Atlantis: Reality or Mythology?

Dear Lowdown:

Is the lost city of Atlantis myth?

-Amadou Diallo (Chicago)



Dear Amadou:

Since the dawn of man, myths have captivated the imaginations, hopes, and dreams of all people.Urban legends, folklore, rumors; call them what you will; in the broadest sense, a myth is a traditional story that is not necessarily backed with facts (“The American Heritage Dictionary”).

With regards to the existence of Atlantis, you are certainly not the first to have this ever-so-puzzling inquiry. In fact,authors, historians, and the gullible alike have postulated the existence of Atlantis for centuries.Is Atlantis a myth? Technically yes,as it is stemmed from Greek mythology. But does it exist? Did it ever? Or was it just a myth that caught on over the centuries?And, maybe more importantly, why should we care?

The renowned Greek philosopher Plato first mentioned Atlantis in his works Timaeus and Critias, dating back to 360 BCE.Contrary to popular belief,Atlantis is actually said to have been an island, not a city(Critias).In Critias, the Hellenic gods of Mount Olympus divided up the lands of the Earth, and Poseidon (god of the seas, storms, and earthquakes) received the island of Atlantis(“Gods and Goddesses of Ancient Greece”).Critias depicts Atlantis as a mountainous and somewhat rectangular island. Poseidon carved a mountain on the island of Atlantis into a palace surrounded by three moats for his beloved wife,Cleito.He had the Atlanteans construct bridges and canals around the palace so that it would be avoided by sailorsand travelers en route to the major city. All entrances to the city were guarded by a series of towers and walls built from a variety of precious metals(Critias).

Plato portrayed the people of Atlantis asthe antithesis of Athenians.Athens represented anideal society,and after the Athenians tried and failed to invade Atlantis, the islandwas ultimatelysunk by an earthquake(Cameron).

To this day scholars argue whether or not this story was inspired by older Greco-Roman legends, such as the Trojan War (The city of Troy was thought to be fictional until it was unearthed in the late nineteenth century),and was therefore not entirely a factual work.Many believe Plato crafted the story to appeal to Greek nationalism, since the Atlanteans were unable to conquer the mighty city of Athens(Adams).

Surely one can believe the tale of Atlantis to be entirely fabricated –according to Plato,the island sank nine millenniums before Plato’s time(Critias), thereby implying that the legend was passed down orally since the dawn of the Dinosaurs.Playing a game of telephone with a paltry ten people more often than not leads to miscommunication from one person to the next,making this theory highly doubtful.

However, you might find it surprising that many (or any)modern philosophers and historians have not challenged the authenticity of Plato’s anecdote, and have expanded on his theories.Francis Bacon of England published The New Atlantis in 1627,following the plot of Plato’s narratives and placing Atlantis in America.OlausRudbeck,a Swedish scholar,sought out to prove that Sweden was Atlantis and therefore the birth of civilization(Auroux).Even Isaac Newton included the empire in his work The Chronology of the Ancient Kingdoms Amended(Newton).

Chillingly,Nazi theorists were attracted to the idea of Atlantis.It is said that Heinrich Himmler, a leader of the Nazi party,organized a German fleet to search Tibet for origins of the master Aryan-Atlantean race in 1939 (Hale).This take on Plato’s theory may not quite have been what the philosopher intended,but to each his own wacky theory.

As far as the supposed location of Atlantis goes, that is just as much of a mystery.Some may be quick to say that Atlantis was in the Atlantic Ocean.How original.Actually, Plato specifically stated that it was “in front of the Pillars of Hercules” at Gibraltar(Critias),though oceanographers have found no traces of such an island.The Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea are the two most popular hypotheses,yet proposed locations range from almost all continents and all large bodies of water(Adams).Basically, good luck finding it.

At this point, scientists have no evidence that it does or did exist. However, the charactersHermocratesand Critiasin Plato’s novels insist at multiple points during the stories that the events described truly occurred(Critias).Is Plato simply stating, “Just take my word for it” ?

Apparently, that is what people have done for centuries: just take his word for it. Often,early folklore provided answers to burning questions that cannot be backed up by science. That is how Greek mythology came to be: there was no explanation as to why thunder shook the earth and lighting fell from the sky, so Zeus was conjured up as “God of the sky and weather” (Smith).Greeks invented hundreds of gods and deities that justified all they could not comprehend in the world due to lack of technology and lack of answers.

The quest for answers is why children naively believe that a red-cloaked, white-bearded Santa delivers them presents simply because they have not been naughty. This does not mean that parents are cajoling their children in behaving all year to be approved by St. Nicholas because they themselves are too wise to buy into a theory with no scientific reasoning. If that were the case, why would they be celebrating Christmas, the birth of Jesus Christ? The man who walked on water and healed the sick?

Religion, Karl Marx famously stated, “is the opium of the masses”. No concrete evidence, yet billions of people accept all sorts of different religions. This is what motivates belief in what can be considered to be illogical: validating the unexplainable.For the believers it is faith, not opium, that is the drug of choice.

Sincerely,

Rebecca Lawson












Works Cited
Adams, Cecil. “The Straight Dope: Is the lost city of Atlantis at the bottom of a lake in North Dakota?” 1997(Accessed November 15, 2010)

Auroux, Sylvain. History of the Language Sciences: An International Handbook on the Evolution of Language Sciences. GruylterPublishings, 2006.

Cameron, Alan.Greek Mythology in the Roman World.Oxford University Press, 2004.

“Gods and Goddesses of Ancient Greece”.2010 (Accessed November 17, 2010).

Hale, Christopher. Fortean Times. October 2003.

Newton, Isaac. The Chronology of Ancient Kingdoms Amended. 1728.

Smith, William. Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, Vol. 2. 1870.

Plato. Critias.360 BCE.