Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922, 1916-06-25
ATLANTIS, ISLAND
OF ANCIENT MYTH
VRierre Termier, French Author,
Points Out That in Remote Past
Land Might Have Existed.
SOME CITATIONS ARE MADE

Washington, June Z4.-ConcernnB
the fact that the great continent of
Atlantis may once have existed, Mon
sieur Pierre Termer of the French
Academy of Sciences remarks in
recently published separate of the
Smithsonian annual report:
mo affirmation is yet permissible,
but it seems more and more evident
thatCa vast region, continental or
made of great islands, has collapsed
west of the Pillars of Hercules, other
wise call the Strait of Gibraltar, and
that its collapse occurred in the not
far distant past. In any event, the
question Of Atlantis is placed anew
before men Of science"
To many minds Atlantis has been
tabled country, a part of the inter
esting mythology of the eastern
world. an inexhaustible subject for
poets from the days OF Plato on, but
now M. Termier says:
1T may be, indeed, that the poets
were once more right. After long
period of disdainful indifference, OBJ
serve how in the last few years sci
ence is returning to the study of At
lantis. How many naturalists, geolo-
gists, biologists, or botanists, are
asking one another today whether
Plato has not transmitted to us, with
slight amplification, page from ac-
tual history of mankind"
From the Smithsonian pamphlet, in
which M. Termier quotes part of
Plato's dialogue "Timaeus," or Con
corning Nature" the following facts,
as stated by an old Egyptian priest,
are secured:
Kings Of Great Power.
Athens was destroyed by sin
gularly powerful army which came
from an island larger than Libya, and
even Asia, lying in the Atlantic ocean
beyond the strait called the Pillars
of Hercules, and from them to the
entire continent which surrounds the
interior sea. In the Island of Atlantis
reigned kings of amazing power, hav'
ing under their domain several other
islands also, and some parts OF the
continent, as we'll as Libya as far cas-
as Egypt, and Europe as far as the
Tyrrhenian sea. All this power wa:
once united to subjugate Athens, bu
the Athenians stopped the invasion
and restored all the nations living or
that side (east) of the Pillars of Her
cules to independence. Later, witt
great earthquakes and foundations
in single day and one fatal night
all who had been warriors agains
Athens were swallowed up, and thu
Island Of Atlantis disappeared be
meath the sea.
The author says that tho above mar
rative has not at all the coloring o
a fable, but an exactness almost scien
tific. 1t may be thought that the di
mansions of the Island of Atlantis ar
slightly exaggerated here, but W
must remember that the Egyptial
priest did not know the immensit.
of Asia.
In another dialogue, "Concernin
Atlantis" which is also from TIL
"Timaeus," Plato describes the ia
nous island:
Told by Tradition.
According to Egyptian tradition
common, war arose 5000 years ag
between the nations on this side c
the Pillars of Hercules and tho ma
tons coming from beyond. On on
side it was Athens; on the other tn
kings of Atlantis. We have alread
said that this island was larger tina
Asia and Africa, but that it beeam
submerged following an earthquake
and that it's place is no longer me
with except as sand bar which stop
navigators and renders the sea in
passable."
Plato also develops the Egyptia
tradition of the fabulous origin of A
\ lantis, fallen to the share of Neptun
y and on which this god placed his te
mortal children. He describes tn
cradle of the Atlantic race as ferti
plain located near the sea and opel
ing into the central part of the islam
About it a circle of mountains prt
tect the plain from the icy blasts {
the north; in these superb mountain
there are numerous villages, rich ar
populous. In the plain there is
magnificent city, the palaces and ten
Piles of which are constructed fro
stones of three colors drawn from IL
very bosom of the island; here ar
there are mines yielding all the meta
useful to man, and finally, the shor,
of the island rise perpendicularly ar
commanding above the tumultuo,
sea. We may smile in reading, b
the geographic description of II
island is not of the sort which OF
jokes about and forgets. This d
scription tallies we'll with what v
would imagine today of great lai
submerged in the region of Il
Azores and enjoying the -etern
springtime, which is the endowme
of these islands; land formed fro
a basement of ancient rocks bearin
with some fragments of whitish C;
careous terranes, extinct volcan
~~ mountains and lava flows, black
red, long since grown cold.
Looks to Future.
Such is the story of the Atlantis
Plato, history fabulous in its origin
like the majority of histories, yet e
tremely exact and highly probable
its details and tragic terminate
This is all that antiquity teaches
for the accounts of Theopompus a
Marcellus, much wagner than that
Plato, are interesting only from t
Isl impression that they leave us Of t
wide circulation of the legend amo
the peoples along the Mediterrane
shores. Down to very nearly Q
own area, there was a general bell
all about the Mediterranean, in t