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Plato, in the dialogue of “Critias”, is firstly referred to the war between Athenians-Atlanteans, the origin of the Atlanteans and their technical achievements while, finally, he makes a reference to the administration of Atlantis (word-by-word translation):
"...Atlantis was administrated by ten kings. The council of the ten with Atlas as a leader or the king of the central nation from the Atlas genre, took decisions for every case of the island, according to the laws of Poseidon. The same council judged the king who infringed the law. They organized, for the sake of this trial, a special ritual by sacrificing bulls, making libations and taking oaths that they will judge according to the laws written on the relevant pillars. They wore a beautiful azure uniform and hung on them a golden table, where they wrote the verdict.
The law that controlled the mutual affairs and the power of the kings was curved, as ordered by Poseidon, on a brass pillar, placed in the central temple of the God. The oath taken by the kings included horrible curses for those who would violate it. As for the other topics, kings exercised absolute power to their subjects, but obeyed to the laws and honored god, by whom they came from.
Every share (department) of the country was a hundred stadions (18.500 square meters) in extent, while all together came to sixty thousand.
The inhabitants of the country were innumerable and therefore lived in equally divided areas in villages and mountains having each one a leader. The leader of every area was obliged at wartime to mobilize soldiers and sailors and arm coaches.
During mobilization, people from all areas gathered ten thousand coaches, each one equipped by a couple of horses that pulled them, one coachman, two accompanying horses with two riders, two infantrymen heavily armed, two archers, two experts in throwing sling and three grinders and three men throwing stones. In the royal city they mobilized 4 sailors per region corresponding with each of the 1.200 boats. In the rest nine provinces the same system took valid. In this way everything was classified.
The Atlanteans ruled over many other islands of the sea and around their Continent. As soon as they organized their country so perfectly, they expanded towards Egypt and Tyrrhenia and later to other places of the earth. They stayed in Europe and seized all of their then known countries and the known areas of Asia. However, as mentioned in the beginning, the troops that marched out against Greece, while managed to seize the coasts of southwest Peloponnese, did not occupy Athens, according to the Sais scripts.
The dwellers of Atlantis lived peacefully, made good use of what earth provided and developed their culture. They had high morals, obeyed to the rules, leaders, priests and fortune-tellers, who took care of their health and convenience.Their morals “reflected honesty and bravery in all circumstances”. They did not have feelings of hatred and could control themselves without being carried away by passions. As long as they lived in their land they have not been taken over by wealth and comfortable life. They were pious and fair.
But later, when their faith to god was lost, the corruption begun. The divine-immortal element has been mixed many times with the mortal and dominated over the human ethics. People did not have the power to retain their harmony and their behavior was horrid. They became arrogant regarding themselves as the best nation and were obsessed by the passion to increase their wealth and power.
When Zeus saw how these kind people were being driven to misery, decided to punish them so as to be more careful. He then invited all the gods to their most gorgeous palace and said to them..."
At this point the dialogue of “Critias” ends, but Plato with the phrase in the beginning of this dialogue “as mentioned previously” is referred to “Timaeus”.
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Zeus (Dias)
Zeus was the chief deity of the pantheon for the ancient Greeks, the “father of humans and gods” for Homer. He was, according to Greek mythology, son of Cronus and Rhea and brother of Poseidon, Hades, Hestia, Demeter and Hera (also husband). As soon as Rhea delivered him, she hid the infant Zeus in a cave on Crete in order to save him by Cronus, who swallowed his sons, because of the fate that one of them would dethrone him. There he was nursed by the nymph (or female goat) Amalthaea. After Zeus grew to manhood he led a revolt against the Titans and Giants and succeeded in dethroning Cronus, with the assistance of his brothers Hades and Poseidon, with whom he then divided dominion over the world. During the draw, sea fell in Poseidon, the lower world in Hades and in Zeus the sky and the earth. So Zeus became a ruler and dispensed justice to the world by the foot of Olympus.
Ancient statues and temples in honor of Zeus
Statue of Zeus in ancient Olympia. This sculpture is a fictitious reconstruction of the statue of Zeus, created by the ancient sculptor Pheidias in 435 BC in the temple of Zeus in ancient Olympia. It was one of the most perfect masterpieces of ancient Greece. Its height was 13 m. The mantle and jewels were made of sheets of gold. Its body, face, right shoulder, arms and the lower part of its feet were made of ivory. The god hold in its right hand the Winged Victory made of gold and ivory symbolizing his victory against Titans. In his left hand there was a sceptre, 4 m. high that ended in an eagle, symbol of his power. The pedestal of the statue was made of azure of Eleusis marble and had luxuriously graven images (Sun on his chariot, emerging Venus, Amphitrite and Poseidon, Hera, Hermes and Hestia, Athena and Hercules etc.). This statue has been plundered in 80 BC by Sulla and in 393 AD by Alaric, chief of the Visigoths.
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The Pillars of the god Zeus
(in Athens)
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