Atlantis (lost civilization)
Atlantis is a legendary lost civilization often depicted as a powerful island kingdom that sank into the ocean. The concept originates from the writings of the Greek philosopher Plato, who described Atlantis as an advanced society that fell into moral decay, leading to its eventual destruction by the god Zeus. According to Plato, the island was larger than both Libya and Asia and was characterized by intricate canals and a wealth of resources. Although Plato presented Atlantis as a historical account, there remains an ongoing debate among scholars about its actual existence versus its role as a philosophical allegory.
Over time, the myth of Atlantis has evolved, inspiring various interpretations and theories about its possible location. Some speculate it may have been based on real disasters, such as the catastrophic eruption of Thera, a volcanic island that impacted nearby civilizations. While the scientific community generally views Atlantis as a fictional construct, its story has permeated culture, inspiring notions of utopian societies and prompting extensive exploration and speculation regarding its whereabouts. The enduring fascination with Atlantis reflects humanity's quest for understanding lost histories and the moral lessons intertwined with them.
Atlantis (lost civilization)
Atlantis is a mythical island civilization. Legend holds that Atlantis was destroyed thousands of years ago and sank beneath the sea. The story of Atlantis originated in the writings of the Greek philosopher Plato, who described the kingdom as an advanced militaristic society defeated by Athenian forces and wiped out by the angry gods. Modern interpretations of the myth have romanticized Atlantis as an ancient, scientifically advanced utopia that left its mark on many of the world's cultures.
It is unknown whether Plato based Atlantis on a historical location or merely used it as a literary symbol to illustrate his philosophy. For those who believe the myth was inspired by a real location, speculation on the site of Atlantis ranges from the plausible (a Greek island destroyed in a volcanic eruption) to the dubious (an island trapped below Antarctic ice or in the mountains of Bolivia).
Plato's Atlantis
Plato first mentions Atlantis in two of his philosophical dialogues, Timaeus and Critias, written about 360 BCE. Plato claimed Atlantis existed about nine thousand years before his own time, and accounts of the civilization were passed down through tales relayed to the Greeks in Egypt. Atlantis was said to have been an island continent, larger than "Libya and Asia" and located in the ocean beyond "the Pillars of Hercules," more commonly known as the Strait of Gibraltar.
According to Plato, Atlantis was created by the sea god Poseidon, who married a woman from the island and built a kingdom for her and their children. The continent was divided into concentric islands separated by moats and linked by a central canal. The half-human, half-divine Atlantians lived in a paradise of gold and silver with exotic wildlife and abundant food. As the kingdom grew more powerful, the morals of its people became corrupted by greed. To fuel their desire, the Atlantians began to conquer the lands around the Mediterranean Sea, and soon set their sights on Greece. Against overwhelming odds, the morally pure Athenians defeated the superior invading forces and sent them back to their island. Angered by the transgressions of the Atlantians, Zeus, the king of the gods, created a great earthquake that destroyed the kingdom and sank the island to the bottom of the sea.
Evolution of the Myth
While Plato maintained Atlantis had once existed, scholars in his time were divided over whether it was a historical place or an invention of its author. In the centuries after Plato's death, Atlantis was considered nothing more than a common fable. By the Renaissance period, Plato's account of Atlantis was revived as an allegory for the perfect society, or utopia. Seventeenth-century English philosopher Francis Bacon wrote about his version of a utopian society in the novel The New Atlantis in 1627. The idea of Atlantis as a real location gained traction in the late nineteenth century when Ignatius Donnelly, an amateur scientist and former United States Congressman, wrote the book Atlantis: The Antediluvian World. Donnelly's theories claimed that the technologically advanced denizens of Atlantis introduced agriculture, language, and metallurgy to early cultures around the world, and inspired the ancient legends of gods and heroes.
His ideas started a wave of speculation on Atlantis by other authors and an explosion of theories about the possible location of the sunken continent. In the early twentieth century, purported psychic Edward Cayce claimed Atlantis was home to an energy source called the Great Crystal, and it was the misuse of this device that caused the kingdom's destruction. In the 1970s, Charles Berlitz, author of several popular books on the paranormal, claimed Atlantis was located in the western North Atlantic and was responsible for the supposedly mysterious disappearance of ships and planes in the so-called "Bermuda Triangle."
Possible Locations
The scientific community has long held that a literal version of Atlantis as a technologically advanced paradise never existed. Most experts have concluded that Plato invented the kingdom as a philosophical warning on the dangers of human pride. There are some, however, who believe his fictional island may have been inspired by tales of an ancient historical disaster that were passed down over the centuries.
Based on Plato's description of Atlantis as lying beyond the Strait of Gibraltar at the mouth of the Mediterranean Sea, some have speculated that a large continent once existed in the Atlantic Ocean. Scientific exploration of the Atlantic, however, has found no evidence. Another theory states that the shifting crust of Earth moved the continent of Atlantis to the South Pole, where it was covered in ice and became Antarctica. This idea has been debunked as well. Other fanciful locations for Atlantis include the coast of Spain, a sunken lake in the mountains of Bolivia, and the Baltic Sea near Sweden.
More plausible, although far from proven, is that Atlantis was based on a real flood that may have destroyed an area near the Bosporus Strait on the Black Sea about 5600 BCE. This theory may also explain the common flood myth found in many cultures and may be the origin of the biblical flood of Noah.
The most credible inspiration for the Atlantis legend, however, is the fate of a Greek island called Santorini. About 1600 BCE, one of the most powerful volcanic eruptions in human history occurred on the island, which was then called Thera. The eruption spewed millions of tons of debris into the atmosphere and spawned large tsunamis that more than likely devastated the neighboring island of Crete. At the time, Crete was home to the thriving Minoan culture, one of Europe's first great civilizations. Some historians think the eruption of Thera helped lead to the fall of the Minoan civilization, which disappeared from history about that time.
Bibliography
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