Anth 230 - Atlantis and its Evolution
J.R.R. Tolkien feigned to uncover lost documents when he wove various ancient myths into the lore of Middle Earth. This is a technique originated by Plato in constructing Atlantis. Plato claimed he found a source in Egyptian recounting the stories of Atlantis. His “translation” into Greek is the justification for several phonetically Greek names.
Although Atlantis was not the most significant element in Plato’s dialogues, it has inspired the imagination of successive generations and become a cornerstone of fantastical storytelling. Nor was it the only fantasy tale in Antiquity, as Lucian of Samosata wrote A True Story in the Second century A.D. to mock the genre of fantasy as a travelog. Tales beyond the edge of the map of the known world were quite popular in Antiquity. Of them all though, Atlantis is the only one still widely known by almost everyone in the World and certainly by every adult in the Western World.
In 360 B.C., Plato penned the story of ancient Athens defeating Atlantis. Plato was discoursing upon the ideal civil state in two dialogues, Critias and Timaeus, written as sequels to The Republic. In his dialogues, he discusses two different states. One is the wealthy and luxuriously decadent world power of Atlantis, while the other is the almost spartan ancient Athens. Plato’s ideal Republic is a system in which men and women are both educated and equal, but only within their state-assigned class, and only the warrior class rules. Personally, I believe that this system is remarkably similar to Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World.
These two Platonic dialogues both reference Timaeus’ ancestor, Solon as the wisest of the seven sages and lawgiver of Athens who visited Egypt, where he heard the tale from several Egyptians. Salon told Dropides who told his great-grandson Timaeus, from which Plato found the tale. It is a tale of a great island, just past the Pillars of Heracles (the modern-day Strait of Gibraltar) in the Atlantic Ocean. The Kings of Atlantis descended from Poseidon and Cleito. Atlantis was the source of the metal Oreichalkos, which is only a bit less valuable than gold. Although Plato places Atlantis 9,000 years into his past, he inserts Athens into the tale as an ally until Atlantis becomes corrupt and imperialistic in its decadence. Morally superior Athens defeats Atlantis in war, freeing the entire conquered world. Then Atlantis is sunk beneath the waves with earthquakes and tsunamis as divine retribution for their corruption.
The dialogues are an allegory designed to caution the people of Athens from becoming too decadent or imperialistic. Plato warns against the decay of morality in favor of decadence, and imperialism, and he cautions against transgressing divine morality. This caution against doing folly may have been influenced by Plato’s experience of the Peloponnesian Wars and by the events and choices made by Athens leading up to the Wars. His cause was performed for the Panathenaea Games in honor of Athena and may be seen as state propaganda.
Plato’s claim to the historicity of Atlantis is belied by his dating of Athens as an ancient contemporary, making it over 9,000 years old in Plato’s time, older than ancient Egypt, and requiring a reminder of its past by Egyptians. This is about as realistic as Tolkien’s feign.
Still, people are inspired to look for a grain of true history within Plato’s account. Some point to the destruction of Knossos and the Minoans from the eruption of the Thera (modern Santorini) super-volcano in the 1,600s B.C. Others say the “sea people” accused of precipitating the Bronze Age Collapse around 1,200 B.C. may be the source of imperialism or refugees. Others note the Wars between the Greeks and Persians in which Athens defeated the much larger Persian navy and established itself as the region’s naval power may have been an inspiration.
Perhaps some of these accounts are accurate inspirations, but they do not suggest Atlantis existed. In the 1880s, Ignatius Donnelly authored Atlantis and the Antediluvian World. He argued that Atlantis was not a myth, but the birthplace of humanity’s first civilization prior to Noah and the home of the Nephilim and their giant offspring. He argued that ancient peoples of Europe and America worshiped the Atlantean kings who colonized Egypt, Mesoamerica, and Western Europe, from which we derive Aryans.
Within the context of the 1880s, the remains of the city of Troy, long believed to be a Homeric myth, had just been discovered. Other archeological sites were slowly being explored, including Knossos and Mykene. Most people still believed the Biblical flood as literal, with all cultures having an apocryphal flood story, Plato’s timeline placed Atlantis well before Noah.
Donnelly’s theories were adopted as state propaganda by the Nazis. The Nazis argued they are the living descendants of the true Aryans who survived the fall of Atlantis. They argue the Atlanteans were superhumans who fell not from divine judgment of their corruption but by intermixing with “lesser races”. Only by purifying Aryan blood, and removing corrupt lesser races, could the superhuman be restored to rightly rule the world.
In more modern times, people still search for Atlantis, saying Plato had some details of time or place wrong. Without any real evidence, people have placed Atlantis in the Canary Islands, the Guelb er Richat (Eye of the Sahara), Minoa, and Bulgaria or the Black Sea, amongst other possibilities. They repeatedly source Egar Cayce, a supposed psychic. He supposedly had thousands of genuine readings. He claimed the Atlanteans had been reincarnated as the American people from the United States.
“Be it true that there is the fact of reincarnation, and that souls that once occupied such an environ [i.e. Atlantis] are entering the earth's sphere and inhabiting individuals in the present, is it any wonder that—if they made such alterations in the affairs of the earth in their day, as to bring destruction upon themselves—if they are entering now, they might make many changes in the affairs of peoples and individuals in the present?"
(pg 50 Edgar Cayce on Atlantis by Edgar Evans)
"In Yucatan there is the EMBLEM of same. Let’s clarify this, for it may the more easily be found. For they will be brought to this America, these United States. A portion is to be carried, as we find, to the Pennsylvania State Museum. A portion is to be carried to the Washington preservations of such findings; or to Chicago."
(page 89 Edgar Cayce on Atlantis by Edgar Evans)
In the Discovery series Hunting Atlantis, author Stel Pavlou and volcanologist Jess Phoenix, who has a Bachelor’s in history and a Master’s in geology, say Atlantis existed in 4,900 B.C. They say Plato “based his timeline on ancient Egyptian Kings’ Lists” for his date of the 9,000s B.C. and it was in Bulgaria on the Black Sea. However, Plato did not have access to these King Lists and any version accessible today is known to have been altered.
In the National Geographic series Drain the Oceans, the show slowly showcases four underwater environments. All except the third are merely natural environments that are played up for drama, admits the series. However, the third environment, an ancient town named Pavlopetri, is a genuine Bronze Age town that had sunk below the sea due to the rise in sea levels and other natural disasters. It seems as if the idea of Atlantis was used simply to garner views instead of something genuinely investigated.
Most people are content to enjoy Atlantis as little more than an interesting setting for adventure stories. J.R.R. Tolkien had Numenor as a fictional island setting in the first two ages of Middle Earth. It was the first great kingdom of men, but it was corrupted by the fallen angel Sauron into attacking Valinor, the undying land of the elves and angels. As punishment, the Creator destroyed Numenor by an Earthquake and tsunami in the second age of Middle Earth, a few thousand years before the Lord of the Rings where Sauron was finally defeated. This is Tolkien’s Atlantis.
Disney adapted the idea in Atlantis: The Lost World and the sequel, Atlantis: Milo’s Return. Disney’s original movies have Atlantis still existing in a giant cave under the ocean with its air pocket, and the Atlanteans being trapped primitives aware of the outside world. Disney’s sequel took inspiration from Donnally’s book. The characters leave Atlantis to travel to the surface world for further adventures in Norway and Mexico and in other nondescript places before returning to Atlantis and then bringing it back to the surface.
The video game Assassin’s Creed Odyssey has downloadable content titled Atlantis DLC, allowing for a story with some time exploring Atlantis, almost as a set-aside. The first two chapters are set within the Underworld. The content involving Atlantis only begins in the third chapter. Atlantis was merely set dressing for the story. While the setting is as Plato described, the characterization is less true to Plato. The in-game Poseidon admits to routinely sending great deluges when the Atlanteans prove themselves to not be worthy of mercy.
Others believe that Atlantis was a historical civilization that existed 11,000 years ago. It’s simply that such knowledge has either been purposefully hidden or lost.
In Secret Origins, the author relays his ideas of how Atlantis actually existed and how such knowledge might have been kept secret. He “quotes” Plato, Edgar Cayce, Ishmael Perez, Helena Blavatsky, and Matthias De Stefano, all without citation. The author merely expects his viewers to believe his claims. It was certainly an interesting and educational set of videos.
Atlantis seems to have become a lost city-state starting around the late 19th until today with figures such as Ignatius Donally and Edgar Cayce. Up until then, the city was considered nothing more than a fable and parable created by Plato to flatter Athens and warn of the folly of men.
Sources
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———. 2023b. “The Mystery of Atlantis: The Truth about the Destruction of the Great Civilization | Part 2.” Www.youtube.com. August 13, 2023. https://youtu.be/wiADn7MCR2w?si=n3L80QURNAGfW-CB.
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