Lost Atlantis Found and it Was Real

[thomas.berubeg]

According to Wiki, around 5600 BC

 

[GoodGame]

To be fair, neither Critias nor Timaeus (the two books in which the myth of Atlantis appears) is a Socratic dialogue, although they are both (technically) dialogues in which Socrates appears. In each case the dialogue form is not really used, and the bulk of the text is a single speech by the main character. These books aren't intended to portray philosophical discussion, as in the more familiar Platonic dialogues, but to express myths, something that Plato does frequently but normally by embedding the myths within discussions rather than making them the focus of the entire book, as he does in these two cases.

Good point. Taken!

 

[Thedrin]

My point was that the Santorini explosion was probably the incident which was the the inspiration for the original, Platonic, Atlantis legend. Remember he placed an existance of Athens in 9,000 BC, an utterly fantastic date (fantastic as in fantasy, not great).

I haven't access to the book I'm working off at the moment, and can't remember title or author (was written in 2009). But as far as I can remember the author categorically states that even Aristotle maintained that the Atlantis legend was completely fabricated by Plato, to be used as an allegory of his main philosophical theories.

This one?

 

[vogtmurr]

According to Wiki, around 5600 BC

That is a surprising event in semi-historical times. Surprised I had never heard about it before.

 

[Brian Shanahan]

This one?

Why I do believe you're right. I was at home with no access to my library during the week.

 

[Plotinus]

There is no reference to Atlantis in Aristotle's surviving works. We only have Strabo's word for it that Aristotle regarded the story as fictional - and he gets it from Poseidonius, not direct from Aristotle. We don't have any details of what Aristotle actually said, other than that he thought Plato made the whole thing up.

If you want to know more about the story as it appears in Plato, with an account of what other ancient authors thought of it, you should have a look at the first paper in this volume, which you can read online.

 

[Ingvina Freyr]

Indeed, they are searching for Tartessos at the Guadalquivir river, but the timeframe of Tartessos does IIRC not match that of an eventual Atlantis civilisation.