Atlantis, The Lost Continent Part 1: When Death Danced Upon The Earth

"History became legend, legend became myth."- J.R.R Tolkien

In this episode we cover the original story of the fabled lost civilization as recorded by Plato. Then, we will look at the universal flood myth as a possible account of the cataclysm that destroyed Atlantis,  exploring several legends from Europe to the Americas. Everyone tells the same story of an ancient cataclysm. Could there be truth to the tale that so many today consider fiction?

Lastly, we will begin to investigate tales of giants and myths about the ages of the world, bookended by creation/destruction, due to interventions of the gods, looking for more Atlantis tie-ins as we piece together this monumental mystery. 

Transcript

The year is 590 BC, and an Athenian statesman named Solon has traveled to Egypt seeking political counsel. While visiting the city of Sais, he is greeted by the priesthood. They begin trading stories, and Solon decides to regale them with one of the earliest Greek myths, that of the great flood which decimated the earth, and the hero Deucalion, who survived the catastrophe to restart civilization.  Upon hearing this, one of the Egyptian priests, who was of great age, replies “O Solon, Solon, you Hellenes are never anything but children, and there is not an old man among you.” Solon, in confusion, asks the priest to explain exactly what he means. “I mean to say, that in mind you are all young; there is no old opinion handed down among you by ancient tradition, nor any science which is hoary with age. And I will tell you why. There have been, and will be again, many destructions of mankind arising out of many causes; the greatest have been brought about by the agencies of fire and water, and other lesser ones by innumerable other causes.” “When the gods purge the earth with a deluge of water, the survivors in your country are herdsmen and shepherds who dwell on the mountains, but those who, like you, live in cities are carried by the rivers into the sea. Whereas in this land, neither then nor at any other time, does the water come down from above on the fields, having always a tendency to come up from below; for which reason the traditions preserved here are the most ancient. Just when you and other nations are beginning to be provided with letters and the other requisites of civilized life, after the usual interval, the stream from heaven, like a pestilence, comes pouring down, and leaves only those of you who are destitute of letters and education; and so you have to begin all over again like children, and know nothing of what happened in ancient times. As for those genealogies of yours which you just now recounted to us, Solon, they are no better than the tales of children. In the first place you remember a single deluge only, but there were many previous ones.” The priest then proceeds to tell Solon an incredible account that would forever fascinate, confound and capture our imagination, the story of Atlantis, the great ancient empire lost to the depths of the sea. Welcome to The Hidden Passage.

The first and only substantial account of Atlantis comes to us from Plato’s Dialogue of Critias. It is presented as a record of Plato’s conversations with Critias, a student of Socrates. Critias was given the story by his grandfather, who had learned it from Solon himself. All parties involved in the transmission of this account believed it to be true and presented it as such, yet most historians, even in his day, considered and continue to consider it to be a work of fiction, a cleverly concealed allegory to highlight what Plato saw to be the folly of Greek civilization and to provide a testament to his ideal state as represented in his seminal work, the Republic. It is certainly possible that elements were imaginative reconstruction used as allegory, but I think it’s very likely that it is based on underlying truth. The concept of lost civilizations is not in itself far-fetched. Consider the relatively recent discovery of Gobekli Tepi, a massive megalithic site in turkey that had been completely buried in sand, dated to 9,500 BC, far older than Mesopotamia and built in a time when allegedly human beings were still hunter gatherers and did not have the technical capability of building such a structure. Since the end of the last ice age, sea levels have risen by 400 feet, submerging entire subcontinents of once dry land. What secrets of our ancient history could be hidden at the bottom of the ocean? You will have to decide for yourself. In this episode, we will first go over what was actually told of the fabled island of Atlantis in the historical accounts, and then explore a series of other myths that may corroborate the story.

To set the stage, we will begin with the exposition of Plato’s account, which describes the condition of earth in the days of old. Critias states that in the earliest days of humanity, the earth was divided into districts divided amongst the gods; each was given a certain allotment and assigned as the stewards of their respective districts, which would become the various cultures and nations of the world. The gods then began to work their lands and people their districts, setting up the ideal conditions in which their civilizations could grow. They taught them basic laws and institutions and all they would need to know to flourish as a society. It is implied that the gods had some form of physicality, dwelling near and walking among mankind. “they tended us, their nurslings and possessions, as shepherds tend their flocks, excepting only that they did not use blows or bodily force, as shepherds do, but governed us like pilots from the stern of the vessel, holding our souls by the rudder of persuasion according to their own pleasure;-thus did they guide all mortal creatures.” Poseidon, the great god of the sea, claimed the island which became known as Atlantis. Although the Greek name Poseidon is used here, it is clarified that these were not the original names used in Atlantis, although the word Atlantis itself is believed by some to be in the native tongue. It is claimed in the dialogue that the island was larger than Libya and Asia Minor combined and was situated not far beyond the pillars of Hercules, known today as the straits of Gibraltar. It is further stated that beyond this island of Atlantis was a “boundless continent” which once existed in the midst of the Atlantic Ocean. 

When Poseidon came to this land, he found it to be inhabited. In its center was a verdant plain and a lone mountain, inside of which dwelled the local people. There Poseidon fell in love with a maiden named Cleito. She bore children by him, and they became the ten great kings of Atlantis. Poseidon then established the capital city of the kingdom by shaping the earth around the hill, creating a series of concentric rings around it, and the space between them was filled with water. A channel was dug that connected to the ocean, leading through the golden gates of the outer wall and into a large harbor in the city center. Poseidon fashioned two springs, one hot and one cold, and made every food grow from the soil in abundance, so that the people would have everything they needed, and could sustain large populations of animals, including horses, who Atlanteans were allegedly the first to take, and even elephants. This was the preferred sacrifice of Poseidon. It’s interesting to note that sea gods, and horse sacrifice to them were a common practice all over Western Europe. The Atlantean capital is described as having an “infinite abundance” of natural resources, wood and metals, and they would use them to build the kingdom up to unparalleled magnificence, a level of wealth not seen in the world before or since. Surrounding the outer ring was a wall, covered in a mysterious metal called orichalcum, which was said to reflect a reddish light. In the center of the citadel was built the temple dedicated to Poseidon, which was of great splendor, covered in silver and gold, and within was a giant statue of the god himself, surrounded by a hundred nereids, or sea nymphs, riding dolphins. Also in the city center was a pillar of orichalcum inscribed with the laws that Poseidon had set forth for the kingdom. To the gods firstborn, Atlas, was given the capital, and the nine other kings each ruled over parts of the greater kingdom. The ten kings ruled with absolute surety, but were required to periodically travel to the pillar where they would swear their oath to abide by the laws of their father.  The most important of these, was to never take up arms against one another, without the consent of the majority. The people of Atlantis were said to be of great moral character, “for they possessed true and in every way great spirits, uniting gentleness with wisdom. They despised everything but virtue, thinking lightly of possession of gold and other property, which seemed only a burden to them; neither were they intoxicated by luxury, nor did wealth deprive them of their self control, but they were sober, and saw clearly that all these goods are increased by virtue and friendship with one another, whereas by too great regard and respect for them, they are lost and friendship with them.”  They remained this way for many generations, until the divine nature in them eventually faded as it “became diluted too often and too much with the mortal admixture, and the human nature got the upper hand, they then, being unable to bear their fortune, behaved unseemly, and to him who had an eye to see, grew visibly debased, but to those who had no eye to see true happiness, they appeared glorious and blessed at the very time when they were full of avarice and unrighteous power.”  Zeus, witnessing this degradation of a once mighty and noble race, gathered the gods to the summit of the world mountain, and proposed that they be punished, in the hope that it would cause them to reform themselves. For reasons unknown, the dialogue ends here abruptly, as Plato left the work unfinished. However, as I’ve decided to retell the story chronologically, we will now cover the last event which ends in the destruction of Atlantis, taking place at some point after this corruption of its people, but which is told towards the beginning of the dialogue.   Evidently whatever punishments, if any, were inflicted on the Atlanteans, could not steer their course, as the Egyptian priest tells Solon that in their reckless greed and ambition, they embarked on a military conquest, and, unprovoked, launched an assault upon the whole of Europe and Asia. The Atlantean empire is described as a “mighty power” that had already gained control over parts of Libya as far as Egypt, Europe as far as Tyrrhenia, and “the opposite continent”, of America. They gathered together all their forces and sailed their fleet through the pillars of Hercules, pouring into the Mediterranean in an effort to subdue the whole of Greece, Egypt, and surrounding nations in a single blow. “And then, Solon, your country shone forth, in the excellence of her virtue and strength, among all mankind. She was pre-eminent in courage and military skill, and was the leader of the Hellenes. And when the rest fell off from her, being compelled to stand alone, after having undergone the very extremity of danger, she defeated and triumphed over the invaders, and preserved from slavery those who were not yet subjugated, and generously liberated all the rest of us who dwell within the pillars. But afterwards there occurred violent earthquakes and floods; and in a single day and night of misfortune all your warlike men in a body sank into the earth, and the island of Atlantis in like manner disappeared in the depths of the sea. 

This is referencing a massive series of earthquakes which apparently cause large portions of land to rapidly sink, which are then filled in by the ocean in coastal areas. This is a real phenomenon called subsidence, which we will go over in a later episode along with other scientific theories regarding cataclysms. In another section, it is referenced that torrential rains also played a large factor in the decimation, so intense that it flattened the land through rapid erosion. It should be noted that outside of the war and cataclysm, much of the information about Atlantis itself comes directly from Plato, and we do not know where he got this information. 

The Egyptian priest, later identified by the historian Plutarch as Sonchis, claims that this war between Atlantis and Greece, led by the Athenians, and the subsequent destruction of the island, had occurred 9,000 years prior. The meeting between Solon and Sonchis is said to have taken place around 590 BC, which would put the destruction of Atlantis at almost 10,000 BC. This would predate Mesopotamia, the earliest known civilization, by much more than 6000 years, as Plato states that Atlantis had existed over many generations. If this story is based on any degree of truth, confirmation of its existence would rewrite history as we know it, and would change on a fundamental level our understanding of the development of human civilization, even the very origins of humanity itself. Another lesser known account comes to us from Proclus, a successor to Plato, who claims that a philosopher by the name of Crantor also visited Sais, wherein he was taken to a secret cave, and in its dark depths, upon an island in the midst of a subterranean lake, stood two pillars, one of gold and one of orichalchum, inscribed with the written account of the story that had been shared with Solon. The Egyptian historian Manetho, wrote that these pillars had been created by the god Thoth, known to the Greeks as Hermes, shortly before the destruction of Atlantis, so that the knowledge would not be forgotten and lost to future cataclysms. Outside of these accounts, where can we find further evidence for Atlantis and the cataclysm that wiped it from the face of earth? Perhaps the first place to look is in one of the most universal and oldest myths in the world, that of the great flood.

With respect to deluge myths, 19th century archaeologist Francois Lenormant writes, “A recollection so precise and concordant cannot be a myth voluntarily invented. No religious or cosmogonic myth presents this character of universality. It must arise from the reminiscence of a real and terrible event, so powerfully impressing the imagination of the first ancestors of our race as never to have been forgotten by their descendants.”  Everyone is familiar with the biblical flood and the story of Noah’s Ark, so it is here that we’ll first draw comparisons to Atlantis. To begin, there are similarities between the origins of the Atlanteans and early man as written in Genesis. “ When men began to increase in number on the earth and daughters were born to them, the sons of God saw that the daughters of men were beautiful, and they married any of them they chose. Then the LORD said, My Spirit will not contend with man forever, for he is mortal; his days will be a hundred and twenty years. The Nephilim were on the earth in those days - and also afterward - when the sons of God went to the daughters of men and had children by them. They were the heroes of old, men of renown” (Genesis 6:1-4).   Most scholars today believe this passage refers to the interbreeding of divine beings with humans, which created a race of superhumans referred to as the Nephilim. This is the same origin story as the Atlantean god kings, the sons of Poseidon. We also have a connection with the garden of Eden and the paradisiacal conditions of Atlantis. In both accounts, we have the same idea that the people became corrupted, and in response to this, the deity became indignant and sought to punish or destroy them.

This same deluge myth appears in the ancient Babylonian Akkadian  epic, the Atra-Hasis, which predates the Old Testament by over a thousand years. In this story, the character Khasisatra is a direct analogue to Noah, an individual chosen by God for his virtue to be spared from the destruction and replenish the human race. The story itself is likely even older than its earliest transcription. The story, in the form of a poem written from the perspective of the protagonist, begins with Khasisatra receiving revelation in a dream, in which the god Ea proclaims that he will destroy all life on earth in a great flood. He then gives him detailed instructions to build an ark that will hold the people and animals chosen to survive. Feeling uncertain, he says to Ea, “young and old shall laugh at me. [Ea opened his mouth and] spoke.-"[If they laugh at thee] thou shalt say to them:--[shall be punished] he who has insulted me, [for the protection of the gods] is over me.-

Khasisatra proceeds to build the ark, and on the day of reckoning, 

“All that I possessed of the substance of life of every kind I gathered together.--I made all ascend into the vessel; my servants, male and female,--the cattle of the fields, the wild beasts of the plains, and the sons of the people, I made them all ascend.

"Shamash (the sun) made the moment determined, and he announced it in these terms:--”"In the evening I will cause it to rain abundantly from heaven; enter into the vessel and close the door."--The fixed Moment had arrived, which he announced in these terms:--"In the evening I will cause it to rain abundantly from heaven."--When the evening of that day arrived, I was afraid,--I entered into the vessel and shut my door.-“

"Mu-sheri-ina-namari--rose from the foundations of heaven in a black cloud;--Ramman thundered in the midst of the cloud,--and Nabon and Sharru marched before;--they marched, devastating the mountain and the plain;--Nergal the powerful dragged chastisements after him;--Adar advanced, overthrowing;--before him;--the archangels of the abyss brought destruction,--in their terrors they agitated the earth.--The inundation of Ramman swelled up to the sky,--and [the earth] became without lustre, was changed into a desert.

[They destroyed] the living beings of the surface of the earth.--The terrible [Deluge] on men swelled up to [heaven].The brother no longer saw his brother; men no longer knew each other. In heaven--the gods became afraid of the water-spout, and--sought a refuge; they mounted up to the heaven of Anu.--The gods were stretched out motionless, pressing one against another like dogs.--Ishtar wailed like a child, the great goddess pronounced her discourse:--"Here is humanity returned into mud, and--this is the misfortune that I have announced in the presence of the gods.--So I announced the misfortune in the presence of the gods,--for the evil I announced the terrible [chastisement] of men who are mine.--I am the mother who gave birth to men, and--like to the race of fishes, there they are filling the sea;--and the gods, by reason of that--which the archangels of the abyss are doing, weep with me."--The gods on their seats were seated in tears,--and they held their lips closed, [revolving] future things.

"Six days and as many nights passed; the wind, the water-spout, and the diluvian rain were in all their strength. At the approach of the seventh day the diluvian rain grew weaker, the terrible water-spout-which had assailed after the fashion of an earthquake--grew calm, the sea inclined to dry up, and the wind and the water-spout came to an end. I looked at the sea, attentively observing--and the whole of humanity had returned to mud; like unto sea-weeds the corpses floated. I opened the window, and the light smote on my face. I was seized with sadness; I sat down and I wept;-and my tears came over my face.

"I looked at the regions bounding the sea: toward the twelve points of the horizon; not any continent.--The vessel was borne above the land of Nizir,--the mountain of Nizir arrested the vessel, and did not permit it to pass over.--A day and a second day the mountain of Nizir arrested the vessel, and did not permit it to pass over;--the third and fourth day the mountain of Nizir arrested the vessel, and did not permit it to pass over;--the fifth and sixth day the mountain of Nizir arrested the vessel, and did not permit it to pass over. At the approach of the seventh day, I sent out and loosed a dove. The dove went, turned, and--found no place to light on, and it came back. I sent out and loosed a swallow; the swallow went, turned, and--found no place to light on, and it came back. I sent out and loosed a raven; the raven went and saw the corpses on the waters; it ate, rested, turned, and came not back.

"I then sent out (what was in the vessel) toward the four winds, and I offered a sacrifice. I raised the pile of my burnt-offering on the peak of the mountain; seven by seven I disposed the measured vases,--and beneath I spread rushes, cedar, and juniper-wood. The gods were seized with the desire of it-;--and assembled like flies above the master of the sacrifice. From afar, in approaching, the great goddess raised the great zones that Anu has made for their glory. These gods, luminous crystal before me, I will never leave them; in that day I prayed that I might never leave them. "Let the gods come to my sacrificial pile!--but never may Bel come to my sacrificial pile! for he did not master himself, and he has made the water-spout for the Deluge, and he has numbered my men for the pit."

"From far, in drawing near, Bel--saw the vessel, and Bel stopped;--he was filled with anger against the gods and the celestial archangels:--

"'No one shall come out alive! No man shall be preserved from the abyss!"”--Adar opened his mouth and said; he said to the warrior Bel:--"What other than Ea should have formed this resolution?--for Ea possesses knowledge, and [he foresees] all."--Ea opened his mouth and spake; he said to the warrior Bel:--"O thou, herald of the gods, warrior,--as thou didst not master thyself, thou hast made the water-spout of the Deluge.--Let the sinner carry the weight of his sins, the blasphemer the weight of his blasphemy.--Please thyself with this good pleasure, and it shall never be infringed; faith in it never [shall be violated].--Instead of thy making a new deluge, let lions appear and reduce the number of men;--instead of thy making a new deluge, let hyenas appear and reduce the number of men;--instead of thy making a new deluge, let there be famine, and let the earth be [devastated];--instead of thy making a new deluge, let Dibbara appear, and let men be [mown down]. I have not revealed the decision of the great gods;--it is Khasisatra who interpreted a dream and comprehended what the gods had decided."

"Then, when his resolve was arrested, Bel entered into the vessel.--He took my hand and made me rise.--He made my wife rise, and made her place herself at my side-.-He turned around us and stopped short; he approached our group.--"Until now Khasisatra has made part of perishable humanity;--but lo, now Khasisatra and his wife are going to be carried away to live like the gods,--and Khasisatra will reside afar at the mouth of the rivers."--They carried me away, and established me in a remote place at the mouth of the streams.”

In this story, we have references to the same type of cataclysm described by Plato, a confluence of rain and earthquakes. The earthquakes are referenced here in the agitations of the earth and water spouts, a phenomenon known as liquefaction caused by compressed ground water. It is also implied that Khasisatra traveled a great distance from his homeland and re-established society in a faraway country.  As we will later see, this may be a reference to the survivors of Atlantis fleeing the island before its destruction and colonizing other areas. Some evidently were warned and were able to escape. 

Flood myths exist in many cultures around the world. The Greek flood of Deucalion, takes place at the end of the mythical age of bronze, wherein Zeus had resolved to destroy mankind for their depravity. Deucalion, son of the titan god Prometheus, is warned by his father of the impending disaster, and told to construct a coffer for him and his wife. After nine days of floating through the waters of the flood, they hit land on the top of mount Parnassus, and are instructed by Zeus to repopulate by throwing the bones of the earth, or stones, behind them which then turn into human beings. There was an ancient Athenian  religious rite called hydrophoria, where water and offerings were poured into a fissure in the ground near the temple of Zeus, where it was said the flood waters had been taken in by the earth. This was done to commemorate the tragedy as well as to remember and appease both the victims and the gods. Pilgrims came from far distances yearly to make the offerings.  An almost identical rite was also recorded in Syria.

India has its own flood myth with uncanny likeness to those already described. Manu, another figure similar to Noah, is warned by a god in the form of a great fish, to construct a vessel to survive an impending deluge. Tying a rope to the fish’s horns, he is guided safely to a mountaintop. A year after the flood, a woman emerges from the waters and becomes Manu’s partner, with whom he produces the next race of mankind. 

Another flood myth is found in the Scandinavian Edda, which tells of the slaying of the ice giant Ymir by Odin and his brothers in order to create the earth from his remains. When the giant falls, the story states that his body produces so much blood that it floods the world, destroying the race of giants, except for one, Bergelmir, and his wife, who survive by seeking refuge in a vessel.

One of the most remarkable flood myths comes from Mexico. The reason for this is that it bears such a striking resemblance to those of the Middle East, despite being dated back to a time long before there was any known contact between the old world and the Americas. The possibility of it having been transmitted through the Asiatic migrations is virtually nonexistent, as we do not find flood myths in the areas from which they came. Indeed, most flood myths seem to be concentrated near areas bordering the Atlantic Ocean and the surrounding countries. This makes sense if we are to assume the central point of the cataclysm was somewhere in the Atlantic, the effects of which radiated out towards both coasts. Also these areas would have received the Atlantean survivors, who brought with them the memory of the disaster at ground zero. 

In this Mexican Aztec flood myth, the equivalent to Noah is CoxCox, who finds refuge in a hollowed-out cypress with his wife Xochiquetzal. In one version it is described as a large vessel, filled with animals and grains, which are said to be essential to humanity’s survival. They are warned ahead of the disaster by the god Tezcatlipoca and instructed to build it. They endure an apocalyptic deluge, and in a single day all was lost, which is the same claim made by Plato. The flood submerges the highest mountain peaks, and when finally the god causes the waters to recede, coxcox sends out a bird to find land. Eventually, his vessel comes to rest on the slope of mount Colhuacan, where Coxcox begins anew. This character is identified as the progenitor of the Toltec and Aztec peoples. 

The same legend is found in North America. Ignatius Donnelly gives the following accounts in his work Atlantis, the antediluvian world. “Among the Iroquois there is a tradition that the sea and waters infringed upon the land, so that all human life was destroyed. The Chickasaws assert that the world was once destroyed by water, but that one family was saved, and two animals of every kind. The Sioux say there was a time when there was no dry land, and all men had disappeared from existence." 

"The Okanagaus have a god, Skyappe, and also one called Chacha, who appear to
be endowed with omniscience; but their principal divinity is their great mythical ruler and heroine, Scomalt. Long ago, when the sun was no bigger than a star, this strong medicine-woman ruled over what appears to have now become a lost island. At last, the peace of the island was destroyed by war, and the noise of battle was heard, with which Scomalt was exceeding wroth, whereupon she rose up in her might and drove her rebellious subjects to one end of the island and broke off the piece of land on which they were huddled and pushed it out to sea, to drift whither it would. This floating island was tossed to and fro and buffeted by the winds till all but two died. A man and woman escaped in a canoe and arrived on the main-land; and from these the Okanagaus are descended." (Bancroft's "Native Races," vol. iii., p. 149.)   This story is interesting because we also get references to war which triggered the destruction just as in the Atlantis story.

The only place in which a flood myth is absent, is Egypt. Donnelly suggests that the reason for this is that they, as Sonchis told Solon, had managed to preserve the precise history of the deluge, as well as many previous cataclysms, and therefore it never went through the mythologization process. They also had no impetus to dramatize, understanding it within the context of many repeating earth cycles, and apparently having been spared by at least one of them.

With regard to these cycles mentioned by Sonchis, a pertinent piece of information lies in a Mesoamerican cosmogonic myth recorded in the Codex Vaticanus. Here we find the belief that the history of the world is divided into five ages, or suns, each of which begins with a starting or restarting of humanity and ends in a cataclysm that destroys it. The first age, the jaguar sun, was said to be the age of giants, destroyed by famine, which caused them to be devoured by monsters, notably, jaguars. In the second age, the wind sun, people were transformed into monkeys. This world was destroyed by hurricanes. In the third age, the rain sun, mankind was destroyed by a rain of fire. Here there is also reference to human transformation, this time into birds. And The fourth age was called the water sun, which ended in the great flood, transforming humanity into fish. Our current age is the earthquake sun, which it is believed could end in a single, massive earthquake, should the gods be displeased with humanity’s conduct. Sonchis likely references this rain of fire in the third age when he says that certain declinations of celestial bodies caused a great conflagration upon the earth. He states, “There is a story, which even you have preserved, that once upon a time Paethon, the son of Helios, having yoked the steeds in his father’s chariot, because he was not able to drive them in the path of his father, burnt up all that was upon the earth, and was himself destroyed by a thunderbolt.”

The Mayan Popul Vuh manuscript connects these age ending cataclysms with the god’s attempts at creating man. The first attempt created humans that did not worship them, and so they were destroyed. The second attempt yielded humans who had too much knowledge and power, so they were wiped out again. Finally, a limited and subservient race was created that was acceptable to the gods. This parallels the Bible, for after the Nephilim were created, before the flood, God states that his spirit will not strive with man forever, and he shall live 120 years. We can probably view the Nephilim as an early form or prototype of man. Before God essentially nerfs humanity, we get this impression that they had more godlike abilities and longer lifespans. The biblical patriarchs were said to have lived hundreds or even thousands of years. This idea of humans being made into lesser beings also shows up in Greek myth, when Zeus also remakes humans, who were once immortal, into progressively more fallible beings at the start of each age. Perhaps this earlier form of man is in fact the Atlantean race itself.

This idea of destroying and remaking man in these recurring cycles is also in Babylonian religion. The Atrahasis flood myth we just explored was said to have been brought about by the gods because they found humans to be too noisy and it basically annoyed them. Before they cause the flood, Ea (Enki) goes behind their backs to warn Khasisatra. The gods try to destroy humanity several times by different agencies and end up regretting it when there are no more humans to give them sacrifices. That’s why the story described them as being drawn to burnt offerings like flies. The same cycles are recorded in Greek myth in the stories of the golden, silver, bronze, and iron ages, where Zeus keeps destroying humanity and remaking them into lesser forms. This idea will become important later when we start getting into theosophy and the theory of humanity’s spiritual evolution throughout the epochs.

Exploring Mesoamerican mythology further, we find that virtually every ancient group which settled in Mexico, traced their origins to a mysterious land in the East called Aztlan. The name Aztec itself is derived therefrom. "In Yucatan the traditions all point to an Eastern and foreign origin for the race. The early writers report that the natives believe their ancestors to have crossed the sea by a passage which was opened for them." (Landa's "Relacion," p. 28.)  The leading kingdom of their forebears in this land was called Xibalba. With respect to its similarity to Atlantis, historian Charles Étienne Brasseur de Bourbourg in his introduction to the Popul Vuh, the foundational sacred text of the Maya writes, “Both countries are magnificent, exceedingly 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 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 (in couples), 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.”

These ancestors were said to have left their idyllic homeland and traveled great distances over land and sea before arriving in Mexico. In a series of images depicting the culture hero Zamna, he is shown leading his people away from a disastrous flood which destroys their homeland and guiding them by boat to a new land. The Popul Vuh also states that sometime after this initial migration, three descendants living in the new world traveled back to Aztlan, and later returned with a newfound knowledge of painting as well as a system of writing.  

We’re going to end here for now. Stay tuned for part 2, where we discuss the universal myth of the civilizing hero, the mysterious strangers, who came from distant lands bearing gifts of knowledge that allowed primitive peoples to build the greatest civilizations on earth.