Hey everyone,
Welcome to another installment of Mythology Explained. In today’s video, we’re going
to be discussing Atlantis.
Plato was a Greek philosopher who lived between 428 - 348 BCE. Two of the dialogues he wrote,
Timaeus and Critias, are our earliest sources that pertain to Atlantis. From these we learn
that Atlantis was a highly-advanced civilization that existed about 9,000 years before Plato’s
own time. Critias, one of the characters in these dialogues, is adamant that Atlantis
was indeed a real place, and he goes on to expound about how the story was passed down
to him. He said that the story of Atlantis was passed down generation to generation in
his own family, beginning with his great-grandfather, who, in turn, learned of Atlantis from the
Greek statesman Solon, who learned of the story during his travels in Egypt from priestly
scholars.
Atlantis was said to have existed beyond the Pillars of Hercules in the Atlantic, which
would place the landmass just past the strait of Gibraltar by modern reckoning. Poseidon
was the patron god, and his son Atlas was the first king and the namesake for both the
island of Atlantis and of the waters it was situated in, the Atlantic ocean. The Atlantean
social structure was initially underpinned by strong ethics and morals, but these deteriorated
overtime and gave way to vice, particularly that of excess, as the empire grew in power.
They became imperialistic, and their military might extended the Atlantean empire so that
both sides of the Mediterranean were under their control. They conquered all the way
to Egypt on the African side, and they conquered all the way to Italy on the European side.
Greece was to be the next Atlantean conquest, but they were defeated by an Athenian-led
alliance. Here’s a quote from Timaeus that speaks to this:
Preeminent among all others in the nobility of her spirit and in her use of all the arts
of war she [meaning Athens] first rose to the leadership of the Greek cause. Later,
forced to stand alone, deserted by her allies, she reached a point of extreme peril. Nevertheless,
she overcame the invaders and erected her monument of victory. She prevented the enslavement
of those not yet enslaved, and generously freed all the rest of us who lived within
the boundaries of Hercules.
Sometime after this defeat the Atlantean civilization devolved into such a deplorable state of excess
and moral bankruptcy that it became intolerable for Zeus, who convened the gods for the purpose
of unleashing divine punishment. Here’s a quote from Critias that details Zeus’
actions:
Zeus, god of the gods, reigning as king according to law, could clearly see this state of affairs,
he observed this noble race lying in this abject state and resolved to punish them and
to make them more careful and harmonious as a result of their chastisement.
The story never actually gets around to having the gods punish Atlantis, but given that there
a several earlier mentions of Atlantis being consumed by natural disasters and sinking
in the sea, and given that there’s a quote that tells of Zeus gathering the gods for
the purpose of punishing Atlantis, it can be reasonably deduced that Atlantis’ comeuppance
was delivered by way of divine punishment.
Even in ancient Greece, it was unclear whether Plato genuinely believed Atlantis was a real
place, or if it was an allegorical fabrication he conjured up to convey the greatness of
Athens, which is where he was from. Scepticism aside, There were certainly those who took
Plato’s writings about Atlantis to be factual.
Plato’s two dialogues spawned all sorts of subsequent pseudo-science laden works.
Crantor, a philosopher who lived from 335 - 275 BCE, wrote a commentary about Timaeus,
claiming that everything said was literally true. Later the Greek biographer Plutarch,
who lived from 45 - 125 CE, claimed that Salon (the man who told Critias’s great-grandfather
about Atlantis) had wanted to transcribe the story of Atlantis for Posterity, but was thwarted
by old age. And on it went, becoming more outlandish and embellished as time passed.
There have even been several accounts claiming Atlantis to be located in different places
all around the world, ranging from Sweden to Antarctica.
Today, I don’t think any expert taken seriously in their field believes Atlantis to have been
a real place. No archeological evidence has been found, and no record predating that of
Plato has been found. Furthermore, this highly advanced civilization would have existed thousands
of years before the invention of the wheel, when agriculture was just being figured out,
and when rocks were the height of our technological advancement. Let’s look at the facts: Atlantis
was highly advanced to the point of being anachronistic, and not even an iota of proof
has been recovered confirming its existence. The combination of this information makes
for a potent argument showing Atlantis to be the fantasy of one man’s mind.
Though Atlantis being fictitious is virtually irrefutable, there are some interesting theories
that speak to some of the influences that might have inspired Plato. The Minoan civilization,
which blossomed on the island of Crete between 2000 - 1500 BCE is thought to perhaps be what
planted the seed of an ancient, highly-advanced island-civilization in Plato’s mind. Another
possible influence is Thera, which was the name of a volcano on the island of Thera,
now called Santorini. It erupted in the 17th century BCE and destroyed Akrotiri, the preeminent
settlement on the island. The parallels between this island settlement being wiped out by
a volcano and the island of Atlantis being consumed by natural disasters unleashed by
the gods are clear.
And that’s it for this video! Did you know about Atlantis? Comment down below!