Atlantis : myth or reality ?
The amazing Atlantis, a paradise island that, one morning, has to pay the price for her decay and disappears in the depths of the sea. Who never heard about that story ? Nevertheless, do you have more certitudes than doubts on that topic ?
To refresh our memory, let’s ask ourselves one easy question – but a question that made so many people hesitate, is Atlantis a myth or a reality ?
On the origins of Atlantis
If we want to discuss Atlantis, we need to teleport into Ancient Greece, when a philosopher named Plato wrote about it. Who is Plato ? He is one of the most famous philosophers of the Western Antiquity and he lived between -427/-428 and -348/-347. Plato is known, among other things, for his Dialogues (often including his master Socrates) and his Allegory of the Cave – very quickly, the Allegory of the Cave tells the story of some guys locked in a cave, backs facing the opening of the cave, having them only seeing shadows dancing on the wall facing them. One day, one of the guys turns around, goes out of the cave and realises that the shadows he used to see were in fact reflections of another reality. This way, Plato shows that the world contains two realities : the world of perceivable objects and the world of universals or forms ; a wooden table belongs to the perceivable world, the idea of the table is an external and eternal concept, detached from the perceivable world.
Voilà, welcome to the overly simplified Philosophy Class of Miss Audrey Feather !
Anyway, let’s go back to our main topic. Plato is the first one to mention the existence of Atlantis. Kind of a virtuous city who slowly but surely declined, Atlantis is actually used as a pretext for building the legend of the philosopher’s own city : Athens. But let’s be careful here, not the conquerish and corrupted Athens of Plato’s time. What Plato really wants to praise is the lost Athens, the one which lived from the lands and didn’t care about the rest of the world. Thus, if Atlantis sinned and deeply regretted it, the city of Athens should be careful that the same tragedy doesn’t happen to her as well…
Plato tells the story of Atlantis in two Dialogues : the Timaeus (written around -358) and the Critias (which follows the Timaeus but remained incomplete). In those stories, Platon talks about the origins of the world – the Universe, the human kind, cities. It’s via Critias, an Athenian politician/poet/philosopher, disciple of Socrates and cousin of Plato, that Atlantis is mentioned for the first time. Enemy of Athens, the island of Atlantis is said to have been submerged in the waters around 9000 years ago (but 9000 years ago starting from the 7th-6th centuries before our era, which means… hmm… well, do the maths yourselves!). Critias obtained such information from his great grandfather who himself got them from a guy, who himself got it from an Egyptian dude (best sentence ever, I know). Anyway, what does Critias (-460/-403) has to say about Atlantis ?
Atlantis is located beyond the Pillars of Hercules, in other words the Strait of Gilbratar, and it is dedicated to the god Poseidon, greek god of the seas and oceans. Atlantis seems to have always existed, as it was among the lands Hellenic deities divided so each would have his own lot. Poseidon is the one who inherited Atlantis, a land he populated of 5 pairs of male twins, the mother being a local girl named Cleito. The ten children divided the territory and ten kingdoms were built. The elder one, Atlas, gave his name to the island and the seas surrounding it, Atlantis and Atlantic.
Atlantis was once a prosperous, wise and glorious city. Sadly, with time passing by, the decadency began to spread… until the descendants of the 10 first kings became agressive, invading the countries around – both in Africa and Europe. So, Athens, wonderful city, decided to put an end to the Atlanteans expansion and released the people who had fallen into their heavy yoke of oppression. At last, Zeus, king of the gods, punished Atlantis by making it disappear in the depths of the sea. Only remains a muddy area, a shoal of mud noone can cross. The end.
The posterity of the myth
If we would like to imagine Plato’s story of Atlantis as a huge success during his time alive, (honestly, who doesn’t like stories about cursed cities?), nothing could be more wrong. We find some mentions of Atlantis in texts dating from the Antiquity ; however, the Greek and Latin authors only quote it to deny its existence. Let’s not even talk about the Middle Ages, a period of time that completely forgot about Atlantis. However, with the (re)discovery of ancient authors, during the era we call the Renaissance, many wonder if we should consider the city described by Plato as a myth with philosophical purposse or as a fiction inspired by some accurate facts.
Needless to say that each author who ever wrote about Atlantis did it with a purpose in mind. Thus, when Francis Bacon publishes, in 1626, the utopian novel « New Atlantis », he does it with two intentions. The first one is to describe some sort of idealistic society, that he calls Bensalem and which is governed by an erudite college : Salomon’s House. These men, educated and wise, built the perfect city because they are capable of distinguishing the true from the false in scientific and religious areas. The second intention of Bacon is to convince the king of England to give him fundings from his project of a Science and Techniques Insititute.
Others, such as the Nazis, used Atlantis to justify their so-called « superiority » over all races. This crazy idea, especially developped by Karl Georg Zschaetzsch (1870-1946), had a simple goal : to trace back the origins of the German people and to make them the progeny of the Atlanteans. In the Nazi propaganda – which was inspired by nationalist ideas dating from the 19th Century, the « Aryan race » was said to be descending from the Hyperboreans. Legendary people of the greek mythology, this filiation with Nordic supermen allowed the Pan-Germanists to justify their conquering politics and to dictate their law in most of Europe.
In the centuries following the Renaissance, the feud about Atlantis never stopped, opposing the supporters of an allegoric Atlantis and the promoters of an historical Atlantis. To prove their point, the « Believers » begin archeological researches, in order to find some evidences of the lost city. Logically, you must think « Well, how hard can that be ? Plato spoke about The Pillars of Hercules. By consequence, everyone must be looking around The Strait of Gibraltar ». Well, you couldn’t be more wrong. Scientists, writers, amateurs, everyone proposed their own location hypothese of Atlantis.
Here is a non exhaustive list of the proposed sites : Santorini, Sicily, Sardinia, Cyprus, Malta, Canary and Madeira Islands, the Azores, Ireland, Andalusia (Spain), the Antarctica, the Black Sea, the Bermuda Triangle, … Now, if you feel playful, make your own assumption. For my part, I would suggest a location around the borders of our solar system ! ^^
The lost city of Atlantis : a unique case ?
In popular imagination, lost territories and submerged cities make most people fantasize. But, from an historical point of view, no need to go look into fantastic novels to find such storytellings. Lost cities, rediscovered by chance, only mentioned in very old books or today deserted, are legion ! Thus, if Plato probably invented the myth of Atlantis, we can imagine that he got inspired by an historical and/or legendary background, finding inspiration in the popular fictions of his time.
Personally, if someone asks me about lost cities, I immediately think about Troy. You know, that city that was the theater of one of the most epic and famous epic tales of Antiquity : the Iliad. Just as a quick reminder, the Iliad narates the expedition of greek kings, led by Sparta king Menelaus, to retrieve Helen, the spouse of Menelaus who was abducted by Paris, the son of Troy’s king. After multiple incidents, including the death of Patroclus, Hector and Achilles, all amazing heroes with a tragic destiny, it’s finally by trickery that the Greeks beat the Trojans. The idea came from Ulysses, king of Ithaque and future heroe of the Odyssey, and it consists in hiding warriors inside a huge horse made of wood. Thinking it’s an offering, the Trojans open the gates of the city and this gesture sign their end.
Just like Atlantis, the potential location of a real Troy created a vivid debate. However, at the difference of Plato’s city, the historical Troy was actually discovered. By the end of the 19th Century, scholars already had two sites in mind : Hissarlik and Burnabashi, both located in Turkey. It’s an amateur German archeologist, Heinrich Schliemann (1822-1890), who will become the official « discoverer of Troy », after the man used his enormous wealth to buy some part of the mound of Hissarlik and excavated several layers from it. The issue with Schliemann is that he wasn’t a huge fan of scientific rigour. He, for example, had no problem stealing the archeological artifacts he found on the site of Troy.
The biggest scandal happened when Schliemann and his wife Sophia stole what they imagined was the Priam’s Treasure, which is to say more than 8000 artifacts including vases, daggers, cups, but most importantly gold pieces of jewelry. Eventually, the treasure was bequeathed to Germany in 1881 (today, the majority of the artifacts are in Moscow, the Red Army having brought the treasure in Russia during WWII). Anyway, this looting seriously annoyed Turkey and Schliemann was asked to leave Hissarlik in 1875.
During the years 1878-1879, accompanied by Rudolf Virchow and Wilhelm Dörpfeld, Schliemann was allowed to come back to Hissarlik. He took that chance to recognise his past errors, regarding datation (the presumed Priam’s Treasure actually dates from –2450, a date way more ancient than the presumed datation of the War of Troy, that we situate around –1200) and lacking of scientific rigour concerning layers of sediment he described as « useless ». Today, we estimate that the mound of Hissarlik contains the history of nine successive cities, some having been destroyed by natural causes and others by conflicts. However, if the historical Troy is a reality, the Iliad Troy remains – at least for now – a myth.
Voilà, our journey in the origins of Atlantis finally comes to an end. If you enjoyed reading this article, don’t hesitate leaving a comment, it’s always appreciated ! Also, tell me if you would like to hear about other famous lost cities such as Ur, Ys, Avalon, Mycenae, Ciudad Perdida, Pompeii, … 😀
Finally, please, keep in mind that I am French and I only translated this article to allow English speakers to read my website. I probably made some mistakes, sorry about it, but I hope you still enjoyed the content !