228 The Atlantis Encyclopedia
alternating land and water. Atlantologists
endeavoring to interpret his myth have
been unable to determine if Plato used
Poseidon as a symbol for the natural
forces which went into the configuration
of the island, or as a metaphor signifying
the arrival of some outside, unknown,
possibly Neolithic or megalithic culture-
bearers. Supporting his alien provenance,
“Poseidon” is among the few identifiable
examples of the long-dead Atlantean lan-
guage, because the name stands out
among his fellow Olympian deities as de-
cidedly non-Indo-European. It derives
from a contraction of the un-Greek Posis
Das, “Husband of the Earth,” and
Enosichthon, or “Earthshaker,” together
with the very Greek Hippios, “He of the Horses.” This synthesis implies that
Poseidon did indeed come from outside Greece, where he was eventually adopted
as one of the supreme divinities. With no linguistic or mythic parallels among
eastern cultures, he arrived from the western direction of Atlantis, according to
Herodotus: “Alone of all nations, the Libyans have had among them the name
Poseidon from the first, and they have ever honored this god.”
In the non-Platonic myth of Poseidon, he loses a contest with Athene for
possession of Greece, which may symbolize the Atlanto-Athenian War. Under-
scoring this interpretation, Poseidon hurls his trident at the Athenian Acropolis,
from which a flood gushes forth in a spring.Poshaiyankaya
Leader of the ancestral Zuni into the American Southwest, following their
near annihilation in the Great Flood. Some modern pottery decoration memorial-
izing the ancient catastrophe suggest Lemurian themes, such as the hooked cross
and Tree of Life.
(See The Tree of Life, The Zuni Deluge Story)Pounamu
The “Green Stone” of New Zealand, mythically associated with the Lemurian
Waitahanui. According to New Zealand archaeologist, Barry Brailsford, “It was
used as ballast in the oceangoing ships, the double-hulled wakaships. These ships
had a very large sail and went to all parts of the world.” He described the Pounamu
as “harder than steel,” cut today only by diamond saws. “Black Elk, the great North
American Indian chief, came to New Zealand to collect the ancient stones which heFifth-centuryB.C. bronze of Poseidon, the sea-god
of Atlantis, National Archaeology Museum, Athens.