Plato, Critias 113e · 113e
Two springs and five pairs of twins
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Critias — πάντῃ ἴσον ἀφεστῶτας, ὥστε ἄβατον ἀνθρώποις εἶναι· πλοῖα γὰρ καὶ τὸ πλεῖν οὔπω τότε ἦν. αὐτὸς δὲ τήν τε ἐν μέσῳ νῆσον οἷα δὴ θεὸς εὐμαρῶς διεκόσμησεν, ὕδατα μὲν διττὰ ὑπὸ γῆς ἄνω πηγαῖα κομίσας, τὸ μὲν θερμόν, ψυχρὸν δὲ ἐκ κρήνης ἀπορρέον ἕτερον, τροφὴν δὲ παντοίαν καὶ ἱκανὴν ἐκ τῆς γῆς ἀναδιδούς. παίδων δὲ ἀρρένων πέντε γενέσεις διδύμους γεννησάμενος ἐθρέψατο, καὶ τὴν νῆσον τὴν Ἀτλαντίδα πᾶσαν δέκα μέρη κατανείμας τῶν μὲν πρεσβυτάτων τῷ προτέρῳ
Critias: all at equal distances apart, so that it was impassable for men; for ships and sailing did not yet exist then. He himself, as a god, easily arranged the island in the middle, bringing up two kinds of spring water from under the earth, one hot, the other cold, flowing from a fountain, and sending up from the earth food of every kind, and plentiful. And having fathered five births of male twins, he raised them; and having divided the whole island of Atlantis into ten parts, of the eldest, to the earlier-born
Word by word
The setting
The rings stand at equal distances, so no one could cross to the hill, since there were as yet no ships. Poseidon brings up a hot and a cold spring, supplies food from the earth, and fathers five pairs of twin sons.
A note on this passage
The rings keep the hill apart, pantēi ison aphestōtas, "standing off equally everywhere," and Critias gives the reason in a plain remark: the circles were abaton anthrōpois, not to be walked on by men, and ploia, ships, and to plein, sailing, did not yet exist. The god arranges the island eumarōs, easily, which Critias ties to what a god can do, hoia dē theos. The two springs are hydata ditta pēgaia, double spring-waters, one thermon and one psychron, and the second flows from a krēnē, a fountain. The earth itself is made to send up trophēn pantoian, food of every kind.
The next verbs count the children. Paidōn arrenōn pente geneseis didymous is five births of male twins, so ten sons in all, and kataneimas returns to the verb of the gods' lot: now Poseidon divides the island into deka merē, ten parts. The section ends at tōi proterōi, "to the earlier one," where the share of the first pair of twins begins.
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