Poseidon wished to marry, and to secure her he surrounded the valley where
she dwelt with three rings of sea and two of land so that no one could
enter; and he made underground springs, with water hot or cold, and
supplied all things needful to the life of man. Here he lived with her for
many years, and they had ten sons; and these sons divided the island among
them and had many children, who dwelt there for more than a thousand
years. They had mines of gold and silver, and pastures for elephants, and
many fragrant plants. They erected palaces and dug canals; and they built
their temples of white, red, and black stone, and covered them with gold
and silver. In these were statues of gold, especially one of the god
Poseidon driving six winged horses. He was so large as to touch the roof
with his head, and had a hundred water-nymphs around him, riding on
dolphins. The islanders had also baths and gardens and sea-walls, and they
had twelve hundred ships and ten thousand chariots. All this was in the
royal city alone, and the people were friendly and good and
well-affectioned towards all. But as time went on they grew less so, and
they did not obey the laws, so that they offended heaven. In a single day
and night the island disappeared and sank beneath the sea; and this is why
the sea in that region grew so impassable and impenetrable, because there
is a quantity of shallow mud in the way, and this was caused by the
sinking of a single vast island."

"This is the tale," said Solon, "which the old Egyptian priest told to
me." And Solon's tale was read by Socrates, the boy, as he lay in the
grass; and he told it to his friends after he grew up, as is written in
his dialogues recorded by his disciple, Plato. And though this great
island of Atlantis has never been seen again, yet a great many smaller
islands have been found in the Atlantic Ocean, and they have sometimes
been lost to sight and found again.