'Lost' City of Atlantis : Fact & Fable

'LOST' CITY OF ATLANTIS

The idea of Atlantis — the "lost" island subcontinent often idealized as an advanced, utopian society holding wisdom that could bring world peace — has captivated dreamers, occultists and New Agers for generations. Thousands of books, magazines and websites are devoted to Atlantis, and it remains a popular topic. People have lost fortunes — and in some cases even their lives — looking for Atlantis.

'Lost' City of Atlantis - Strangest Places on Earth

The origins of Atlantis

Unlike many legends whose origins are lost within the mists of time, we all know precisely once and wherever the story of Atlantis first appeared. The story was first told in two of Plato's dialogues, the "Timaeus" and also the "Critias," written about 360 B.C.

Though these days Atlantis is commonly planned of as a peaceful utopia, the Atlantis that philosopher described in his fable was very completely different. In his book "Encyclopedia of Dubious anthropology," professor of anthropology Ken Feder notes that in Plato's story, "Atlantis isn't an area to be honored or emulated in any respect. Atlantis isn't the proper society ... Quite the contrary, Atlantis is that the embodiment of a materially moneyed, technologically advanced, and militarily powerful nation that has become corrupted by its wealth, sophistication, and might." As info in Plato's morality tale, the Atlantis legend is a lot of about the city's heroic rival Athens than a sunken civilization; if Atlantis very existed these days and was found intact and inhabited, its residents would probably attempt to kill and enslave us all.

It's clear that the philosopher created up Atlantis as a plot device for his stories because of they're no different records of it anyplace else within the world. There area unit several living Greek texts; certainly some other person would have also mentioned, a minimum of en passant, such a remarkable place. there's merely no proof from any source that the legends about Atlantis existed before the philosopher wrote about it.

In his book "Meet American state In Atlantis: Across three Continents in Search of the Legendary Lost City" Mark Adams explains, however, an otherwise quotidian Greek legend became thus wide well-known. it absolutely was thanks to a Gopher State man named bishop Donnelly (1831-1901). Donnelly was a Congressmen and amateur scholar who claimed, in his 1882 book "The Antediluvian World," that each one nice advance in civilization and technology may well be traced back to the long-lost island mentioned by the philosopher. however, Donnelly went on the far side just popularizing Plato's story; he further a number of his own "facts" and concepts that became a part of the Atlantis story. Donnelly promoted what's now known as "diffusionism," the thought that all nice cultures are often traced back to one supply.

Adams describes Donnelly "as the primary nice Atlantis fundamentalist, in that he believed that Plato's story was factually correct outside of the supernatural parts like Poseidon." Donnelly sent a replica of his book to Darwin, who found it interesting however unconvincing — reading it, he said, "in a really skeptical spirit." Adams, once studying much of Donnelly's materials, involves an identical conclusion: "Donnelly was ... a bag of winds. He knew the results he wished and rummaged through his sources checking out solely those facts that work his needs, while not pausing to notice any reasonable doubts."

Later, less skeptical writers detailed on Donnelly's theories, adding their own opinions and speculations. These enclosed mystic Madame Blavatsky (in her 1888 book, "The Secret Doctrine") and known psychic Edgar Cayce within the 1920s. Cayce, who place a fundamentalist Christian spin on the Atlantis story, gave psychic readings for thousands of individuals — several of whom, he claimed, had past lives in Atlantis. sadly, none of the knowledge was verifiable, and Cayce wrong expected that the continent would be discovered in 1969.

The 'lost' continent

Despite its clear origin in fiction, many of us over the centuries have claimed that there should be some truth behind the myths, speculating regarding wherever Atlantis would be found. countless Atlantis "experts" have situated the lost continent all around the world supported an equivalent set of facts. Candidates  every accompanied by its own peculiar sets of proof and arguments — including the Atlantic Ocean, Antarctica, Bolivia, Turkey, Germany, Malta and also the Caribbean.


Plato, however, is crystal clear regarding wherever Atlantis is: "For the ocean there was at that point navigable; for ahead of the mouth that you Greeks decision, as you say, 'the pillars of Heracles,' (i.e., Hercules) there lay associate degree island that was larger than African nation and Asia along." In a different word, it lies within the Atlantic Ocean on the far side "The pillars of Hercules" (i.e., the Straits of Calpe, at the mouth of the Mediterranean). nevertheless, it's never been found within the Atlantic, or anywhere else.

The only thanks to build a mystery out of Atlantis (and to assume that it absolutely was once a true place) is to ignore its obvious origins as a moral fable and to vary the small print of Plato's story, claiming that he took license with the reality, either out of error or intent to deceive. With the addition, omission, or misinterpretation of assorted details in Plato's work, nearly any proposed location are often created to "fit" his description.

Yet as author L. Sprague de Camp noted in his book "Lost Continents," "You cannot modification all the small print of Plato's story and still claim to own Plato's story. that's like locution the legendary King Arthur is 'really' Cleopatra; all you've got to try and do is to vary Cleopatra's sex, status, period, temperament, ethical character, and different details, and also the resemblance becomes obvious."

The most obvious sign that Atlantis could be a story is that no trace of it's ever been found despite advances in earth science and sea bottom mapping in past decades. For nearly 2 millennia readers may well be forgiven for suspecting that the huge depths would possibly somehow hide a sunken town or continent. tho' there remains much mystery at the lowest of the world's oceans, it's inconceivable that the world's oceanographers, submariners, and sea probes have some however lost earth "larger than African nation and Asia along."

Furthermore, tectonics demonstrate that Atlantis is impossible; because the continents have drifted, the seafloor has touch time, not shrunken. There would merely be no place for Atlantis to sink into. As Ken Feder notes, "The geology is clear; there might are no giant land surface that then sank within the space wherever philosopher places Atlantis. Together, modern anthropology associate degreed earth science offers an unambiguous verdict: There was no Atlantic continent; there was no nice civilization known as Atlantis."

Ignatius Donnelly was bound of his theory, predicting that hard proof of the sunken town would before long be found, which museums around the world would one day be full of artifacts from Atlantis. nevertheless, over a hundred thirty years have passed while not a trace of proof. The Atlantis legend has been unbroken alive, burning by the public's imagination and fascination with the thought of a hidden, long-lost utopia. nevertheless the "lost town of Atlantis" was never lost; it is wherever it perpetually was: in Plato's books.

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