Cleito of Lansinar
Ascendant Grandmother Cleito of Lansinar was the Great Mother of Atlantean origin and religion. She was the mother, via the Old God, of the Ten Princes who founded Atlantis. The religion that grew up around her children and their descendants is known as Cleitonism.
Cleito is a figure from Plato’s dialogues, specifically Critias, where she is described as the mortal wife of Poseidon and the mother of Atlas and the other rulers of Atlantis. According to the myth, she lived on a hill in the centre of Atlantis, which Poseidon transformed into a magnificent palace surrounded by concentric rings of water and land. For our purposes, she becomes a Blessed Mary-like figure.
Known History
Cleito was born in the ascended Old One city of Lansinar in 4612 BOC to parents named Evanor and Leucippe. We know almost nothing about her parents except for the use of her father’s name in a few extant Atlantean placenames.
At some point, Cleito began to hear the song of the imprisoned Elder Thing Ichthultu and willingly gave herself to him. This issue was clouded in later Atlantean retellings. Cleito was the first Priestess and servant in the Cult of Ichthultu, making her the founder of the “Old Faith” (the sanitised version of the Cult in Atlantis). She is known as the “Bride” of the Old God within the Old Faith. She seems to have stepped back from leadership of the Cult after the birth of her granddaughter Calypso Aeaea.
The “relationship” between Cleito and the Old God resulted in the birth by induced parthenogenesis of twin sons, Atlas and Gades. These two were born out of wedlock, and Atlantean mythology clearly distinguishes them, along with the other sets of twins, from the singularly born children of Cleito and her husband, Iapetus. There were a total of five sets of twins who are collectively known as the Ten Princes of Atlantis. The only son except for the twins, mentioned with any certainty, is Prometheus—a figure who stands out more than the others in Greek mythology.
The Cult eventually spread wider than just Cleito’s immediate family and was discovered by the Lansinarian authorities. A short “war” or rebellion called the Lansimakhia saw the Cult routed from Lanisnar and the Atlanteans (the followers of Atlas) expelled into the wilderness. Atlas himself was placed in suspended animation as a punishment. Cleito went with them, but Iapetus did not. There is a tradition in the Old Faith, illustrated by a stunning mosaic in Cleito’s Tomb, that Iapetus was the one who informed the authorities about the Cult in spite of discovering that he was not the father of the twins.
Removed from Lansinar and the Auroral Curtain, Cleito and the other Atlanteans began to age slowly. However, the Auroral Curtain had continually been healing Cleito from the effects of channelling the Old God. Once she was no longer under its influence, she aged rapidly and became the first of the Old Ones to die of old age. Her death reunited the Ten Princes and served as a unifying factor in Atlantean politics until the Second Cataclysm.
Legacy
Tomb of Cleito
The great ritual precinct at the heart of the Tritonis was edged by the original Royal Citadel, the Tomb of Cleito, and the Temple of the Old God. The precinct was built over the Zodiac Vault, the subterranean prison that held the Old God. The Citadel was built first, then the Tomb of Cleito was built opposite, defining the extent of the precinct.
The Tomb was the centre of the Atlantia Festival of the Dead and was the site of the Great Conclaves during the Adamant Age. It is also the last resting place of Orin I and Brasilea (later Sorcerer-Kings became Eternal and did not leave mortal remains). Around the edge of the Tomb were ten chapels, each of which contained a shrine for each one of the Ten Princes, the sons of Cleito. In time, these became Shrines to each of the Ten Provinces/Kingdoms and were where the official lineages of the descendants of the ten brothers were recorded – both in likeness and word.
Cleitonism
- See the Orthodox Nine
Cleitonism is the modern name for the Atlantean religion that developed during the Adamant Age. The background to the religion was the War of the Powers and the fall of the Poseidonian Pantheon. Atlantis’ religious community was left in disarray and after three months of debate, the Fifth Great Conclave in 1600 Imperial finally arrived at a compromise position suggested by High Paracanon Hy-tartaroi XI of Thule. The Hy-Tartaroi Decree set down the basic principles of “Cleitonism” – the worship of the descendants of the Ascendant Grandmother Cleito of Lansinar. These recognised the ascended forms of the Sorcerer-Kings of the Orichalcum Age and their kin as the Orthodox Nine (a parallel to Greece’s Olympians). The Nine were the ruling counsel of the gods, with other lesser gods surrounding them. Although not widely expressed, an inescapable tenet of Cleitonism was that, as the Crown Princes of Atlantis traced their lineage to the original Ten Princes of the Orichalcum Age, they were all de facto descendants of the gods.
Timeline for Cleito of Lansinar
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Atlantean Chronicles Birth of Cleito
In this year Evanor and Leucippe of Lansinar begat Cleito of Lansinar, the Great Mother favoured of the Old God. All praise the Dreamer.
— Atlantean Proto-Chronicles Fragment #59. The Dreamer being an epithet for the Old God. -
Atlantean Chronicles Birth of Atlas and Gades
In this year Cleito (1051) of Lansinar, daughter of Evanor, begat twin sons Atlas and Gades, the first and second Princes, by the will of the Old God.”
— Atlantean Proto-Chronicles Fragment #67. No father is listed for any of Cleito’s sets of twins; Atlantean tradition holds that all were virgin births. -
Atlantean Chronicles Birth of Prometheus
In this year Cleito of Lansinar, daughter of Evanor, marries Iapetus, and gives birth to a son Prometheus.
— Atlantean Proto-Chronicles Fragment #68. Cleito’s other children are part of an Atlantean folk tradition that she married between the first and second sets of twins. As they had a mortal father, they were not counted amongst the Ten Princes. -
Atlantean Chronicles Birth of Ampheres and Evaemon
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Atlantean Chronicles Birth of Mneseus and Autochthon
This year, the Star of Lanis is seen again in the sky. Cleito of Lansinar, daughter of Evanor, begat the fifth and sixth Princes, Mneseus and Autochthon, by the will of the Old God. Autochthon is born beyond the Curtain.
— Atlantean Proto-Chronicles Fragment #96. Atlantean tradition holds that Autochthon was the first of the Old Ones born outside the city of Lansinar. -
Atlantean Chronicles Birth of Elasippus and Mestor
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Atlantean Chronicles Birth of Azaes and Diaprepes
In this year Cleito of Lansinar, daughter of Evanor, begat the ninth and final Princes, Azaes and Diaprepes, by the will of the Old God. Faith in the Dreamer is strong amongst the Princes.
— Atlantean Proto-Chronicles Fragment #131 -
Atlantean Chronicles The Death of Cleito
In this year, the Ten Princes are reunited. The scattered Followers of Atlan are reconciled for the mourning of the Great Mother Cleito.
— Atlantean Proto-Chronicles. The Followers of Atlan were splintered into separate tribes, each with a different prince as their chieftain; the wording would suggest that there may have been some strife between them. However, the death of Cleito, their mother and grandmother, brought them together again. -
Atlantean Chronicles Construction of the Tomb of Cleito
1682 year of reign of Orin Atlaneas:
The Tomb of Cleito is completed. The Great Mother is removed from her place of rest and reinterred in the new tomb.
— Atlantean Proto-Chronicles. The Tomb of Cleito was constructed opposite the First Citadel and defines a Royal Precinct that survives into the modern age. The Atlantean Festival of the Dead commemorates the last voyage of Cleito’s body.
| Cleito of Lansinar | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Biographical Data | |
| Species/Race | Old One |
| Gender | Female |
| Born | 4612 BOC Lansinar |
| Died | 1186 BOC (aged 3426) Atlantis (Old Age) |
| Family | |
| Spouse | Iapetus (m. 3551 BOC) |
| Children | Atlas Gades Prometheus Ampheres Evaemon Mneseus Autochthon Elasippus Mestor Azaes Diaprepes |
| Father | Evanor |
| Mother | Leucippe (Lansinar) |
| Affiliation | |
| Allegiance | Atlantis |
| Religion | The Atlantean Old Faith |