been established by Erichthonis in the most ancient times remembered by
the historical traditions of Athens. Boeckh says of them, in his
'Commentary on Plato:'

"'In the greater Panathenae there was carried in procession a peplum of
Minerva, representing the war with the giants and the victory of the
gods of Olympus. In the lesser Panathenae they carried another peplum
(covered with symbolic devices), which showed how the Athenians,
supported by Minerva, had the advantage in the war with the Atlantes.' A
scholia quoted from Proclus by Humboldt and Boeckh says: 'The historians
who speak of the islands of the exterior sea tell us that in their time
there were seven islands consecrated, to Proserpine, and three others of
immense extent, of which the first was consecrated to Pluto, the second
to Ammon, and the third to Neptune. The inhabitants of the latter had
preserved a recollection (transmitted to them by their ancestors) of the
island of Atlantis, which was extremely large, and for a long time held
sway over all the islands of the Atlantic Ocean. Atlantis was also
consecrated to Neptune."' (See Humboldt's "Histoire de la Geographie du
Nouveau Continent," vol. i.)

No one can read these legends and doubt that the Flood watt an
historical reality. It is impossible that in two different places in the
Old World, remote from each other, religious ceremonies should have been
established and perpetuated from age to age in memory of an event which
never occurred. We have seen that at Athens and at Hierapolis, in Syria,
pilgrims came from a distance to appease the god of the earthquake, by
pouring offerings into fissures of the earth said to have been made at
the time Atlantis was destroyed.

More than this, we know from Plato's history that the Athenians long