Editing Atlantis (section)

{{Short description|Fictional island in Plato's works}}
{{Other uses}}
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{{Use dmy dates|date=March 2025}}
[[File:Atlantis_Kircher_Mundus_subterraneus_1678.jpg|thumb|upright=1.6|[[Athanasius Kircher]]'s map of Atlantis, placing it in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, from ''Mundus Subterraneus'' 1669, published in Amsterdam. The map is oriented with [[South-up map orientation|south at the top]].]]
{{Platonism}}

'''Atlantis''' ({{langx|grc|Ἀτλαντὶς νῆσος|{{grc-transl|Ἀτλαντὶς νῆσος}}|island of [[Atlas (mythology)|Atlas]]}}) is a [[fiction]]al island mentioned in [[Plato]]'s works ''[[Timaeus (dialogue)|Timaeus]]'' and ''[[Critias (dialogue)|Critias]]'' as part of an [[allegory]] on the [[hubris]] of nations. In the story, Atlantis is described as a naval empire that ruled all Western parts of the [[Ecumene|known world]],{{ref|a}}<ref>{{cite book |first=John R. |last=Hale |title=Lords of the Sea: The Epic Story of the Athenian Navy and the Birth of Democracy |location=New York |publisher=Penguin |year=2009 |isbn=978-0-670-02080-5 |page=368 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=z1iI-C4r09oC |quote=Plato also wrote the myth of Atlantis as an allegory of the archetypal [[thalassocracy]] or naval power. }}</ref> making it the literary counter-image of the [[Achaemenid Empire]].<ref>{{cite book |last=Welliver |first=Warman |title=Character, Plot and Thought in Plato's Timaeus-Critias |location=Leiden |publisher=E.J. Brill |year=1977 |isbn=978-90-04-04870-6 |page=42 |url={{Google books |plainurl=yes |id=Ppg3AAAAIAAJ |page=42}} }}</ref> After an ill-fated attempt to conquer "Ancient Athens," Atlantis falls out of favor with the deities and submerges into the [[Atlantic Ocean]]. Since Plato describes Athens as resembling his ideal state in the ''[[Republic (Plato)|Republic]]'', the Atlantis story is meant to bear witness to the superiority of his concept of a state.<ref name="Hackforth">{{cite journal |last=Hackforth |first=R. |title=The Story of Atlantis: Its Purpose and Its Moral |journal=[[Bryn Mawr Classical Review|Classical Review]] |volume=58 |issue=1 |year=1944 |pages=7–9 |jstor=701961 |doi=10.1017/s0009840x00089356|s2cid=162292186  |issn=0009-840X }}</ref><ref name=David>{{cite journal |first=Ephraim |last=David |title=The Problem of Representing Plato's Ideal State in Action |journal=[[Rivista di Filologia e di Istruzione Classica|Riv. Fil.]] |volume=112 |year=1984 |pages=33–53 }}</ref>

Despite its minor importance in Plato's work, the Atlantis story has had a considerable impact on literature. The allegorical aspect of Atlantis was taken up in [[utopia]]n works of several [[Renaissance]] writers, such as [[Francis Bacon]]'s ''[[New Atlantis]]'' and [[Thomas More]]'s ''[[Utopia (book)|Utopia]]''.<ref>{{cite journal |first=Lewis |last=Mumford |title=Utopia, the City and the Machine |journal=[[Daedalus (journal)|Daedalus]] |volume=94 |issue=2 |year=1965 |pages=271–292 |jstor=20026910 }}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Hartmann |first1=Anna-Maria |year=2015 |title=The Strange Antiquity of Francis Bacon's ''New Atlantis'' |journal=Renaissance Studies |volume=29 |issue=3 |pages=375–393 |doi=10.1111/rest.12084 |s2cid=161272260 }}</ref> On the other hand, nineteenth-century amateur scholars misinterpreted Plato's narrative as historical tradition, most famously [[Ignatius L. Donnelly]] in his ''[[Atlantis: The Antediluvian World]]''. Plato's vague indications of the time of the events (more than 9,000 years before his time{{ref|b}}) and the alleged location of Atlantis ("beyond the [[Pillars of Hercules]]") gave rise to much [[Pseudoscience|pseudoscientific]] speculation.<ref>{{cite book |last=Feder |first=Kenneth |chapter=Lost: One Continent – Reward |title=Frauds, Myths, and Mysteries: Science and Pseudoscience in Archaeology |location=New York |publisher=McGraw-Hill |year=2011 |edition=Seventh |isbn=978-0-07-811697-1 |pages=141–164 |chapter-url={{Google books |plainurl=yes |id=8yw5QwAACAAJ |page=141 }} }}</ref> As a consequence, Atlantis has become a byword for any and all supposed advanced prehistoric [[Lost world|lost civilizations]] and continues to inspire contemporary fiction, from comic books to films.

While present-day [[Philology|philologists]] and [[Classics|classicists]] agree on the story's fictional nature,<ref>{{cite book |last=Clay |first=Diskin |chapter=The Invention of Atlantis: The Anatomy of a Fiction |title=Proceedings of the Boston Area Colloquium in Ancient Philosophy |editor-first=John J. |editor-last=Cleary |editor2-first=Gary M. |editor2-last=Gurtler |publisher=E. J. Brill |location=Leiden |volume=15 |year=2000 |pages=1–21 |isbn=978-90-04-11704-4 |chapter-url={{Google books |plainurl=yes |id=AMRl67uqD9wC |page=1}} }}</ref>{{ref|c}} there is still debate on what served as its inspiration. Plato is known to have freely borrowed some of his allegories and metaphors from older traditions, as he did with the [[Ring of Gyges|story of Gyges]].<ref>{{Cite journal
| jstor = 631825
| title = Ringing the Changes on Gyges: Philosophy and the Formation of Fiction in Plato's Republic
| journal = [[Journal of Hellenic Studies]]
| volume = 121
| pages = 12–29
| year = 2001
| last1 = Laird | first1 = A.
| doi = 10.2307/631825
| s2cid = 170951759
}}</ref> This led a number of scholars to suggest possible inspiration of Atlantis from [[History of Achaemenid Egypt|Egyptian]] records of the [[Thera eruption]],<ref name="Luce" /><ref>{{Cite journal | last1 = Griffiths | first1 = J. Gwyn | author-link = J. Gwyn Griffiths | year = 1985 | title = Atlantis and Egypt | journal = [[Historia (Antiquity journal)|Historia]] | volume = 34 | issue = 1 | pages = 3–28 | jstor = 4435908 }}</ref> the [[Sea Peoples]] invasion,<ref>{{Cite journal | last1 = Görgemanns | first1 = Herwig | year = 2000 | title = Wahrheit und Fiktion in Platons Atlantis-Erzählung | journal = Hermes | volume = 128 | issue = 4 | pages = 405–419 | jstor = 4477385 }}</ref> or the [[Trojan War#Historical basis|Trojan War]].<ref>{{Cite journal
 | last1 = Zangger
 | first1 = Eberhard
 | year = 1993
 | title = Plato's Atlantis Account – A Distorted Recollection of the Trojan War
 | journal = Oxford Journal of Archaeology
 | volume = 12
 | issue = 1
 | pages = 77–87
 | doi = 10.1111/j.1468-0092.1993.tb00283.x
 }}</ref> Others have rejected this chain of tradition as implausible and insist that Plato created an entirely fictional account,<ref name=Gill>{{cite journal |last=Gill |first=Christopher |title=Plato's Atlantis Story and the Birth of Fiction |journal=Philosophy and Literature |volume=3 |issue=1 |year=1979 |pages=64–78 |doi=10.1353/phl.1979.0005 |s2cid=170851163 }}</ref><ref name=Naddaf>{{cite journal |last=Naddaf |first=Gerard |year=1994 |title=The Atlantis Myth: An Introduction to Plato's Later Philosophy of History |journal=[[Phoenix (classics journal)|Phoenix]] |volume=48 |issue=3 |pages=189–209 |jstor=3693746 |doi=10.2307/3693746 }}</ref><ref name=Morgan>{{cite journal |last=Morgan |first=K. A. |year=1998 |title=Designer History: Plato's Atlantis Story and Fourth-Century Ideology |journal=[[Journal of Hellenic Studies]] |volume=118 |issue=1 |pages=101–118 |jstor=632233 |doi=10.2307/632233 |s2cid=162318214 }}</ref> drawing loose inspiration from contemporary events such as the failed [[Sicilian Expedition|Athenian invasion of Sicily]] in 415–413 BC or the destruction of [[Helike]] in 373 BC.{{ref|d}}