Ignatius Donnelly: Antediluvian world

------------------------------------------------------------------------ATLANTIS

THE ANTEDILUVIAN WORLD.

BY

IGNATIUS DONNELLY.

The world has made such comet-like advance Lately on science, we may almost hope, Before we die of sheer decay, to learn Something about our infancy; when lived That great, original, broad-eyed, sunken race, Whose knowledge, like the sea-sustaining rocks, Hath formed the base of this world’s fluctuous lore

FESTUS

. Frontpiece: The Profile of Atlantis

CONTENTS

.

PART I.

THE HISTORY OF ATLANTIS.

I. THE PURPOSE OF THE BOOK

II. PLATO’S HISTORY OF ATLANTIS

III. THE PROBABILITIES OF PLATO’S STORY

IV. WAS SUCH A CATASTROPHE POSSIBLE?

V. THE TESTIMONY OF THE SEA

VI. THE TESTIMONY OF THE FLORA AND FAUNA PART II.

THE DELUGE.

I. THE DESTRUCTION OF ATLANTIS DESCRIBED IN THE DELUGE LEGENDS

II. THE DELUGE OF THE BIBLE

III. THE DELUGE OF THE CHALDEANS

IV. THE DELUGE LEGENDS OF OTHER NATIONS

V. THE DELUGE LEGENDS OF AMERICA

VI. SOME CONSIDERATION OF THE DELUGE LEGENDS

PART III

THE CIVILIZATION OF THE OLD WORLD AND NEW COMPARED.

I. CIVILIZATION AN INHERITANCE

II. THE IDENTITY OF THE CIVILIZATIONS OF THE OLD WORLD AND THE NEW

III. AMERICAN EVIDENCES OF INTERCOURSE WITH EUROPE OR ATLANTIS

IV. CORROBORATING CIRCUMSTANCES

V. THE QUESTION OF COMPLEXION

VI. GENESIS CONTAINS A HISTORY OF ATLANTIS

VII. THE: ORIGIN OF OUR ALPHABET

VIII. THE BRONZE AGE IN EUROPE

IX. ARTIFICIAL DEFORMATION OF THE SKULL

PART IV.

THE MYTHOLOGIES OF THE OLD WORLD A RECOLLECTION OF ATLANTIS.

I. TRADITIONS OF ATLANTIS

II. THE KINGS OF ATLANTIS BECOME THE GODS OF THE GREEKS

III. THE GODS OF THE PHOENICIANS ALSO KINGS OF ATLANTIS

IV. THE GOD ODIN, WODEN, OR WOTAN

V. THE PYRAMID, THE CROSS, AND THE GARDEN OF EDEN

VI. GOLD AND SILVER THE SACRED METALS OF ATLANTIS

PART V.

THE COLONIES OF ATLANTIS.

I. THE CENTRAL AMERICAN AND MEXICAN COLONIES

II. THE EGYPTIAN COLONY

III. THE COLONIES OF THE MISSISSIPPI VALLEY

IV. THE IBERIAN COLONIES OF ATLANTIS

V. THE PERUVIAN COLONY

VI. THE AFRICAN COLONIES

VII. THE IRISH COLONIES FROM ATLANTIS

VIII. THE OLDEST SON OF NOAH

IX. THE ANTIQUITY OF SOME OF OUR GREAT INVENTIONS

X. THE ARYAN COLONIES FROM ATLANTIS

XI. ATLANTIS RECONSTRUCTED

ATLANTIS:

THE ANTEDILUVIAN WORLD.

PART I. THE HISTORY OF ATLANTIS.

CHAPTER I.

THE PURPOSE OF THE BOOK.

This book is an attempt to demonstrate several distinct and novel propositions. These are:

1. That there once existed in the Atlantic Ocean, opposite the mouth of the Mediterranean Sea, a large island, which was the remnant of an Atlantic continent, and known to the ancient world as Atlantis.

2. That the description of this island given by Plato is not, as has been long supposed, fable, but veritable history.

3. That Atlantis was the region where man first rose from a state of barbarism to civilization.

4. That it became, in the course of ages, a populous and mighty nation, from whose overflowings the shores of the Gulf of Mexico, the Mississippi River, the Amazon, the Pacific coast of South America, the Mediterranean, the west coast of Europe and Africa, the Baltic, the Black Sea, and the Caspian were populated by civilized nations.

5. That it was the true Antediluvian world; the Garden of Eden; the Gardens of the Hesperides; the Elysian Fields; the Gardens of Alcinous; the Mesomphalos; the Olympos; the Asgard of the traditions of the ancient nations; representing a universal memory of a great land, where early mankind dwelt for ages in peace and happiness.

6. That the gods and goddesses of the ancient Greeks, the Phoenicians, the Hindoos, and the Scandinavians were simply the kings, queens, and heroes of Atlantis; and the acts attributed to them in mythology are a confused recollection of real historical events.

7. That the mythology of Egypt and Peru represented the original religion of Atlantis, which was sun-worship.

8. That the oldest colony formed by the Atlanteans was probably in Egypt, whose civilization was a reproduction of that of the Atlantic island.

9. That the implements of the “Bronze Age” of Europe were derived from Atlantis. The Atlanteans were also the first manufacturers of iron.

10. That the Phoenician alphabet, parent of all the European alphabets, was derived from an Atlantis alphabet, which was also conveyed from Atlantis to the Mayas of Central America.

11. That Atlantis was the original seat of the Aryan or Indo-European family of nations, as well as of the Semitic peoples, and possibly also of the Turanian races.

12. That Atlantis perished in a terrible convulsion of nature, in which the whole island sunk into the ocean, with nearly all its inhabitants.

13. That a few persons escaped in ships and on rafts, and, carried to the nations east and west the tidings of the appalling catastrophe, which has survived to our own time in the Flood and Deluge legends of the different nations of the old and new worlds.

If these propositions can be proved, they will solve many problems which now perplex mankind; they will confirm in many respects the statements in the opening chapters of Genesis; they will widen the area of human history; they will explain the remarkable resemblances which exist between the ancient civilizations found upon the opposite shores of the Atlantic Ocean, in the old and new worlds; and they will aid us to rehabilitate the fathers of our civilization, our blood, and our fundamental ideas-the men who lived, loved, and labored ages before the Aryans descended upon India, or the Phoenician had settled in Syria, or the Goth had reached the shores of the Baltic.

The fact that the story of Atlantis was for thousands of years regarded as a fable proves nothing. There is an unbelief which grows out of ignorance, as well as a scepticism which is born of intelligence. The people nearest to the past are not always those who are best informed concerning the past.

For a thousand years it was believed that the legends of the buried cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum were myths: they were spoken of as “the fabulous cities.” For a thousand years the educated world did not credit the accounts given by Herodotus of the wonders of the ancient civilizations of the Nile and of Chaldea. He was called “the father of liars.” Even Plutarch sneered at him. Now, in the language of Frederick Schlegel, “the deeper and more comprehensive the researches of the moderns have been, the more their regard and esteem for Herodotus has increased.” Buckle says, “His minute information about Egypt and Asia Minor is admitted by all geographers.”

There was a time when the expedition sent out by Pharaoh Necho to circumnavigate Africa was doubted, because the explorers stated that after they had progressed a certain distance the sun was north of them; this circumstance, which then aroused suspicion, now proves to us that the Egyptian navigators had really passed the equator, and anticipated by 2100 years Vasquez de Gama in his discovery of the Cape of Good Hope.

If I succeed in demonstrating the truth of the somewhat startling propositions with which I commenced this chapter, it will only be by bringing to bear upon the question of Atlantis a thousand converging lines of light from a multitude of researches made by scholars in different fields of modern thought. Further investigations and discoveries will, I trust, confirm the correctness of the conclusions at which I have arrived.

CHAPTER II.

PLATO’S HISTORY OF ATLANTIS.

Plato has preserved for us the history of Atlantis. If our views are correct, it is one of the most valuable records which have come down to us from antiquity.