In this mountain there dwelt one of the earth born primeval men of
that country, whose 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, inclosed the hill in which she dwelt all round, making
alternate zones of sea and land larger and smaller, encircling one
another; there were two of land and three of water, which he turned as
with a lathe, each having 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, bringing up two
springs of water from beneath the earth, one of warm water and the
other of cold, and making every variety of food to spring up
abundantly from the soil. He also begat and brought up five pairs of
twin male children; and 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, which was the largest and
best, and made him king over the rest; the others he made princes, and
gave them rule over many men, and a large territory. And he named them
all; 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 Heracles, 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.
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, and is not likely ever to be again,
and 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 required 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, and that which is now only a
name and was then something more than a name, orichalcum, was dug out
of the earth in many parts of the island, being more precious in those
days than anything except gold. There was an abundance of wood for
carpenter's work, and sufficient maintenance for tame and wild
animals. Moreover, there were a great number of elephants in the
island; for 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, and good
store of chestnuts and the like, which furnish pleasure and amusement,
and are fruits which spoil with keeping, and the pleasant kinds of
dessert, with which we console ourselves after dinner, when we are