176 The Atlantis Encyclopedia
The cataclysm was commanded by Indra. Like Zeus in Plato’s account of the
Atlantean destruction, he was a sky-god, who convened all the other deities of
heaven to call down a watery judgement on the blasphemous inhabitants. Bali
was described as a “giant,” just as the first ruler of Atlantis, Atlas, was a Titan.Mahapralaya
“The Great Cataclysm,” among the oldest surviving Hindustani legends, de-
scribes the rapid approach of a comet as it grows in size:
By the power of God there issued from the essence of Brahma
[the sky] a being shaped like a boar, white and exceedingly small;
this being, in the space of an hour, grew to the size of an elephant
of the largest size, and remained in the air. Suddenly [it] uttered
a sound like the loudest thunder, and the echo reverberated and
shook all the quarters of the universe. Again [it] made a loud
sound and became a dreadful spectacle.
Shaking the full-flowing mane which hung down his neck on
both sides, and erecting the humid hairs of his body, he proudly
displayed his two most exceedingly white tusks. Then, rolling
about his wine-colored eyes and erecting his tail, he descended
from the region of the air, and plunged head-foremost into the
water. The whole body of water was convulsed by the motion, and
began to rise in waves, while the guardian spirit of the sea, being
terrified, began to tremble for his domains, and cry for mercy.
(See Asteroid Theory)Maia
An Atlantis, daughter of Atlas by Pleione, called “Grandmother,” because she
is the oldest of the Pleiades. In Greek myth, Maia’s husband, Hephaestus, crafted
the golden and silver dogs in front of King Alkynous’s palace at Phaeacia, in the
Odyssey. “Alkynous” is a male derivation of another Pleiade, Alkyone, further
establishing Homer’s Phaeacia as Atlantis. Her son is perhaps the most Atlantean of
all the gods, Hermes-Thaut, who carried the Emerald Tablets of Civilization to the
Nile Valley after the Flood, which he memorialized in building the Great Pyramid.
Our month of May, the birthstone of which is still the emerald, derived from Maia,
whose name means “the Maker.” Her feast-day, the first day of May, continues to
be celebrated around the world, as the workers’ international holiday.
In Hindu myth, Maia is also known as “the Maker,” the personification of
civilization. She was likewise worshiped by the Guanches, the ancient inhabitants
of the Canary Islands, off the northwest coast of Africa. A Guanche statue of
Maia was of such high caliber workmanship, the Christian Spaniards preserved it
in the mistaken belief that it represented the Virgin Mary. To them, the statue was
“our Lady of the Candalaria.” Its original location was in a seaside cave or grotto