Sculptures of ancient gods. Poseidon from Cape Sounion, bronze statue

Zeus was the king of the gods, the god of the sky and weather, law, order and fate. He was depicted as a regal man, mature with a strong figure and a dark beard. His usual attributes were lightning bolts, a royal scepter, and an eagle. Father of Hercules, organizer of the Trojan War, fighter with a hundred-headed monster. He flooded the world so that humanity could begin to live anew.

Poseidon was the great Olympian god of the sea, rivers, floods and droughts, earthquakes, and also the patron of horses. He was depicted as a mature man of strong build with a dark beard and a trident. When the world was divided by Chron between his sons, he received rule over the sea.

Demeter was the great Olympian goddess of fertility, Agriculture, grains, and bread. She also presided over one of the mystical cults that promised their initiates the path to a blessed afterlife. Demeter was depicted as a mature woman, often crowned, holding wheat ears and a torch in her hand. She brought hunger to Earth, but she also sent the hero Triptolemos to teach people how to cultivate the land.

Hera was the queen of the Olympian gods and the goddess of women and marriage. She was also a goddess starry sky. She is usually portrayed as beautiful woman wearing a crown, holding a royal staff tipped with a lotus. She sometimes keeps a royal lion, cuckoo or hawk as companions. She was the wife of Zeus. She gave birth to a crippled baby Hephaestus, whom she threw from Heaven just by looking. He himself was the god of fire and a skilled blacksmith and patron of blacksmithing. Hera helped the Greeks in the Trojan War.

Apollo was the great god of Olympian prophecies and oracles, healing, plague and disease, music, songs and poetry, archery, and youth protection. He was depicted as a handsome, beardless youth with long hair and various paraphernalia such as wreath and laurel branch, bow and quiver, crow, and lyre. Apollo had a temple at Delphi.

Artemis was the great goddess of the hunt, wildlife, and wild animals. She was also the goddess of childbirth and the patroness of young girls. Her twin, Apollo's brother, was also the patron saint of teenage boys. Together these two gods were also arbiters sudden death and disease - Artemis targeted women and girls, and Apollo targeted men and boys.

AT ancient art Artemis, as a rule, is depicted as a girl dressed in a short knee-length chiton and equipped with a hunting bow and a quiver of arrows.

After her birth, she immediately helped her mother give birth to her twin brother Apollo. She turned the hunter Actaeon into a deer when he saw her bathing.

Hephaestus was the great Olympian god of fire, metalworking, stonework, and the art of sculpture. He was usually depicted as a bearded man with a hammer and tongs - blacksmith's tools, and riding a donkey.

Athena was the great Olympian goddess of wise advice, war, city defense, heroic efforts, weaving, pottery and other crafts. She was depicted wearing a helmet, armed with a shield and a spear, and wearing a cloak trimmed with a snake wrapped around her chest and arms, adorned with the head of a Gorgon.

Ares was the great Olympian god of war, civil order, and courage. In Greek art, he was depicted either as a mature, bearded warrior clad in battle armor, or as a naked, beardless youth with a helmet and spear. Due to lack hallmarks, it is often difficult to define in classical art.

Park Aivazovskoye, Park "Paradise" is located on the steep slopes of the amphitheater of a small bay in the village of Partenit between Cape Plaka and Cape Tepeler. The decoration of the park is the sculpture "Golden Horses", donated to the park by the President of Ukraine Leonid Kuchma

Sculpture "Poseidon"

Image ancient world in the Aivazovskoye park are emphasized by small forms of architecture (pergola, rotunda, garden furniture, etc.), Mediterranean vegetation, sculptures of gods, heroes and muses that are located here. Poseidon - in Greek mythology- one of the Olympian gods, the lord of the seas, the son of Kronos and Rhea who controls them with the help of a trident.

Sculpture "Faun and Nymph"

Faun and nymph.

The nymph bathed in the pond. The faun saw her there. I thought: - Now I'll come ... =))

"If I have the gift of prophecy, and know all the secrets,

and I have all knowledge and all faith,

so I can move mountains,

if I don't have love, then I'm nothing"

Sculpture "Dolphins"

Park Aivazovskoye, Park "Paradise" is located on the steep slopes of the amphitheater of a small bay in the village of Partenit between Cape Plaka and Cape Tepeler. The embankment of the park is also decorated original sculptures, as, for example, the sculpture "Dolphins"

Sculpture "Deer"

Park Aivazovskoye, Park "Paradise" is located on the steep slopes of the amphitheater of a small bay in the village of Partenit between Cape Plaka and Cape Tepeler. The park is decorated with sculptures, waterfalls, exotic plants. There are especially many deer

Sculpture "Flora"

Park Aivazovskoye, Park "Paradise" is located on the steep slopes of the amphitheater of a small bay in the village of Partenit between Cape Plaka and Cape Tepeler. The goddess Flora reigns in the Spring Garden. A gardener is watering forget-me-nots at the feet of a young goddess of blooming flowers.

Temple of Poseidon at Cape Sounion (near Athens): description, history of the cape, settlement with walls, other temples, map with stops, many photos, position of the Byron sign, opening hours, ticket price and other useful information.

Temple of Poseidon at Cape Sounion was the place where sailors prayed to God for a successful completion of the voyage, sacrificing animals and other gifts to him. The Temple of Poseidon is located 69 kilometers southeast of Athens and stands at an altitude of approximately 60 meters above sea level.

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Cape Sounion

Cape Sounion, the southernmost tip of Attica, was an important strategic point from which the city-state of Athens controlled the passage to the Aegean Sea, to Piraeus - the main port, as well as to the port city of Lavrion and the surrounding silver mines, thanks to which Athens became the main military and cultural center 5th century BC

The first to mention Cape Sounion Homer in his "Odyssey" (c. VIII century BC), describing it as "a cape sacred to the Athenians." The playwrights Euripides (in Cyclops) and Sophocles, as well as the “father of comedy” Aristophanes, wrote about the temple of Poseidon standing on it.

Let us leave all our doubts unresolved for the time being - we will return to them after considering other materials - and continue reading Plato.

“First of all, let us remember,” Critias begins his story in the second dialogue of Plato, “that about nine thousand years have passed since the time, they say, the war between all the inhabitants on this and that side of the Pillars of Heracles took place.”

There were at that time two powers - Greece and Atlantis. Other peoples obeyed one of them - “this city ruled over one side and waged, they say, all that war, and over the other - the kings of the island of Atlantis. The island of Atlantis, we said, was once larger than Libya and Asia, but now it has settled from earthquakes and left an impenetrable silt behind it, preventing swimmers from entering the outer sea from here, so that they can go no further.

When the world was divided among the gods, Greece, as we already know, fell to the lot of Athena; Poseidon chose Atlantis for himself. The gods "received what they liked, and settled in the countries, having settled, they fed us, their acquisition and care, like shepherds - their flocks ..."

People have forgotten what system was in these states in those ancient times. New generations knew only by hearsay the names of the rulers of these lands and their deeds, but even about this they had only a vague idea, because they were primarily occupied with the struggle for their daily bread, and “the spirit of storytelling and the study of antiquities entered the cities along with leisure ... »

“Therefore, with many great floods that have taken place over the course of nine thousand years - for so many years have passed from that time to the present - the earth during this time and under such conditions, flowing down from heights, did not (here), as in other places, significant sediment, but, washed off from all sides, disappeared in the depths. And now, in comparison with the then, as it happens on small islands, it seems to be only the skeleton of a large body, because with the earth everything that was fat and soft in it has floated away and one thin body remains. And then, not yet damaged, she had in place of the current hills high mountains, in the so-called Felleian valleys now, had valleys full of earthen fat, and contained many forests on the mountains, of which clear traces are still visible today. Of the mountains there are now those that deliver food to only bees; but not so long ago roofs (built) of trees were intact, which, like excellent building material, were cut down there for the greatest buildings. There were many other beautiful and tall trees, while the country supplied the richest fodder to livestock. Moreover, at that time it was irrigated annually with heavenly rains, without losing them, as now, when rainwater floats off the bare land into the sea; no, receiving a lot of it and absorbing it into itself, the soil of the country kept it between clay barriers and then, lowering the absorbed water from the heights into empty lowlands, gave birth everywhere to abundant water streams in the form of streams and rivers, from which even now, in large places when flows, sacred signs remain, testifying that we are now speaking the truth about this country.

This is how the Peloponnese peninsula and Athens looked before “one excessively rainy night, having dissolved the soil around, completely bared it from the ground, and at the same time an earthquake occurred and for the first time the third terrible flood before the Deucalion disaster happened. In its former volume, at a different time, it extended from Eridanus and Ilissus and capturing the Pnyx, had Lycabettus opposite the Pnyx, was completely covered with earth, with the exception of a few places, had a flat surface. Its outer parts, under the very slopes, were inhabited by artisans and those of the farmers whose fields were nearby, while in the upper ones, near the temple of Athena and Hephaestus, the military estate settled down completely separately, surrounding everything, like the courtyard of one house, with one fence.

In this country lived people famous for "the beauty of the body and various valor" both in Europe and in Asia. The composition of her army "both men and women, capable of waging war now and in the future, always remained the same in number, that is, it contained at least twenty thousand." To oppose the Athenians, the Atlanteans had to gather all their forces.

Critias prefaces his account of Atlantis with a brief remark: “Do not be surprised if you often hear from barbarian men Greek names. You will know the reason for this. With the intention of using this legend for his poem, Solon looked for the meaning of the names and found that those first Egyptians wrote them down in translation into their language; therefore, he himself, grasping the meaning of each name, wrote it down in translation into our language. My grandfather had these notes, and I still have them, and I reread them as a child. So, if you hear names the same as ours, do not be surprised - you know the reason for this.

When "Poseidon received the island of Atlantis as his inheritance," he "settled his descendants there, born of a mortal wife, in this kind of terrain. From the sea, towards the middle, lay all over the island a plain, said to be the most beautiful of all plains, and quite fertile. On the plain, again in the direction of the middle of the island, at a distance of fifty stadia, there was a mountain, small in circumference. On that mountain there lived one of the people who was born there from the very beginning from the earth, named Evenor, together with his wife Leucippe; they had an only daughter, Clito. When the girl had already reached the time of marriage, her mother and father died.

Evenor and Leucippe, like Adam and Eve, were mortal people. Evenor means "brave" and Leucippe literally means "white horse" (Poseidon in ancient times revered in the form of a horse). Feeling a passion for Clito, Poseidon “combined with her and with a strong fence circled around the hill on which she lived, building one after the other large and smaller rings alternately from sea water and earth, namely two from earth and three from water, on an equal footing. everywhere at a distance from one another, as if carving them out of the middle of the island, so that that hill became inaccessible to people; after all, there were no ships and navigation at that time. ”

Plan of the capital of Atlantis according to Plato's description. The shores of the island between the second and third inland harbors are circled stone walls with towers. The hippodrome was 1 stadia wide. In the port, under the walls of the embankment, there were covered docks.

The capital of Posidonia is depicted in the accompanying drawing, which is exactly as described. It shows a system of ring-shaped canals surrounding the central part, in which the royal palace is located on a hill. Water from cold and hot springs was supplied for irrigation of gardens and space heating. Poseidon “produced all kinds of food in sufficient quantities from the earth. He gave birth to male children and raised five pairs - twins - and divided the entire island of Atlantis into ten parts. To the first son of the older couple, he gave the settlement to his mother along with the surroundings, making him king, and the rest of the children became archons. Poseidon called his first son Atlas, from his name the name of the country and the sea was formed: “... He gave the elder and the king that from which the whole island, and the sea, called the Atlantic, got their name, for the name of the first son who reigned then was Atlas. The twin born after him, who received the inheritance of the outskirts of the island from the Pillars of Hercules to the "Gadir region", was given the Hellenic name Eumel - the owner of the sheep, and his native name - Gadir - passed to the name of the country. The names of the next pairs of twins are Amphir and Evemon, Mnisaeus and Autochthon, Elasippus and Mistor, Azais and Diaprep.

The heirs of Atlas continued to rebuild the capital. The canal system, which was originally a kind of moat around the palace of Poseidon and Clito, they connected with the sea and built port facilities, which now became necessary, since "many ... thanks to wide dominion came to them from the outside," as Plato defines connections of the Atlanteans with the conquered countries. Perhaps it was these deals that caused the war between Atlantis and the Hellenes.

There were also many treasures on the island itself. First of all, metal ores. In addition to gold, the price of which was well known, a rock was also mined here, “which is now known only by name, but then it was more than a name, rock ... extracted from the earth in many places of the island and, after gold, which had the greatest value among people of that time "- the mythical orichalcum.

For all the animals that inhabited the earth, lakes and swamps, there was enough food there, even for "by nature the greatest and most voracious animal" - "a numerous breed of elephants."

“Furthermore, both the soft fruit and the dry fruit, which serves as food for us, and all those that we use for seasoning and some of which are generally called vegetables, and that tree fruit, which gives both drink, and food, and ointment, and that hard-to-preserve fruit of garden trees that came into the world for the sake of entertainment and pleasure, and those fruits that relieve satiety, kind to the weary, that we serve after the table, and all this island, while it was under the sun, brought in the form of works of amazingly beautiful and in countless numbers.

In the middle of the island, in the courtyard of the royal palace, was the temple of Poseidon and Clito, main temple and a place of annual sacrifices. This temple was decorated inside and out with gold, orichalcum, ivory and was full of all sorts of riches. Near the temple stood golden statues of the wives and descendants of the first ten kings, who had accumulated countless numbers over the centuries.

The entire temple outside was covered with silver and gold. Inside it stood a statue of Poseidon, about which Plato writes that "his appearance was something barbaric." “They also erected inside golden idols - a god who, standing in a chariot, ruled six winged horses, and he, by the enormity of his size, touched the ceiling with his crown, and around him a hundred Nereids swimming on dolphins ... "

Drinking water and water from hot springs were supplied through the water pipe. The reservoirs were surrounded by buildings and trees. Excess water was diverted into canals surrounding the center of the island. Along the banks of the canals stood beautiful buildings of white, red and black stone. Bathing ponds were not forgotten: “Some were under open sky, others - covered, for warm baths in winter, special - royal and special - for private people, separate for women and separate for horses and other working animals, and they gave each an appropriate device.

There were also many "gardens and gymnasiums for both men and especially for horses."

The climate on the island was warm, the mountains protected it from the north from cold winds. Harvested twice a year. The whole island, like the capital, was covered with a system of canals, which not only supplied it with water, but also served as excellent communication routes.

There were many people in the ports. “The arsenals were filled with triremes and all were equipped with enough equipment necessary for triremes ... But those who crossed over the harbors, and there were three of them, met another wall, which, starting from the sea, went around everywhere at a distance of fifty stadia

from the big ring and harbor and closed its circle at the mouth of the canal, which lay by the sea. All this space was densely built up with many houses, and the waterway and the large harbor were teeming with ships and merchants arriving from everywhere, who in their mass filled the area day and night with screams, knocks and mixed noise.

The Atlantean army consisted of land and naval forces. The huge army had 10,000 paired teams and 60,000 lighter chariots. The armament consisted of bows, slings, and spears. The naval forces included 1,200 ships with 240,000 sailors. The entire army consisted of nine corps, which corresponded to nine kingdoms subordinate to the main ruler.

It would take a long time to talk about state structure. We will confine ourselves to mentioning that the Atlanteans always observed the laws introduced by Poseidon. They were inscribed on an orichalcum pillar and kept in the temple of Poseidon so that everyone could read them. Courts were held near the temple and common affairs were discussed. Before doing judgment, they made a sacrifice on the altar and solemnly swore that they would be judged "according to the laws inscribed on the pillar." And only after the meal and libations, when the sacrificial fire began to die out, did they begin to discuss or judge. At dawn, the sentences were recorded on a golden board, which was also left in the temple as a sacrifice.

The law forbade the kings to raise weapons against each other and obliged them to provide mutual assistance if anyone “thought to exterminate the royal family”, “... together, like their ancestors, they made decisions regarding war and other enterprises, providing top leadership to the Atlas family . And the king had no power to sentence any of his relatives to death, if more than half of the kings, out of ten, were not of the same opinion on this matter.

For many generations, while the nature of God was still enough in them (the people of those places), they remained obedient to the laws and were friendly to their kindred deity. For they kept a true and really high way of thinking, showing humility and prudence in relation to the ordinary accidents of life, as well as in relation to each other. That is why, looking at everything except virtue with disdain, they valued little what they had; no, with a sober mind, they clearly perceived that all this grows out of general friendliness and virtue, and if you devote many cares to wealth and attach a high price, it itself collapses, but that also perishes with it. Thanks to this view and the divine nature preserved in them, everything that we have previously pointed out in detail succeeded in them. But when the share of the deity from frequent and abundant mixtures with mortal nature was finally exhausted in them, and the human temper prevailed, then, no longer being able to endure their true happiness, they became corrupted, and to those who are able to distinguish this, they seemed to be vicious people. because of the most precious blessings, it was the most beautiful that destroyed; but in the eyes of those who do not know how to recognize the conditions of a truly blessed life, they were at this predominantly time both completely blameless and happy when they were filled with an unrighteous spirit of self-interest and power.

The god of the gods, Zeus, who reigns according to the laws as a being capable of distinguishing this, took it for granted that the honest tribe had fallen into a miserable situation and, having decided to punish him so that, having come to his senses, become more modest, he gathered all the gods in their most honorable abode, which is located in the middle of the whole world and opens a view of everything that received the lot of birth, having gathered them, he said ... "

This is where Plato's dialogue Critias ends. Thus, it is not known what Zeus said at the meeting of the gods and what was the further course of events. We can only assume that at this meeting it was decided to destroy Atlantis, which resulted in the most terrible catastrophe in the entire existence of mankind on Earth.

Nor do we know whether Plato completed this work. Some argue that he is probably tired of this work, which is supposedly felt in the style of the last phrases. True, it is difficult to imagine that the author would stop working in the middle of a phrase he had begun. Others are of the opinion that Plato finished his work, but destroyed it, realizing that the legend had too shaky foundation. However, why is only the ending missing in this case? The assumption that Plato did not have time to finish Critias, as he wrote it in last period his life, is also untenable. After all, "Critius" was not his last work - the "Laws" are considered dying work. There are people who claim that Plato not only completed Critias, but also wrote the following dialogue called Hermocrates, dedicated to the third of Socrates' disciples who were present at the reports of Timaeus and Critias. Most likely, the ending was lost, like many works of ancient Greek authors, which we know only by hearsay or from quotations in other works. Leaving this question open for the time being, as well as the assessment of the reliability of Plato's story (we will return to it later), we will make some explanations, as after the first dialogue.

The "location" of Atlantis is described in more detail in the second dialogue than in the Timaeus. There seems to be no doubt that Plato is referring to the Atlantic Ocean. The interpretation of the name itself formally coincides with the generally accepted explanation that it comes from the Atlas. But not from the mountains of Atlas and not from the Greek titan Atlas, son of Iapetus and Clymene, brother of Prometheus. In this case, Atlas is the son of Poseidon and the beautiful daughter of the "native" Clito.

In Critias, Plato once again repeats that the ocean is currently inaccessible to ships as a result of the catastrophe that befell the island, of which only “impassable silt remains, preventing swimmers from penetrating from here into the outer sea ...” There is no doubt that here it speaks of the sea beyond the Pillars of Hercules. However, it is this passage that causes much controversy and for some commentators is a serious argument in favor of the fact that the whole story of Plato should be considered a fairy tale. For in this part of the ocean there is no shallow water. True, in ancient times they argued that the Atlantic Ocean is unsuitable for navigation due to silt, which supposedly interferes with ships. Such statements were repeated even in later times, but it is known that they were spread deliberately and not at all in connection with Atlantis. They were used by Phoenician sailors to discourage competitors from sailing on the high seas far from land on the other side of the Pillars of Hercules. After all, it was there that the path lay to the British Isles for tin, to the western shores of Africa, and perhaps to the islands that were known only to the Phoenician sailors themselves.

In addition, the absence of shallow waters at the present time does not yet indicate that they could not exist 2500 years ago, in the time of Solon. This is the opinion of the Soviet atlantologist N. F. Zhirov. And in historical times earthquakes occurred in the Atlantic Ocean (for example, in 1755). As a result of each of them, further subsidence of the seabed could occur, and shallow waters could disappear without a trace. After all, even now, from time to time, changes in the structure of the bottom are noted. Atlantic Ocean.

For example, in 1957, near the island of Faial in the Azores archipelago, the top of a volcano emerged from the ocean. A few weeks later, the islet had an area of ​​6 km sq., and the volcano, which was still spewing ash, reached a height of 200 m. Having existed for only 30 days, the island disappeared into the depths of the sea.

Plato determines the size of the island of Atlantis, comparing it with Libya and Asia Minor. Its population, according to the story, was probably several million people. The climate was more similar to the climate of the Canary Islands than the Azores: the Atlanteans harvested two crops a year - one after the rainy season, and the second after artificial irrigation.

Atlantis by Donnelly.

Many contemporary authors pay attention to Plato's unusually reliable ideas about the geological history of Greece. Vladislav Vitvitsky, the translator of Plato’s works from Pelsk, writes in his commentary on the Timaeus that “changes in the terrain in the Athens region did not occur, in all likelihood, during one night, but basically they are described very plausibly.” Geologists agree that the process of washing away the soil, called denudation, and observed on Earth to this day, is presented in Plato's story as real and could have occurred relatively recently, perhaps even in front of people. There is no doubt that in ice Age, when ice bound huge masses of water in the northern part of Europe, Asia and America, its level in the Mediterranean Sea was about 90 m lower than now. outlines coastline this part of the European continent are presented on the attached map.

In the time of Plato, of course, people did not know that there was once an ice age, and therefore it is striking how much the description coincides with the facts that are known today; The poet Valery Bryusov wrote: “If we wanted to consider this story only the fruit of Plato’s fantasy, we would have to endow him with downright superhuman genius, thanks to which he was able to predict scientific discoveries that were made only after millennia.

In addition, Bryusov notes that in order to describe the ideal social order in ancient times Plato did not need to invent a mythical continent on the Atlantic Ocean at all. He could choose any region of the known world as the place of the described events.

Obviously, Plato really had some data that he based the story on. In all likelihood, these could be the oldest Egyptian records. It is worth once again recalling the words of Critias: "These records were with my grandfather, but I still have them."

One of the ten names of the first kings of Atlantis - Gadir - has come down to us in the name of the Gadir region. Gadeira - the Phoenician village of Gadir, the current Cadiz (Cadix), a port city in southern Spain on the Atlantic coast. This name introduced a little confusion, as it gave reason to individual atlantologists to believe that all of Atlantis was located on the Iberian Peninsula near the mouth of the Guadalquivir River.

Hellas 12,000 years ago.

It is difficult to establish what metal Plato had in mind when speaking of orichalcum. The assertion that we are talking about some kind of valuable metal or an element unknown until now is without any foundation. For a long time, the most fantastic assumptions were built on this topic. Some believed that orichalcum was called an alloy of gold and silver, or silver and copper, copper and tin, or even copper and aluminum. The Soviet atlantologist N. F. Zhirov, a chemist by education, believes that it was brass, which was obtained from aurichalcite, a rare mineral containing copper and zinc. Brass items were found in one of Egyptian tombs relating to the third or fourth millennium BC, i.e., to those times when bronze was not yet known in Egypt. The name "orychalk" comes from the Greek "oros" - mountains and "chalkos" - copper, red metal.

An interesting description of the flora on Atlantis.

A lot of conjectures and assumptions are caused by the “soft fruit” mentioned by Plato. Sometimes it is believed that in this case it was about bananas.

Bananas grow in Africa, South Asia, on the islands of Oceania and in the subtropical zones of America. In some countries they are the main food. The yields of this crop are many times higher than the yields of cereals. The climate of Atlantis corresponds to the conditions necessary for the growth of bananas. If they grow on the west coast of Africa and on the east coast of America, then it is likely that such fruits could also be known on an island located between these two continents. This is where the above theory comes from.

Recently, in Brazil, that is, within the influence of the Atlantean culture, a variety of wild bananas was discovered under the name pacoba. Atlantologists believe that banana cultivars were bred from this wild variety on Atlantis and then the seedlings were sent to colonies on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean.

However, an undeniable argument speaks against such an interpretation: since ancient times, grapes have been known both in Greece and in neighboring countries, and Plato did not need to use such a vague description to mention him.

At the same time, the question of the tree, which gives ... "and drink, and food, and ointment", is solved unambiguously. Such a tree can only be a coconut palm. She doesn't grow in the area mediterranean sea. Her homeland is a zone covering the entire ring Earth along the equator. Coconut palms grow mainly along the shores of the seas, but sometimes they are also found at some distance from the coast. The distribution area of ​​coconut palms is quite wide: on both sides Pacific Ocean, i.e., on the coast of Asia and Australia, as well as America, it extends from 25 ° north latitude to 25 ° south latitude, and on the east and west coasts The African coconut palm is found between 6° north latitude and 16° south latitude. Neither in North Africa, coconuts do not grow either in Asia Minor or on the Arabian Peninsula. Therefore, it is not surprising that Plato did not know the fruit, which gives "and drink, and food, and ointment," but this does not mean that he did not see and did not eat coconuts. Merchants could bring them. True, we meet the first description of the coconut palm only in the work of Theophrastus, a student of Plato and Aristotle, “On the Origin of Plants”.

Under the concept of "hardly preserved fruit ... that was born for the sake of entertainment and pleasure," Plato, or rather Solon and his Egyptian mentors, probably had in mind various candied fruits.

Of particular note is the description of the temple of Poseidon, as well as the appearance of this god, which, according to Plato, "represented something barbaric." If this statue resembled the images of the gods of the Aztecs and Toltecs from Central America, Fr. what will be discussed further, it should not be surprising that the Egyptians and Greeks did not like it. A similar impression arises, probably, for each of us when we see the images of the Mexican gods, while the Greek statues are now considered a model of beauty. This remark of Plato, as well as a number of other analogies, makes us think about the existence of some kind of connection between Atlantis and America. Of course, Plato could not know this, and therefore one involuntarily wants to repeat once again the words of Bryusov: “If we wanted to consider this story only a fruit of Plato’s fantasy, we would have to endow it with downright superhuman genius.”

The last lines of the surviving text of the Critias contain a message of exceptional value for the problem of Atlantis.

Zeus gathered "all the gods to their most honorable abode, which falls in the middle of the whole world," where they were to pass judgment.

It is known that, according to the beliefs of the Greeks, Olympus was the seat of the gods - sacred mountain in Greece. However, in the time of Plato, Greece was no longer considered the center of the whole world. So they could argue in the time of Solon and Herodotus, but in the mouth of Plato, the teacher of the great Aristotle, whose geographical works were highly valued over the next one and a half thousand years, such a statement sounds like an anachronism. If Plato had come up with this whole story only as a background for his political views, then, undoubtedly, he would have “settled” the gods in accordance with his contemporary ideas and the level of that time. scientific knowledge. Therefore, it is difficult not to be under the impression that Plato in this case really repeated the words of Solon, transmitted by Critias at a meeting in the house of Socrates.

Let us return, however, to the text underlined in the Timaeus, the island “before its mouth, which you call the Pillars of Hercules in your own way ... was larger than Libya and Asia taken together, and from it access to other islands was opened to sailors, and from those islands - to the entire opposite mainland, which was limited to that true show off. ... and that (what is on the outside) can already be called a real sea, as well as the land surrounding it, in all fairness - a true and perfect mainland.

In this description, we see the outlines of America from Labrador to the most eastward part of present-day Brazil, which embraces the central part of the Atlantic Ocean in an arc. The islands to which navigators had access, and through them to the entire mainland, are the Lesser and Greater Antilles.

The theme of the sea was never alien to Greek sculptors, as to all ancient artists, since the temples of Poseidon were located not only in many coastal cities of Hellas, but even inland (for example, in Arcadia and Boeotia). And every temple or shrine in ancient Greece, as you know, was decorated with a statue of a god or hero, for the sake of worshiping which it was built. The temples of the sea lord were no exception. And although not so many sculptural images that stood in his sanctuaries have come down to us, nevertheless, the iconography of this deity, that is, a set of certain pictorial qualities that form a general idea of ​​​​this image, is rather stable in this case.

We recognize Poseidon, first of all, by his attributes: a trident, a dolphin, an image of parts of a ship or its equipment - an anchor or an oar, and also, however, this is not common, a wreath on his head, usually from pine branches. This is probably due to the fact that the famous Isthmian Games - sports in honor of Poseidon, were held on the Isthm (isthmus that connected the Peloponnesian Peninsula with mainland Greece) in a pine grove and a wreath of pine branches was a reward for the winner. However, if the attributes indicated only the functions of the depicted character, then his divine essence was evidenced, first of all, by an athletically perfect figure, a solemn pose full of majesty and dignity, and a noble, strict face. This is how Poseidon appears before us in the creations of the masters of the heyday of Greek culture.

Most common in antique art received two types of statues - the so-called Lateran type, represented by the statue of Poseidon in the collection of the Lateran Museum in the Vatican, and the Melos type, named after a find on the island of Melos (dated to the end of the 2nd century BC, stored in the Athens National Museum ).

Roman work of the 2nd century. AD after a Greek original from the end of the 4th c. BC e. Marble. High 80.0 cm

St. Petersburg. Hermitage

The first type, dating back to a Greek bronze original from the middle of the 4th century BC. BC, is distinguished by the characteristic staging of the figure of Poseidon, depicted naked: he stands with his right foot on the prow of the ship and leaning forward. With his left hand, the lord of the seas leans on a trident; his head, turned to the right, is slightly tilted down. The second type is Melian, which spread from the 2nd century BC. BC, demonstrates the direct setting of the body and head. Poseidon is dressed in a cloak that descends from the left shoulder to the back and covers the lower part of the body. Right hand, raised up, he leans on a trident, in his left he holds a dolphin.

Eastern Mediterranean. II-I centuries. BC. Silver. High 6.5 cm

St. Petersburg. Hermitage

Roman copyists, creating statues of Neptune, actively used the Greek versions of the images of Poseidon, supplementing the iconographic row with another one close to the Melian one, with the only difference that a figure of a dolphin with a high tail was placed at his right leg.

Statues of Poseidon were often placed in his temples along with other sculptures that personified the sea element. So, the Greek writer and traveler of the II century. Pausanias wrote that in Corinth, in the temple of Poseidon, “in the temple, which is not very large in size, there are copper tritons. On the eve of the temple there are statues: two - Poseidon, the third - Amphitrite and one more - Thalassa (Sea), also copper ”(Pausanias. II. I. 7).

Images of Poseidon-Neptune and its marine environment were created by Greek and Roman sculptors not only in round sculpture or sculptural groups freely standing in open space, but also in relief plastic, including on sarcophagi - Roman funerary monuments: together with his wife Amphitrite, he sails through the waves in a chariot, which is harnessed by sea horses - hippocampi, and next to them are accompanied by tritons and the daughters of the elder Nereus are Nereid sea nymphs. In such scenes, Poseidon-Neptune was perceived in the mind of the viewer as a conductor of the souls of the dead to the afterlife, where his brother Hades ruled.

Among the legends and myths associated with the sea, a special place is occupied by stories about the miraculous rescue of people or heroes during their voyage through the sea, when, for example, dolphins acted as a savior (the myth of Arion). Stories about the devoted friendship of dolphins and children have also come down to us: we know one of them in the transmission of a Roman writer of the 1st century BC. Pliny, Pausanias tells about something else: “... I myself saw a dolphin showing gratitude to the boy for curing him when the fishermen wounded him; I saw this dolphin, how he obeyed the call of the boy and carried him on himself when he wanted to ride ”(Pausanias. III. XXV. 7). It was stories like these that inspired the sculptors who created figurines like the one on display (cat. 3). True, instead of a child riding a dolphin, Eros, the god of love, swims, but this is only a whim of an 18th-century restorer who supplemented the antique figure of a child with the wings of the divine son of Aphrodite.

Roman work after Greek models of the 3rd century BC. BC. Marble. High 87.0 cm

St. Petersburg. Hermitage