Kleito

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

According to Plato's Atlantis report, Kleito ( Greek  nachλειτώ ) is the mother of the first kings of Atlantis.

Her parents Euenor and Leukippe were original inhabitants of the island of Atlantis and lived there on a low mountain in the middle of the island. Kleito was their only daughter. When she came of marriageable age, her parents died. Poseidon , the god of the sea in Greek mythology , took great pleasure in the orphaned and reshaped the mountain on which they lived, so that water and land alternately surrounded the center, which thus became an impregnable fortress. Kleito now gave birth to five pairs of twins to her lover. Kleito's children with Poseidon were called:

  • Atlas ( Ἄτλας ) and Gadeiros ( Γάδειρος ), in Greek Eumelos ( Εὔμηλος ),
  • Ampheres ( Ἀμφήρης "girded") and Euaimon ( Εὐαίμων ),
  • Mneseas ( Μνησέας ) and autochthonous ( Αὐτόχθων "Erdentsprossener"),
  • Elasippos ( Ἐλάσιππος "Rosslenker") and Mestor ( Μήστωρ ),
  • Azaës ( Ἀζάης ) and Diaprepes ( Διαπρέπης ).

Atlas, the firstborn, was installed as king over his brothers. The island of Atlantis was named after him and - after Plato - also the Atlantic Ocean .

Regarding the names of the twin kings given, Plato remarks that one should not be surprised if these names appear entirely Greek, for Solon , who became known in Egypt with the legend of Atlantis, translated the names belonging there into Greek according to their meaning. Only in the case of Gadeiros is it expressly stated that it is a name according to the national language. Since the ancient Gadir / Gadeira , today's Cádiz , an old Phoenician foundation, like the Atlantis of Plato, was located on the other side of the pillars of Heracles , i.e. the Strait of Gibraltar , this name correspondence offered fertile ground for extensive speculations regarding the real existence of Plato's Atlantis.

source

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Critias 113a f.