sennbat t1_ivorxhl wrote
Reply to comment by dubCeption in TIL that the "Lost City of Atlantis" was invented by the philosopher Plato, as a fake enemy for Athens that lost favour of the gods and was sunk in to the sea. by PDRugby
The oldest texts in the hermetica (of which the emerald tablet is part) are still only estimated to be, at their oldest, written over a hundred years after Plato died, and the earliest version of the Emerald Tablet we're aware of we have only been able to trace back to an even more recent era, several hundred years afterwards. Even if we assume the traditions on which the hermetica were base are and much older we are left with, and this is perhaps the most dire problem - they don't actually mention Atlantis or anything like it.
dubCeption t1_ivvdzk4 wrote
i don't think we're discussing the same emerald tablets. the one's i'm referring to were supposedly written by Thoth around 36,000 bc.
sennbat t1_ivvi1om wrote
No, we're discussing the same emerald tablets. It's where we get the phrase "As above, so below" from. I've heard (from rather unreliable sources) that there are mythical versions from 36,000 bc thing as well, but, and this is important, we have never actually found them. Nor do we have any ancient historical sources that mention them existing. We do have multiple copies, but the oldest we have is from 800ad (found in the Sirr al-khalīqa wa-ṣanʿat al-ṭabīʿa) - which is in itself odd, because supposedly they were part of the hermetica from the beginning, but the previous thousand years of copies we have of the hermetica don't have them.
But the thing about mythical not yet found things is that they don't actually work as evidence of anything.
And all of this is of course ignoring the significantly larger problem that the Emerald Tablet doesn't mention Atlantis.
Here's the entire contents, seriously tell me what any of this has to do with Atlantis:
> Tis true without lying, certain and most true.
> That which is below is like that which is above and that which is above is like that which is below
> to do the miracle of one only thing
> And as all things have been and arose from one by the mediation of one: so all things have their birth from this one thing by adaptation.
> The Sun is its father, the moon its mother,
the wind hath carried it in its belly, the earth is its nurse.
> The father of all perfection in the whole world is here.
> Its force or power is entire if it be converted into earth.
> Separate thou the earth from the fire,
> the subtle from the gross
> sweetly with great industry.
> It ascends from the earth to the heaven and again it descends to the earth
and receives the force of things superior and inferior.
> By this means you shall have the glory of the whole world and thereby all obscurity shall fly from you.
> Its force is above all force,
> for it vanquishes every subtle thing and penetrates every solid thing.
> So was the world created.
> From this are and do come admirable adaptations where of the means is here in this.
> Hence I am called Hermes Trismegist, having the three parts of the philosophy of the whole world.
> That which I have said of the operation of the Sun is accomplished and ended.
dubCeption t1_ivzd1x3 wrote
That is not even close to the entirety of the tablets. There are 15. Thoth is an Atlantean. The first tablet talks about Atlantis and #14 describes Atlantis. emerald tablets.
sennbat t1_ivztlwg wrote
These... were written in 2006.
That's a little bit more recent than Plato.
dubCeption t1_ivzdhu5 wrote
Ohhh i see now. You're talking about the emerald TABLET of hermes the thrice born. Could be Thoth reincarnated but I'm thinking of the much older tablets(plural).
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