Music
of the
Mythos
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For
Glass Armonica Composed
and performed by |
Atlantis
must have been a magnificent place
to still resonate in our consciousness
after so many thousands of years
Ancient stories of a catastrophic flood have been recorded by civilizations around the world. One such account comes down to us from Plato (427 - 347 B.C.) concerning an ancient continent called "Atlantis" that existed 9,000 years before him. In fact, Plato’s account is the only ancient account of Atlantis. He describes how Atlantis was founded by the Greek god Poseidon and his sons and daughters by a mortal woman named Cleito. Plato describes at length the vast and wealthy nation they built:
"For their intentions were true and in all ways noble, and they showed gentleness with wisdom towards all their fortunes of life and in their dealings with each other. Thus, except for virtue, they paid little heed of their present wealthy circumstances and lightly bore, as it were, the burden of their gold and their ample possessions. In their sober-mindedness they clearly saw that all these good things are increased when general amity is combined with virtue.
But later in Plato's account:
"But after that, when the portion of divinity within them became forgotten, they became unsightly through being unable to handle their present circumstances. And Zeus, the god of gods, who reigns in Law, was mindful of how this fair race was in a wretched plight, and wished to inflict justice on them in order that — having been chastised — they might sound a truer note. So he assembled all the gods into their most honored abode [Olympus], and beholding all living things that partake of generation, and having assembled them, he said:
At
this point Plato's story comes to an abrupt end. The rest of his account,
like Atlantis herself, has completely vanished into the mists of the
distant past. All that remains is an ocean — the one into which Atlantis
presumably disappeared — which still bears her name:
the Atlantic Ocean.
(Quotations from Plato's Critias — translated by William Wilde Zeitler)
Elegy for Atlantis - CD: $16.95 (US) Add to Cart
1. The Oracle Speaks (3:44) | |
2. Song of Desire (3:47) | |
3. Sacred Groves (2:20) | |
4. Royal City (4:46) | |
5. Deep Blue (4:49) | |
6. Hymn to Poseidon (5:23) | |
7. Pillars of Hercules (4:51) | |
8. Utopia (5:47) | |
9. Crystalline Temple (3:19) | |
10. Nightfall (3:09) | |
11. A New Heaven & Earth (4:22) | |
12. Elegy for Atlantis (6:54) |
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