The mystery of Atlantis has intrigued humankind for thousands of years, ever since its first mention by the Greek philosopher Plato in the 4th century BC. There has been much debate as to whether or not the island and sometimes city ever existed, and there are countless theories about its location; it would not be false to say that every time submerged ruins or the like are found anywhere in the world, there is always someone quick to call ‘Atlantis!’.
Plato introduces Atlantis in his dialogue ‘Timaeus’, which discusses the physical
world, which is subject to change and death, and the eternal world which stays
the same and is apprehended by reason.
‘For it is related in our record how once upon a time
your State stayed the course of a might host, which, starting from a distance
point in the Atlantic ocean, was insolently advancing to attack the whole of
Europe, and Asia to boot. For the ocean there was at that time navigable; for in
front of the mouth which you Greeks call, as you say, ‘the pillars of Heracles,’
there lay an island which was larger then Libya and Asia together; and it was
possible for the travellers of that time to cross from it to the other islands,
and from the islands to the whole continent over against them which encompasses
that veritable ocean. For all that we have here, lying within the mouth of
which we speak, is evidently a haven having a narrow entrance; but that yonder
is a real ocean, and the land surrounding it may most rightly be called, in the
fullest and truest sense, a continent. Now in this island of Atlantis there are
existed a confederation of kings, of great and marvellous power, which held
sway over all the island, and over many islands also parts of the continent.’
(Plato, Timaeus, 24e – 25a).
This indicates that Atlantis was thought to exist beyond
the ‘Pillars of Heracles’, which is the Gibraltar Strait, and in the Atlantic
Ocean. Diodorus Siculus mentions something similar, ‘a large island in the
Atlantic Ocean, beyond the Pillars of Hercules, several days’ sail from the
coast of Africa.’ Plato speaks more about the place in his dialogue ‘Critias’,
where he states that Poseidon and his sons had dominion over the island and
that the Atlantean Empire had that organised an attack against the east,
conquering Libya (Africa) as far as Egypt and Europe as far as Tyrrhenia
(Etruria). He tells us that Athenians led an alliance against then in response,
which fell apart as they alone prevailed against the Atlanteans and liberated
the occupied lands.
‘But at a later time there occurred portentous
earthquakes and floods, and one grievous day and night befell them, when the
whole body of your warriors was swallowed up by the earth, and the island of
Atlanis in like manner was swallowed up by the sea and vanished; wherefore also
the ocean at that spot has now become impassable and unsearchable, being
blocked up by the shoal mud which the island created as it settled down.’
There are numerous theories concerning the location of
the island. Some believe that it was the Greek island Thera (Santorini) before
the volcano there erupted and annihilated half the island, all its settlements
and the coast of Crete. Others think it lies somewhere near the Bahamas. There
is another theory that links the Burmuda Triangle with the lost city of
Atlantis. The famed psychic is Edgar Cayce predicted that the western edge of
the city would be discovered near and around the coast of the Bimini district
of the Bahamas. Surely enough, the ‘Bimini Road’ was discovered there in 1968.
The sunken Yonaguni megalith in Japan is another candidate, as well as the
countless sunken cities in the Meditarranean such as the Greek city of Helike
and the Iberian city of Tartessus.
It appears that a US-led research team is the latest to
express a definite location of the city, which they believe is in Spain.
Regardless, we will never know for certain where Atlantis
is located. What makes it worse is that Plato claims that Atlantis suck 9000
years before his own time. The ancient Greeks had such a hazy memory of their own
past that they had no idea their own Mycenaean heritage. Thus, can we really
trust Plato? Perhaps.
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