Vi drar til Atlantis!

Kaptein Nemo og Aronnax ser utover Atlantis.
Slik eg forstår det var dette biletet med i fyrste-
utgåva av boka, og ligg no på Wikimedia Commons.

Ein tur til Atlantis har dukka opp som høgst naudsynt, av den enkle grunn at eg må sitere Jules Verne. I En verdensomseiling under havet dukkar nemleg Atlatis opp i ei scene som er nydeleg vakker og gjev underteikna eit brennande ynskje om snarast å dra til Atlantis.

Situasjonen er som fylgjer: Professor Pierre Aronnax har saman med to andre blitt med på ein heller ufrivillig seilas under sjøen med den mystiske Kaptein Nemo i undervassbåten «Nautilus». Nemo viser dei alt det fantastiske ein finn på havbotnen, og ein dag tar han med seg Aronnax ut på ei vandring på havbotnen. Etter at dei har gått ei god stund og klatra opp på eit undersjøisk fjell gjev eg ordet til Aronnax si skildring:

At fifty feet above the peak, in the midst of a rain of stones and scoriæ, a large crater was vomiting forth torrents of lava which fell in a cascade of fire into the bosom of the liquid mass. Thus situated, this volcano lit the lower plain like an immense torch, even to the extreme limits of the horizon. I said that the submarine crater threw up lava, but no flames. Flames require the oxygen of the air to feed upon and cannot be developed under water; but streams of lava, having in themselves the principles of their incandescence, can attain a white heat, fight vigorously against the liquid element, and turn it to vapour by contact. 

Rapid currents bearing all these gases in diffusion and torrents of lava slid to the bottom of the mountain like an eruption of Vesuvius on another Terra del Greco 

There indeed under my eyes, ruined, destroyed, lay a town—its roofs open to the sky, its temples fallen, its arches dislocated, its columns lying on the ground, from which one would still recognise the massive character of Tuscan architecture. Further on, some remains of a gigantic aqueduct; here the high base of an Acropolis, with the floating outline of a Parthenon; there traces of a quay, as if an ancient port had formerly abutted on the borders of the ocean, and disappeared with its merchant vessels and its war-galleys. Farther on again, long lines of sunken walls and broad, deserted streets—a perfect Pompeii escaped beneath the waters. Such was the sight that Captain Nemo brought before my eyes! 

Where was I? Where was I? I must know at any cost. I tried to speak, but Captain Nemo stopped me by a gesture, and, picking up a piece of chalk-stone, advanced to a rock of black basalt, and traced the one word:

ATLANTIS 

What a light shot through my mind! Atlantis! the Atlantis of Plato, that continent denied by Origen and Humbolt, who placed its disappearance amongst the legendary tales. I had it there now before my eyes, bearing upon it the unexceptionable testimony of its catastrophe. The region thus engulfed was beyond Europe, Asia, and Lybia, beyond the columns of Hercules, where those powerful people, the Atlantides, lived, against whom the first wars of ancient Greeks were waged. 

Thus, led by the strangest destiny, I was treading under foot the mountains of this continent, touching with my hand those ruins a thousand generations old and contemporary with the geological epochs. I was walking on the very spot where the contemporaries of the first man had walked. 

Whilst I was trying to fix in my mind every detail of this grand landscape, Captain Nemo remained motionless, as if petrified in mute ecstasy, leaning on a mossy stone. Was he dreaming of those generations long since disappeared? Was he asking them the secret of human destiny? Was it here this strange man came to steep himself in historical recollections, and live again this ancient life—he who wanted no modern one? What would I not have given to know his thoughts, to share them, to understand them! We remained for an hour at this place, contemplating the vast plains under the brightness of the lava, which was some times wonderfully intense. Rapid tremblings ran along the mountain caused by internal bubblings, deep noise, distinctly transmitted through the liquid medium were echoed with majestic grandeur. At this moment the moon appeared through the mass of waters and threw her pale rays on the buried continent. It was but a gleam, but what an indescribable effect! The Captain rose, cast one last look on the immense plain, and then bade me follow him.

Den som kunne vore der med dei!

Eit kart over Atlantis frå ei gresk bok frå 1891.
Biletet ligg på Wikimedia Commons.

Det var Platon som først fortalde oss om Atlantis, sjølv om han kanskje hadde forteljinga frå nokon andre. I Timaios skreiv han:

Many great and wonderful deeds are recorded of your state in our histories. But one of them exceeds all the rest in greatness and valour. For these histories tell of a mighty power which unprovoked made an expedition against the whole of Europe and Asia, and to which your city put an end. This power came forth out of the Atlantic Ocean, for in those days the Atlantic was navigable; and there was an island situated in front of the straits which are by you called the Pillars of Heracles; the island was larger than Libya and Asia put together, and was the way to other islands, and from these you might pass to the whole of the opposite continent which surrounded the true ocean; for this sea which is within the Straits of Heracles is only a harbour, having a narrow entrance, but that other is a real sea, and the surrounding land may be most truly called a boundless continent. Now in this island of Atlantis there was a great and wonderful empire which had rule over the whole island and several others, and over parts of the continent, and, furthermore, the men of Atlantis had subjected the parts of Libya within the columns of Heracles as far as Egypt, and of Europe as far as Tyrrhenia. This vast power, gathered into one, endeavoured to subdue at a blow our country and yours and the whole of the region within the straits; and then, Solon, your country shone forth, in the excellence of her virtue and strength, among all mankind. She was pre-eminent in courage and military skill, and was the leader of the Hellenes. And when the rest fell off from her, being compelled to stand alone, after having undergone the very extremity of danger, she defeated and triumphed over the invaders, and preserved from slavery those who were not yet subjugated, and generously liberated all the rest of us who dwell within the pillars. But afterwards there occurred violent earthquakes and floods; and in a single day and night of misfortune all your warlike men in a body sank into the earth, and the island of Atlantis in like manner disappeared in the depths of the sea. For which reason the sea in those parts is impassable and impenetrable, because there is a shoal of mud in the way; and this was caused by the subsidence of the island.

Og sidan dette har folk undra seg på kvar denne sivilisasjonen hadde vore. Og kanskje i minst like stor grad om denne sivilisasjonen har vore...

Eg reknar meg som vonande agnostikar med tanke på Atlantis sin eksistens. Det er vanskeleg å avskrive at noko kan ha eksistert og blitt øydelagt i samband med eit vulkanutbrot eller liknande, men eit stort kontinent verkar lite truleg. Det gjer sjølvsagt også alle dei spinnville historiene som sirkulerer om alt dei hadde der av teknologi og likande. Men eg likar å vone at ein stad i havet ligg det ein vakker sivilisasjon som vart slukt av havet ein gong for lenge sidan og berre ventar på at nokon skal finne han att. Då satsar eg på at nokon ser det økonomiske potensialet og sporenstreks set opp turist-turar med u-båt, slik at eg og kan sjå det Nemo og Aronnax såg. Fram til då får eg nøye med med Jules Verne, noko som slett ikkje er ein dårleg erstatning.