Eumalos of Cyrene
Epitome of Aristippus,
History of Libya, Book 6
Allegedly c. 400 BCE
(Hoax Text)
translated by Jason Colavito
2015
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NOTE |
Eumalos (or Eumalus) of Cyrene cannot be found in the work of any ancient writer, and his name is associated with only one text, a manuscript allegedly found in Greece in 1821 and translated into Italian in 1826 to help explain a Phoenician inscription found on a stone in Malta that year that mentioned Atlantis. (The stone was later shown to be a hoax.) The manuscript was never seen in person and is widely believed to be a hoax. The text was published by the Marquis de Fortia d'Urban in French translation in 1828, along with notes about the utility of the text for understanding the Phoenician or Atlantean origin of ancient civilization. The text, as published, has all the hallmarks of a hoax: It references well-known works by Berossus and Sanchuniathon, it reflects the attitudes of the post-Napoleonic world toward the communitarian philosophies of the Revolutionary era, and it endorses the mythological theories proposed by Jacob Bryant that all ancient legends (including Atlantis) were corruptions of the story of Noah and the Ark, including such specific details as the equation of the ark with Jason's ship the Argo. However, some Atlantis believers endorse the text to this day, so I proudly present its first appearance in print, translated into English for the first time (so far as I can tell), with the original commentary of the Marquis de Fortia d'Urban.
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Discourse Composed for the Asiatic Society
By the Marquis de Fortia d’Urban
Meeting of 4 February 1828
By the Marquis de Fortia d’Urban
Meeting of 4 February 1828
Messieurs,
I have had the honor to speak to you about the Phoenician inscription found in Malta by the priest Don Joseph Galea, in May 1826. I bring you today two letters of this respectable ecclesiastic: one addressed to the engineer M. Grongnet, our countryman, to inform him of this discovery, and offer him the result; the other that he wrote to me, to congratulate me on an event to which I attached much importance.
By finding the Phoenician language established in Africa in such high antiquity, we cannot find foreign to our work knowledge of Libya, where was used a dialect presumably born in Asia; and it is to achieve this knowledge that today I discuss a book whose author, born in Cyrene, copied the History of Libya, written by Aristippus of Cyrene, about four hundred years before our era. Here is the translation I made of this book with great care. We will find a series of events so distant and strange that without doubt we must consider that they might have to excite our curiosity.
The author, Eumalos of Cyrene, after speaking in his first five books of Libya and Atlas, the former king of this country, who gave his name to Atlantis, wrote in his sixth book as you will hear:
“This same Atlas, son of one of the ten kings governing Atlantis, was a very learned man, and a friend of his fellows. This is why, in these times, he chose among his friends a company of philosophers who, in his name, were afterward called Atlanteans.
“They lived in community, and their principal maxim was to possess nothing of their own, not even women; they said that women were the companions and not the slaves of men; they observed that marriage, linking two people, deprived them of the precious freedom that nature had given to mankind, so they abstained from marriage; establishing joint property was contrary to their fundamental maxim, to possess nothing of their own, and it was by living under a general communitarian principle that they derived all their imperturbable bliss.
“After many years, then came our Aristippus, who in his school took as his basic principle to exclude any ownership; so he destroyed the principle of pain: by adopting a perfect community among men, he introduced among them all kinds of pleasure, honest and pure pleasure, without any mixture of bitterness.
“We still see, at a short distance from our city, the place where dwelt these philosophers, and it has retained to this day the name of Atlantis. It is now all in ruins; but in those days, even to the time of Aristippus, this was a cultured place with trees, water, and suitable housing for those happy philosophers. As I talk about their doctrines, we will not be surprised that I go back to the first and true origin of this philosophy.
“This is a very worthy thing to recall to our memories, which I have read in the writings of our Aristippus; he tells us that the second Atlas was the disciple of a certain Ninus, king of Babylon, nephew of the famous Ogyges. This Ogyges was the last king of Atlantis, which existed between Libya and Italy, and which is now under water.
“This large island was called the Decapolis of Atlantis by our ancestors of Cyrene and the other very ancient Greeks; in the same manner, our country has been called Pentapolis Cyrenaica.
“The name of Ogyges means ‘Savior’ in the Atlantean or Phoenician language. The inhabitants of Syria call him Oësa or Oëso.
“This was the last king of this famous island, and he was the leader of nine kings who governed during the deluge of horrible memory.
“He barely had time to prepare one of his ships to escape from this danger with his four sons. His eldest son was called Cressos, which in that language means ‘guardian’; the second Cadmus, that is to say, ‘old’; the third Pelasgos, meaning ‘he bathes and drinks’; and the fourth Janos, which means ‘merciful and compassionate.’
“This ship stopped first on the top of Mount Ida in Crete. The top of this mountain, in this huge flood, seemed a very small island in the sea. Ogyges there left his son Cressos, whose wife was called Noléma, and they populated this island, to which Cressos gave his name and where he instituted the mysteries of his father, with the community of all goods.
“Then the ship stopped for the second time on Mount Parnassus, in Boeotia. It was there that Cadmus, the second son of Ogyges, settled with his wife Pandora. Cadmus populated this land, and built the city of Thebes, and called it by the Phoenician name Tieba, which means goodness. It also bore the name Ogygia, derived from the father of Cadmus.
“This Cadmus taught the mysteries of his father to his son Eleusis, a name that in the Atlantean language means sacred or traditional, and is pronounced El-hous-sis. Afterward, Eleusis built a city in Attica of that name, where the sacred mysteries were celebrated with great pomp. Athens already existed then, and had been founded many years before by the goddess Minerva; but before the flood it was much more populated, more beautiful, and more extensive.
“We read that all the inhabitants of Cyrenaica, who had been born on the island of Cyrene, were overwhelmed, with the exception of a few who had the time to take refuge on Mount Catabatmos. The summit of this mountain was not covered by the waters, nor had they overwhelmed the summit of Mount Atlas, in the middle of Atlantis. The summit of Mount Atlas retained the name of Ogygia, that of its last king. That is why we still call this island between Libya and Sicily Ogygia; it is nothing but the top of the Atlantean mountain, and this is a result of this event that caused this same island, with other small islands in the vicinity, to be called the Pelasgic and Fortunate islands, having the good fortune of preserved from submerging in the vast sea with all the rest of Atlantis.
“We read in our histories that from the time of the first Atlas, son of Neptune, to that of the last, called Ogyges, nine thousand nine years passed. During this period of time, the kingdom passed from father to son in the hands of ten kings, the first of whom was Atlas, who reigned one thousand eight hundred and thirty-seven years.
“The second was Gadeiros, who reigned nine hundred and eighty-three years. The name means in our language ‘living in the marshes’ because Gadeiros was the first to dry the marshes detrimental to the health of men.
“The third was Ogyges I, who reigned for three hundred and thirty-one years.
“The fourth was Hooram, who reigned twelve hundred and fifty-nine years. Hooram’s name means ‘cave excavation’; it was given to him because at that time houses were carved into the mountains, as there are now many in the Pentapolis of Cyrene. This king dug out many very convenient and beautiful ones.
“The fifth king was called Debber, whose name means ‘horseman’ because he was very fond of horses. Debb in this language means ‘horse,’ and the name, translated by the Greeks into their language, is rendered as Hippos. This king was the one that made Atlantis’s great golden statue of Neptune and large winged seahorses, also of gold, harnessed to his chariot.
“The sixth king was called Oannes, a name which in that language means ‘merciful’ and ‘compassionate,’ because he loved its many peoples. It is for this reason he instituted the great mystery of communal property. He called these mysteries Ânidiotes, that is to say ‘without property.’ When celebrating them, he wore a coat which gave him the shape of a fish, to show that the origin of all men is the same, and all were born of the sea. This excellent king reigned eleven hundred and forty-two years.
“After him the authority passed to Ogyges II, who perfected the institutions of Oannes, and carried the sciences, in this beautiful country, to their highest degree of perfection. He had enough time to succeed, since he reigned twelve hundred and twenty-three years.
“Gadeiros II reigned after him for five hundred and forty-nine years, and was succeeded by Lahem, there whose name means ‘flesh.’ This name was given to him because he abolished marriage. He instituted a new women’s public community, a community that performed in secret the celebration of the holy mysteries of Oannes, which we Greeks call Anidotic.
“This king ruled for six hundred eighty-five years. After him, the last or tenth king of Atlantis, called Ogyges III, was elevated to the crown. He reigned until the day of the flood, that is to say, five hundred and sixty-three years.
“This series of years, during which reigned ten kings, forms a space of nine thousand and nine years. The length of these reigns should not surprise us, because they were giants, and they lived in proportion to their extreme size.
“The other Atlanteans, who managed to save four other vessels with only four of their kings, fled to the nearby shore of Libya, today called the three pillars of Hercules. There they fixed their residence at the foot of a high mountain, to which they gave the name of Atlas and Dirin to preserve the memory of the submergence of their very high mountain of Atlas. Indeed, the name Dirin in Phoenician means ‘dispersion’; and the name Atlas means ‘climb.’ This is because the former Atlas, son of Neptune, and first king of Atlantis, often climbed this mountain to watch the stars, the science in which he was highly skilled. The real name of the mountain where they settled was Asciet, which in Phoenician means ‘the sea,’ and, more precisely, ‘the shore of the sea.’
“The unfortunately named Atlas II was the chief who, by the liveliness of his mind, helped them to flee; but he should not be confused with the great Atlas, son of Neptune, and first king of the grand submerged island. The ship of Ogyges stopped for the third time on the highest mountain of Arcadia, called Lyceum. It was there the third son of Ogyges called Pelasgos wanted to stop: He gave to Arcadia the name of the vessel of his father, called Arga or Argo, which in the Atlantean language means ‘flooding’ and ‘submersion.’
“He established the mysteries of his father by the name and the worship of the god Pan: It is from him that descend, afterward, the Arcadians, also called Pelasgians.
“Then the wind strength increased, and the ship was brought violently to the side where the sun sets; it stopped for the fourth time on the top of a mountain located almost in the center of Lazio, country of the Latin peoples. This mountain, known from that time under the name of Albano, appeared as a small island in the middle of a huge amount of water. There the fourth and final son of Ogyges, called Janos, fixed his residence with his wife Neoglassa. This Janos was made king of the Latins after the death of their king Saturn, who had barely had time to escape to the mountain with some of his own people, pursued by the influx of water. Janos introduced the mysteries of his father, which produced such happiness, and such an abundance of food, that he was called afterward, with reason, Janos-Saturn, a name which in the language of these people means ‘abundance.’
“The winds having become light and friendly, the ship of Ogyges, led by these winds, stopped for the last time in Phoenicia, where the sun rises on the top of a high mountain named Lebanon, which in Phoenician means ‘incense.’ It is so called because of the number of trees on it that produce incense. This was finally where Ogyges stopped with his wife Beroë. He built a beautiful city, which was called Beroutos [Beirut], named for his wife; he taught the great mysteries, the knowledge of which brings happiness. They are essentially the same that had been taught in Libya by Atlas II. This is why all those who had followed him, or his disciples, received its Phoenician or Atlantic name of Hossenes, which, corrupted by a few educated historians, became that of the Essenes. Others, more misinformed, called themselves the Ectenes. These disciples populated the country called Galilee, because anyone who arrived there in the vessel with Ogyges, were called in Phoenician Galli, which in that language means ‘to elevate’ and ‘float (gallegiare) on the air.’ This name was given because in the great flood, they were the small number of men who were raised up on the waves that destroyed a large part of mankind.
“This ship was kept in a purpose-built temple on Mount Lebanon in memory of the coming of Ogyges. This temple was called Argo.
“After all these events, Ogyges for having rested in this beautiful country from his many hardships, was called Noas, which in the Atlantean language means ‘sleep’ and ‘rest.’
“He was very fond of hunting wild animals. One day he had gone hunting, and he was bitten by a large and very fierce boar. He died from the injury after a few hours in a cave called Thammus. He died in the arms of his inconsolable love Beroë, who wept for a very long time. It was at that time that were established the dismal rites called those of Adonis, which are celebrated every year: They took the name of their lord, or, in their language, Adon. These festivals, as everyone knows, are still celebrated today.
“This is the oldest and truest origin of the Atlantean philosophers and of the Cyrenaic school of Aristippus. Having spoken enough for the present, this concludes the sixth book of the history of our ancestors.”
Such, gentlemen, is the story of an ancient Greek historian, which was found in 1821 on the island of Candia, and the manuscript may have already been lost. I can only ask those who have any relations in Nauplia, or the old Peloponnese (today Morea), to inform us whether it still exists and to try to bring it here. If the engineer to whom I owe the Italian translation of the sixth book had been available after the discovery of the stone, I have no doubt that he would have provided knowledge of the previous book. Indeed, if, as you might think, there is some reality to the facts I have just related to you, Atlas, son of Neptune, distinguished for his knowledge of astronomy, was the subject of the fifth book, and is also the subject of the stone. But the history of antediluvian times has been written in some detail on the testimony of monuments which had survived the deluge, and ours is of this kind. Therefore what is likely explained in this book is purely astronomical, as evidenced by the Pleiades, flood daughters of Atlas, and the signs of the two tropics drawn therein with the trident and all the attributes of Neptune. The book of Eumalos in no way contradicts our sacred books; it proves the contrary, that the name of Noah is historical. It shows how the community of women, destructive to any social order, having been publicly established by the predecessor of Ogyges, has truly motivated the wrath of God, as recounted in Genesis. There are ten kings before the flood, as we have ten patriarchs, and as the Babylonians reckoned ten predecessors to their Xisuthrus. The explanation of the length of life of the patriarchs by the existence of giants is attested in Genesis, Deuteronomy, and almost all of the books of the Old Testament. This truly shows us writing and astronomy as antedating the flood. But who would dare say that these two sciences were then unknown? Civilization was destroyed in some way by this terrible disaster, disappeared, and we were plunged into ignorance; we had to painfully get back on our feet. But what satisfaction should not it be for us to find in so early an antiquity traces of our old knowledge? Rather than discouraging the one who wants to be responsible to us and bring back a monument at great expense and with great difficulty, instead of showing him a distressing distrust, must we not offer at least the homage of our gratitude? Not only is this engineer known to me, when still in Rome he was known to Chevalier Gregory, our colleague; General Miollis, while performing the functions of the governor of Rome; Count Camille de Tournon, prefect of Rome and today a peer of France; I might also mention a large number of people presently in Paris. He has even been honored by the benevolence of the Duc d’Orleans, our president. When I spoke on his behalf, gentlemen, I hoped that his zeal would be more favorably received. When I showed you this stone, which excited general curiosity, Baron de Sacy, our president, did not dispute its existence to me, and it was easy to prove by the letters I had lithographed. His very judicious examination of the defects of the translation by the Maltese professor Cannolo proved that the text had not been created by the professor or by the engineer; but he added that the copy may be imperfect, and that it was more prudent to wait for the stone itself before making a report worthy of our Society. It seems to me that these wise reflections should have ended up in our report. I was not present when it was read; otherwise I should have reminded you, and you would certainly have given it regard. Phoenician inscriptions are common in Malta, and the learned Mr. Hamaker does not forget to mention the island among the places where are found the monuments of which he has promised us an explanation. Malta was completely Phoenician, and the sight of its writing, native so to speak, should no more surprise than our old Gothic inscriptions do here with us. The language is even partially preserved, mixed with Arabic and Italian. The Atlantean-Phoenician inscription was copied with great care, and I have a second copy, similar to the first, in print accompanied by a translation by M. Cannolo. The Latin inscription was followed to the fullest extent, with the exegesis of Mr. Quatremère whose excellent memoir you have printed. It may have been drawn from the imagination of a modern forger, who used inscriptions of similar date or orthography. We know that the counterfeiters, in order to deceive more easily, employ truly ancient inscriptions, and they only change things to deceive the curiosity of readers. We therefore have no reason to speak too lightly of such a monument. We certainly have gratitude for the one who has made us enjoy ourselves. I have tried to contribute to this work with the lithographs which I commend to you. Let us work together, gentlemen, to discover the truth, which is without doubt the goal of our painstaking research.
I have had the honor to speak to you about the Phoenician inscription found in Malta by the priest Don Joseph Galea, in May 1826. I bring you today two letters of this respectable ecclesiastic: one addressed to the engineer M. Grongnet, our countryman, to inform him of this discovery, and offer him the result; the other that he wrote to me, to congratulate me on an event to which I attached much importance.
By finding the Phoenician language established in Africa in such high antiquity, we cannot find foreign to our work knowledge of Libya, where was used a dialect presumably born in Asia; and it is to achieve this knowledge that today I discuss a book whose author, born in Cyrene, copied the History of Libya, written by Aristippus of Cyrene, about four hundred years before our era. Here is the translation I made of this book with great care. We will find a series of events so distant and strange that without doubt we must consider that they might have to excite our curiosity.
The author, Eumalos of Cyrene, after speaking in his first five books of Libya and Atlas, the former king of this country, who gave his name to Atlantis, wrote in his sixth book as you will hear:
“This same Atlas, son of one of the ten kings governing Atlantis, was a very learned man, and a friend of his fellows. This is why, in these times, he chose among his friends a company of philosophers who, in his name, were afterward called Atlanteans.
“They lived in community, and their principal maxim was to possess nothing of their own, not even women; they said that women were the companions and not the slaves of men; they observed that marriage, linking two people, deprived them of the precious freedom that nature had given to mankind, so they abstained from marriage; establishing joint property was contrary to their fundamental maxim, to possess nothing of their own, and it was by living under a general communitarian principle that they derived all their imperturbable bliss.
“After many years, then came our Aristippus, who in his school took as his basic principle to exclude any ownership; so he destroyed the principle of pain: by adopting a perfect community among men, he introduced among them all kinds of pleasure, honest and pure pleasure, without any mixture of bitterness.
“We still see, at a short distance from our city, the place where dwelt these philosophers, and it has retained to this day the name of Atlantis. It is now all in ruins; but in those days, even to the time of Aristippus, this was a cultured place with trees, water, and suitable housing for those happy philosophers. As I talk about their doctrines, we will not be surprised that I go back to the first and true origin of this philosophy.
“This is a very worthy thing to recall to our memories, which I have read in the writings of our Aristippus; he tells us that the second Atlas was the disciple of a certain Ninus, king of Babylon, nephew of the famous Ogyges. This Ogyges was the last king of Atlantis, which existed between Libya and Italy, and which is now under water.
“This large island was called the Decapolis of Atlantis by our ancestors of Cyrene and the other very ancient Greeks; in the same manner, our country has been called Pentapolis Cyrenaica.
“The name of Ogyges means ‘Savior’ in the Atlantean or Phoenician language. The inhabitants of Syria call him Oësa or Oëso.
“This was the last king of this famous island, and he was the leader of nine kings who governed during the deluge of horrible memory.
“He barely had time to prepare one of his ships to escape from this danger with his four sons. His eldest son was called Cressos, which in that language means ‘guardian’; the second Cadmus, that is to say, ‘old’; the third Pelasgos, meaning ‘he bathes and drinks’; and the fourth Janos, which means ‘merciful and compassionate.’
“This ship stopped first on the top of Mount Ida in Crete. The top of this mountain, in this huge flood, seemed a very small island in the sea. Ogyges there left his son Cressos, whose wife was called Noléma, and they populated this island, to which Cressos gave his name and where he instituted the mysteries of his father, with the community of all goods.
“Then the ship stopped for the second time on Mount Parnassus, in Boeotia. It was there that Cadmus, the second son of Ogyges, settled with his wife Pandora. Cadmus populated this land, and built the city of Thebes, and called it by the Phoenician name Tieba, which means goodness. It also bore the name Ogygia, derived from the father of Cadmus.
“This Cadmus taught the mysteries of his father to his son Eleusis, a name that in the Atlantean language means sacred or traditional, and is pronounced El-hous-sis. Afterward, Eleusis built a city in Attica of that name, where the sacred mysteries were celebrated with great pomp. Athens already existed then, and had been founded many years before by the goddess Minerva; but before the flood it was much more populated, more beautiful, and more extensive.
“We read that all the inhabitants of Cyrenaica, who had been born on the island of Cyrene, were overwhelmed, with the exception of a few who had the time to take refuge on Mount Catabatmos. The summit of this mountain was not covered by the waters, nor had they overwhelmed the summit of Mount Atlas, in the middle of Atlantis. The summit of Mount Atlas retained the name of Ogygia, that of its last king. That is why we still call this island between Libya and Sicily Ogygia; it is nothing but the top of the Atlantean mountain, and this is a result of this event that caused this same island, with other small islands in the vicinity, to be called the Pelasgic and Fortunate islands, having the good fortune of preserved from submerging in the vast sea with all the rest of Atlantis.
“We read in our histories that from the time of the first Atlas, son of Neptune, to that of the last, called Ogyges, nine thousand nine years passed. During this period of time, the kingdom passed from father to son in the hands of ten kings, the first of whom was Atlas, who reigned one thousand eight hundred and thirty-seven years.
“The second was Gadeiros, who reigned nine hundred and eighty-three years. The name means in our language ‘living in the marshes’ because Gadeiros was the first to dry the marshes detrimental to the health of men.
“The third was Ogyges I, who reigned for three hundred and thirty-one years.
“The fourth was Hooram, who reigned twelve hundred and fifty-nine years. Hooram’s name means ‘cave excavation’; it was given to him because at that time houses were carved into the mountains, as there are now many in the Pentapolis of Cyrene. This king dug out many very convenient and beautiful ones.
“The fifth king was called Debber, whose name means ‘horseman’ because he was very fond of horses. Debb in this language means ‘horse,’ and the name, translated by the Greeks into their language, is rendered as Hippos. This king was the one that made Atlantis’s great golden statue of Neptune and large winged seahorses, also of gold, harnessed to his chariot.
“The sixth king was called Oannes, a name which in that language means ‘merciful’ and ‘compassionate,’ because he loved its many peoples. It is for this reason he instituted the great mystery of communal property. He called these mysteries Ânidiotes, that is to say ‘without property.’ When celebrating them, he wore a coat which gave him the shape of a fish, to show that the origin of all men is the same, and all were born of the sea. This excellent king reigned eleven hundred and forty-two years.
“After him the authority passed to Ogyges II, who perfected the institutions of Oannes, and carried the sciences, in this beautiful country, to their highest degree of perfection. He had enough time to succeed, since he reigned twelve hundred and twenty-three years.
“Gadeiros II reigned after him for five hundred and forty-nine years, and was succeeded by Lahem, there whose name means ‘flesh.’ This name was given to him because he abolished marriage. He instituted a new women’s public community, a community that performed in secret the celebration of the holy mysteries of Oannes, which we Greeks call Anidotic.
“This king ruled for six hundred eighty-five years. After him, the last or tenth king of Atlantis, called Ogyges III, was elevated to the crown. He reigned until the day of the flood, that is to say, five hundred and sixty-three years.
“This series of years, during which reigned ten kings, forms a space of nine thousand and nine years. The length of these reigns should not surprise us, because they were giants, and they lived in proportion to their extreme size.
“The other Atlanteans, who managed to save four other vessels with only four of their kings, fled to the nearby shore of Libya, today called the three pillars of Hercules. There they fixed their residence at the foot of a high mountain, to which they gave the name of Atlas and Dirin to preserve the memory of the submergence of their very high mountain of Atlas. Indeed, the name Dirin in Phoenician means ‘dispersion’; and the name Atlas means ‘climb.’ This is because the former Atlas, son of Neptune, and first king of Atlantis, often climbed this mountain to watch the stars, the science in which he was highly skilled. The real name of the mountain where they settled was Asciet, which in Phoenician means ‘the sea,’ and, more precisely, ‘the shore of the sea.’
“The unfortunately named Atlas II was the chief who, by the liveliness of his mind, helped them to flee; but he should not be confused with the great Atlas, son of Neptune, and first king of the grand submerged island. The ship of Ogyges stopped for the third time on the highest mountain of Arcadia, called Lyceum. It was there the third son of Ogyges called Pelasgos wanted to stop: He gave to Arcadia the name of the vessel of his father, called Arga or Argo, which in the Atlantean language means ‘flooding’ and ‘submersion.’
“He established the mysteries of his father by the name and the worship of the god Pan: It is from him that descend, afterward, the Arcadians, also called Pelasgians.
“Then the wind strength increased, and the ship was brought violently to the side where the sun sets; it stopped for the fourth time on the top of a mountain located almost in the center of Lazio, country of the Latin peoples. This mountain, known from that time under the name of Albano, appeared as a small island in the middle of a huge amount of water. There the fourth and final son of Ogyges, called Janos, fixed his residence with his wife Neoglassa. This Janos was made king of the Latins after the death of their king Saturn, who had barely had time to escape to the mountain with some of his own people, pursued by the influx of water. Janos introduced the mysteries of his father, which produced such happiness, and such an abundance of food, that he was called afterward, with reason, Janos-Saturn, a name which in the language of these people means ‘abundance.’
“The winds having become light and friendly, the ship of Ogyges, led by these winds, stopped for the last time in Phoenicia, where the sun rises on the top of a high mountain named Lebanon, which in Phoenician means ‘incense.’ It is so called because of the number of trees on it that produce incense. This was finally where Ogyges stopped with his wife Beroë. He built a beautiful city, which was called Beroutos [Beirut], named for his wife; he taught the great mysteries, the knowledge of which brings happiness. They are essentially the same that had been taught in Libya by Atlas II. This is why all those who had followed him, or his disciples, received its Phoenician or Atlantic name of Hossenes, which, corrupted by a few educated historians, became that of the Essenes. Others, more misinformed, called themselves the Ectenes. These disciples populated the country called Galilee, because anyone who arrived there in the vessel with Ogyges, were called in Phoenician Galli, which in that language means ‘to elevate’ and ‘float (gallegiare) on the air.’ This name was given because in the great flood, they were the small number of men who were raised up on the waves that destroyed a large part of mankind.
“This ship was kept in a purpose-built temple on Mount Lebanon in memory of the coming of Ogyges. This temple was called Argo.
“After all these events, Ogyges for having rested in this beautiful country from his many hardships, was called Noas, which in the Atlantean language means ‘sleep’ and ‘rest.’
“He was very fond of hunting wild animals. One day he had gone hunting, and he was bitten by a large and very fierce boar. He died from the injury after a few hours in a cave called Thammus. He died in the arms of his inconsolable love Beroë, who wept for a very long time. It was at that time that were established the dismal rites called those of Adonis, which are celebrated every year: They took the name of their lord, or, in their language, Adon. These festivals, as everyone knows, are still celebrated today.
“This is the oldest and truest origin of the Atlantean philosophers and of the Cyrenaic school of Aristippus. Having spoken enough for the present, this concludes the sixth book of the history of our ancestors.”
Such, gentlemen, is the story of an ancient Greek historian, which was found in 1821 on the island of Candia, and the manuscript may have already been lost. I can only ask those who have any relations in Nauplia, or the old Peloponnese (today Morea), to inform us whether it still exists and to try to bring it here. If the engineer to whom I owe the Italian translation of the sixth book had been available after the discovery of the stone, I have no doubt that he would have provided knowledge of the previous book. Indeed, if, as you might think, there is some reality to the facts I have just related to you, Atlas, son of Neptune, distinguished for his knowledge of astronomy, was the subject of the fifth book, and is also the subject of the stone. But the history of antediluvian times has been written in some detail on the testimony of monuments which had survived the deluge, and ours is of this kind. Therefore what is likely explained in this book is purely astronomical, as evidenced by the Pleiades, flood daughters of Atlas, and the signs of the two tropics drawn therein with the trident and all the attributes of Neptune. The book of Eumalos in no way contradicts our sacred books; it proves the contrary, that the name of Noah is historical. It shows how the community of women, destructive to any social order, having been publicly established by the predecessor of Ogyges, has truly motivated the wrath of God, as recounted in Genesis. There are ten kings before the flood, as we have ten patriarchs, and as the Babylonians reckoned ten predecessors to their Xisuthrus. The explanation of the length of life of the patriarchs by the existence of giants is attested in Genesis, Deuteronomy, and almost all of the books of the Old Testament. This truly shows us writing and astronomy as antedating the flood. But who would dare say that these two sciences were then unknown? Civilization was destroyed in some way by this terrible disaster, disappeared, and we were plunged into ignorance; we had to painfully get back on our feet. But what satisfaction should not it be for us to find in so early an antiquity traces of our old knowledge? Rather than discouraging the one who wants to be responsible to us and bring back a monument at great expense and with great difficulty, instead of showing him a distressing distrust, must we not offer at least the homage of our gratitude? Not only is this engineer known to me, when still in Rome he was known to Chevalier Gregory, our colleague; General Miollis, while performing the functions of the governor of Rome; Count Camille de Tournon, prefect of Rome and today a peer of France; I might also mention a large number of people presently in Paris. He has even been honored by the benevolence of the Duc d’Orleans, our president. When I spoke on his behalf, gentlemen, I hoped that his zeal would be more favorably received. When I showed you this stone, which excited general curiosity, Baron de Sacy, our president, did not dispute its existence to me, and it was easy to prove by the letters I had lithographed. His very judicious examination of the defects of the translation by the Maltese professor Cannolo proved that the text had not been created by the professor or by the engineer; but he added that the copy may be imperfect, and that it was more prudent to wait for the stone itself before making a report worthy of our Society. It seems to me that these wise reflections should have ended up in our report. I was not present when it was read; otherwise I should have reminded you, and you would certainly have given it regard. Phoenician inscriptions are common in Malta, and the learned Mr. Hamaker does not forget to mention the island among the places where are found the monuments of which he has promised us an explanation. Malta was completely Phoenician, and the sight of its writing, native so to speak, should no more surprise than our old Gothic inscriptions do here with us. The language is even partially preserved, mixed with Arabic and Italian. The Atlantean-Phoenician inscription was copied with great care, and I have a second copy, similar to the first, in print accompanied by a translation by M. Cannolo. The Latin inscription was followed to the fullest extent, with the exegesis of Mr. Quatremère whose excellent memoir you have printed. It may have been drawn from the imagination of a modern forger, who used inscriptions of similar date or orthography. We know that the counterfeiters, in order to deceive more easily, employ truly ancient inscriptions, and they only change things to deceive the curiosity of readers. We therefore have no reason to speak too lightly of such a monument. We certainly have gratitude for the one who has made us enjoy ourselves. I have tried to contribute to this work with the lithographs which I commend to you. Let us work together, gentlemen, to discover the truth, which is without doubt the goal of our painstaking research.
