The Marquesans’ memory of Atlantis, described in their oral epic “Te Vanana
na Tanaoa”: “Atanua was beautiful and good, adorned with riches very great. Atanua
was fair, very rich and soft. Atanua produced abundantly of living things. Atea [and
his brothers] dwelt as kings in the most beautiful palaces supported on thrones.
They ruled the space of heaven and the large, entire sky and all the powers thereof
[astrology]. The first lords dwelling on high. Oh, throne placed in the middle of the
upper heavens! The great lord Atea established in love to love the fair Atanua. A
woman of great wealth is Atanua. From within Atea came forth Ono [a terrible
sound, the explosion of Mt. Atlas erupting]. Atea produces the very hot fire.”
These lines from “Te Vanana na Tanaoa” vividly compare with Plato’s description
of Atlantis and its destruction. Atea’s, like that of Atlas’s association with a
volcanic mountain, was recognized by the early 20th-century anthropologist
Abraham Fornander: “In this sense, it would appropriately convey the idea of the
lurid light which accompanies an eruption of the volcano.”
Sunday, 31 January 2010
Atana
Meaning a “cultic center” or “sacred site” in Linear B, Atana is a linguistic
term archaeologists use to describe a Greek language spoken on the island of
Crete after 1500 to about 1200 B.C. “Atana” is comparable to sacred places around
the world identified with variants of “Atlantis.”
term archaeologists use to describe a Greek language spoken on the island of
Crete after 1500 to about 1200 B.C. “Atana” is comparable to sacred places around
the world identified with variants of “Atlantis.”
Atami-san
Mt. Atami, on the northeastern coast of Japan’s Izu-hanto, the Izu Peninsula
(Shizuoka prefecture ken, Honshu), facing Sagami-nada (the Gulf of Sagami), an
enormous but extinct volcano, the ancient source from which the city of Atami,
built within the crater, derives its name. Almost half sunk into the sea, Atami-san
presents an Atlantean appearance.
Atami was an important resort as early as the fifth century A.D., although
Neolithic finds in the crater prove the site has been occupied from much earlier
times, when the name originated. “Atami,” an Atlantean linguistic survivor, has
no meaning in the Japanese language.
(Shizuoka prefecture ken, Honshu), facing Sagami-nada (the Gulf of Sagami), an
enormous but extinct volcano, the ancient source from which the city of Atami,
built within the crater, derives its name. Almost half sunk into the sea, Atami-san
presents an Atlantean appearance.
Atami was an important resort as early as the fifth century A.D., although
Neolithic finds in the crater prove the site has been occupied from much earlier
times, when the name originated. “Atami,” an Atlantean linguistic survivor, has
no meaning in the Japanese language.
Thursday, 14 August 2008
Atla
As described in the Hyndluljod Saga, she was a giantess, the mother of
Heimdall, an important Norse god. Atlantean elements evident in the mythic
relationship between Heimdall and Atla begin in the obvious derivation of her
name. She was also a “daughter of the ocean,” who gave birth to her divine son
“at the edge of the world, where land and sea meet.” So too, in Greek tradition,
the Pleiades were daughters of Atlas—“Atlantises”—whose sons founded new
civilizations. According to MacCullow (111), Atla personified at once the waves
of the deep and the “Heavenly Mountain,” Himinbjorg, from which Heimdall
derived his name, just as Atlantis was known after the sacred Mount Atlas. Even
in modern Norwegian, himinbjorg refers to a mountain sloping down to the sea.
Like the Mayas’ fair-skinned Itzamna, who brought civilization to Yucatan after a
great flood in the Atlantic Ocean, Heimdall was “the White God,” the father of
mankind.
Another Atla is a town in Mexico’s central plateau region, inhabited by the
Otomi Indians who preserve the mythic heritage of their Aztec ancestors beneath a
Christian gloss. Some Otomi tribes are among the most culturally conservative
peoples in Middle America, refusing to wear modern dress and still preserving
ritual kinship institutions handed down from pre-Spanish times. Because of this
maintenance of prehistoric traditions, anthropologists regard the Otomi as reliable
guides to Mesoamerica’s past.
Pertinent to our study is the Otomi acatlaxqui, the Dance of the Reed-
Throwers. Every November 25, 10 dancers assemble in Atla’s main square, dressed
in red and white cotton costumes, and wear conical headgear. From the points of
these paper hats stream red ribbons. Each dancer carries a 3-foot long reed staff
decorated with feathers and additional reeds attached. The performers form a
circle, at the center of which one of their number, dressed as a girl, rattles a gourd
containing the wooden image of a snake. The acatlaxqui climaxes when the surrounding
dancers use their reeds to create a dome over the central character,
taken as a sign to begin a fireworks display.
The dance is not only deeply ancient, but a dramatic recreation of Otomi
origins. The 10 dancers symbolize the 10 kings of Atlantis, portrayed in their
conical hats streaming red ribbons, suggesting erupting volcanos. The reed was
synonymous for learning, because it was a writing instrument. The Aztecs claimed
their ancestors came to America from Aztlan, “the Isle of Reeds.” The boy “girl”
dancer at the center may signify the Sacred Androgyne, a god-concept featured
in an Atlantean mystery-cult. More likely, the female impersonator is meant to
represent Atlantis itself, which was feminine: “Daughter of Atlas.” His gourd
with the wooden snake inside for a rattle is a remnant of the same Atlantean
mystery-cult, in which serpent symbolism described the powers of regeneration
and the serpentine energy of the soul.
Forming a dome over the central performer may signify the central position
of Atlantis, to which all the allied kingdoms paid tribute, or it could represent the
sinking of Atlantis-Aztlan beneath the sea, an interpretation underscored by the
fireworks timed to go off as the dome is created. The Otomi’s acatlaxqui-Atlantean
identity is lent special emphasis by the name of the town in which it is annually
danced, Atla. Moreover, November is generally accepted as the month in which
Atlantis was destroyed. The name, Otomi, likewise implies Atlantean origins: Atomi,
or Atoni, from the monotheistic solar god, Aton.
Heimdall, an important Norse god. Atlantean elements evident in the mythic
relationship between Heimdall and Atla begin in the obvious derivation of her
name. She was also a “daughter of the ocean,” who gave birth to her divine son
“at the edge of the world, where land and sea meet.” So too, in Greek tradition,
the Pleiades were daughters of Atlas—“Atlantises”—whose sons founded new
civilizations. According to MacCullow (111), Atla personified at once the waves
of the deep and the “Heavenly Mountain,” Himinbjorg, from which Heimdall
derived his name, just as Atlantis was known after the sacred Mount Atlas. Even
in modern Norwegian, himinbjorg refers to a mountain sloping down to the sea.
Like the Mayas’ fair-skinned Itzamna, who brought civilization to Yucatan after a
great flood in the Atlantic Ocean, Heimdall was “the White God,” the father of
mankind.
Another Atla is a town in Mexico’s central plateau region, inhabited by the
Otomi Indians who preserve the mythic heritage of their Aztec ancestors beneath a
Christian gloss. Some Otomi tribes are among the most culturally conservative
peoples in Middle America, refusing to wear modern dress and still preserving
ritual kinship institutions handed down from pre-Spanish times. Because of this
maintenance of prehistoric traditions, anthropologists regard the Otomi as reliable
guides to Mesoamerica’s past.
Pertinent to our study is the Otomi acatlaxqui, the Dance of the Reed-
Throwers. Every November 25, 10 dancers assemble in Atla’s main square, dressed
in red and white cotton costumes, and wear conical headgear. From the points of
these paper hats stream red ribbons. Each dancer carries a 3-foot long reed staff
decorated with feathers and additional reeds attached. The performers form a
circle, at the center of which one of their number, dressed as a girl, rattles a gourd
containing the wooden image of a snake. The acatlaxqui climaxes when the surrounding
dancers use their reeds to create a dome over the central character,
taken as a sign to begin a fireworks display.
The dance is not only deeply ancient, but a dramatic recreation of Otomi
origins. The 10 dancers symbolize the 10 kings of Atlantis, portrayed in their
conical hats streaming red ribbons, suggesting erupting volcanos. The reed was
synonymous for learning, because it was a writing instrument. The Aztecs claimed
their ancestors came to America from Aztlan, “the Isle of Reeds.” The boy “girl”
dancer at the center may signify the Sacred Androgyne, a god-concept featured
in an Atlantean mystery-cult. More likely, the female impersonator is meant to
represent Atlantis itself, which was feminine: “Daughter of Atlas.” His gourd
with the wooden snake inside for a rattle is a remnant of the same Atlantean
mystery-cult, in which serpent symbolism described the powers of regeneration
and the serpentine energy of the soul.
Forming a dome over the central performer may signify the central position
of Atlantis, to which all the allied kingdoms paid tribute, or it could represent the
sinking of Atlantis-Aztlan beneath the sea, an interpretation underscored by the
fireworks timed to go off as the dome is created. The Otomi’s acatlaxqui-Atlantean
identity is lent special emphasis by the name of the town in which it is annually
danced, Atla. Moreover, November is generally accepted as the month in which
Atlantis was destroyed. The name, Otomi, likewise implies Atlantean origins: Atomi,
or Atoni, from the monotheistic solar god, Aton.
Atius
Among the Pawnee Indians of North America, the sky-god, who controlled
and understood the movements of the sun, moon, and stars. The similarity of his
name and function to Atlas are affirmed by the Pawnee flood story.
Atjeh
A mountainous area of Indonesian Sumatra bordering a sloping plain reminiscent
of Plato’s description of Atlantis. Even in this remote corner of the world,
“At” was anciently applied to sacred mountains.
Atl
“Water” in Nahuatl, the Aztecs’ spoken language. The ancient Mexican Atl
is likewise found in Atlantis, a water-born civilization. Atl also occurs on the
other side of the Atlantic Ocean among Morocco’s Taureg peoples, for whom it
also represents “water.” Atlantis’ former location between Mexico and Morocco
suggests a kindred implication between the Nahuatl and Taureg words.
In the Aztec calendar, “4-Atl” signifies the global deluge that destroyed a former
“Sun” or age, immediately after which the Feathered Serpent arrived with his
followers to found Mesoamerican civilization. The date 4-Atl is depicted on the
Aztec Calendar Stone as a celestial bucket of water inundating a half-sunken
stone pyramid, a self-evident reference to the final destruction of Atlantis.
(See Quetzalcoatl)
Atiu
An extinct volcano forming an atoll among the southern Cook Islands in the
southwest Pacific. “At,” associated with volcanic islands, occurs throughout the
Pacific Ocean.
southwest Pacific. “At,” associated with volcanic islands, occurs throughout the
Pacific Ocean.
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