100 The Atlantis Encyclopedia
Book I features a report he learned while traveling through Mauretania, modern
Morocco-Algeria, when that kingdom was being renovated by the scholarly king,
Juba II. A Romanized Numidian prince, Juba preserved a Carthaginian account
of Atlantis Diodorus included in his history.
It told of an army of women warriors from the Caucasus Mountains of
Central Asia led by Queen Merine. Her 30,000 infantry and 20,000 cavalry marched
across Libya to the Atlantic shores of Mauretania, from which they launched an
invasion of Atlantis. After razing its walls, the city fell, and was renamed after its
Amazonian ruler, which means, “Sea Queen.” She concluded a friendship treaty
with the vanquished Atlanteans, even going so far as to repair damages caused
during the war. In the midst of this constructive peace, Atlantis was attacked by
another sea people, the Gorgons. Although Atlanto-Amazonian resistance was at
first successful, the enemy returned in greater numbers, effected a landing, and
soundly defeated the combined forces of Queen Merine. She and her followers
were not only driven into the sea, but pursued back to Mauretania. There, a ferocious
battle took place in which both sides suffered heavy losses. The Gorgons returned
to Atlantis, while the Queen buried her dead in three, colossal mounds, then led
her bloodied troops across Libya toward Egypt, where her friend, Pharaoh Horus,
rebuilt the Amazon army.
Diodorus’s account appears to describe Atlantis after early geologic upheavals
forced the evacuation of many of its inhabitants, leaving the city under-defended.
Queen Merine tried to take advantage of Atlantean weakness, but was soon routed
by other Atlanteans (Gorgons) from neighboring islands. These events appear to
have taken place during the late fourth or early third millennium B.C., as implied
by Pharaoh “Horus,” perhaps King Hor-aha, the first monarch of Dynastic Egypt,
who reigned before 3000 B.C.Dionysus of Mitylene
Also known as Dionysus of Miletus, or Skytobrachion, for his prosthetic leather
arm, he wrote “A Voyage to Atlantis” around 550 B.C., predating not only Plato,
but even Solon’s account of the sunken kingdom. Relying on pre-classical sources,
he reported that, “From its deep-rooted base, the Phlegyan isle stern Poseidon
shook and plunged beneath the waves its impious inhabitants.” The volcanic
island of Atlantis is suggested in the “fiery,” or “Phlegyan,” isle destroyed by the
sea-god. This is all that survives from a lengthy discussion of Atlantis in the lost
Argonautica, mentioned 400 years later by the Greek geographer Diodorus Siculus
as one of his major sources for information about the ancient history of North
Africa.
As reported in the December 15, 1968 Paris Jour, a complete or, at any rate,
more extensive copy of his manuscript was found among the personal papers of
historical writer, Pierre Benoit. Tragically, it was lost between the borrowers and
restorers who made use of this valuable piece of source material after Benoit’s death.
(See Benoit)