Atlantis (Greek: Ἀτλαντὶς νῆσος, Atlntis Island) is a mythical island state, first mentioned and described by the classical Greek philosopher Plato in the dialogs Timaeus and Critias. About what Atlantis is and where it is, have been arguing since the first mention of it. This concept represents a variety of ideas: for some it is an object of archaeological research, awaiting discovery, a lost source of supernatural knowledge and power, or perhaps nothing more than a philosophical treatise on the dangers of civilization at the height of its development. Whether Atlantis really was, or just Plato’s invention, will probably never be known. Nevertheless, the idea of its existence continues to inspire and intrigue many, echoing the desire to reach an era of prosperity or return to it.
The origin of the myth
The description of Atlantis by Plato, which is considered the first, is found in the dialogs "Timaeus" and "Critius", written in 360 BC. e. In a Socratic style of dialogue, the author conveys his story through a conversation between the politicians Critius and Hermocrates, as well as the philosophers Socrates and Timaeus. Critias speaks of the island state, first in Timaeus, briefly describing the vast empire "beyond the pillars of Hercules", which was defeated by the Athenians after she tried to conquer Europe and Asia Minor. Then Critias proceeds to a detailed description of a powerful civilization. The politician claims that his stories about ancient Athens and Atlantis stem from the visit of the Athenian lawmaker Solon to Egypt in the sixth century BC. e. There he met a priest from Sais, who translated the history of ancient states, recorded on papyri by Egyptian hieroglyphs, into Greek.
Narration of Egyptian clergy
The story told by the priests was not known to Solon. According to the records of the ancient Egyptian temple, the Athenians waged a war against the rulers of Atlantis about nine thousand years ago and won it.
The ancient and powerful kings of a mythical island formed a confederation, with the help of which they ruled it and other islands. Having started the war, the rulers sent troops to Europe and Asia. To counter this attack, the Athenians formed a pan-Greek alliance. At the first difficulties he broke up, and the Athenians fought the war alone. The invasion was stopped, and then Egypt and other countries conquered by the rulers of Atlantis were liberated.
Soon after the victory, even before the Athenians returned home, the island nation underwent catastrophic earthquakes and floods until it disappeared under water. According to legend, all the brave men were consumed in one day and a night of horror. That is why the Egyptians did not thank the Athenians.
In addition, Plato describes the story of Atlantis, which shows how the rulers reached a state where they wanted to conquer the whole world. The story was written by Solon and passed on in his family from generation to generation.
Divine redistribution
According to Solon's notes, the history of the mythical island began at the beginning of time. It was then that the immortal gods divided the world among themselves and each ruled his part. God Poseidon got Atlantis. Where it is located was not specified, but it was an island whose dimensions were larger than Libya and Asia combined. He chose the wife of a mortal woman, Cleito, and with her founded the dynasty of the rulers of the state.
Poseidon and Clayto
Poseidon built a house on a high hill in the very center of the island. The building towered over a fertile plain bordered by the sea. To protect his beloved wife, Poseidon surrounded her house with five concentric rings of water and soil with ease and divine art. Hot and cold keys beat out of the ground. With the development of the city, its inhabitants never experienced a shortage of water.
Clayto gave birth to Poseidon ten sons, five pairs of twins. Atlas, the first son of the first couple, became the master of the vast land of his father. His brothers were appointed archons, each of whom controlled most of this territory. The most valuable part of the kingdom was the mother’s house on top of the mountain and the land around it. Atlanta had many sons, and the throne passed to the oldest of them.
Peaceful Prosperity
For many generations, Atlantis has remained peaceful and flourished. Almost all the needs of the population were provided by the mines, fields and forests of the island. Everything that was not produced was imported. This became possible because a canal was built that passed through all the rings from the ocean to the center of the kingdom, the acropolis, where the royal palace stood near the houses of Poseidon and Clayto. Each subsequent ruler tried to surpass his predecessor in creating a larger kingdom. Finally, the magnificent Metropolis and the outer city spread beyond the large outer wall.
The laws of Poseidon
Poseidon established the laws of Atlantis, which the rulers had to abide by. The governing body had to meet regularly. It consisted of ten representatives of the first rulers - Atlanta and his brothers - who had absolute power over the life and death of their subjects. The meetings took place in the temple of Poseidon, where the first rulers drew laws on the pillar of Orichalcum. First of all, in accordance with the requirements of the ancient ceremony, the archons exchanged gifts. Then the sacrifice of the sacred bull. Blood was mixed with wine and poured into the fire as an act of purification. The rulers were served wine in golden goblets, they made a libation over the fire and vowed to make a decision in accordance with the prescribed laws. Everyone drank wine and dedicated their cup to the temple. Then a dinner followed, for which the participants put on gorgeous blue robes. In them, they resolved issues relating to the kingdom, in accordance with the laws of Poseidon.
Judgment of the gods
As long as the rulers judged and lived according to the laws of Poseidon, the state flourished. When the laws began to be forgotten, trouble arose. The rulers began to marry mortals and act like unreasonable people. Pride seized them, and they began to fight for more power. Then Zeus saw what happened: the rulers abandoned the laws of the gods and began to act along with people. He gathered all the gods of Olympus and was going to make a decision on Atlantis. This concludes the story of Plato.
Fact or fiction?
This was done intentionally or not, no one knows. Just as no one knows, Plato believed in the real existence of the island, or it was pure fiction. Many are convinced that the author, who used many details in his description, believed in him. Others reject this, arguing that it was precisely because history was pure Plato’s invention that he could come up with as many details as he wanted. Also questionable is its dating. According to Solon, the island existed 9000 years ago. This corresponds to the early Stone Age. During this period, it is difficult to imagine the existence of agriculture, architecture and shipping, described in the story. One explanation for this inconsistency is Solon's misinterpretation of the Egyptian symbol 100 as 1000. If so, Atlantis existed 900 years before the time of narration. This corresponds to the middle of the Bronze Age, when the tools and equipment necessary to achieve the described level of development have already appeared.
Many ancient philosophers regarded Atlantis as fiction, including (according to Strabo) and Aristotle. Nevertheless, there were philosophers, geographers, and historians who took Plato's story at face value. One of them was Krantor, a student of the student of Plato Xenocrates, who was trying to find evidence of the existence of Atlantis. His work, the commentary of Timaeus, has been lost, but another ancient historian, Proclus, reports that Crantor traveled to Egypt and actually found columns with the history of the island written in Egyptian hieroglyphs. As in all works of antiquity, it is difficult to assess ambiguous proclamations here, since there is no other evidence other than written evidence.
Second Troy?
The debate about where Atlantis is located was not as violent until the end of the nineteenth century as after the discovery of the lost city of Troy in 1872 by Heinrich Schliemann. He did this with the help of the "Iliad" and the "Odyssey" of Homer, so it became clear that the classical sources, previously considered myths, actually contain some lost truths. The scientist Ignatius Donelly in 1882 published the book Atlantis: Antediluvian World, which stimulated interest in the legendary island. The author took Plato’s mention seriously and tried to establish that all the famous ancient civilizations came from a high Neolithic culture. Others proposed more outlandish ideas, attributing to Atlantis supernatural aspects, combining them with stories of other lost continents, such as Mu and Lemuria, popular figures in the movement of Theosophy, occultism and the growing New Age phenomenon.
Parable of Plato
Most scholars rejected faith in Atlantis as the idea of a “new century” religion, considering the most plausible explanation that the island was a parable of Plato, or was based on another famous civilization - the Minoan. The fact that the Greek philosopher often told moralizing stories under the guise of fictitious ones is cited in support of this view. The Cave is perhaps the most famous example in which Plato illustrates the nature of reality. Scientists warn that a literal understanding of a myth is a perversion of it. It is more likely that Plato sent a warning to his fellow tribesmen about the dangers of imperial expansion, political ambitions, singing nobility and the appeal of knowledge not for personal gain.
The truth about the intentions of the Greek philosopher will remain known only to himself, but no one can doubt the symbolic longevity of his history. If Atlantis cannot be a physical place, then it certainly has found a place in the universal human imagination.
Location Hypotheses
Dozens, or perhaps hundreds, of assumptions were made about where Atlantis is located, until the name turned into a common name, not related to one specific (possibly even genuine) location. This is reflected in the fact that many of the proposed sites are generally not located in the Atlantic Ocean. Most of the proposed places share some of the features of the history of the mythical island (water, catastrophic end, the corresponding period of time), but it has not been conclusively proven that this is true Atlantis. Where is it (we can’t provide a photo of it, for obvious reasons) the most likely location is located from the list of popular options. Some of them are scientific or archaeological hypotheses, while others were created by pseudo-scientific means.
Mediterranean Atlantis
Where is the legendary island, many have guessed. Most of the proposed sites were located either within the Mediterranean Sea or islands such as Sardinia, Crete, Santorini, Cyprus or Malta.
The eruption of the volcano on Fera, dated to the seventeenth or fifteenth century BC, caused a massive tsunami, which, according to the hypothesis put forward by experts, destroyed the Minoan civilization on the nearby island of Crete. This catastrophe could inspire the emergence of the myth of Atlantis. Proponents of the idea cite the fact that the Egyptians used the lunar calendar based on the months, and the Greeks used the solar calendar based on the years. Therefore, it is possible that the time, interpreted as nine thousand years, actually corresponds to 9000 months, putting the death of Atlantis within about 7 hundred years.
Santorini
Volcanic eruptions on the Mediterranean island of Santorini during the Minoan civilization most likely caused a cataclysm that destroyed Atlantis. The main criticism of this hypothesis is that the ancient Greeks were knowledgeable about volcanoes, and if an eruption occurred there, it would be likely that there would be a mention of this. In addition, Pharaoh Amenhotep III ordered his emissary to visit the cities surrounding Crete, and he found them inhabited where everything was supposedly completely destroyed.
Spartel
Another hypothesis is based on the reconstruction of the geography of the Mediterranean Sea at a time when Atlantis still existed. Where she was, indicates Plato - outside the Pillars of Hercules. So called the Strait of Gibraltar, connecting the Mediterranean Sea with the Atlantic Ocean. Eleven thousand years ago, sea level was 130 meters lower, and there were a number of islands in the strait. One of them, Spartel, is Atlantis, where she sank, although there are a number of inconsistencies with the version of Plato.
Sardinia
In 2002, the Italian journalist Sergio Frau published the book “Pillars of Hercules” in which he stated that before ancient Eratosthenes all ancient Greek writers placed them in the Sicilian Channel, and Alexander the Great’s campaign to the east obliged Eratosthenes in his description of the world to move the pillars to Gibraltar. According to his thesis, there was Atlantis, where Sardinia is today. Indeed, the tsunami caused catastrophic destruction on the island, destroying the mysterious Nuragian civilization. Several survivors migrated to the neighboring Italian peninsula, establishing an Etruscan culture that became the basis for the later Roman, while other survivors were part of the “sea peoples” attacking Egypt.
Outside the Mediterranean
Outside the Mediterranean Sea, Antarctica was located in all corners of the world - from Ireland and Sweden to Indonesia and Japan. Many of these theories are based on inconclusive evidence. Two of the most discussed areas are the Caribbean and Antarctica.
Bimini Road - Sunken Atlantis?
Where the Bermuda Triangle is located, it seems, everyone knows. Often associated with mysterious events, the Caribbean drew attention to underwater structures called the Bimini Road, discovered by pilots in the 1960s. The Bimini road consists of large stones located in two parallel rows in shallow water for several kilometers from the Bimini Islands. Many expeditions went there to try to prove or disprove the technogenic origin of these formations and somehow connect them with Atlantis. Most scientists, in particular geologists, found the evidence inconclusive or concluded that this is a natural phenomenon. Others, however, strongly argue that the rock is too symmetrical and deliberate to be a simple creation of nature. In any case, no other remains were found to confirm that the road leads to the sunken island.
Antarctica
The theory that Antarctica is the place where Atlantis (photo) once sank was especially popular in 1960-1970. It was warmed up by Lovecraft's novel “The Ridges of Madness”, as well as a Piri Reis map, which supposedly shows Antarctica as it would be without ice, as far as knowledge of that period allowed. Charles Berlitz, Erich von Daniken, and Peter Colosimo were among the popular authors who made this assumption. Nevertheless, the theory of continental drift contradicts this idea, because during the life of Plato, Antarctica was in its present place and retained its inhospitable climate. Nevertheless, the romance of the unexplored regions gives rise to many ideas similar to Atlantis to this day.
Pop culture
The study and discovery of long-lost cities and civilizations is a topic that, in the popular imagination, is not bound by space or time. Atlantis became that mythical island, the name of which turned out to be symbolic for all other lost cities. Mention of it is present in all literary genres, from the works of the Renaissance to modern science fiction, fantasy, archaeological and scientific works, books "New Age". Television and movies also took advantage of Atlantis' charm. The myth turned out to be so tempting that one of the largest hotels in the Bahamas, Atlantis Paradise Island Resort, became a resort on the theme of the lost city.
In the New Age movement, there are those who believe that Atlantis, where there was a technologically advanced civilization, self-destructed due to rapid progress, or that extraterrestrial technology was used there. Similar ideas were attributed to other ancient cultures, as many New Age believers strive to combine different mysterious phenomena in one idea. In the end, the ongoing discussion of what Atlantis is, where this sunken island is located, is evidence of humanity's endless curiosity and desire not to be content with the current vision of the world, but to continue to search for secrets and discover the lost worlds of our past.