Plato's Atlantis: Fact, Fiction or Prophecy?

By: C. Bailey-Lloyd
Submitted: 2007-01-17 11:23:03
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Atlantis is often described as paranormal or mythical, but is it really? In two of Plato's great works, the Timaeus and the Critias, Plato describes an Athenian civilization in diaglogue between Critias, Socrates, Timaeus and Hermocrates. (Predating Plato by 9,000 years, or 9,600 BC) Atlantis, according to Critias, was a great Athenian city which, by the hand of mankind, met with cataclysmic destruction. By his (Solon) grandfather's education, Critias retold the story of an Athenian civiliation. Critias claimed that Solon (not only his grandfather, but a Greek traveler and historian from Egypt), stayed and interrelated with great Egyptian priests. The recordings from Solon were then given to Plato by Critias. Because Plato's works are considered historical fact, one can only assume that Atlantis DID indeed exist.

According to Plato's historical literature, Atlantis was an organized , massive military state that at the end of its realm, met with great, natural calamity during the planning stages on an assault on Egypt.

Agriculturally, the Athenian nation was well educated and able to create herbal remedies from plants. Their irrigational skills were very advanced, as they constructed muliple canals to irrigate their plains and farmlands. Due to their superior intelligence, reservoirs and buildings like the Metropolis were constructed, hydraulically-engineered machines and bridges were built, literary pieces and laws were written; and most often, their objects were coated with bronze, copper or gold.

Based on a monarchy and systemized class, the Atlantis civilization also held a valuable status for women. Historically thought to be the greatest of all nations, Atlantis ruled all surrounding land with their emperiorical laws.

Apart from being an advanced civilization, Atlantis (according to Plato), was a massively-sized continent. By Critias' measurements, Atlantis would have been about 3,400 x 2,300 miles in size - this is larger than some, major oceanic basins. Critias accounts that Egyptian priests told of Atlantis being located beyond the Pillars of Hercules (the Strait of Gibraltar); this, where the Atlanic Ocean and the Mediteranian Sea intercede one another. Today, some evidence has been provided that denote underwater walls and roads, and a set of islands resembling the shape of Atlantis in the Caribbean Sea. Another possible theory would be that Atlantis could possibly rest on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, (a beneath-ground mountain range); while some researchers believe that Atlantis could be in the Azores, Crete or the Canary Islands.

Unfortunately, (according to the Egyptian priests), Atlantis was continually pounded by catastrophic earthquakes and floods until one day when the whole continent sunk beneath the sea and disappeared. They were also quoted as saying that where Atlantis vanished, became an area in the ocean that was impassable and undiscoverable. The theory behind the sinking of Atlantis was that mankind had become so corrupt, that by their own hands, created their own demise.

In closing, Atlantis brings to mind the biblical stories of Sodom and Noah. It also interrelates with the continental shifts throughout the ages of the earth's history, but could Atlantis really have existed? The evidence, whether circumstantial or philosophical literature, the fact remains that Plato only wrote historical truth. This being said, what message was Plato trying to convey to the future of mankind? To the reader, I conclude this article with a quotation from Critias, from the literature of Plato, "There have been, and will be again, many destructions of mankind arising out of many causes; the greatest have been brought about by the agencies of fire and water, and other lesser ones by innumerable other causes." A thought to ponder.

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About the Author: C. Bailey-Lloyd - Author of "Somewhere Along the Beaten Path"

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