Plato’s Critias, Summary Automatic translate

This is an unfinished philosophical dialogue written by the great ancient Greek thinker Plato around 360 BC. The work serves as a direct continuation of the dialogue Timaeus and contains the most detailed surviving description of the legendary Atlantis, its political structure, geography, and destruction. A key feature of the text is its abrupt end: the narrative ceases just as Zeus is about to deliver a speech about the punishment of the Atlanteans.

Introduction and handover

The dialogue begins with a monologue by Timaeus, who concludes his discourse on the universe and hands the floor over to Critias. Timaeus offers a prayer to the god, asking him to transform what he has said into knowledge that will become a healing remedy for the soul. Critias, taking his turn, asks for the audience’s indulgence. He argues that speaking about human affairs and earthly history is far more difficult than about gods and celestial phenomena.

Critias explains his idea through an analogy with painting: when depicting the earth, mountains, or the sky, the artist satisfies the viewer with even an approximate likeness, since precise knowledge of these objects is beyond the reach of humanity. However, when a master paints the human body, the slightest inaccuracy provokes severe criticism, since the subject is familiar to everyone. Similarly, discourses about mortals are subject to more rigorous scrutiny than discussions of the divine. Socrates agrees with these arguments and gives the floor to Critias, and Hermocrates urges him to boldly invoke the aid of Paeon and the Muses to extol the virtues of the ancient citizens.

Ancient Athens: The Lot of Athena and Hephaestus

Critias begins with an invocation to Mnemosyne (the goddess of memory) and proceeds to recount events that took place nine thousand years ago. It concerns a war between the peoples living beyond the Pillars of Heracles and those within. The latter were led by ancient Athens, while their enemies were ruled by the kings of Atlantis.

According to legend, the gods divided the earth by lot without dispute. Athena and Hephaestus, sharing a common nature and love of wisdom, received Attica as their common inheritance — a land favorable for the cultivation of virtue. They populated this land with noble men and established political order. The names of these first men have been preserved (Cecrops, Erechtheus, Erichthonius), but the memory of their deeds has been erased by catastrophes and time.

The social structure of ancient Athens was clearly divided. Craftsmen and farmers lived separately from the warrior class. The warrior guards lived at the top of the Acropolis, around the sanctuaries. They owned everything communally, had no private property, gold, or silver, and received only the necessary food from the citizens.

Critias describes in detail the region’s geographic changes. Over nine millennia, powerful floods washed away the fertile soil, leaving only "the skeleton of a body wasted by disease" of the country. In ancient times, the Acropolis was vast, stretching to the Eridanus and Ilissus rivers, and the land was incredibly fertile, capable of supporting a large army. Forests were abundant, and rainwater, rather than flowing aimlessly into the sea as it does today, soaked into the soil, feeding full-flowing springs.

The Origin of Atlantis

Poseidon inherited the vast island of Atlantis. In the center of the island, on a plain, rose a low mountain where one of the first humans, Evenor, lived with his wife Leucippe and daughter Cleito. Poseidon fell in love with Cleito and, to protect her home, fortified the hill. He surrounded it with alternating rings of earth and water: two earth rings and three water rings, created with perfect geometric precision.

The god caused two springs to flow from the earth — one warm, one cold — providing the island with abundant vegetation. Poseidon and Cleito had five pairs of male twins. The eldest of the first pair, Atlas, became supreme king, and the island and surrounding sea were named after him. His twin, named Gades (Eumelus in Greek), ruled the outermost part of the island near the Pillars. The other sons also received lands and power. Atlas’s line ruled for many generations, amassing untold wealth.

Natural resources and the structure of the capital

The island was rich in resources. All kinds of metals were mined from its depths, including the now-extinct orichalcum, second in value only to gold. The forests provided building materials, and the meadows fed a variety of animals, including elephants. The land yielded a variety of fruits, vegetables, and incense.

The kings of Atlantis created a massive infrastructure. They built bridges across the water rings, paved the way to the royal palace, and dug a gigantic canal from the sea to the outer ring. The canal was approximately 90 meters wide and 30 meters deep, allowing the passage of the largest ships.

The earthen rings were surrounded by stone walls. The stone was quarried locally: white, black, and red. The walls of the outer ring were covered with copper, the inner with cast tin, and the wall of the Acropolis itself shone with orichalcum.

At the center of the citadel stood the sacred temple of Cleito and Poseidon, surrounded by a golden wall. The main temple of Poseidon was striking in its barbaric splendor: its exterior was lined with silver, and its acroteria were gold. Inside, the ceiling was inlaid with ivory, and the walls and floor were covered with orichalcum. A golden statue of the god depicted him driving a chariot with six winged horses, surrounded by one hundred Nereids riding dolphins.

The city boasted two springs (hot and cold), around which baths were built: for kings, ordinary citizens, women, and even horses. Water was diverted to the sacred grove of Poseidon, where trees reached incredible heights, and thence to the outer rings via aqueducts. The rings housed sanctuaries, gardens, gymnasiums, and a vast hippodrome, some 185 meters wide. The shipyards were filled with triremes, and the large harbor bustled with the commercial activity of ships arriving from all directions.

Plain and military power

Beyond the city stretched a rectangular plain measuring approximately 555 by 370 kilometers. It was protected by mountains to the north and exposed to the southern wind. The kings leveled the natural terrain, encircling the plain with a massive moat approximately 1,850 kilometers long. This moat received streams from the mountains and encircled the plain, emptying into the sea. A network of straight canals, approximately 30 meters wide, crossed the plain, serving for rafting timber and transporting the harvest, which was gathered twice a year.

Military organization was strict. The plain was divided into 60,000 districts, each of which supplied one warrior leader. In case of war, each district required a sixth of a war chariot, two riding horses with riders, a pair of horses without a chariot, a foot soldier with a small shield, a charioteer, two hoplites, two archers and slingers, three stone throwers and spearmen, and four sailors. The total fleet numbered 1,200 ships.

Laws and sacred ritual

The ten kings exercised absolute power within their respective domains, but their relations were regulated by the Code of Poseidon, inscribed on an orichalcum stele in the central temple. The kings convened every five or six years for judgment and consultation.

A special ritual was performed before the trial. Free-ranging bulls were caught in the temple grove without the use of iron, only wooden sticks and nooses. The captured bull was led to the stele and slaughtered so that its blood would stain the inscriptions of the laws. After the sacrifice, the kings mixed the blood with wine in a crater, each poured a clot of blood into the fire, and swore to judge according to the laws inscribed on the stele.

When night fell and the sacrificial fire cooled, the kings donned their finest dark blue (bluish-black) robes. They sat on the ground near the smoldering coals of the oath altar and held court in complete darkness. In the morning, the verdicts were written on golden tablets. The main law forbade the kings from raising arms against each other and obligated them to render assistance in the event of a threat to the ruling family in any state. Supreme power belonged to the descendants of Atlas.

Moral decline

For many generations, the Atlanteans preserved their divine nature, obeying the laws and despising all but virtue. Wealth did not intoxicate them, and they maintained self-control. But over time, their divine nature, mingling with their mortal nature, began to fade. Human nature prevailed.

The Atlanteans lost their decency, though outwardly they appeared to be at the height of bliss. They were overcome by unbridled greed and a thirst for power. They could no longer bear the burden of their prosperity.

Zeus, the god of gods and guardian of the laws, saw the corruption of his once glorious race. He decided to punish them so that through suffering they would gain wisdom. The Thunderer summoned all the gods to his most glorious abode, located at the center of the world, from where he could see everything related to birth.

The text of the dialogue suddenly breaks off at this critical moment: “…and he addressed those gathered with these words…”