Atlantis in Plato's Critias
The patron of Atlantis was Poseidon, also called Neptune
The Attic politician Solon, travelled a lot after he had given his countrymen new and more just laws in 594 BC. On his journey he came to Sais in Egypt, and was told about the continent Atlantis. Back in Athens he told of it to friends and family. The tale was passed on to Plato centuries after that. And Plato wrote the tale down in one of his dialogues.
Far west in the Atlantic Ocean, Plato tells, there was a prosperous and fertile island that was lorded over by just and mighty kings. Their realm flourished. Kings were succeeded by sons that were as just as they themselves had been, and the laws were top. What is more, the people adhered to them.
The island kingdom had frtile fields, orchards of olives and other orchards. Many minerals were dug up from the earth there. There were cattle and also wild animals for hunters. Atlantis was paradise itself.
There were many sport arenas where youths managed to gain health. In the towns or cities there were ports full of ships. Trading was fair.
Atlantis became mighty, and sent its fleet across the ocean and into the Mediterranean Ocean through the strait of Gibraltar. And a little later Atlantis dominated the whole basin, but for the area where we find ancient Greece. Wealth amassed in Atlantis, where they took to building palaces that were panelled with ivory inlaid with gold and silver.
Luxury living spread. But so long as the people obeyed their wise kings and the good laws, things went well. But the might and splendour of Atlantis bred corruption, alas. Then laws were not as much esteemed and lived up to as earlier. Envy and injustice won an entrance. Bad circles of influences started and didn't stop.
The patron of Atlantis was Poseidon (Neptune), brother of Zeus (Jupiter). The temple of Poseidon stood on top of the Acropolis in the middle of the island. The laws of the kingdom was written on a pillar there, so they were for all to see.
Now Zeus and his brother Poseidon intervened: The unjust inhabitants had to be punished by the natural catastrophe Solon retells from, and others. A horrible earthquake, volcano eruption and a tidal wave left ruin and death behind. Atlantis sank into the ocean and was gone. [Cf. 114-15]
Atlantis in Plato's dialogue "Critias"
Critias tells: "You must not be surprised if you should perhaps hear Hellenic names given to foreigners. I will tell you the reason of this: Solon . . . enquired into the meaning of the names, and found that the early Egyptians in writing them down had translated them into their own language, and he recovered the meaning of the several names and when copying them out again translated them into our language. My great-grandfather, Dropides, had the original writing, which is still in my possession, and was carefully studied by me when I was a child. Therefore if you hear names such as are used in this country, you must not be surprised, for I have told how they came to be introduced. The tale follows:
The god of the ocean had sex with the mortal woman Cleito
Critias told: The gods distributed the whole earth into portions that differed in extent, and made for themselves temples and instituted sacrifices. And Poseidon, who received for his lot the island of Atlantis, had children with a mortal woman, and settled them in a part of the island . . . Looking towards the sea, but in the centre of the whole island, there was a plain. It is said to have been the fairest of all plains and very fertile. Near the plain again, and also in the centre of the island at a distance of about fifty stadia [guess: about 10 kilometres] there was a mountain not very high on any side. [Greek 'stadium' is no fixed unit of length. There are various stadias. Usually it's about 185 metres]
In this mountain there dwelt one of the earth-born primeval men of that country. His name was Evenor, and he had a wife named Leucippe, and they had an only daughter who was called Cleito. The maiden had already reached womanhood when her father and mother died; Poseidon fell in love with her and had intercourse with her. And breaking the ground, enclosed the hill in which she dwelt all round, the god made alternate zones of sea and land larger and smaller, encircling one another: There were two of land and three of water. He turned them as with a lathe: Each had its circumference equidistant every way from the centre, so that no man could get to the island, for ships and voyages were not as yet.
He himself, being a god, found no difficulty in making special arrangements for the centre island. There he brought up two springs of water from beneath the earth. One was of warm water and the other of cold. He made every variety of food to spring up abundantly from the soil. He also begat and brought up five pairs of twin male children. Then, dividing the island of Atlantis into ten portions, he gave to the first-born of the eldest pair his mother's dwelling and the surrounding allotment. That part was the largest and best. The god also made him king over the rest.
The others were made princes. The god gave them rule over many men, and a large territory. He named them all.
The couples of twins after Poseidon

• The eldest, who was the first king, he named Atlas, and after him the whole island and the ocean were called Atlantic. To his twin brother, who was born after him, and obtained as his lot the extremity of the island towards the Pillars of Hercules, facing the country which is now called the region of Gades in that part of the world, he gave the name which in the Hellenic language is Eumelus, in the language of the country which is named after him, Gadeirus.
• Of the second pair of twins he called one Ampheres, and the other Evaemon.
• To the elder of the third pair of twins he gave the name Mneseus, and Autochthon to the one who followed him.
• Of the fourth pair of twins he called the elder Elasippus, and the younger Mestor.
• And of the fifth pair he gave to the elder the name of Azaes, and to the younger that of Diaprepes.
All these and their descendants for many generations were the inhabitants and rulers of divers islands in the open sea; and also, as has been already said, they held sway in our direction over the country within the Pillars as far as Egypt and Tyrrhenia.
Resources found back in Atlantis
Now Atlas had a numerous and honourable family, and they retained the kingdom, the eldest son handing it on to his eldest for many generations; and they had such an amount of wealth as was never before possessed by kings and potentates. It isn't likely ever to be again either. They were furnished with everything which they needed, both in the city and country. For because of the greatness of their empire many things were brought to them from foreign countries, and the island itself provided most of what was needed by them for the uses of life. In the first place, they dug out of the earth whatever was to be found there, solid as well as fusile.
They also dug out what is now only a name and was then something more than a name, orichalcum. It was dug out of the earth in many parts of the island, and was more precious in those days than anything except gold.
There was an abundance of wood for carpenter's work, and enough of tame and wild animals. Moreover, there were a lot elephants in the island. Yes, as there was provision for all other sorts of animals, both for those which live in lakes and marshes and rivers, and also for those which live in mountains and on plains, so there was for the animal which is the largest and most voracious of all.
Also whatever fragrant things there now are in the earth, whether roots, or herbage, or woods, or essences which distil from fruit and flower, grew and thrived in that land; also the fruit which admits of cultivation, both the dry sort, which is given us for nourishment and any other which we use for food-we call them all by the common name pulse, and the fruits having a hard rind, affording drinks and meats and ointments.
Besides there was a good store of chestnuts and the like: they furnish pleasure and amusement. There are fruits which spoil with keeping, and the pleasant kinds of dessert, with which we console ourselves after dinner, when we are tired of eating-all these
That sacred island which then beheld the light of the sun, brought forth fair and wondrous fruit and in infinite abundance.
With such blessings the earth freely furnished them; meanwhile they went on constructing their temples and palaces and harbours and docks. They arranged the whole country in the following manner:
How they arranged the land
First of all they bridged over the zones of sea which surrounded the ancient metropolis, making a road to and from the royal palace. And at the very beginning they built the palace in the habitation of the god and of their ancestors, which they continued to ornament in successive generations, every king surpassing the one who went before him to the utmost of his power, until they made the building a marvel to behold for size and for beauty. And beginning from the sea they bored a canal of three hundred feet in width and one hundred feet in depth and fifty stadia in length, which they carried through to the outermost zone, making a passage from the sea up to this, which became a harbour, and leaving an opening sufficient to enable the largest vessels to find ingress. Moreover, they divided at the bridges the zones of land which parted the zones of sea, leaving room for a single trireme to pass out of one zone into another, and they covered over the channels so as to leave a way underneath for the ships; for the banks were raised considerably above the water. Now the largest of the zones into which a passage was cut from the sea was three stadia in breadth, and the zone of land which came next of equal breadth; but the next two zones, the one of water, the other of land, were two stadia, and the one which surrounded the central island was a stadium only in width. The island in which the palace was situated had a diameter of five stadia. All this including the zones and the bridge, which was the sixth part of a stadium in width, they surrounded by a stone wall on every side, placing towers and gates on the bridges where the sea passed in. The stone which was used in the work they quarried from underneath the centre island, and from underneath the zones, on the outer as well as the inner side. One kind was white, another black, and a third red, and as they quarried, they at the same time hollowed out double docks, having roofs formed out of the native rock. Some of their buildings were simple, but in others they put together different stones, varying the colour to please the eye, and to be a natural source of delight. The entire circuit of the wall, which went round the outermost zone, they covered with a coating of brass, and the circuit of the next wall they coated with tin, and the third, which encompassed the citadel, flashed with the red light of orichalcum.