Atlantis, the Andes Solution: The Discovery of South America as the Legendary Continent (1997) is also provocative.
The discussions about the nature of justice, referred to in the text, are from Plato’s Republic, a series of conversations that were supposed to have occurred immediately before the opening of the dialogue Timaeus, 17C–19A. The Timaeus, Critias, and Hermocrates, which exists today only in fragments, were intended to form a trilogy, according to Bury (1999), 3. That Critias’s great-grandfather was Dropides is in Timaeus 20E, and the Egyptian priest’s words on the Greeks as always children are from Timaeus 22B. The alleged old tradition is noted in Timaeus 20D, and the impact on Critias as a boy in Timaeus 26C.
In dealing with the chronology of Atlantis, there is some discrepancy in Plato’s own account. In the Timaeus it is claimed that the history of the Egyptians stretched back eight thousand years from the time of the priests’ discussion with Solon (Timaeus 23E), meaning that the war with Atlantis occurred sometime after 8600 B.C. But in the Critias it was noted that “9000 is the sum of years since the war occurred, as is recorded …” (108E), reckoning from the time of Socrates, Critias, Hermocrates, and Timaeus’s discussions. The war with Atlantis, in other words, occurred, according to Plato, either sometime after 8600 B.C. or about 9400 B.C. (Jordan [2001], 17–20). This is why the narrative opts for a rounded 9000 B.C.
Plato’s words on the truth of the story are found in Timaeus 20D, and Aristotle’s skepticism comes indirectly, namely in a source, no longer in existence, cited by Strabo in Geography 2.3.6. One list of believers and critics, though incomplete, can be found in de Camp (1970), Appendix C, 314–18. The comments from Plutarch about Plato derive from his biographical portrait of Solon, printed in many available formats, for instance the compilation The Rise and Fall of Athens (1984), 43–76; the references to Solon, Plato, and their intentions were taken from 75–76. A “fine but undeveloped site” is a paraphrase of Plutarch’s words. Herodotus’s visit to Egypt is recounted in the Histories II. Pliny’s words on Aristotle’s breath are in Natural History VIII, 44.
“By God’s Grace” comes from Rudbeck’s letter to the chancellor, December 1674, Annerstedt, Bref II, 98. Rudbeck’s discussion of Atlantis is from Atl. I, 92– 190. Plato’s “the fairest of all plains” is in Critias 113C, and the discussion on the fertility of Old Uppsala is from Atl. I, 106–7, 122, 167. Rudbeck’s sources included among others Snorri’s Heimskringla (225 and 68). The size of Atlantis is discussed in Plato’s Critias 118A, and Rudbeck’s Atl. I, 94ff.
The account of Rudbeck’s first investigation at Old Uppsala is found in his letter of 12 November 1677, printed in Klemming (1863), A. His citing of the old hill was based on Plato’s words about the mountain in the distance of the great plain, Critias 113C. The six mathematical students are noted in Atl. I, 109. Plato’s description of these features comes from Critias: the water 113E, 117A–117C, and the racetrack 117C, with Rudbeck’s discussion, including his conversations with the older gentlemen, Atl. I, 113ff. “Not a single point” claim comes from the letter of 12 November 1677. The map of Atlantis, with the rivers and all the sites, is reproduced in the Atlas volume (table 9, fig. 27). Rudbeck on the higher water levels and the annual recession, Atl. I, 116. Uppland underwater is found in Franklin D. Scott’s Sweden: The Nation’s History (1988), 4.
Plato’s description of the Poseidon temple at the center of Atlantis comes from Critias 116C–117A, with the reference to the “encircling wall of gold” in Critias 116C. The “precepts of Poseidon” are in Critias 119C, and the rituals associated with preserving justice, including the bull hunt, the drinking of the blood-wine mixture, and the offering of the golden cup to the temple, are at 119D–120C. The sacred grove is in Critias 117B. Rudbeck discusses his findings, Atl. I, 152–65. His textual source on the Old Uppsala temple was primarily Adam of Bremen’s Gesta Hammaburgensis ecclesiae pontificum, particularly Book IV, 26–27. He discusses the temple, the golden chain, the spring, the statues of the gods, and the ceremony with the sacrifices. The temple is also discussed by later humanists, Olaus Magnus’s account, Description of the Northern Peoples, 156–58, being especially influential. Magnus’s reconstruction, though, certainly looked very much like a late medieval or early Renaissance building: Josephson, Det hyperboreiska Uppsala (1945), 40.
Rudbeck’s principles of source criticism, his discussion of the trip, and the unlikelihood of agreement on the details are found in Atl. I, 9. The example of the four apostles also comes from this passage. Had they agreed in all respects, then Rudbeck would have argued that they came from the same source, Atl. I, 12. Rudbeck is here using an established philological principle of source criticism. L. D. Reynolds and N. G. Wilson discuss this principle in Scribes and Scholars: A Guide to the Transmission of Greek and Latin Literature (1991), 208–10, as does Anthony Grafton’s Defenders of the Text: Traditions of Scholarship in an Age of Science 1450–1800 (1991), particularly in his discussion of the Renaissance humanist Poliziano.
Analysis of the Atlantis temple and the search in Old Uppsala is recounted in Atl. I, 152ff. and 164–165. “Every nook and cranny” comes from this last passage. Rudbeck’s various outings, for instance accompanied by Professor Celsius, is told in Atl. I, 300. Human sacrifice and sacred groves were also noted by the Roman Tacitus observing the customs of the Germanic tribes, including the Suebi, in his Germania, 39.
Tornewall’s figures for Atlantica are noted in Klemming (1863), 6, and Josephson, Det hyperboreiska Uppsala (1945), 9–10. Another helpful artist was one of Rudbeck’s students, Samuel Otto. Rudbeck’s technological students are discussed particularly by Per Dahl, Svensk ingenjorskonst under stormaktstiden: Olof Rudbecks tekniska undervisning och praktiskaverksamhet (1995).
Rudbeck hoped to begin printing his book, 28 December 1674, Annerstedt, Bref II, 98–99. The firing of Curio and the legal process are discussed in Annerstedt’s Bref II, lxxii–lxxix, and UUH II, 140–44. References to the problems with the previous bookseller and Hadorph’s cattle come from Eriksson (2002), 103. Among other places, the prosecution’s complaints can be seen in surviving letters in the Ornhielm papers, KB, Ornhielmiana (O.20). Rudbeck’s letter to De la Gardie, 31 March 1675, is printed in Annerstedt, Bref II, 107–10. The tendency to hypochondria was noted, for instance, by Strindberg, Bondenod och stormaktsdrom, 248ff.
CHAPTER 9: TWELVE TRUMPETS, FOUR KETTLEDRUMS, AND A BAG OF GOLD
The epigraph is taken from The Confessions of Jean-Jacques Rousseau, translated by J. M. Cohen (1954), 52. De la Gardie’s collection of antiquities is discussed in many works cited above, particularly Fahraeus (1936), Godel (1897), Schuck (1932– 35), and Hahr (1925). Peter Englund discusses the client-patron relationship in Stellan Dahlgren, ed., Makt och vardag: Hur man styrde, levde och tankte under svensk stormaktstid (1993). Rudbeck repeatedly thanked the count for his help. His phrase on the “greatest supporter” is often repeated, for instance, 3 September 1678, Annerstedt, Bref II, 162.
The descriptions of King Charles XI are derived from Magalotti’s observations, Sverige, 80ff. My discussion was also based on the studies by Goran Rystad, Karl XI: En biografi (2001); Anthony Upton, Charles XI and Swedish Absolutism (1998), and Michael Roberts, “Charles XI,” in his Essays in Swedish History (1967). Another good description of the king comes from Robinson’s Account of Sweden 1688, recently published and edited with an introduction by John B. Hattendorf (1998), particularly pages 30–31. Many of Rudbeck’s surviving letters to the king are housed in the Swedish National Archives, for instance, Skrivelser till konungen Karl XI (6459.52, vol. 14, and 1133.10, vol. 32).
De la Gardie performed many valuable services for Rudbeck, and the Uppsala professor was deeply grateful,
