(6) - Claudius Aelianus refers to Atlantis and says that the inhabitants of the Okeanos coast still remembered how the Kings and Queens of Atlantis dressed.
"Those who live on the banks of Okeanos tell a story of how the ancient kings of Atlantis, born from the seed of Poseidon, wore the bands of the male Ramfish on their heads, as an emblem of their authority, while their wives, the queens, wore the curls of females as proof of theirs".
It fed on carcasses but sometimes also attacked people, and was able to move such a mass of water as to generate waves that could even cause boats to capsize.Male specimens had a white band around the forehead, while females had curls on the neck.Any idea what animal this "ramfish" could have been?The people who lived on the coast of Okeanos (probably referring to the Atlantic coast of North Africa, but it could also refer to the Iberian peninsula) still preserved the living memory of Atlantis, and the Atlantean Kings dressed in such a way as to remember this sea creature, according to Aelian.
Okeanos lived there with his wife
Atlantioi (Atlanteans): A civilized people near Mount Atlas and the shore of Okeanos, defeated by the Amazones; later allied with Myrina.
Amazones’ Rule in Libya: In western Libya near the edge of the inhabited world, a women-led race practiced warfare and lived on an island called Hespera in the marsh Tritonis, near Okeanos and Mount Atlas.
Disappearance of Tritonis: The marsh Tritonis vanished due to an earthquake, splitting apart near Okeanos.
This marsh was near Okeanos (the Ocean) which surrounds the earth and received its name from a certain river Triton which emptied into it; and this marsh was also near Aithiopia [Africa] and that mountain by the shore of Okeanos which is the highest of those in the vicinity and impinges upon Okeanos and is called by the Greeks Atlas.
The first people against whom they advanced, according to the tale, was the Atlantioi (Atlanteans), the most civilized men among the inhabitants of those regions, who dwelt in a prosperous country and possessed great cities; it was among them, we are told, that mythology places the birth of the gods, in the regions which lie along the shore of Okeanos, in this respect agreeing with those among the Greeks who relate legends, and about this we shall speak in detail a little later.Now the queen of the Amazones, 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.
.The story is also told that the marsh Tritonis disappeared from sight in the coruse of an earthquake, when those parts of it which lay towards Okeanos were torn asunder."[N.B.
And when we turn to the mythology of the Greeks, we find that the origin of the world was ascribed to Okeanos, the ocean, The world was at first an island surrounded by the ocean, as by a great stream:
"It was a region of wonders of all kinds; Okeanos lived there with his wife Tethys: these were the Islands of the Blessed, the gardens of the gods, the sources of nectar and ambrosia, on which the gods lived.