Cosmic Winter Ch. 5 Extended Summary

Summary by Lee Vaughn - Myth Of Ends

Renaissance

Solon was one of the wisest and most capable men of ancient Greece. He first appears in history during a serious crisis: Athens was locked in a bitter war with the nearby city of Megara at the end of the 7th century BC. Many had lost hope, but Solon inspired the Athenians to keep fighting — and helped save the city from collapse and civil war.

Because of his leadership, Solon was chosen as archon, or chief official, in 594 BC. His main task was to write a new constitution — a fair system of government to bring peace and restore order.

Solon acted with justice and vision. He ended the cruel practice of allowing people to be enslaved because of debt and wiped away all unpaid loans. To help Athenian merchants compete with others in the Greek world, he changed the value of money. He also stripped the nobility of their special privileges and created a public assembly — a new form of government where ordinary citizens could debate and vote on important matters. These laws were then written and carried out by the archons.

His wisdom earned him great respect, and his laws were carved onto wooden pyramids that stood on the Acropolis for many years. Even centuries later, the historian Plutarch said they still existed around 120 AD.

Later in life, Solon became more of a traveling statesman or wise elder. Some say he left Athens for 10 years by choice, to avoid pressure from citizens who wanted him to add more rules. During this journey, Solon traveled across the former Mycenaean empire — to Asia Minor, Cyprus, and Egypt.

His visit to Egypt would prove especially important.

In the Egyptian city of Sais, Solon met priests who claimed a spiritual connection with Athens. They said their goddess Neith was the same as the Greek Athena, and that the two cities were ancient allies. This connection gave Solon a chance to learn from Egyptian wisdom that had been preserved for thousands of years.

One priest told him that Greeks were like children — they remembered only one flood, knew nothing of their ancient past, and had no long memory passed down in writing. In contrast, the Egyptians had preserved records of great disasters — some caused by fire, some by flood, and many by other natural causes. These disasters had destroyed civilization many times.

The famous myth of Phaethon, who lost control of the Sun’s chariot and burned the Earth, was not just a fable, the priest explained. It described a real cosmic event — a change in the movement of celestial bodies that led to destruction on Earth. The Egyptians believed these cycles of destruction repeated over vast spans of time, wiping out culture again and again.

That’s why, the priest said, the Greeks had forgotten their true origins. They didn’t know that a noble and brave race had once lived in their land, long before memory. Those ancient people were the true ancestors of the Greeks, but the knowledge of them had been lost in one of the many sky-born disasters.

Solon took this message seriously. His account later appeared in Plato’s dialogues, Timaeus and Critias, where he also shared the story of Atlantis — a once-powerful land that sank beneath the sea after falling out of balance with the divine order. The Egyptian dates for the founding of Athens and Sais were given as 9,000 and 8,000 years before Plato’s time, which likely refers to 1450–1200 BC, the period of the Mycenaean civilization.

According to Critias, a cosmic war broke out between those inside and outside the Pillars of Heracles — a term used for the celestial boundaries between Earth (Blackland) and the outer, dangerous sky (Redland, associated with the god Seth). Atlantis seems to symbolize an island of creation that was swallowed by the sky, during a time when Earth was also invaded by destructive forces from the heavens.

Solon was an unusually smart and capable man. He first became known during a hard time in the war between Athens and Megara at the end of the 7th century BC. When most people wanted to give up, Solon inspired them to keep fighting. After saving Athens from collapse and civil war, he was elected archon in 594 BC—a top government official—and was asked to create a new set of laws for the city.

Solon’s laws were fair and wise. He focused on rebuilding trust, especially among traders and manufacturers. He made it illegal to take loans where a person’s body was used as security and canceled all outstanding debts. He changed the value of the currency to give Athenian traders a fair chance against the Ionians. Solon also removed special rights based on birth and created a people’s assembly called the Ecclesia. This new group had real power—they could debate, vote, and create laws. These laws would then be put into action by the archons.

Solon’s laws were written on wooden pyramids and placed on the Acropolis, where they remained for a long time—even until the Roman writer Plutarch’s time around 120 AD. Solon later became an elder statesman and traveled widely, possibly to avoid pressure to add more laws. He visited places connected to the old Mycenaean Empire: Asia Minor, Cyprus, and Egypt.

According to the ancient Greek writer Plato, Solon went to the Egyptian city of Sais, which had ties to Athens. The people of Sais worshipped a goddess named Neith, who they said was the same as Athena. They claimed the Athenians were somehow related to them.

While in Egypt around 560 BC, Solon spoke with a wise priest. This priest shared a very old story with him:

“O Solon, you Greeks are young in mind. You hold no knowledge passed down through long tradition. Many destructions have come upon humanity—some through fire, some through floods. Your tale of Phaethon, the son of the Sun, who burned the Earth when he lost control of the sun chariot, may sound like myth. But it’s actually about changes in the heavens that caused destruction on Earth. All your great stories and achievements are forgotten when floods sweep through your lands. You remember only one great flood, but there were many. A brave and noble race once lived in your land, but only a few survived, and they left no written records. That’s why your people know nothing of the past.”

This story appears in Plato’s Timaeus and Critias, which include the famous tale of Atlantis. The priest claimed that Athens and Sais were founded 9,000 and 8,000 years earlier. According to how ancient people counted years—like Herodotus or Eudoxus—this puts the founding around 1450 or 1300 BC, which matches the height of Mycenaean power. Critias says 9,000 years had passed since the war between the people inside and outside the “Pillars of Heracles,” a phrase that may refer to a cosmic boundary between Earth (Blackland) and the chaotic realm of destruction (Redland) ruled by Seth.

The drowning of Atlantis, then, may refer not just to a lost land but to a massive cosmic disaster seen in the sky. It describes the fall of a divine island from a known part of the sky (possibly the zodiac), tied to gods that people believed ruled over Earth and human destiny.

Plato writes how the gods divided the Earth peacefully among themselves and looked after humans like shepherds. They guided people by steering their minds rather than using force. Hephaestus and Athena were assigned to Greece and raised a good people with fair laws. But their memory was lost after a great destruction. The only thing that remained were their names—passed on by people who had become poor and uneducated after the disaster.

Still, Plato preserved an Egyptian vision of how gods ruled from the sky and watched over humanity. He described a divine center of power that ruled subtly from above—different from the rough feudal world of ancient Greece. Though his focus was politics, Plato also included astronomy. He described how the god created the universe from a sphere made of soul and matter. From this, he created two circular bands that moved at angles to each other. These bands held the Sun, Moon, planets, and other gods. These gods gave life and soul to creatures on Earth.

Many scholars later tried to link these two bands to the celestial equator and ecliptic—the imaginary lines we use to track the sky. But Plato’s Timaeus clearly talks about visible bands and real gods. One of these bands included the Sun, Moon, and planets. Timaeus also said there were other bodies in the sky—so many and so complex that most people didn’t realize their movements measured time.

He said, “It’s beyond our power to understand or speak about the birth of these other gods—both those whose paths we see in the sky and those that appear only when they want to.” This could refer to comets or other celestial bodies with strange, rare appearances.

So what we have here is Solon hearing that the fall of the Mycenaean world wasn’t just myth—it was caused by a swarm of cosmic bodies that hit Earth and caused fire and destruction. Solon was shocked—not because he hadn’t heard of these stories before—but because the priest explained them in natural, scientific terms rather than blaming them on the gods.

This marked a turning point. After 600 BC, some Greeks began to explore the world with reason instead of myth. This shift started in Ionia, on the coast of Asia Minor—a place where Mesopotamian and Greek cultures met. The Greeks began comparing their old stories with ideas from Egypt and Mesopotamia. But it wasn’t just comparing gods that sparked this change—it was blending different ideas and focusing on nature and reason.

From here, the Greeks began a long journey of questioning, observing, and learning that eventually led to the rise of Western civilization.

Back then, good and evil were seen as real forces controlled by cosmic beings. To understand how much things changed in Greece during the 6th and 7th centuries BC, you must understand how seriously ancient people took this view. In Egypt, gods, rulers, and the universe were bound by a deep moral law. Breaking that order meant punishment. Seth, the god of chaos and evil, was the enemy of Horus. But the gods overall were seen as good.

The ancient Egyptians believed the gods were not just rulers of the sky—they were also the guardians of morality. Some gods had dangerous or harmful sides, but even their punishments were seen as part of keeping cosmic order. Disasters on Earth were believed to be divine actions meant to keep things right and fair.

What made Egyptian beliefs unique was how deeply these ideas reached into daily life. It wasn’t just about pleasing the gods with offerings—it was about acting with goodness, honesty, and justice in all things. They believed that being wise meant being kind, just, and godly. People were raised to believe that the gods were always watching, knew everything that happened, and judged people fairly. Wrongdoing would be punished, and good deeds would be rewarded.

Because of this, people generally didn’t try to question the gods’ will or challenge fate. It was seen as useless to ask why things happened the way they did. But despite all this moral teaching, Solon discovered during his travels that underneath these public beliefs, there was a more down-to-earth view: the Egyptians also believed the world could be understood without needing gods to explain everything. This view quietly existed under the surface.

In Mesopotamia, people also believed that misfortunes were caused by angry gods. But unlike the Egyptians, they didn’t always believe the gods were good. In their culture, every part of life—cosmic, civic, personal—was ruled by divine influence, but the focus was more on avoiding accidental offenses. People didn’t always feel they could avoid punishment, even if they tried to be good. This led to a very ritual-based religion.

Because of this fatalism, Mesopotamian governments didn’t push as hard to control people’s personal beliefs. Unlike Egypt, their kings weren’t seen as cosmic beings. Still, these kings tried to act in a way that showed they respected the gods and kept order. Legal matters were serious—oaths might be taken at temples, but judges were not priests.

Their legal system, like the famous Code of Hammurabi (around 1750 BC), was more secular than religious. The laws had divine approval (through gods like Marduk, similar to Zeus), but they weren’t said to be spoken directly by the gods. The king carried the burden of protecting the people, and this idea—that a leader suffers on behalf of the people—continued into later traditions, including Christianity.

Meanwhile, the Greek world was different. Greece wasn’t one united country—it was made up of small, independent city-states. Athens only rose to power after the 5th century BC. But Solon’s reforms marked the beginning of a new path. Unlike the kingdoms of the Near East, Athens was moving toward a system where reason and public debate would guide the state.

Solon’s government reforms were different. Instead of ruling like a pharaoh or absolute king, Solon aimed to act more like a neutral, wise leader who stayed above the political fray. He wanted people to share responsibility for running the city. He made it so civic and scientific matters could be discussed openly and decided through reason.

This was something entirely new. And it was lucky that for the next 250 years, other smart and capable men—like Pisistratus, Cleisthenes, and Pericles—continued this tradition. Still, big questions remained: Would this system survive? Would the disappearance of the gods from the sky—whether real or symbolic—affect how people viewed truth, justice, and leadership?

Continue to Chapter 6 Short Summary or Ch. 6 Extended Summary?