atlantida Tou Okeanou, in ancient Greek Linear B' script

Select your language

 

The Atlantians and the Amazons of Libya
(by Diodorus Siculus and Herodotus)

The Atlantians and the Amazons, according to Diodorus Siculus (Historical Library, book three, chapters 53, 54, 56)

The ancient Greek historical Diodorus of Sicily provides us with many interesting facts by writing very revealingly in his book above about the life and culture of two peoples who lived in Libya (Africa): 1) about the Amazons, a female-dominated tribe that lived on the island Hespera in the Lake Tritonis near the Atlas mountain, 2) about the Atlantians, the most civilized people of that region who lived in an area on the African coast of the Ocean (at that time this area was called Libya), with the coastal city of Cerne as their capital, 3) for the conquest of the Atlantians by the Amazons 4) about another race dominated by women, called the Mermaids, who lived next to the Atlanteans and constantly attacked them

Η οροσειρά τοτ Ατλαντα στην Αφρική
The Atlas Mountains in Africa today

Since at the time of Diodorus most writers believed that the only Amazons who existed in the prehistoric ages were the Amazons who inhabited the Black Sea, Diodorus additionally specifies in the same book (III, chapter 52) that the Libyan Amazons performed deeds of great worth and they lived much earlier (older) than the Pontic Amazons (who lived in the Thermodontus River). He also mentions some chronological orientation, writing that "the generation of the Libyan Amazons disappeared many generations before the Trojan war, while the women of the Thermodontus River flourished just before the Trojans. And it is not unreasonable that the later and better-known ones inherited the glory of the older ones because of the intervening years".

Pay close attention below, the descriptions of the Diodorus are shocking, according to them the history of the Atlantians of Libya is closely intertwined with the history of the African Amazons.

Chapter 53.

1 ... We are told, namely, that there was once on the western parts of Libya, on the bounds of the inhabited world, a race which was ruled by women and followed a manner of life unlike that which prevails among us. For it was the custom among them that the women should practise the arts of war and be required to serve in the army for a fixed period, during which time they maintained their virginity; then, when the years of their service in the field had expired, they went in to the men for the procreation of children, but they kept in their hands the administration of the magistracies and of all the affairs of the state ...

3 ... When their children were born the babies were turned over to the men, who brought them up on milk and such cooked foods as were appropriate to the age of the infants; and if it happened that a girl was born, its breasts were p251seared that they might not develop at the time of maturity; for they thought that the breasts, as they stood out from the body, were no small hindrance in warfare; and in fact it is because they have been deprived of their breasts that they are called by the Greeks Amazons

4  As mythology relates, their home was on an island which, because it was in the west, was called Hespera, and it lay in the lake Tritonis. This lake was near the ocean which surrounds the earth and received its name from a certain river Triton which emptied into it; and this lake was also near Ethiopia and that mountain by the shore of the ocean which is the highest of those in the vicinity and impinges upon the ocean and is called by the Greeks Atlas ....

6 ... And after this Amazons subdued many of the neighbouring Libyans and nomad tribes, and founded within the lake Tritonis a great city which they named Cherronesus after its shape.

The invasion of the Amazons in the land of the Atlantians of Libya

Map of the world according to Eratosthenes (220 BC)
Map of the world according to Eratosthenes in 220 BC.
To the left on the coast of Libya was the city of Cerne, capital of the Atlantians.

Chapter 54.

1 Setting out from the city of Cherronesus, the account continues, the Amazons embarked upon great ventures, a longing having come over them to invade many part of the inhabited world. The first people against whom they advanced, according to the tale, was the Atlantians, the most civilized men among the inhabitants of those regions, who dwelt in a prosperous country and possessed great cities; it was among them, we are told, that mythology places the birth of the gods, in the regions which lie along the shore of the ocean, in this respect agreeing with those among the Greeks who relate legends, and about this we shall speak in detail a little later ...

2 ... Now the queen of the Amazons, Myrina, collected, it is said, an army of thirty thousand foot-soldiers and three thousand cavalry, since they favoured to an unusual degree the use of cavalry in their wars ...

4 ... Upon entering the land of the Atlantians they defeated in a pitched battle the inhabitants of the city of Cernê, as it is called, and making their way inside the walls along with the fleeing enemy, they got the city into their hands; and desiring to strike terror into the neighbouring peoples they treated the captives savagely, put to the sword the men from the youth upward, led into slavery the children and women, and razed the city ...

...But when the terrible fate of the inhabitants of Cernê became known among their fellow tribesmen, it is related that the Atlantians, struck with terror, surrendered their cities on terms of capitulation and announced that they would do whatever should be commanded them, and that the queen Myrina, bearing herself honourably towards the Atlantians, both established friendship with them and founded a city to bear her name in place of the city which had been razed; and in it she settled both the captives and any native who so desired.

Whereupon the Atlantians presented her with magnificent presents and by public decree voted to her notable honours, and she in return accepted their courtesy and in addition promised that she would show kindness to their nation ...

The Atlantes of Africa and the "sea of Atlantis" according to Herodotus

 Diodorus Siculus was not the only historian who wrote about an Atlantean tribe that once lived on the coast of Northwest Africa (then called Libya). A few centuries before Diodorus, the ancient historian Herodotus (484-425 BC), who was rightly established as the "father of history", gives us approximately the same information, describing the geography of Africa and the customs and habits of the peoples who lived there earlier in this, in his work "Historiai". Herodotus mentions that there used to be a people who lived in different areas of the Atlas mountain. He even describes the mountain with the shape of a perfect circle (conical), with a small area and with very high peaks that are impossible to see because they were covered with clouds in winter and summer. From the name of this mountain these people were called "Atlantes".

... After another ten days' journey there is again a hillock of salt, and water, and men dwelling there. Near to this salt is a mountain called Atlas, the shape whereof is slender and a complete circle; and it is said to be so high that its summits cannot be seen, for cloud is ever upon them winter and summer. The people of the country call it the pillar of heaven. These men have got their name, which is Atlantes, from this mountain. It is said that they eat no living creature, and see no dreams in their sleep... (Herodotus, Historiai, 4th book, par. 184.3 - 184.4)

Related to the above is also the name given by Herodotus for the sea to the west of North Africa, where the Atlantes were located and outside the columns of Herakles, in his first book. He calls it "the sea of ​​Atlantis" and not the Atlantic Ocean, describing the seas around the Mediterranean:

...This is a sea by itself (note: he means the Caspian sea) which is not united with the other sea. For that in which the Greeks sail, and the sea beyond the pillars of Herakles, which they call the sea of ​​Atlantis, and the Red Sea, are all one: but the Caspian is distinct and of itself... (Herodotus, Book I (Clio), Paragraph 203)

Historical analysis - Comments

It may be curious but not coincidental that first Herodotus mentions a Libyan people named "Atlantes" and after 400 years Diodorus Siculus mentions a people named "Atlantians" (who coexisted with the Amazons and the Mermaids). Were they two different peoples living in different periods of time or were they the same people?

From the fact that they lived roughly in the same areas of Northwest Africa and their names are formed from the same root "atl" or "atlan" it is inferred that both peoples were at least related (in origin) tribes who may have lived at different times. And furthermore, if they lived in the same time period then it surely follows that they were the same people (the slight difference in the ending of the name does not play any role here). So they were a tribe or two related tribes with names that refer to the land of Atlantis.

If we follow, during or before its final destruction, the historical route of the inhabitants of Atlantis starting from the "Atlantis island of the Ocean", then it is reasonable to expect the migration of the surviving Atlanteans precisely to the regions of Libya described by Herodotus and Diodorus Siculus. These coastal areas around the Atlas Mountains became their new homeland and their springboard for new migrations to the east. Even their distant descendants, the Atlantians, lived there until "many generations before the Trojan war" according to Diodorus.

The "Atlantes" of Herodotus and the "Atlantians" of Diodorus Siculus were doubtless the descendants of the survivors of the deluge, and finding themselves in North Africa, evidently retained memories of their gods, traditions, and culture, "the source of which was the ocean' (i.e. the Atlantic). It is also more than interesting and not coincidental that Herodotus (450 BC) had already called the ocean to their west by the name "Sea of Atlantis" almost a hundred years before Plato.