Atlantis as Myth
The prevailing opinion among the majority of academics is that Atlantis is first and foremost a myth, created by Plato as allegory for a political commentary. Though most academics readily see Atlantis as probably being inspired by real events such the demise of the Minoan culture, or the end of cities like Helike and Pavlopetri, that is very different to those locations actually being Atlantis, which they contend does not and never has existed.
Central to these ideas is a thorough, contextual assessment of Plato's other works and the politics of the time in which he lived. However, the pursuit of the legend of Atlantis has also left a colorful trail in its wake. As such, Atlantis has shone a light on the wants and desires of the historical times in which it was pursued. For example, the reaction to Olaus Rudbeck's publication of Atlantica in Sweden in the 1600s.
The notion that Atlantis is a myth is by no means a modern idea. For example, Giuseppe Bartoli, the Italian scholar of the 1700s, saw the Plato Atlantis story as a veiled warning to Athens of a possible Athenian civil war.
References
Alford, Alan F. The Atlantis Secret, Eridu, 2001.
Cameron, Alan. ”Crantor and Posidonius on Atlantis.” The Classical Quarterly, New Series, Vol. 33, No. 1, 1983, pp. 81-91.
de Camp, L. Sprague. Lost Continents: The Atlantis Theme in History, Science, and Literature. Gnome Press, New York, 1954. Dover, 1970.
Christopher, Kevin. “Atlantis: No Way, No How, No Where,” Skeptical Inquirer Vol. 11, No. 3, September 2001.
Ellis, Richard. Imagining Atlantis, Vintage 1999.
Fritze, Ronald H. Invented Knowledge. False History, Fake Science and Pseudo-Religions, Reaktion Books, 2009.
Gill, Christopher. “The Genre of the Atlantis Story.” Classical Philology, Vol. 72, No. 4, October 1977, pp. 287-304.
- Plato, the Atlantis Story, Duckworth or Bristol Classical Press, 1980.
- “Plato’s Atlantis Story and the Birth of Fiction,” Philosophy & Literature Vol. 3, 1979 pp. 64–78.
Hackforth, Reginald. “The Story of Atlantis. Its Purpose and Moral.” Classical Review Vol. 58, No. 1, May 1944, pp. 7-9.
Hall, Manly Palmer. Atlantis. An Interpretation, Philosophical Research Society, Los Angeles, 1976.
Jordan, Paul. The Atlantis Syndrome, History Press, 2004.
Vidal-Naquet, Pierre. The Atlantis Story. A Short History of Plato's Myth, University of Exeter Press, 2007.
Vidal-Naquet, Pierre and Janet Lloyd. ”Atlantis and the Nations,” Critical Inquiry, Vol. 18, No. 2 (Winter, 1992), pp. 300-326.
