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History of Atlantis by Lewis Spence
Index | Chapter: 1 | 2 |3 | 4 |5 | 6 | 7 | 8 |9 | 10 |11 | 12 |13 | 14 |15 | 16
CHAPTER II
THE SOURCES OF ATLANTEAN HISTORY
I THE WRITINGS OF PLATO
THE Timceus and Critias of Plato constitute not only the fullest, but by far the most important body of historical evidence regarding Atlantis which we possess. As the available translations of those passages in Plato's works which have reference to Atlantis seem to leave a good deal to be desired, I have carefully compiled a new version of them, basing my account of the Timceus on the translations of Jowett (The Dialogues of Plato), and of R. D. Archer-Hind, and founding my version of the Critias on that of the Abbe Jolibois (Dissertation sur Atlantide, Lyons, 1846) and the excellent French translation of P. Negris (La question de Atlantis de Platon, Congres internat. d'archeol. Athens, 1905). By a careful collation of these translations I believe I have produced an account which will prove of greater general use to students of the Atlantean problem than any at present existing in English. This account must not be regarded as a translation, but rather as a compilation of translations of the Platonic account of Atlantis. At the same time I have taken all due care to avoid doing violence in any way to the original, which, in the following pages, is not rendered in its entirety, though very nearly so, no fact of importance having been omitted.
Plato's account of the Timaeus is in dialogue form. Socrates, Hermocrates, Critias and Timaeus have fore-gathered for the purpose of philosophical debate, and Socrates reminds Critias that he promised them a tale which might prove acceptable "for the festival of the goddess."
Hermocrates: Indeed, Socrates, as Timaeus said, we will do our utmost, nor can we excuse ourselves from the promise. Yesterday, indeed, on leaving this place, when we reached the guest-chamber at the house of Critias, where we are staying, we were discussing this very matter. Critias then told us a story from old tradition, which you had better repeat now, Critias, to Socrates, that he may help us to judge whether it will answer our purpose.
Critias: Agreed, if Timaeus is pleased.
Timceus: I quite agree.
Critias: Listen then, Socrates, to a tale which, strange though it be, is yet perfectly true, as Solon, the wisest of the seven, once said. He was a relation and friend of Dropidas, my great-grandfather, as he tells us himself in his poems, and Dropidas assured my grandfather, Critias, who, when an old man, repeated it to us, that there were great and marvellous exploits achieved by Athens in the days of old, which, through lapse of time and in the course of generations, have vanished from memory. The most remarkable is one which it would be fitting for us to narrate, and so at once discharge our debt of gratitude to you and also praise the goddess at the time of her festival by a paean in her honour.
Socrates: A capital proposal. But what was this feat which Critias described on the authority of Solon as actually performed of old by this city, though unrecorded in history?
Critias : I will tell you an old story which I heard from an aged man, for Critias was then nearly ninety years of age, while I was about ten. It happened to be the "children's day"* of the Apaturia, and, as was customary,
*A festival in honour of Dionysius, held in October, at which the young were enrolled in their clan.
the boys enjoyed their pastime, our fathers giving us rewards for declaiming poetry. Much poetry by several authors was recited and, since that of Solon had the virtue of novelty, many of the children sang his poems. Then one of the kinsmen remarked (whether he believed so or merely wished to please Critias) that he considered that Solon was not only the wisest of mankind, but also the greatest of all poets. The old man was gratified, and said smiling: "Yes, Amynandros, if he had not regarded poetry merely as a side-issue, but had addressed himself seriously to it, and if he had completed the account which he carried from Egypt, instead of being compelled to leave it unwritten by reason of the troubles which he found here on his return, I am of opinion that neither Hesiod nor Homer nor any other poet would have enjoyed so much fame as he."
"What account was that, Critias?" asked Amynandros.
"It referred to a mighty achievement," he replied, "and one which deserved to be exalted throughout the world, a great deed which our city actually performed, but, owing to time and the destruction of the doers thereof, the story has not come down to our days."
"Tell us from the beginning," said the other, " the tale that Solon told, and how and from whom he received it as true."
"There is in Egypt," said Critias, "in the Delta, at the head of which the river Nile divides, a province called Sais, and the chief city of this province is also Sais, the birthplace of Amasis, the king. The founder of this city is a goddess whose name in the Egyptian tongue is Neith, and in Greek, as the Egyptians say, Athena. The people of Sais are great lovers of the Athenians and claim a certain kinship with us. Now when Solon sojourned in this city he was most honourably entreated by its people, and when he inquired concerning ancient things of the priests who were most learned therein, he found that neither he nor any other Greek knew anything about such matters. And when he wished to lead them on to talk of ancient times, he told them of the oldest legends of Greece, of Phoroneus, who was called the first man, and of Niobe, of the tale of Deucalion and Pyrrha, how they survived after the deluge, and he reckoned up their descendants, and tried, by calculating the periods, to count up the number of years that passed during the events he related. Then said one of the priests, a man well stricken in years: "O Solon, Solon, ye Greeks are but children, and there is no Grecian who is an old man." And when Solon heard this, he said: "What mean you by this?" And the priest said: "Ye are all young in your souls ; for ye have not any old tradition, any ancient belief nor knowledge that is hoary with age. And the reason of it is this : many have been the destructions of mankind, and many shall be. The greatest are by fire and by water, but besides these there are lesser ones. For, indeed, the tale that is also told among you, how that Phaethon yoked his father's chariot, and, for that he could not drive in his father's path, he burnt up all things upon earth and was himself smitten by a thunderbolt and slain; this story has the air of a fable ; but the truth concerning it is related to a deviation of the bodies that move round the earth in the heavens, whereby at long intervals of time a destruction through fire of the things that are upon earth occurs. Thus do those who dwell on mountains and in high places and in dry perish more easily than those who live beside rivers and by the sea. Now the Nile, which is our preserver, saves us also from this distress by releasing his springs, but when the gods send a flood upon the earth, lustrating her with waters, those in the mountains are saved, the neatherds and shepherds, but the inhabitants of the cities in your land are swept by the rivers into the sea. But in this land at no time does water fall upon the fields, but the reverse occurs, and all rises up by nature from below. Wherefore the legends preserved here are the most ancient on record. The truth is that in all places, where great cold or heat does not forbid, there are ever human beings, now more, now fewer. Now whether at Athens or in Egypt, or in any other known place anything noble or great or otherwise notable has occurred, we have written down and preserved an account of it from ancient times in our temple here. But with you and other nations the commonwealth has only just been discovered, the use of letters and the other commodities that cities require, and after the wonted term of years, like a recurring sickness, comes rushing on them the torrent from heaven, and it leaves only the unlettered and untaught among you, so that, as it were, ye become young again with a new birth, knowing nought of what happened in ancient times either in our country or in yours. *
*The priest means to say that the destruction of ancient records is due to seismic causes or to floods, and that as the Egyptians are preserved from both by the Nile and the absence of rainfall, their population is continuous and their monuments and records escape destruction. This, of course, could not refer to Greece.
"For example, these genealogies, Solon, which you just now recounted of the people of your country, are little better than children's tales. For in the first place ye remember but one deluge, whereas there had been many before it; and again ye know now that the fairest and noblest race among mankind lived once in your country, whence ye sprang, and all your city which now is, from a very little seed that of old was left over. Ye know it not, because the survivors lived and died for many generations without utterance in writing. For, once upon a time, Solon, far back beyond the greatest destruction by waters, that which is now the city of the Athenians was foremost both in war and in all besides, and her laws were exceedingly righteous above all cities. Her deeds and her government are said to have been the noblest whereof the report has come to our ears.
And Solon said that on hearing this he was astonished, and used all urgency in entreating the priest to relate to him from beginning to end all about these ancient citizens.
So the priest said: "O, Solon, I will tell it for thy sake and for the sake of thy city, and for the honour of the goddess who was the owner and nurse and instructress both of your city and of ours, for she founded yours earlier by a thousand years, having taken the seed of you from Earth and Hephaistos, and ours in later time. And the date of our city's foundation is recorded in our sacred writings to be eight thousand years ago. But concerning the citizens of Athens nine thousand years ago, I will briefly inform you of their laws and of the noblest of the deeds which they performed. The precise truth concerning everything we will examine in due order hereafter, taking the actual records at our leisure.
"Regard the Hellenic laws in comparison with those of Egypt, for you will find here at the present day many examples of the laws which then existed among you : first the separation of the priestly caste from the rest; next the distinction of the craftsmen, that each kind plies its own craft by itself and mixes not with another; and the class of shepherds and hunters and of husbandmen are set apart; and that of the warriors, too, you have surely noticed, is here sundered from all other classes; for they are expected to study the art of war, and nothing else. Again there is the custom of their arming with spears and shields, wherewith we have been the first men in Asia to arm ourselves, for the goddess taught this to us, as she did first to you in that country of yours. Again as regards knowledge, you see how cautious our law is in its underlying principles, examining the laws of nature till it arrives at divination and medicine, the object of which is health, drawing from these divine studies, lessons useful for human requirements and adding to these all the allied sciences. Thus the goddess established you when she founded your nation first, fixing the spot in which ye were born, because she saw that the equal temperament of its seasons would render its people most intelligent. As the goddess was a patroness of war and erudition, she selected the place that should produce men resembling herself, and in it she planted your race. Thus, then, did ye dwell governed by such laws as I have described, and even better still, surpassing all men in excellence.
"Many and mighty are the deeds of your city set down for the admiration of humanity. And there is one which for greatness and nobility surpasses all the rest. For our chronicles tell of a great adversary your city conquered of old, a power which advanced in wanton insolence upon all Europe and Asia together, issuing yonder from the Atlantic Ocean. For in those days the sea there could be crossed, since it had an island before the mouth of the strait, which is called, as ye say, the Pillars of Hercules. Now this island was greater than Libya and Asia together;* and, therefrom, there was passage for the seafarers of those times to the other islands, and from the islands to all the opposite continent which bounds that ocean truly named.
*Plato here means, of course, North Africa and Asia Minor.
For these regions that lie within the strait aforesaid seem to be but a bay having a narrow entrance ; but the other is ocean verily, and the land surrounding it may with fullest truth and fitness be named a continent. In this island, Atlantis, arose a great and marvellous might of kings, ruling over all the island itself, and many other islands, and parts of the mainland; and besides these, of the lands east of the strait they governed Libya as far as Egypt, and Europe to the borders of Etruria. So all this power gathered itself together, and your country and ours and the whole region within the strait it sought with one single swoop to enslave. Then, O Solon, did the power of your city shine forth in all men's eyes, glorious in valour and strength. For, being foremost upon earth in courage and the arts of war, sometimes she was leader of the Hellenes, sometimes she stood alone perforce when the rest fell away from her; and after being brought into the uttermost perils, she vanquished the invaders and triumphed over them, and the nations that were not yet enslaved she preserved from slavery ; while the rest of us who dwell this side the Pillars of Hercules, all did she set free with ungrudging hand. But in later time, after there had been exceeding great earthquakes and floods, there fell one day and night of destruction ; and the warriors in your land all in one body were swallowed up by the earth, and in like manner did the island Atlantis sink beneath the sea and vanish away. Wherefore to this day the ocean there is impassable and unsearchable, being blocked by very shallow shoals, which the island caused as she settled down.
"You have heard this brief statement, Socrates, of what the ancient Critias reported that he heard from Solon, and when you were speaking yesterday about the constitution and the men whom you described, I was amazed as I called to mind the story I have just told you, remarking how by some miraculous coincidence most of your account agreed unerringly with the description of Solon. I was unwilling, however, to say anything at the moment, for after so long a time my memory was at fault. I conceived, therefore, that I must not speak until I had thoroughly gone over the whole story by myself. Accordingly I was quick to accept the task you imposed on us yesterday, thinking that for the most arduous part of all such undertakings, I mean supplying a story fitly corresponding to our intentions, we should be^fairly well provided. So then, as Hermocrates said, as soon as ever I departed hence yesterday, I began to repeat the legend to our friends as I remembered it ; and when I got home I recovered nearly the whole of it by thinking it over at night. How true is the saying that what we learn in childhood has a wonderful hold on the memory. Of what I heard yesterday I know not if I could call to mind the whole ; but though it is so very long since I heard this tale, I should be surprised if a single point in it has escaped me. It was with much boyish delight that I listened at the time, and the old man was glad to instruct me (for I asked a great many questions) ; so that it is indelibly fixed in my mind, like those encaustic pictures which cannot be effaced. And I narrated the story to the rest the first thing in the morning, that they might share my affluence of words. Now, therefore, to return to the object of all our conversation, I am ready to speak, Socrates, not only in general terms, but entering into details, as I heard it. The citizens and the city which you yesterday described to us as in a fable we will transfer to the sphere of reality and to our own country, and we will suppose that ancient Athens is your ideal commonwealth, and say that the citizens whom you imagined are those veritable forefathers of ours of whom the priest spoke. They will fit exactly, and there will be nothing discordant in saying that they were the men who lived in those days. And dividing the work between us, we will all endeavour to render an appropriate fulfilment of your injunctions. So you must consider, Socrates, whether this story of ours satisfies you, or whether we must look for another in its stead."
Socrates : How could we change it for the better, Critias? It is specially appropriate to this festival of the goddess, owing to its connexion with her; while the fact that it is no fictitious tale, but a true history, is surely a great point. How shall we find other such citizens if we relinquish these? It cannot be; so with Fortune's favour do you speak on, while I, in requital for my discourse of yesterday, have in my turn the privilege of listening in silence." *
* Critias means to say that he was struck by the similarity of the ideal state as described by Socrates, to Athens, as shown in Solon's story. He, therefore, made an effort to recall every circumstance of that story in the hope that it would serve, Socrates' purpose to illustrate his imaginary commonwealth. After this, Critias proceeds to expound the order of the universe before the creation of mankind.
So far the Timceus.
The next passage in Plato's works which has reference to Atlantis is his Critias, which purports to be an account by a person of that name of the circumstances of life in Atlantis, as recounted by Solon to Dropidas, the speaker's great-grandfather.* Nine thousand years before Solon's day, or about 9600 B.C., war broke out between the nations within the Pillars of Hercules and those beyond them. Athens placed herself at the head of the Eastern peoples, and the Kings of the isle of Atlantis led the Western races. Atlantis was an isle greater than Asia (Asia Minor) and Lybia (North Africa) together, but it was swallowed up by a convulsion of the earth, and its site is now marked by dangerous quicksands which render the sea-routes in that region unnavigable.
* It is, indeed, an amplification of Critias 's account of Atlantis in the Tinueta.
At this early period Athens was possessed of extensive territories, her lands were fertile, and her inhabitants numerous. As regards the Atlanteans, Critias explains to his hearers that he must render the names of their heroes into Greek. Solon, who had written an account of their history in verse, found that the priests of Sais had already given these names an Egyptian aspect. He would thus take a similar liberty, but would retain their significance. His ancestor had possessed an account of these things in writing, but he, Critias, was compelled to rely on his memory for the facts, which he had heard in childhood, and which had deeply impressed themselves on his mind.
The gods divided the earth into portions, both great and small, and to Poseidon or Neptune, god of the sea, had been awarded the isle of Atlantis, where he begat children by a mortal woman. The island, which was not mountainous near the sea-coast, had in its midst a plain, which is said to have had no equal for beauty and fertility. About six miles from this plain stood a low mountain, where dwelt an aboriginal inhabitant or autochthone, called Evenor, who, by his wife, Leucippe, had a daughter called Cleito. This girl, after the death of her parents, was espoused by Poseidon, who environed the mountain with mounds and ditches. The mounds were two in number, and the three ditches, which were filled with water from the sea, were placed at an equal distance one from the other, and rendered access to the mount impossible. The art of navigation was at this time unknown. Poseidon also set in the island two currents of water, one hot, the other cold, which assisted its fertilisation exceedingly.
The god reared in this enchanted place five pairs of male children, twins, of whom he was the father. He divided Atlantis into ten parts. He bestowed on his eldest born the maternal domain, which was the largest and best situated, and established the remaining princes in the other regions of Atlantis as chiefs of different nations. The name of the eldest son was Atlas, who was king of the entire island, and from him the Atlantic Ocean takes its name. His twin brother was called, in the Atlantean language, Gadir, and in the Greek Eumolus. He had for his por- tion the extremity of the island near the Pillars of Hercules, and that part of it has since borne the name Gadiric. The next pair of twins were called Amphisus and Eudemon, and the others respectively Mneseus, Autochthonus, Elassippus, Mestor, Azaes and Diaprepus. These princes reigned in prosperity in the island for several centuries, and established a supremacy in the midst of the ocean over many other islands, as well as over those which are near Egypt and Tyrrhenia.
The posterity of Atlas maintained the sovereign power during several centuries in uninterrupted succession. Their riches were so great that they surpassed those of the kings who lived in the centuries preceding their own, and no monarch of the succeeding ages could in this respect compare with them. By their wise industry they filled the capital city and the country with everything that was useful and agreeable to existence. Their power procured them all the productions of foreign lands. Their island furnished them with all kinds of stones and minerals, and, above all, with that mineral known as orichalcum (mountain copper) the most precious, next to gold, of all the metals. The island also produced in abundance all kinds of timber suitable for building construction. It nourished numerous herds of animals, both domestic and wild, and large numbers of elephants. These found plenty of food in the marshes, lakes and rivers, in the plains and the mountains. The soil also produced a wealth of roots, wood, gums, flowers and fruits, the sweet juice of the grape, and corn, all desirable viands, and vegetables in their season. Shady trees sheltered its happy people, and divers fruits appeased their hunger and thirst, especially one with a hard rind, affording both meat, drink and ointment. In a word, there was to be found in this island, which has so unhappily disappeared, everything which could satisfy the body, the spirit, and engender piety towards the gods.
By means of these natural riches the Atlanteans built temples, palaces, bridges, directing the waters, which flowed in a triple circle around their ancient metropolis, in a useful manner. They began by constructing bridges over the zones of sea, and another leading to the royal palace. They greatly increased this building in size and beauty with each successive reign, and drove a canal through the zones of land three hundred feet in width, about a hundred feet deep, and about sixty miles in length. At the landward end of this waterway, which was capable of navigation by the largest vessels, they constructed a harbour. The two zones of land were cut by large canals, by which means a trireme, or three-decked galley, was able to pass from one sea-zone to another. The bridges by means of which communication was had between the land-zones were sufficiently high to permit of the passage of vessels, and these were roofed over. The first sea-zone was about 1,800 feet wide, the second about 1,200 feet, and the third, which immediately encircled the island, was about 600 feet in width.
The diameter of the island on which the palace stood was five stadia, or about 1,000 yards. The isle and each zone were enclosed by stone walls. At the entrance to the bridges were gates, surmounted by defending towers. The bridge at the principal entrance was about 100 feet wide. The stone of which these immense piles were constructed was quarried from the island, and was (black) and black and red in colour. The walls which encircled the outward zone were covered with a light coating of brass, those of the interior had plates of tin, and the walls of the citadel were coated with orichalcum.
The palace within the citadel was planned as follows: In the middle and most inaccessible part was the Temple of Cleito and Poseidon, glittering with gold. Here the descendants of the first Atlanteans gathered each year to offer pious sacrifices to the gods. The Temple of Poseidon was about 600 feet in length, 3 acres square, and of a height proportionate to its length and breadth. But its architecture was barbaric. The whole of its exterior was garnished with silver, its pinnacles glittered with gold, and the interior was roofed with ivory, gold, silver, and the flashing orichalcum. But orichalcum prevailed on the decoration of the interior walls, panels and statues, although there were also statues of the purest gold. Poseidon was here represented standing in his chariot, grasping the reins of winged coursers. Around him were grouped a hundred Nereids borne by dolphins, and other contiguous sculptures represented the princesses and princes of the royal line, and other effigies or votive gifts of the kings and people of the Atlantean Empire. The sacrificial altar, by its grandeur and beauty, was worthy of the magnificence of the Temple, as indeed was the remainder of the royal edifice.
In various parts of the city were situated hot springs and fountains of cold water, both of which flowed in abundance. Great baths were constructed, some open others walled and roofed in, as hot baths for use in winter are. These were baths for the royal family, others were reserved for women, and even horses and other domestic animals had bathing-pools of their own. Each bath was constructed with due regard to decency and the convenience of the several classes which it served.
Each of the two zones of the city was filled with temples, shrines, groves and gymnasiums. Near the midst of the central island stood a large circular hippodrome, 600 feet in diameter. Round this hippodrome were arranged the dwellings of the court officials and guards. The soldiers of the royal guard were lodged near the castle, around the mountain which it crowned, but those most trusted had their abode within the castle itself, near the apartments of the princes. The docks were filled with triremes, and well equipped with everything necessary to seafaring.
On passing the gates of the outward zone one came to a wall which commenced at the sea-shore, and encircled the island and its zones for a distance of 9,000 feet until it joined the wall at the other side of the communicating canal. All the enclosed space was cultivated. The part which faced the sea was covered with villas and storehouses. The gulf was dotted with vessels, and the quays crowded with merchants from all parts, who came and went within the port, making a continual clamour.
Landward, the island presented a mountainous aspect, especially on that side of it which looked seaward. Around the royal city stretched a level plain, likewise circled by mountains, except on the coast. The island looked southward. * The most elevated sites were the only parts of it exposed to the ravages of the wind. Our mountains give only a feeble idea of the mountains of that island. Their majestic height, their continuous chain, the thick and tangled forests which covered them excited the liveliest admiration. Their slopes were covered with small towns, wealthy and populous, and diversified by rivers, lakes and prairies, furnished with abundanmourishment for an infinite number of wild beasts. In these forests all kinds of useful woods were to be found.
* Plato probably means that its most thickly inhabited part had a southerly aspect.
The island had, coastwise, a lengthy aspect, but the canal and the ditches caused it to lose somewhat of this appearance. The canal had an incredible depth, length and width. When one compares this work with other evidences of human industry the mind refuses to believe that it was the handiwork of man. It flowed through the country for a distance of more than 1,000 miles, and received all the streams which descended from the mountains, traversing the city by way of several lesser canals, where it reached the sea. Its affluents served for the transport of timbers and harvests, and afforded countless inland communications. The soil bore two harvests yearly of all descriptions of fruits and cereals.
In winter, through the protection of the gods, the soil was sheltered from rains and floods.
The plain country furnished 60,000 men-at-arms. The country was divided into cantons, each about twelve miles square, and each canton furnished an armed contingent and appointed its own leader. The mountain country supplied an innumerable host of warriors. It was established by law that the chief of each canton must furnish ten chariots, each with two horses and two cavalrymen, with a driver, to permit the riders to fight on foot if necessary. He must also enlist ten heavily-armed foot-soldiers, two archers, two slingers, three stone-shooters and four sailors, the last as a contribution towards the manning of a fleet of 20,000 vessels. This applied only to the royal portion of Atlantis. The nine other parts of the empire (the islands?) had a separate military economy.
As regards the government, each of the twelve kings was absolute in his own island. But their administration and the dealings between them were governed by the ordinances of the ancient Atlantean rulers, and engraven on a column of orichalcum situated in the midst of the island, in the Temple of Poseidon. Once in six years they assembled therein to deliberate on public affairs and examine all pressing matters with pious attention, judging and condemning the wicked. Before commencing the assize they brought ten bulls into the sacred zone. Each king made a vow to offer up one of these bulls to Poseidon without employing the agency of iron. Having taken the animals, they brought them to the graven column and there immolated them. The ceremony over, the kings passed the members of each bull through the fire, making a libation of the blood, and drenching the column with it, afterwards totally consuming the victims with fire. Later they placed the remainder of the blood in small vases of gold and splashed it on the fire, making at the same time a solemn vow to judge according to the laws graven on the column, and to punish those who had violated them, in conformity with the precepts of their sire Poseidon.
They then drank some of the remaining blood and consecrated the golden vase which held it to Poseidon. Night having fallen, they returned to the temple, each wearing a rich blue robe, and sat in council, which terminated with sunrise. They then engraved the sentences which they had pronounced on a tablet of gold, which they suspended in the temple, along with the vestments they had worn, for the behoof of future generations.
They were not permitted to take up arms against one another, and the children of Atlas were invariably given the leadership in all military expeditions. Nor were they allowed to put any member of their family to death unless a majority of six votes of the Council gave them power to do so.
For many centuries they did not lose sight of their august origin, they obeyed all the laws, and were religious adorers of the gods their ancestors. Sincerity reigned in their hearts. Moderation and prudence directed their conduct and their relations with foreign nations. So long as they behaved in this manner, all was well with them. But in the course of time the vicissitudes of human affairs corrupted little by little their divine institutions, and they began to comport themselves like the rest of the children of men. They hearkened to the promptings of ambition and sought to rule by violence.
Then Zeus, the King of the gods, beholding this race once so noble, growing depraved, resolved to punish it, and by sad experience to moderate its ambition. He convoked a council of the gods in Olympus, and addressed them as follows:
Here Plato's account ends, and it is believed that death interfered with its conclusion.