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Atlantis and its unique dynasty.
How Atlantis was governed.
According to Plato “He - Poseidon - begot five pairs of male twins, brought them up, and divided the island
of Atlantis into ten parts which he distributed between them. He allotted the elder of the eldest pair of twins his mothers home district and the land surrounding it, the biggest and best allocation, and
made him King over the others; the others he made governors, each of a populous and large territory. He gave them all names.
King Atlas
The eldest, the King he gave a name from which the whole island and surrounding ocean took their designation
of ‘Atlantic’, deriving it from Atlas the first King. His twin, to whom was allocated the furthest part of the island towards the Pillars of Hercules and facing the district now called Gadira (perhaps
modern Cadiz in Spain) was called in Greek Eumelus but in his own language Gadirus, which is presumably the origin of the present name.
The other pairs.
The elder of the third pair was called Mneseus, the younger Autochthon, the elder of the fourth Elasippus,
the younger Mestor; the name given to the elder of the fifth pair was Azaes, to the younger Diaprepes. They and their descendants for many generations governed their own territories and many other
islands in the ocean and, as has already been said, also controlled the populations this side of the straits as far as Egypt and Tyrrhenia.
Distinguished line.
Atlas had a long and distinguished line of descendants, eldest son succeeding son and maintaining the
succession unbroken for many generations; their wealth was greater than that possessed by any previous dynasty of kings or likely to be accumulated by any that would follow, and both in the city and
countryside they were provided with everything they could require.
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