Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis: The Hermocrates

[SierraDude81]

Transcript: The Lost Dialogue (As Transcribed by 'SirNinja' of the Steam Community Forum: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/ ... =148869000)

[Small edit contributed by me: SierraDude81, correcting the discrepancy in the distances between the lesser and greater colonies versus in-game text]


~THE HERMOCRATES~

Now at last I have Plato's Lost Dialogue translated entirely. The Greek original is lost, so I've used the Arabic text I found in an Italian monastery years ago and
always thought was a hoax.

Now I wonder...could this remarkable book hold the secret to long-lost Atlantis? Probably not. No one will publish it, that's certain. The fear of ridicule is too
great.

To be safe, I've sent a copy to [Ashkenazy / Dunlop / Pearce / Sprague / Ward].

- Charles Sternhart
London, 1922



HERMOCRATES:

In shame I hereby do recant the time and place whereof Critias spoke. In rendering Egyptian into Greek he made a tenfold error. Instead of lying 3,000 miles hence,
Atlantis may well have been 30,000 miles away. Or perhaps it was less than 300 miles from our own shores. Likewise, it may be that the Lost Kingdom held sway as many
as 100,000 years ago, or as few as 1,000.

SOCRATES: If a kingdom arose on Earth beyond anywhere men might travel, then we would never hear of it. We ought to accept the lesser figure.

...so glorious Atlantis founded two colonies, the Lesser 170 miles [northeast/northwest] of the City and the Greater 640 miles away [southeast/southwest]. Gates of
the kingdom opened only with the aid of special stones.


At many outposts, a Sunstone sufficed...

...if the morning light warmed the tall horns.

...if hot sunlight bathed the tall horns.

...if sunset made the tall horns red.

...if darkness concealed the tall horns.




At the Greater Colony, a Moonstone was also needed...

...with pale dawn to shred the darkest night.

...with the noon sun riding above the full moon.

...with the sun dying as a new moon is born.

...with darkest night healed by the full moon.




To approach Atlantis itself, a Worldstone was required as well...

...with the rising sun breaking night's grip above the fiery peak.

...with a waxing moon the sky's only reply to the fires below.

...with a glorious sun blazing alone upon the western shore.

...with darkest night soon to rule the western sea.

...with darkness ruling the old city without challenge.

...with the moon, full of beauty unrivaled, lighting the city.

...with only a waning moon to protect the city from grim night.

...with the the dying orbs plummeting into the eastern sea.


Final entrance yielded only to contrary minds.



...and it is said that dwellers in Atlantis had no horses nor any need of them.

Orichalcum, the metal that glittered like fire, this they had instead. They cast it into shiny beads and used them as we do minted coins, paying statues to do their
work as if by magic.

When their colonies were failing, wise men carved strange devices out of amber to search for the metal, but only proud Atlantis ever yielded a supply.

SOCRATES: You have called the kingdom wealthy, but surely this is absurd.



...as the waters rose around their city, the Kings of Atlantis, one after another, sought to hold off fate.

Knowing mortal men would never rule the sea, they planned a huge colossus, which by use of orichalcum, ten beads at a time, would make them like the gods themselves.

Nur-Ab-Sal was one such king. He it was, say the wise men of Egypt, who first put men in the colossus, making many freaks of nature at times when the celestial
spheres were well aligned.

SOCRATES: This I doubt. We are hearing a child's tale.