and the result of an assimilation established in remote antiquity between the Deluge of Deucalion and that of Khasisatra, as described by the author of the treatise ‘On the Syrian Goddess.’  Close to the temple of the Olympian Zeus a fissure in the soil was shown, in length but one cubit, through which it was said the waters of the Deluge had been swallowed up.  Thus, every year, on the third day of the festival of the Anthesteria, a day of mourning consecrated to the dead—­that is, on the thirteenth of the month of Anthesterion, toward the beginning of March-it was customary, as at Bambyce, to pour water into the fissure, together with flour mixed with honey, poured also into the trench dug to the west of the tomb, in the funeral sacrifices of the Athenians.”

In this legend, also, there are passages which point to Atlantis.  We will see hereafter that the Greek god Zeus was one of the kings of Atlantis.  “The men of the age of bronze” indicates the civilization of the doomed people; they were the great metallurgists of their day, who, as we will see, were probably the source of the great number of implements and weapons of bronze found all over Europe.  Here, also, while no length of time is assigned to the duration of the storm, we find that the ark floated but nine days and nights.  Noah was one year and ten days in the ark, Khasisatra was not half that time, while Deucalion was afloat only nine days.

At Megara, in Greece, it was the eponym of the city, Megaros, son of Zeus and one of the nymphs, Sithnides, who, warned by the cry of cranes of the imminence of the danger of the coming flood, took refuge on Mount Geranien.  Again, there was the Thessalian Cerambos, who was said to have escaped the flood by rising into the air on wings given him by the nymphs; and it was Perirrhoos, son of Eolus, that Zeus Naios had preserved at Dodona.  For the inhabitants of the Isle of Cos the hero of the Deluge was Merops, son of Hyas, who there assembled under his rule the remnant of humanity preserved with him.  The traditions of Rhodes only supposed the Telchines, those of Crete Sasion, to have escaped the cataclysm.  In Samothracia the same character was attributed to Saon, said to be the son of Zeus or of Hermes.

It will be observed that in all these legends the name of Zeus, King of Atlantis, reappears.  It would appear probable that many parties had escaped from the catastrophe, and had landed at the different points named in the traditions; or else that colonies had already been established by the Atlanteans at those places.  It would appear impossible that a maritime people could be totally destroyed; doubtless many were on shipboard in the harbors, and others going and coming on distant voyages.

“The invasion of the East,” says Baldwin (’Prehistoric Nations,’ p. 396), “to which the story of Atlantis refers, seems to have given rise to the Panathenae, the oldest, greatest, and most splendid festivals in honor of Athena celebrated in Attica.  These festivals are said to have been established by Erichthonis in the most ancient times remembered by the historical traditions of Athens.  Boeckh says of them, in his ‘Commentary on Plato:’