Critias

Critias, one of Plato's late dialogues, recounts the story of the mighty island kingdom Atlantis and its attempt to conquer Athens, which failed due to the ordered society of the Athenians. Critias is the second of a projected trilogy of dialogues, preceded by Timaeus and followed by Hermocrates. The latter was possibly never written and the ending to Critias has been lost.

According to Critias, in ancient times, the Earth was divided among the gods by allotment. The gods treated the humans in their districts like sheep, tending and guiding them like possessions. They did this not by force, but by persuasion. In those days, the areas which are now the islands of Greece were high hills covered in good soil.

A number of great deluges came (including the global flood of Deucalion), and because no soil washed down from the mountains to replace the lost soil, the soil in that land was stripped away, causing much of the area to sink out of sight, and the islands that remained to become the "bones of a dead body."

Athens, in those days, was very different. The land was rich and water was brought in from underground springs (which were later destroyed by earthquake). Critias describes the civilization of Athens at that time as ideal: pursuing all virtue, living in moderation, and excelling in their work.

Atlantis was allotted to Poseidon. Poseidon fell in love with a mortal girl named Cleito (daughter of Evenor and Leucippe), and they had a number of children, the first of which was named Atlas, who inherited the kingdom and passed it onto his firstborn for many generations.

Critias then goes into a great deal of detail in describing the island of Atlantis and the Temple to Poseidon and Cleito on the island, and refers to the legendary metal orichalcum. Critias then reiterates the remarkable virtue of the Atlanteans. However, the Atlanteans became corrupt, as the divine portion of them began to fade away and became diluted with mortality.

Critias then says that Zeus, the god of gods, seeing the corruption of the Atlanteans, determined to chastise them. Zeus begins to speak; but what he says, and everything that follows in the Critias, remains nonextant.