Solon in Sais and his unfinished poem

Solon, who was intending to use the tale for his poem, enquired into the meaning of the names, and found that the early Egyptians in writing them down had translated them into their own language, and he recovered the meaning of the several names and when copying them out again translated them into our language. (113b) My great-grandfather, Dropides, had the original writing, which is still in my possession, and was carefully studied by me when I was a child. (Critias 113a-b)

One of our tribe, either because he thought so or to please Critias, said that in his judgment Solon was not only the wisest of men, (21c) but also the noblest of poets. The old man, as I very well remember, brightened up at hearing this and said, smiling: Yes, Amynander, if Solon had only, like other poets, made poetry the business of his life, and had completed the tale which he brought with him from Egypt, and had not been compelled, by reason of the factions and troubles which he found stirring in his own country when he came home, (21d) to attend to other matters, in my opinion he would have been as famous as Homer or Hesiod, or any poet. (Timaeus 21b-d)

Hellenified names

Solon intended to compose a historical-fiction poem based on the different historical accounts which were present at the Sais temple complex. The Egyptian priest paraphrased and syncretised these different accounts to both impress Solon with the old age of the Egyptians, but also to flatter Solon by telling him that his bronze age Greek ancestors were renowned for their strength and bravery:

‘’The city which now is Athens was first in war and in every way the best governed of all cities, is said to have performed the noblest deeds and to have had the fairest constitution of any of which tradition tells, under the face of heaven.’’ (23d) Solon marvelled at his words, and earnestly requested the priests to inform him exactly and in order about these former citizens. ‘’You are welcome to hear about them’’, Solon, said the priest, ‘’both for your own sake and for that of your city, and above all, for the sake of the goddess who is the common patron and parent and educator of both our cities. She founded your city a thousand years before ours, (23e) receiving from the Earth and Hephaestus the seed of your race, and afterwards she founded ours, of which the constitution is recorded in our sacred registers to be eight thousand years old. As touching your citizens of nine thousand years ago, I will briefly inform you of their laws and of their most famous action; the exact particulars of the whole we will hereafter go through (24a) at our leisure in the sacred registers themselves.’’ (Timaeus 23c-24a)

This is probably an exaggeration of some Mycenaean mercenaries who served in the Egyptian army, fighting against the Sea Peoples, and sometimes even their ex-compatriots. Also, since Solon was in exile from Greece, he would have to return with a story that is flattering to the Athenians, if he wishes to be accepted upon his return, rather than a story which negatively portrays them.

Coincidence both Plato and Solon not finished Atlantis tale, and lost to time?

ANCIENT GREEKS THOUGHT EGYPT WAS 11.000 years old, source? Herodotus, Plato Laws, Diodorus, Maneto, so Atlantis 9000 years old after beginning of Egypt. greeks didnt doubt this part of the story, but sheer scale etc

And if you look [in Egypt], you will find that the things depicted or graven there 10,000 years ago (I mean what I say, [657a] not loosely but literally 10,000) are no whit better or worse than the productions of today, but wrought with the same art. (Plato, The Laws II 656e)

http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0166%3Abook%3D2%3Apage%3D656⁠

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https://typeset.io/pdf/the-atlantis-poem-in-the-timaeus-critias-2yubjgsvt8.pdf⁠

Solon

moonyears hypothesis proposed by cardinal pierre dalli?

Triremes anachronistic, describe any kind kf battleship

Pillrs of hercules Greek toponym, Priest says “straits which are by YOU called pillars of hercules

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