Poseidon married her. He enclosed the hill in which she dwelt
all around, making alternate zones of sea and land, larger and smaller,
encircling one another; there were two of land and three of water . . .
so that no man could get to the island. . . . He brought streams of
water under the earth to this mountain-island, and made all manner of
food to grow upon it. This island became the seat of Atlas, the
over-king of the whole island; upon it they built the great temple of
their nation; they continued to ornament it in successive generations,
every king surpassing the one who came before him to the utmost of his
power, until they made the building a marvel to behold for size and
beauty. . . . And they had such an amount of wealth as was never before
possessed by kings and potentates--as is not likely ever to be again."
The gardens of Alcinous and Laertes, of which we read in Homeric song,
and those of Babylon, were probably transcripts of Atlantis. "The sacred
eminence in the midst of a 'superabundant, happy region figures more or
less distinctly in almost every mythology, ancient or modern. It was the
Mesomphalos of the earlier Greeks, and the Omphalium of the Cretans,
dominating the Elysian fields, upon whose tops, bathed in pure,
brilliant, incomparable light, the gods passed their days in ceaseless
joys.
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