Leucippe, and their daughter Cleito, of whom Poseidon became enamoured.
He to secure his love enclosed the mountain with rings or zones varying
in size, two of land and three of sea, which his divine power readily
enabled him to excavate and fashion, and, as there was no shipping in
those days, no man could get into the place. To the interior island he
conveyed under the earth springs of water hot and cold, and supplied the
land with all things needed for the life of man. Here he begat a family
consisting of five pairs of twin male children. The eldest was Atlas,
and him he made king of the centre island, while to his twin brother,
Eumelus, or Gadeirus, he assigned that part of the country which was
nearest the Straits. The other brothers he made chiefs over the rest of
the island. And their kingdom extended as far as Egypt and Tyrrhenia.
Now Atlas had a fair posterity, and great treasures derived from
mines--among them that precious metal orichalcum; and there was
abundance of wood, and herds of elephants, and pastures for animals of
all kinds, and fragrant herbs, and grasses, and trees bearing fruit.
These they used, and employed themselves in constructing their temples,
and palaces, and harbours, and docks, in the following manner:--First,
they bridged over the zones of sea, and made a way to and from the royal
palace which they built in the centre island. This ancient palace was
ornamented by successive generations; and they dug a canal which passed
through the zones of land from the island to the sea. The zones of earth
were surrounded by walls made of stone of divers colours, black and
white and red, which they sometimes intermingled for the sake of
ornament; and as they quarried they hollowed out beneath the edges of
the zones double docks having roofs of rock. The outermost of the walls
was coated with brass, the second with tin, and the third, which was the
wall of the citadel, flashed with the red light of orichalcum. In the
interior of the citadel was a holy temple, dedicated to Cleito and
Poseidon, and surrounded by an enclosure of gold, and there was
Poseidon's own temple, which was covered with silver, and the pinnacles
with gold. The roof was of ivory, adorned with gold and silver and
orichalcum, and the rest of the interior was lined with orichalcum.
Within was an image of the god standing in a chariot drawn by six winged
horses, and touching the roof with his head; around him were a hundred
Nereids, ridin