Atlantis by Marjorie Braymer
"Atlantis" by Marjorie Braymer offers a detailed exploration of the legendary island of Atlantis, primarily through the lens of its ancient origins as described by Plato. The book is structured into twenty-seven short chapters, each focusing on specific aspects of the Atlantis narrative, supported by numerous black-and-white illustrations that enhance understanding, particularly in visualizing Plato's descriptions and the ancient Maya writing system. The initial chapters summarize Plato’s accounts, tracing the story back to the Greek statesman Solon, who reportedly learned of Atlantis from Egyptian sources.
Braymer’s narrative transitions into the rich history surrounding the volcanic island of Thera, located in the Aegean Sea, which plays a pivotal role in her analysis of the Atlantis legend. The book emphasizes the significant archaeological findings at Thera, including well-preserved wall murals from around 1500 B.C., linking this real history to the mythology of Atlantis. The author highlights the contributions of Greek archaeologist Spyridon Marinatos, who spearheaded excavations on the island following a volcanic eruption that shaped its current landscape. With a background in teaching and a prior focus on Mediterranean archaeology, Braymer provides a scholarly yet accessible approach to the enduring intrigue of Atlantis and its historical context.
Subject Terms
Atlantis by Marjorie Braymer
First published: 1983; illustrated
Subjects: Science
Type of work: History
Time of work: The legendary past, ancient Greece, and the sixteenth through twentieth centuries
Recommended Ages: 13-18
Locale: Primarily Central America and Santorini Island (Thera) near Crete
Principal Personages:
Plato , the ancient Greek philosopher who tells the legend of Atlantis in two of his dialogues, theTimaeus and theCritias John Lloyd Stephens , an American diplomat whose bookIncidents of Travel in Central America, Chiapas, and Yucatán (1841) destroyed any claim to a Mayan AtlantisFerdinand Fouqué , a French geologist who began the excavation of Thera in 1866Sir Arthur Evans , a British archaeologist who began excavating Knossos on Crete in 1899Spyridon Marinatos , a Greek archaeologist who directed the excavation of the stunning discoveries at Thera
Form and Content
InAtlantis: The Biography of a Legend, Marjorie Braymer divides her story into twenty-seven short chapters, each having its own neatly defined subject. Numerous black-and-white illustrations clarify the narrative. Plato’s description of Atlantis, for example, benefits from three diagrams that help readers visualize a layout that otherwise might be difficult to fix in the mind. The puzzling writing system of the ancient Maya is illuminated by seven illustrations, and two illustrations from the modern edition of John Lloyd Stephens’ work Incidents of Travel in Yucatán (1962) enliven the account found in Atlantis.
By far the most important illustrations, however, are the sixteen photographs and several drawings that show the excavations done at ancient Thera, now the Greek island of Santorini. The complex of buildings found there was dug up very carefully, and the black-and-white photographs of the delicately preserved wall murals can still thrill the viewer who realizes that they date back to about 1500 b.c.
Braymer begins her story with a fifty-page summary of the account of Atlantis that Plato (427-347 b.c.) gives in the Timaeus and the Critias. Plato identified as his source the Greek statesman Solon (seventh and sixth centuries b.c.), who had heard the story in Egypt. The legend of Atlantis ends, in a sense, with Braymer’s four introductory chapters on Plato, and she then goes on to eight chapters that summarize the centuries of sometimes fantastic speculation that culminated with Stephens’ convincing refutation of claims that Atlantis had been discovered in the Americas.
The second half of the book recounts in some detail what becomes the main interest of Braymer’s narrative: The story of Thera, a tiny island (and its encompassing ring of islands) sixty miles north of Crete in the Aegean Sea. Thera became prominent when the French engineers building the Suez Canal needed a source of cement, which was discovered on this small island. Thera remains an active volcano, and many centuries ago it erupted with such force that its central volcanic mountain exploded and left only its outer shell. The steaming sea poured in to fill in the crater, which became what is called a caldera (or “cauldron”). Oregon’s Crater Lake is an example of such a phenomenon in North America. Braymer’s account of the excavations at Thera examines real history and creates a genuine scholarly hero in Greek archaeologist Spyridon Marinatos.
Critical Context
Marjorie Braymer’s master’s degree from Columbia University Teachers College led to twenty years of teaching at Sequoia High School in Redwood, California, a career that well complements the success of the two books she has written for young adults. Her first book, The Walls of Windy Troy (1960), was a biography of Heinrich Schliemann, the archaeologist who discovered ancient Troy. It was named both The New York Herald Tribune’s Spring Book Festival Honor Book and an American Library Association Notable Book. Given Braymer’s interest in Mediterranean archaeology that she showed in her first book, an account of the Atlantis legend seemed an inevitable subject for a second book.
The bibliography in Atlantis includes all the pertinent works that Braymer mentions and more, but the serious student will want to look at the dozen entries by Spyridon Marinatos, especially the series of annual reports for the Archaeological Society of Athens that he published between 1968 and 1976. The Maya script was still a puzzle to scholars when Braymer wrote about the efforts of Bishop Landa and Charles Étienne Brasseur, but the puzzle has now been solved, as explained in Michael D. Coe’s engrossing Breaking the Maya Code (1992).