Plato says, speaking of the traditions of the Greeks ("Dialogues, Laws,” c. iv., p. 713), “There is a tradition of the happy life of mankind in the days when all things were spontaneous and abundant. . . .  In like manner God in his love of mankind placed over us the demons, who are a superior race, and they, with great care and pleasure to themselves and no less to us, taking care of us and giving us place and reverence and order and justice never failing, made the tribes of men happy and peaceful . . . for Cronos knew that no human nature, invested with supreme power, is able to order human affairs and not overflow with insolence and wrong.”

In other words, this tradition refers to an ancient time when the forefathers of the Greeks were governed by Chronos, of the Cronian Sea (the Atlantic), king of Atlantis, through civilized Atlantean governors, who by their wisdom preserved peace and created a golden age for all the populations under their control—­they were the demons, that is, “the knowing ones,” the civilized.

Plato puts into the mouth of Socrates these words ("Dialogues, Cratylus,” p. 397):  “My notion would be that the sun, moon, and stars, earth, and heaven, which are still the gods of many barbarians, were the only gods known to the aboriginal Hellenes. . . .  What shall follow the gods?  Must not demons and heroes and men come next? . . .  Consider the real meaning of the word demons.  You know Hesiod uses the word.  He speaks of ‘a golden race of men’ who came first.  He says of them,

     But now that fate has closed over this race,
     They are holy demons upon earth,
     Beneficent averters of ills, guardians of mortal men.’

He means by the golden men not men literally made of gold, but good and noble men; he says we are of the ‘age of iron.’  He called them demons because they were dah’mones (knowing or wise).”

This is made the more evident when we read that this region of the gods, of Chronos and Uranos and Zeus, passed through, first, a Golden Age, then a Silver Age—­these constituting a great period of peace and happiness; then it reached a Bronze Age; then an Iron Age, and finally perished by a great flood, sent upon these people by Zeus as a punishment for their sins.  We read: 

“Men were rich then (in the Silver Age), as in the Golden Age of Chronos, and lived in plenty; but still they wanted the innocence and contentment which were the true sources of bu man happiness in the former age; and accordingly, while living in luxury and delicacy, they became overbearing in their manners to the highest degree, were never satisfied, and forgot the gods, to whom, in their confidence of prosperity and com fort, they denied the reverence they owed. . . .  Then followed the Bronze Age, a period of constant quarrelling and deeds of violence.  Instead of cultivated lands, and a life of peaceful occupations and orderly habits, there came a day when every where might was right, and men, big and powerful