The following passage comes from Shirley Andrews’s Atlantis: Insights from a Lost Civilization.
In 52,000 B.C., as dangerous beasts made daily life miserable in Atlantis, it became important to consult with others, often in distant places, who were similarly threatened. Since those they wished to confer with did not have adequate means of transportation to their country, the innovative Atlanteans devised a method of conveying them. Stitching the skins of large animals together to form balloons, they created unique vehicles for transportation in the air, similar to zeppelins. The shape of the craft was determined by the proportions of the animal from whose skin it was made; therefore, some dirigibles resembled elephants or mastodons, and others looked like giant bears. Edgar Cayce carefully describes the techniques Atlanteans utilized to temper metals to make strong lights braces for these unusual crafts. He says they filled the shells of these immense, strange balloons with a gas that lifted them just enough to move in the air close to the ground while carrying several passengers. He also mentions Atlantean planes, which were capable of traveling underwater and were useful for transporting destructive weapons for fighting the threatening beasts.
Atlantis: Insights of a Lost Civilization, by Shirley Andrews, Llewellyn Publications: St. Paul, Minnesota, 2001, pages 150-151.
I can’t really imagine what the large beasts looked like, but I tried anyway in the picture below. The beasts must have been ferocious.
I should note that the nuclear armament I drew dangling from the hot air balloon might be inaccurate. According to Andrews Atlanteans did have nuclear power which “proved valuable for destroying large animals” (163). Atlanteans dropping nukes from hot air balloons is purely my speculation, but it does seem probable.
Click the picture for a larger version.
I love this! Nuclear power is available, but their lighter-than-air transport is only made possible by killing large animals, skinning them whole and sewing them back together into their original shape.
It’s like the prime example of the GURPS concept of “split tech levels” (where-in a civilization is significantly ahead in some areas of technology and incongruously behind in others).
Also, from your depiction I think I see some hint at the origins of the caduceus. Obviously the Atlanteans picked up some inspiration from the winged snakes they frequently had to do battle with, and apparently they passed this on to the Greeks when they gave them the secrets of civilization.
Or is that a carnivorous flying number 2?
Note: Oddly the “larger” picture you get when clicking seems smaller on my monitor than the pre-click version. Weird.
it’d take more than a bearful of air to lift me.
Dragon – What I’m curious about is how much of the above can be attributed to Cacye’s visions. I’ve never really read any Cayce – perhaps it is high time. In any event – take it for what it is – the Andrews book is worth flipping through. I hadn’t quite thought of it as you put it – high tech meets low tech, but you are right.
Denny – Nice pun 🙂
Hey, this will be a pretty random question, but where did you get your mouse suit? I found a picture of yours from a two year old post after google image searching “mouse suit”, and yours is trully fabulous, and I need one for a school play.
Please let me know, my e-mail is jlaxer@hotmail.com
Best wishes.
Laxer – Our mom made it. The body was fashioned after a garbage bag style pumpkin costume I believe and the head was a design my brother and I came up with. I’m still not sure how my mother made head to be honest – especially working from the scratchy drawing that my brother and I did.
If you want to see the mouse suit in action, check it out The Green Machine.
This is Mom. Thanks for the credit. I sewed the suit out of fleece, using a standard Halloween pumpkin costume which can, of course, be sized as needed. As I recall, we stuffed the body with plastic bags to puff it out. The head was also cut from the pattern, but I added the ears and interlined them with cardboard. The nose was fleece rolled into a cone and held onto the head with a piece of elastic. The piece de resistance was the Nerf ball nose!
That beast on the right looks a lot like Trogdor.