Ancient Navigators Series
Diodorus Siculus (c.80 - 20 BC), in his works (Library Bks 1-7, see 3.54.1 and 2, and 3.56.1 and 3) mentions the city of Cerne, along the Atlantic coast of Africa.
Diodorus was a Greek historian who lived in Sicily, a part of Magna Graecia, the Greek speaking area of Italy, the foot of the boot and Sicily, originally settled by the Greeks around 800 BC, by Diodorus' time it was part of the Roman Republic.
He wrote about the Amazons who lived in Western Africa (Libya) and how, under the leadership of their Queen, Myrina, they invaded the land of the Atlantians, who also seem to have lived in Western Africa. The Amazons razed the Atlantian city of Cerne, killing the men and selling the women as slaves. The Atlantians surrendered.
This use of the name Cerne for a city on the western side of Africa is interesting. Note that Diodorus lived roughly 500 years after Scylax, who first wrote about the discovery of Cerne and 400 years after Hanno who founded a city and named it Cerne!
He also lived 300 years after Plato (c.427 - 347 BC), the famous Greek philosopher, who was taught by Socrates and in turn, was Aristotle's teacher. Plato is the primary (and original) source on Atlantis, the author read by all all those interested in the myth of Atlantis. It is mentioned in his work, in Critias and Timaeus. But Plato does not mention Cerne.
Diodorus on Atlantis
Below is what Diodorus wrote about the Amazons and Atlanteans, which is different from Plato's version:
"§ 3.53.1 We are told, namely, that there was once on the western parts of Libya, on the bounds of the inhabited world, a race which was ruled by women and followed a manner of life unlike that which prevails among us. For it was the custom among them that the women should practise the arts of war and be required to serve in the army for a fixed period, during which time they maintained their virginity; then, when the years of their service in the field had expired, they went in to the men for the procreation of children, but they kept in their hands the administration of the magistracies and of all the affairs of the state. 2. The men, however, like our married women, spent their days about the house, carrying out the orders which were given them by their wives; and they took no part in military campaigns or in office or in the exercise of free citizenship in the affairs of the community by virtue of which they might become presumptuous and rise up against the women. 3. When their children were born the babies were turned over to the men, who brought them up on milk and such cooked foods as were appropriate to the age of the infants; and if it happened that a girl was born, its breasts were seared that they might not develop at the time of maturity; for they thought that the breasts, as they stood out from the body, were no small hindrance in warfare; and in fact it is because they have been deprived of their breasts that they are called by the Greeks Amazons. [("a"- "without" + "mazos" "breast")]
§ 3.54.2 Now the queen of the Amazons, Myrina, collected, it is said, an army of thirty thousand foot-soldiers and three thousand cavalry, since they favoured to an unusual degree the use of cavalry in their wars. 3. For protective devices they used the skins of large snakes, since Libya contains such animals of incredible size, and for offensive weapons, swords and lances; they also used bows and arrows, with which they struck not only when facing the enemy but also when in flight, by shooting backwards at their pursuers with good effect. 4. Upon entering the land of the Atlantians [sic] they defeated in a pitched battle the inhabitants of the city of Cerne, as it is called, and making their way inside the walls along with the fleeing enemy, they got the city into their hands; and desiring to strike terror into the neighbouring peoples they treated the captives savagely, put to the sword the men from the youth upward, led into slavery the children and women, and razed the city. 5. But when the terrible fate of the inhabitants of Cerne became known among their fellow tribesmen, it is related that the Atlantians, struck with terror, surrendered their cities on terms of capitulation and announced that they would do whatever should be commanded them, and that the queen Myrina, bearing herself honourably towards the Atlantians, both established friendship with them and founded a city to bear her name in place of the city which had been razed; and in it she settled both the captives and any native who so desired. 6. Whereupon the Atlantians presented her with magnificent presents and by public decree voted to her notable honours, and she in return accepted their courtesy and in addition promised that she would show kindness to their nation. 7. And since the natives were often being warred upon by the Gorgons, as they were named, a folk which resided upon their borders, and in general had that people lying in wait to injure them, Myrina, they say, was asked by the Atlantians to invade the land of the afore-mentioned Gorgons. But when the Gorgons drew up their forces to resist them a mighty battle took place in which the Amazons, gaining the upper hand, slew great numbers of their opponents and took no fewer than three thousand prisoners; and since the rest had fled for refuge into a certain wooded region, Myrina undertook to set fire to the timber, being eager to destroy the race utterly, but when she found that she was unable to succeed in her attempt she retired to the borders of her country.
...
§ 3.56.1 But since we have made mention of the Atlantians, we believe that it will not be inappropriate in this place to recount what their myths relate about the genesis of the gods, in view of the fact that it does not differ greatly from the myths of the Greeks. 2. Now the Atlantians, dwelling as they do in the regions on the edge of the ocean and inhabiting a fertile territory, are reputed far to excel their neighbours in reverence towards the gods and the humanity they showed in their dealings with strangers, and the gods, they say, were born among them. And their account, they maintain, is in agreement with that of the most renowned of the Greek poets when he represents Hera as saying:
For I go to see the ends of the bountiful earth,
Oceanus source of the gods and Tethys divine
Their mother.
§ 3.56.3 This is the account given in their myth: Their first king was Uranus, and he gathered the human beings, who dwelt in scattered habitations, within the shelter of a walled city and caused his subjects to cease from their lawless ways and their bestial manner of living, discovering for them the uses of cultivated fruits, how to store them up, and not a few other things which are of benefit to man; and he also subdued the larger part of the inhabited earth, in particular the regions to the west and the north... "
So Diodorus describes the land of the Atlantians as being "on the edge of the ocean" (the Atlantic), he does not describe any cataclysmic destruction of Atlantis like Plato did. He also mentions "regions to the West" being conquered by Uranus "part of the inhabited earth" which can only mean land west of western Africa: America!
This text mentions land west of Africa, inhabited, and somehow linked to the Ancient civilizations of the Mediterranean. Possibly a story based on facts, like Phoenician or Punic sailors visiting America and returning to Cerne, their base in Western Africa.
To be clear, I do not believe that Plato's story about Atlantis is based on any now lost continent in the Atlantic Ocean, nor do I believe in UFOs, lost civilizations, orichalcum, submerged magic cities, the Bermuda Triangle, etc. That is all a nice story. Fantasy.
Thera - Atlantis - Minoan Civilization
However, Plato may have based his story on ancient events that took place closer to his home in Athens. It could be the memory of the catastrophic destruction of Thera (now the Greek Island of Santorini) in the Aegean sea c.1650 BC, an explosive eruption of its volcano that destroyed the island turning it into several that surround the caldera formed by the collapse of the volcano. Thera's eruption covered Crete with ash, seriously damaging the Minoan civilization with tidal waves and earthquakes. It ruined their economy by burying their farms with ash. The Thera event also affected mainland Greece, leading to the rise of the Mycenaean civilization. This hypothesis was first put forward in 1909 by K. T. Frost, later promoted in several books in the 1960s and 70s. Spyridon Marinatos discovered an ancient Minoan port-city on Thera, Akrotiri at that time, which gave an insight into the Minoan civilization beyond Crete and suggested that this island could have been the famous Atlantis. It seems a reasonable theory. (Read more here, and also here).
Plato and America
Interestingly, in Plato's text about Atlantis, he mentions a "Continent" beyond the Atlantic, perhaps America. My comments are in brackets in the following quote from his work:
" In those far-away days that Ocean [the Atlantic] could be navigated, as there was an island outside the channel which your countrymen tell me you call the ‘pillars of Heracles’. This island was larger than Libya and Asia together, and from it seafarers, in those times, could make their way to the others, and thence to the whole of the opposite continent, Which encircles the true outer Ocean (The waters within the channel just mentioned are manifestly a basm with a narrow entrance [The Mediterranean], what lies beyond it is the real Ocean, and it is the land enclosing that Ocean which should rightly be called a Continent)"
Patagonian Monsters - Cryptozoology, Myths & legends in Patagonia Copyright 2009-2025 by Austin Whittall ©
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