The Fall of an Empire
The conundrums encountered by this small planet of ours are numerous; the Bermuda triangle, the Loch Ness monster, Bigfoot and many more; but none of them trumps the disappearance of a nation overnight completely engulfed the ocean, which later through the course of history came to be known as the Atlantic Ocean.
Addressing the elephant in the room, Atlantis was supposed to be a work of fiction by Athenian philosopher Plato, depicted as one of the most contentious and fascinating works ever written. According to Alan F. Alford, British writer and speaker on the subjects of ancient religion, mythology, and Egyptology, “Once upon a time, he said, there had existed a magnificent seafaring civilization which had attempted …show more content…
The dialogues are conversations between Socrates, Hermocrates, Timeaus, and Critias. Apparently in response to a prior talk by Socrates about ideal societies, Timeaus and Critias agree to entertain Socrates with a tale that is "not a fiction but a true story”. The story is about the conflict between the ancient Athenians and the Atlantians 9000 years before Plato's time. Knowledge of the distant past apparently forgotten to the Athenians of Plato's day, the story of Atlantis was conveyed to Solon by Egyptian priests. Solon passed the tale to Dropides, the great-grandfather of Critias. Critias learned of it from his grandfather also named Critias, son of Dropides. The dialogues that follow were written by Plato sometime around 360 BC and are English translations by Benjamin Jowett, renowned as an influential tutor and administrative reformer in the University of Oxford, a theologian and translator of Plato and …show more content…
There are certain theories depicting it as the war between Ancient Athens and Atlantis was true in a mythical sense showcasing the origins of the Universe. Atlantis or Atlas metaphorically being referred to as the human world and Ancient Athens which represented the ideal, or archetypal, city, first existed in the sky in the form of a celestial body, i.e. Heaven. The defeat of Atlantis by Ancient Athens allegorized the fall of the sky and the war between Heaven and Earth. The Atlantis story ends when the Atlanteans are consumed with greed and jealousy. Zeus, Greek God of God of the sky, lightning, thunder, law, order and justice, decides the only way to stop this horrific display is send the great island into the sea and the story ends with Atlantis sinking into the ocean because of an earthquake and flood.
In reality, there is no proof of the of no archaeological evidence for the historicity of the war between Athens and Atlantis; and there is no evidence whatsoever for the supposedly sunken island-continent on the Atlantic Ocean floor; that Herodotus and Socrates had never heard of the Athens-Atlantis war; that Plato did insist on the poetic nature of Solon’s story by comparing Solon to the great poets Homer and Hesiod; that Plato did place the war in a pre-diluvian era; and that Plato was not a historian, nor a geographer, but a true philosopher, whose interests lay
The conundrums encountered by this small planet of ours are numerous; the Bermuda triangle, the Loch Ness monster, Bigfoot and many more; but none of them trumps the disappearance of a nation overnight completely engulfed the ocean, which later through the course of history came to be known as the Atlantic Ocean.
Addressing the elephant in the room, Atlantis was supposed to be a work of fiction by Athenian philosopher Plato, depicted as one of the most contentious and fascinating works ever written. According to Alan F. Alford, British writer and speaker on the subjects of ancient religion, mythology, and Egyptology, “Once upon a time, he said, there had existed a magnificent seafaring civilization which had attempted …show more content…
The dialogues are conversations between Socrates, Hermocrates, Timeaus, and Critias. Apparently in response to a prior talk by Socrates about ideal societies, Timeaus and Critias agree to entertain Socrates with a tale that is "not a fiction but a true story”. The story is about the conflict between the ancient Athenians and the Atlantians 9000 years before Plato's time. Knowledge of the distant past apparently forgotten to the Athenians of Plato's day, the story of Atlantis was conveyed to Solon by Egyptian priests. Solon passed the tale to Dropides, the great-grandfather of Critias. Critias learned of it from his grandfather also named Critias, son of Dropides. The dialogues that follow were written by Plato sometime around 360 BC and are English translations by Benjamin Jowett, renowned as an influential tutor and administrative reformer in the University of Oxford, a theologian and translator of Plato and …show more content…
There are certain theories depicting it as the war between Ancient Athens and Atlantis was true in a mythical sense showcasing the origins of the Universe. Atlantis or Atlas metaphorically being referred to as the human world and Ancient Athens which represented the ideal, or archetypal, city, first existed in the sky in the form of a celestial body, i.e. Heaven. The defeat of Atlantis by Ancient Athens allegorized the fall of the sky and the war between Heaven and Earth. The Atlantis story ends when the Atlanteans are consumed with greed and jealousy. Zeus, Greek God of God of the sky, lightning, thunder, law, order and justice, decides the only way to stop this horrific display is send the great island into the sea and the story ends with Atlantis sinking into the ocean because of an earthquake and flood.
In reality, there is no proof of the of no archaeological evidence for the historicity of the war between Athens and Atlantis; and there is no evidence whatsoever for the supposedly sunken island-continent on the Atlantic Ocean floor; that Herodotus and Socrates had never heard of the Athens-Atlantis war; that Plato did insist on the poetic nature of Solon’s story by comparing Solon to the great poets Homer and Hesiod; that Plato did place the war in a pre-diluvian era; and that Plato was not a historian, nor a geographer, but a true philosopher, whose interests lay