Atlantis!
The name alone invokes images of mermaids, sunken ruins, and ancient, technologically
advanced civilizations.
Most of that is poppycock, but the true story of Atlantis is almost as weird.
So what do Nazis have to do with this mythological lost civilization?
Here's a look at the strange history of Atlantis.
Plato
To understand the origins of Atlantis, you need to know a little about the Greek philosopher
Plato.
The best known and most influential philosopher of all time, Plato often used allegorical
stories to convey meaning, and roughly 2400 years ago he came up with a humdinger of a
story: the lost city of Atlantis.
In Plato's original story, Atlantis was a powerful, advanced country on a huge land
mass somewhere west of Europe.
But then, some 9,000 years before Plato's time, the Atlanteans became warlike, displeasing
the gods, who sank Atlantis beneath the waves with a series of earthquakes.
It's widely assumed that Plato was speaking completely allegorically when he wrote of
Atlantis.
But Plato did also have a habit of drawing on legends from ancient Egypt as well, so
it's possible the legend pre-dates Plato.
Either way, within just a couple generations plenty of literal minded people were believing
that Atlantis was a totally real place.
It's not a real place
For centuries, there was no consensus among scholars whether Atlantis was real or not.
But after Columbus accidentally ended up in the Americas in 1492, the idea that Atlantis
might have been real began to take off, with some Europeans believing that the advanced
Mayan civilization was proof that they were descended from ancient Atlantis.
In 1882, a book called Atlantis: The Antediluvian World by Ignatius Donnelly took things one
step further by suggesting that Atlantis was actually the secret birthplace of all humanity.
The book was a smash hit, prompting a worldwide search for the true location of Atlantis.
Shockingly, nobody has ever actually found it.
Artistic license
Donnelly's book, along with the classic 1870 novel 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, helped
spark an Atlantis fad throughout arts and literature, one that has never really subsided.
From the 1899 novel The Lost Continent: The Story of Atlantis, to recent works like Artemis
Fowl, Atlantis has been a staple of literature and television for generations.
Not to mention film.
The first four movies to feature Atlantis were all adaptations of the 1919 novel Atlantida,
which proposed the novel twist that Atlantis was actually in the middle of the Sahara,
an idea that has carried over to modern films like Aquaman.
"We’re getting close now.”
“Oh yeah?
Close to what, dying of thirst?
There’s no way Atlantis was this far inland.”
And there have been dozens of movies where characters visit Atlantis, including Disney's
2001 feature Atlantis: The Lost Empire.
Most importantly, in 1994, MacGyver found Atlantis in a TV movie.
"I want treasure!
AHHHHHHHH!”
And Atlantis is also the home of superheroes Namorthe Sub-Mariner and Aquaman, ensuring
the mythical city will remain relevant well into the 21st century.
Nazis are dumb
Atlantis isn't the only mythical lost civilization swallowed by the sea.
There's also the lost city of Ys, not to mention Hy-Brasil, which was supposedly an island
off the coast of Ireland and has nothing to do with the actual Brazil.
"Hy-Brasil is sinking!"
“Well now now, I think we’re fine.
It’s all a question of what you want to believe in, and I happen to, and I happen
to have more experience in these matters than you do…”
But outside of Atlantis, the most important is Lemuria.
See, at one point, someone realized there were once lemurs on both sides of the Indian
ocean.
So they figured the most obvious explanation must be a lost continent in the middle of
the ocean that was once home to a bunch of lemurs.
Don't laugh, though, because Lemuria is very serious business, especially for Nazis.
Remember how the Nazis in Indiana Jones are always obsessed with the occult?
Well, turns out that was actually true, and Lemuria and Atlantis both play key roles.
See, a lot of Nazi philosophy is based in the occult writings of Russian circus performer
Madame H.P.
Blavatsky.
She wrote a book called The Secret Doctrine, which she claimed was dictated in Atlantis
itself, and which detailed the seven root races of humanity, in order of their development:
One: Invisible jellyfish
Two: Hyperboreans, who lived at the North Pole but did not have bodies
Three: Egg-laying lemurs of lost Lemuria
Four: The Atlanteans
Five: The Aryans, of course
Six and Seven: Nobody's sure yet, but when they arrive, they will definitely live on
Venus.
So Nazi philosophy is based on the idea that Aryans are a master race descended from the
Hyperborean ancestors of Atlantis, not to mention invisible jellyfish and imaginary
lemurs.
Hey, nobody ever said Nazis were the sharpest tools in the shed.
Science vs. Aquaman
Sorry, fans of Atlantis - and lemur-people - but science has pretty much debunked the
whole idea of a lost continent in the Atlantic.
You can thank geology and modern seafloor mapping technology for that.
According to LiveScience, we now know enough about plate tectonics to know that it is impossible
for a large land mass to have sunk to the sea floor within human history.
"Plate tectonics!!"
Plus, there has never been a recorded earthquake anywhere near strong enough to sink a continent-sized
land mass.
Sorry, Aquaman, but look on the bright side: if you need a new home, you can always crash
at Sea World.
"I dig it.”