Atlantis

:This article is about the mythical island. For other uses, see Atlantis (disambiguation).

Source Writings and Accounts

Plato

Plato's accounts of Atlantis are found in his works entitled Timaeus and Critias. These accounts and the information within them may or may not be fictional, however they are the only written accounts of Atlantis.

Related Topics:
Timaeus - Critias

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According to Plato's telling, over 9,000 years prior, a war took place between those outside the Pillars of Heracles (from where the modern Pillars of Hercules originate) and those who dwelt within the Pillars. Those on the outside supposedly inhabited an island larger than Libya and Asia Minor combined. The city is said to have sunk in a great earthquake. ("In a single day and night of misfortune, the City of Atlantis fell into the sea")

Related Topics:
Pillars of Hercules - Libya - Asia Minor

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The land became an impassable barrier to voyagers sailing to any part of the ocean. The plains of Atlantis are said to have been very fertile and the technology and culture highly advanced (for the time). In the centre of the island - at a distance of about fifty stadia - there was a low mountain. At the inner hill the land was enclosed by alternating zones of sea and land larger and smaller, encircling one another; two were of land and three were of water. The entire island and the ocean were called "Atlantic." The island faced a country referred to as the region of Gades (Greek, Eumelus; Atlantean, Gadeirus).

Related Topics:
Plains - Stadia - Mountain - Gades - Eumelus - Gadeirus

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Atlantis is likely a work of fiction, an extended parable intended to illustrate Plato's philosophy of the ideal government, much as Plato's allegory of the cave. Plato's account purports to be based on a visit to Egypt by the Athenian lawgiver Solon, itself quite possibly a legendary event. That the Athenians had to hear from the Egyptians about a Greek battle from 9,000 years ago further suggests the extraordinary and likely illustrative nature of the story. Sonchis, priest of Thebes, is purported to have translated it into Greek for Solon.

Related Topics:
Parable - Plato's allegory of the cave - Egypt - Solon - Sonchis - Thebes - Greek

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Aristotle

Aristotle wrote of a large island in the Atlantic Ocean that the Carthaginians knew as Antilia. Proclus, the commentator of "Timaeus" mentions that Marcellus, relying on ancient historians, stated in his Aethiopiaka that in the Outer Ocean (which meant all oceans, not just the Atlantic) there were seven small islands dedicated to Persephone, and three large ones; one of these, comprising 1,000 stadia in length, was dedicated to Poseidon. Proclus tells us that Crantor reported that he, too, had seen the columns on which the story of Atlantis was preserved as reported by Plato: the Saite priest showed him its history in hieroglyphic characters. Some other writers called it Poseidonis after Poseidon. Plutarch mentions Saturnia or Ogygia about five days' sail to the west of what is called nowadays Britain. He added that westwards from that island, there were the three islands of Cronus, to where proud and warlike men used to come from the continent beyond the islands, in order to offer sacrifice to the gods of the ocean.

Related Topics:
Aristotle - Carthaginians - Antilia - Proclus - Marcellus - Aethiopiaka - Persephone - Poseidon - Crantor - Saite - Hieroglyphic - Plutarch - Britain - Cronus

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Other Greek accounts

An important Greek festival of Pallas Athene, the Panathenaea was dated from the days of king Theseus. It consisted of a solemn procession to the Acropolis in which a peplos was carried to the goddess, for she had once saved the city, gaining victory over the nation of Poseidon, that is, the Atlanteans. As Lewis Spence comments, this cult was in existence already 125 years before Plato, which means that the story could not have been invented by him. The historian Ammianus Marcellinus wrote that the intelligentsia of Alexandria considered the destruction of Atlantis a historical fact and described a class of earthquakes that suddenly, by a violent motion, opened up huge mouths and so swallowed up portions of the earth, as once in the Atlantic Ocean a large island was swallowed up. Diodorus Siculus recorded that the Atlanteans did not know the fruits of Ceres. Pausanias called this island "Satyrides," referring to the Atlantes and those who profess to know the measurements of the earth. He states that far west of the Ocean there lies a group of islands whose inhabitants are red-skinned and whose hair is like that of the horse. (Christopher Columbus described the Indians similarly.)

Related Topics:
Greek - Pallas Athene - Panathenaea - Theseus - Acropolis - Peplos - Lewis Spence - Ammianus Marcellinus - Intelligentsia - Alexandria - Earthquake - Diodorus Siculus - Ceres - Pausanias - Christopher Columbus

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A fragmentary work of Theophrastus of Lesbos tells about the colonies of Atlantis in the sea. Hesiod wrote that the garden of the Hesperides was on an island in the sea where the sun sets. Pliny the Elder recorded that this land was 12,000 km distant from Cádiz, and Uba, a Numidian talks of an enormous island outside the Pillars of Hercules. He describes it as having a climate that is very mild; fruits and vegetables grow ripe throughout the year. There are huge mountains covered with large forests, and wide, irrigable plains with navigable rivers. Scylax of Caryanda gives similar account.

Related Topics:
Theophrastus - Lesbos - Hesiod - Hesperides - Sun - Pliny the Elder - Cádiz - Numidian - Pillars of Hercules - Scylax of Caryanda

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Marcellus claims that the survivors of the sinking Atlantis migrated to Western Europe. Timagenes tells almost the same, citing the Druids of Gaul as his sources. He tries to classify the Gallic tribes according to their origins and tells of one of these claiming that they were colonists who came there from a remote island. Theopompus of Chios, a Greek historian called this land beyond the ocean as "Meropis". The dialogue between King Midas and the wise Silenus mentions the Meropids, the first men with huge cities of gold and silver. Silenus knows that besides the well-known portions of the world there is another, unknown, of incredible immensity, where immeasurably vast blooming meadows and pastures feed herds of various, huge and mighty beasts. Claudius Aelianus cites Theopompus, knowing of the existence of the huge island out in the Atlantic as a continuing tradition among the Phoenicians or Carthaginians of Cádiz. Perhaps the Byzantine friar Cosmas Indicopleustes understood Plato better than the ancient and modern "Aristotelians", says Merezhkovsky. In his Topographia Christiana he included a chart of the (flat) world: it showed an inner continent, a compact mainland surrounded by sea, and this was surrounded by an outer ring-shaped continent, with the inscription, "The earth beyond the Ocean, where men lived before the Flood." The Garden of Eden is placed in the eastern end of this continent.

Related Topics:
Western Europe - Timagenes - Druids - Gaul - Gallic - Theopompus - Chios - Historian - Midas - Claudius Aelianus - Byzantine - Cosmas Indicopleustes - Topographia Christiana - Flood - Garden of Eden

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