jeudi, mai 05, 2005

WE HAVE ALWAYS EXISTED

Athens Older than China


When children look at pictures of their parents' wedding, they usually ask Where was I?, assuming that they have always existed. Plato transfers this infantile notion to the collective ego and assumes that Athens has always existed:

Let me begin by observing first of all, that nine thousand was the sum of years which had elapsed since the war which was said to have taken place between those who dwelt outside the Pillars of Heracles and all who dwelt within them; this war I am going to describe. Of the combatants on the one side, the city of Athens was reported to have been the leader and to have fought out the war; the combatants on the other side were commanded by the kings of Atlantis, which, as was saying, was an island greater in extent than Libya and Asia, and when afterwards sunk by an earthquake, became an impassable barrier of mud to voyagers sailing from hence to any part of the ocean. The progress of the history will unfold the various nations of barbarians and families of Hellenes which then existed, as they successively appear on the scene; but I must describe first of all Athenians of that day, and their enemies who fought with them, and then the respective powers and governments of the two kingdoms. Let us give the precedence to Athens.

Plato Critias
Written 360 B.C
(Translated by Benjamin Jowett )


posted by Tony Marmo @ 7:33:00 AM