Charles River Charles River Editors

Andrew Scott

*Includes pictures *Includes ancient accounts describing Atlantis and the search for it *Includes online resources and a bibliography for further reading "And the island of Atalantes, which was greater than Africa and Asia, as Plato says in the Timaeus, in one day and night was overwhelmed beneath the sea in consequence of an extraordinary earthquake and inundation and suddenly disappeared, becoming sea, not indeed navigable, but full of gulfs and eddies." - The 1st century CE philosopher Philo" The story of Atlantis has captured the minds and hearts of historians, scientists, artists, and writers for millennia, and yet, it never ceases to amaze people when told that the only literary evidence that exists comes from a single 4th century BCE author. The Athenian philosopher Plato, famous for his dialogues in which the Socratic Method was invented, was the first writer to mention the mysterious continent of Atlantis. In his works Timaeus and Critias, Plato outlines the beginning of the story of Atlantis, but the Critias, where the longer and more detailed account takes place, was never finished and, therefore, has become the mysterious germ for millennia of thought. Put simply, what Plato wrote of Atlantis has all the elements of a great Hollywood narrative, combined with the precision of a mapmaker. According to the story, the god of the sea Poseidon was allotted the island of Atlantis (larger than Libya and Asia, according to Plato), somewhere in the Pillars of Heracles. (This could be as far from Greece as Gibraltar). Poseidon's 10 sons, who were princes, ruled the beautiful island, which was fertile and rich in resources, providing everything a paradise needed. Still, Atlantis was not solely an uncultivated Garden of Eden. Fortifications, roads, palaces and constructions made this island a rich and well-constructed city. Plato seems to have had fun providing detailed descriptions of the city architecture, which were almost tailor-made to lure future explorers, but Renaissance writers Thomas More and Francis Bacon, who wrote their respective works Utopia (1516) and New Atlantis (1627), were more entranced by what follows in the dialogue. In a Phaedrus-like moral and mortal journey from heavens to earth, the inhabitants of Atlantis were able to participate in the divine spirit and obey the laws. However, when they fell short of divinity and descended from moral heaven, the human temper in them prevailed. Zeus decided to punish them; Atlantis now lies sunk by earthquakes, and has created a barrier of impassable mud which prevents those who are sailing out from here to the ocean beyond from proceeding further. Innumerable novels and films, from Journey to the Center of the Earth (1959) up to the recent version of Scratlantis in Ice Age: Continental Drift (2012), seek to bring back Plato's paradise to the surface. Atlantis: The History and Legacy of the Ancient World's Fabled Lost Island and Modern Searches for It looks at one of antiquity's most famous stories. Along with pictures depicting important people, places, and events, you will learn about Atlantis like never before.

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