70 The Atlantis Encyclopedia
Her shrines at Biwa-ko, or Lake Biwa, and in Tokyo, at Shinobazu, are adorned
with discernably Atlanto-Lemurian symbolism. In keeping with her identity as the
country’s earliest culture-bearer, the oldest indications of human occupation are
found around the shores of Lake Biwa.
(See Chikubujima, Shinobazu)Bergelmir
A Norse giant, who, with his wife, escaped the catastrophic flood that destroyed
a former age. They sired a new race, the Jotnar, after establishing his realm,
Jotunheim. Bergelmir’s myth is similar to other ancient traditions around the world
describing a cataclysmic deluge from which only a few survivors emerge to found
new dynasties, races, or kingdoms.Berlitz, Charles
American author (1913 to 2003) of The Mystery of Atlantis (1974) and Atlantis,
the Eighth Continent (1984), which revived popular interest in the subject after
more than 40 years of general neglect. As the innovative president of an inter-
nationally famous language training school in France that he inherited from his
grandfather, Maximilian (1878), his expertise in various tongues, ancient and
modern, led him to conclude that many derived from a single, prehistoric source.
Beginning in the Bahamas, Berlitz followed his line of research back to the lost
civilization of Atlantis. His renowned credentials as a professional linguist with
26 years as an intelligence officer in the U.S. Army helped restore credibility to
Atlantean studies, which continue to this day.Berosus
A Chaldean high priest who lived around the turn of the third century B.C.
Although the Greeks knew him as “Berosus,” his real name was Bel-Usur, a priest
of Bel in Babylon. The worship of Belial, the icon of a controlling cult in Atlantis
during its last years, was carried to Mesopotamia after the destruction, and reestab-
lished as “Bel” in a new temple, as described by Berosus, who, serving there, read
the story of the Atlantean flood. His three-volume history of Babylon, written in
Greek, was regarded by scholars throughout classical times as authoritative. During
1928, his reputation for accuracy was reaffirmed by German archaeologists, who
found corroborating evidence described in a late-Babylonian tablet discovered at
the ruins of Uruk, the former capital, predating Berosus by 1,000 years.
He opened his first volume by describing the origins of Babylonian civiliza-
tion, which began with the arrival of culture-bearers after a great flood. Their
leader was the half-man, half-fish Oannes, who came from the sea with all the arts
and technology from a preceding high culture. His characterization is not to be
taken literally, but was more a poetic metaphor signifying Oannes’s prodigious