s carefully studied by me when
I was a child. Therefore if you hear names such as are used in this
country, you must not be surprised, for I have told how they came to be
introduced. The tale, which was of great length, began as follows:--

I have before remarked in speaking of the allotments of the gods, that
they distributed the whole earth into portions differing in extent, and
made for themselves temples and instituted sacrifices. And Poseidon,
receiving for his lot the island of Atlantis, begat children by a mortal
woman, and settled them in a part of the island, which I will describe.
Looking towards the sea, but in the centre of the whole island, there
was a plain which is said to have been the fairest of all plains and
very fertile. Near the plain again, and also in the centre of the island
at a distance of about fifty stadia, there was a mountain not very high
on any side. In this mountain there dwelt one of the earth-born primeval
men of that country, whose name was Evenor, and he had a wife named
Leucippe, and they had an only daughter who was called Cleito. The
maiden had already reached womanhood, when her father and mother
died; Poseidon fell in love with her and had intercourse with her, and
breaking the ground, inclosed the hill in which she dwelt all round,
making alternate zones of sea and land larger and smaller, encircling
one another; there were two of land and three of water, which he turned
as with a lathe, each having its circumference equidistant every way
from the centre, so that no man could get to the island, for ships and
voyages were not as yet. He himself, being a god, found no difficulty
in making special arrangements for the centre island, bringing up two
springs of water from beneath the earth, one of warm water and the other
of cold, and making every variety of food to spring up abundantly from
the soil. He also begat and brought up five pairs of twin male children;
and dividing the island of Atlantis into ten portions, he gave to the
first-born of the eldest pair his mother's dwelling and the surrounding
allotment, which was the largest and best, and made him king over the
rest; the others he made princes, and gave them rule over many men, and
a large territory. And he named them all; the eldest, who was the first
king, he named Atlas, and after him the whole island and the ocean
were called Atlantic. To his twin brother, who was born after him, and
obtained as his lot the extremity of