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 I 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 the
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.

In the days of old, the gods had the whole earth distributed among them by
allotment (Cp. Polit.) There was no quarrelling; for you cannot rightly
suppose that the gods did not know what was proper for each of them to
have, or, knowing this, that they would seek to procure for themselves by
contention that which more properly belonged to others. They all of them
by just apportionment obtained what they wanted, and peopled their own
districts; and when they had peopled them they tended us, their nurselings
and possessions, as shepherds tend their flocks, excepting only that they
did not use blows or bodily force, as shepherds do, but governed us like
pilots from the stern of the vessel, which is an easy way of guiding
animals, holding our souls by the rudder of persuasion according to their
own pleasure;--thus did they guide all mortal creatures. Now different
gods had their allotments in different places which they set in order.
Hephaestus and Athene, who were brother and sister, and sprang from the
same father, having a common nature, and being united also in the love of
philosophy and art, both obtained as their common portion this land, which
was naturally adapted for wisdom and virtue; and there they implanted brave
children of the soil, and put into their minds the order of government;