"TIMAEUS," BY PLATO, EXCERPT

“'In Egypt,' Critias began, 'in that part of the Delta where the stream of the Nile divides around the vertex there is a district called the Saitic. The most important city of this district is Sais. (This is in fact also the city from which King Amasis came.) The city was founded by a goddess who name is 'Neith' in Egyptian and (according to the people there) 'Athena' in Greek. They are very friendly to Athens and claim to be related to our people somehow or other. Now Solon said when he arrived there the people began to revere him. Furthermore, he said that when he asked those priests of theirs who were scholars of antiquity about ancient times, he discovered that just about every Greek, including himself, was all but completely ignorant about such matters. On one occasion, wanting to lead them on to talk about antiquity, he broached the subject of our own ancient history. ... “And then one of the priests, a very old man, said, 'Ah, Solon, Solon, you Greeks are ever children. There isn't an old man among you.' On hearing this, Solon said, 'What? What do you mean?' 'You are young,' the old priest replied, 'young in soul, every one of you. Your souls are devoid of beliefs about antiquity handed down by ancient tradition. Your souls lack any learning made hoary by time... And so, Solon, the account you just gave of your people's lineage is just like a nursery tale. First of all, you people remember only one flood, though in fact there have been a great many before. Second, you are unaware of the fact that the finest and best of all races of humankind once lived in your region. This is the race from whom you yourself, your whole city, and all that you and your countrymen have today, are sprung, thanks to a small portion of their stock. But this has escaped you, because for many generations the survivors passed on without leaving a written record....” p. 1229-1231, “Timaeus,” PLATO: COMPLETE WORKS, John M. Cooper, Editor; D.S. Hutchinson, Associate Editor (Hackett Publishing Company, Indiapolis/Cambridge: 1997)