other deities were arranged upon plateaus, or in ravines lower down the mountain. These deities, including Zeus were twelve in number: Zeus, (Jupiter), Hera (Juno), Poseidon (Neptune), Demeter (Ceres), Apollo, Artemis (Diana), Hephaestos (Vulcan), Pallas Athena (Minerva), Hermes (Mercury), and Hestia (Vesta). (NB. The second name in parentheses of each Grecian god is its equivalent in the Roman pantheon.) “According to the traditions of the Phoenicians, the Gardens of the Hesperides were in the remote west. Atlas lived in these gardens – and Atlas, as we have seen, was the King of Atlantis. The Elysian Fields (the Happy Isles) were also commonly placed in the remote west, and were ruled over by Kronos. Tartarus, the region of Hades, the gloomy home of the Dead, was also located under the mountains of an island in the midst of the ocean in the remote west. Atlas was described in Greek mythology as “an enormous giant, who stood upon the western confines of the earth and supported the heavens on his shoulders, in a region of the west where the sun continued to shine after he had set upon Greece. “Greek tradition located the island in which Olympus was situated “in the Far West” in the ocean beyond Africa…where the mighty Atlas “held up the heavens.” And Plato tells us that the land where Atlas and Poseidon ruled was Atlantis. “The Garden of the Hesperides”(another name for the dwelling-place of the gods)” was situated at the extreme limit of Africa. Atlas was said to have surrounded it on every side with high mountains, and it is here that we find the golden apples! This is very much like the description which Plato gives of the great plain of Atlantis, covered with fruit of every kind, and surrounded by precipitous mountains descending to the sea! Donnelly then goes on to add further back-ups to his claim for Atlantis as the home of the first Greeks (who became their gods), by telling us that Chronos (Saturn), Dionysios (Bacchus), Hyperion, Atlas and Hercules, were all connected with a great Saturnian continent, and that they were all kings of countries on the western shores of the Mediterranean, Africa, and Spain. One account says that Hyperion, Atlas and Kronos were sons of Uranos, who ruled a great country around the western end of the Mediterranean, together with “certain islands in the Atlantic”. Uranos succeeded his father, and was then killed by the Titans. The kingdom was then divided between Atlas who took Northwestern Africa (where we now find the Atlas mountains), together with the “Atlantic islands”, and Kronos (Saturn) taking those lands on the “opposite shores of the Mediterranean to Italy and Sicily.” (Tunisia and Libya, or Albania and Greece?) But it is here that Donnelly undoes much of his good work by dwelling overlong upon the Greeks and their possible royal connections with Atlantis, and attempting to make absolutely too much of a good thing. Unfortunately, there were twelve Titans, and we have already been told that Atlantis (and its Empire) was always ruled by ten kings or princes! So on that rather sadly damaging note, I think that it is time to move on and complete our whirlwind tour of Donnelly’s book! Readers who wish to pursue this connection with the ancient Greeks and their Olympian pantheon in fuller detail can do so in Donnelly’s book. I will simply sum up this section on how“The Kings of Atlantis Become the Gods of the Greeks” with Donnelly’s own conclusions, which are as follows: “It is not necessary to pursue the study of the gods of Greece any farther. They were simply barbarian recollections of the rulers of a great civilized people who in early days visited their shores and brought with them the arts of peace. Here then, in conclusion, are the proofs of our proposition… 1. They were not the makers, but the rulers of the world. They were human in their attributes; they loved, sinned, and fought battles, the very sites of which are given; they founded cities, and civilized the people of the shores of the Mediterranean. 3. They dwelt upon an island in the Atlantic. “in the remote west”…Where the sun shines after it has ceased to shine on Greece.” Their land was destroyed in a deluge. They were ruled over by Poseidon and Atlas. Their empire extended to Egypt and Italy and the shores of Africa, precisely as stated by Plato. They existed during the Bronze Age and at the beginning of the Iron Age. The entire Greek Mythology is the recollection by a degenerate race, of a vast, mighty and highly civilized empire, which, in a remotepast, covered large parts of Europe, Asia, Africa and America. Note. Since the next portion of Donnelly’s extremely in-depth opus relates to the gods of Phoenicia and of Scandinavia also being the Kings of Atlantis, as well as an ineffectual endeavour to identify Atlantis with the Garden of Eden, which I believe to be a stretch of credulity, I think it will be better, in the interests of brevity, to avoid more rambling complexity, and move on to an area of discussion that will be of greater interest to most readers. some further supportive remarks by Donnelly regarding Atlantean Meso-american and Aryan colonies, and a direct connection between Egypt and Atlantis. Directory: forster forster -> Kant and skepticism forster -> Is our earth forster -> From Mu To Thule And the Inner Earth Download 297.91 Kb. Share with your friends:
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