Atlantis by Hellanicus of Lesbos

"Hectaeus and Hellanicus were certainly the most important of the very ancient writers of history, if we may judge from the frequency with which they were mentioned." -- John Aiken, historian, Various Greek Historians, The Athenaeum, Volume 5, Number XXVII, Page 226, Jan-Jun 1809

"Plato's detractors have accused him of inventing the Atlantis myth in its entirety, but a book called Atlantis was written a century before. Unfortunately, only a fragment of Hellanicus' Atlantis survives, including the line, 'Poseidon mated with Celaeno, and their son Lycus was settled by his father in the Isles of the Blest and made immortal.' This bears similarities with Plato's account where Poseidon mates with Cleito and their son Atlas becomes the ruler of a marvelous land, while Hellanicus in turn may have taken the story from a still earlier Atlantis epic; alternatively, both may have drawn on Solon's story, which may have had a wider currency in the sixth century than we now realize." -- Rodney Castleden, author, Atlantis Destroyed, 1998