History of Atlantis is a mystery that researchers have been trying to penetrate for thousands of years. It is rooted in ancient times, inaccessible to direct research, but interest in this problem has only become stronger over the years. Perhaps this is due to the fact that something very important for all humanity is connected with the history of Atlantis.
Lemuria and Atlantis
In ancient times, the appearance of the Earth was different from what it is now; at that time there were continents and islands that have long since disappeared. The Great Flood and other cataclysms forever changed the face of the planet. And of course, it is very difficult today to judge the ancient states that existed at that time. However, fragmentary information about them has reached us in the form of legends and traditions.
Perhaps the greatest interest among scientists is Lemuria and Atlantis, as they were once the most highly developed civilizations. Lemuria is reminiscent of the mysterious Easter Island, which is believed to have been part big continent. As for Atlantis, no one can definitely say about its location yet. There is no such piece of land that could be tied to Atlantis. A fairly specific indication is the prediction of the clairvoyant Edward Cayce, who argued that Atlantis was in the area Bermuda Triangle. This prediction later found a number of confirmations - on the ocean floor in this area, as Cayce predicted, large, well-preserved pyramids containing crystals on their tops were discovered. However there is interesting finds and in other places on the planet. Therefore, it is not yet possible to definitively answer which version of the location of Atlantis is more correct, and therefore they are looking for the mysterious country all over the face of the Earth.
The legend of Atlantis became known to modern mankind through the works of the ancient Greek thinker Plato. In his dialogues Timaeus and Critias, he describes the history of Atlantis. In the first dialogue, Plato speaks only briefly about Atlantis. As for the dialogue “Critias,” it is entirely devoted to the description of Atlantis.
Dialogue Timaeus
Dialogue Timaeus begins with Socrates and the Pythagorean Timaeus having a conversation about the ideal state. However, after describing his ideas about the ideal state, Socrates began to complain that the picture turned out to be abstract. He wanted to see how such a state would behave in a real life situation, how it would build relations with other states, whether it would be able to go to war, and whether citizens in this case would perform feats “in accordance with their training and upbringing.”
For many millennia, world scientists have been discussing, but still do not dare to come to a consensus regarding the details of the existence and mysterious disappearance of Atlantis - the “city of the Atlanteans”.
The ancient Greek scientist and philosopher Plato in his writings called Atlantis a densely populated island located in the Atlantic Ocean. According to his descriptions, this territory was very fertile, it was home to a huge number of different domesticated animals, and the inhabitants of this island had all the benefits that modern people have.
The great scientist claimed that Atlantis went under water and the reason for this was a huge earthquake sent by the gods of Olympus.
Description of Atlantis in the works of Plato: Timaeus and Critias
Extremely detailed story the philosopher about the life and death of the Atlanteans is presented in the form of two essays, constructed in a dialogue form. This dialogue is conducted between Plato’s great-grandfather named Critias and Critias’ grandfather, who is familiar with the history of Atlantis from the words of people living at different times.
According to their stories, Atlantis was a “state on an island,” and this island was located beyond the Strait of Gibraltar (another name is “Pillars of Hercules”).
In a series of descriptions of the life of the islanders, Plato talks in all colors about their way of life, the benefits they possessed, and how developed this mysterious civilization was. In his opinion, the state had a capital; there was also a king’s palace called the “Acropolis” on the island, and there were also buildings in the form of temples.
Earth mounds and water barriers gave the Atlanteans protection from external threats; they had their own ship port and a spacious harbor that could accommodate more than a thousand ships.
The main deity to whom the Atlanteans prayed and worshiped was Poseidon. Temples in his honor were decorated with precious gold and silver both inside and outside. The wife of Poseidon, named Cleito, was considered the “mother of all Atlanteans,” their ancestor.
Plato also narrated some of the features of the political structure of Atlantis.
For example, as part of the Timaeus dialogue, he praised the amazing royal alliance, which gained power over a huge number of neighboring (and not only) territories, right up to Africa and America.
According to Plato's stories, death to the Atlanteans came from the gods from Mount Olympus, who directed their anger at them. The gods considered that the inhabitants of Atlantis had become too greedy and cruel, so they decided to punish them by sending an earthquake of unprecedented force. The result of the disaster was that a huge, developed civilization disappeared under the water.
The beginning of the search for an ancient civilization
Since the fifties from the birth of Christ to the present day, active searches have been conducted for the “city of Atlanteans” throughout the entire planet.
Until now, scientists have not decided on the specific location of the ancient state, but they have come to a certain denominator and identified about forty possible locations for its location, for example:
Direction north of the island of Crete;
Caribbean Sea, west of the island of Haiti;
The Taimyr Peninsula, or rather its northeastern part;
Central part of Bolivia South America; and others.
A new wave of searches for the sunken Atlantis
When did 1 end World War, during which there was a rapid development of new technologies in scuba diving, serious interest arose again in the search for the lost “city of Atlanteans”. Fans of risky adventures launched entire search campaigns everywhere.
Eg, in the USSR several decades ago a shocking statement was made that Atlantis had been found. At that time, the headlines of all newspapers “screamed” about the discovery of Russian people, which was confirmed by the presence of photographs taken on the seabed. In these photographs, structures were quite clearly visible that looked like the walls of a sunken civilization. The photographs were taken by researchers from one of the respected Moscow universities.
After a while, the crew of another Soviet ship, which had more modern equipment, announced that they had discovered reliable evidence of the veracity of the find. Namely: with the help of a special underwater vehicle capable of operating at great depths, the expedition members saw with their own eyes the ruins of the destroyed city, as reported by the ship’s commander.
However, in 1984, the ship “Vityaz” set off with an expedition to the site of the supposedly discovered Atlantis, the study of which stated that the ruins found were not the result of human labor, they were just pieces of frozen lava of volcanic rock.
One of the scientists on that expedition suggested that a geological catastrophe of this magnitude could have occurred due to sudden displacements of tectonic plates that caused a volcanic eruption. By the way, modern scientists partly share this version. But the result of this is that against this background, all other versions concerning the existence of Atlantis in principle lose their plausibility.
Since antiquity, there has been ongoing debate about the legendary Atlantis and its ancient civilization. More than 6 thousand volumes of books have been written about Atlantis. Dozens of academicians and hundreds of Russian doctors of science took part in research on the topic, writing more than 215,000 articles. But did this mysterious civilization even exist? If yes, when and where? How to interpret the evidence of the ancients? And - most importantly - what practical significance, if any, does it have now - the fact of the existence of this country in ancient times?
My plans do not include attempting to conduct my own research and write an essay on the epoch-making mystery of Atlantis. I will just try to introduce curious readers to some of the scientific hypotheses existing in the world. And only on some of them I will express my personal opinion. The legend of Atlantis - a sunken island on which a highly developed civilization once existed, where a strong, enlightened and happy people lived - the Atlanteans - has been exciting humanity for more than two thousand years. The primary source of information about Atlantis is the writings of the ancient Greek scientist Plato.
He lived in the 4th century BC and told us about Atlantis in the form of conversation-dialogues (“Plato’s Dialogues”). The thinker’s two books, Timaeus and Critias, contain a story about Atlantis by Plato’s contemporary, the writer and political figure Critias, which he heard in childhood from his grandfather, and he, in turn, from “the wisest of the seven wise men.” " - the Athenian legislator Solon. Solon learned about this from the Egyptian priests.
The dialogue “Timaeus” begins with the reasoning of Socrates and Timaeus about the best state structure. Briefly describing ideal state, Socrates complains about the abstractness and sketchiness of the resulting picture and expresses a desire to “listen to a description of how this state behaves in the fight against other states, how it enters into war in a manner worthy of it, how during the war its citizens do what is right for them, in accordance with one’s training and upbringing, whether on the battlefield or in negotiations with each of the other states.” Responding to this wish, the third participant in the dialogue, the Athenian politician Critias, sets out the story of the war between Athens and Atlantis, allegedly from the words of his grandfather Critias the Elder, who, in turn, retold him the story of Solon, who the latter heard from the priests in Egypt.
The meaning of the story is this: once upon a time, Athens was the most glorious, powerful and virtuous state in the world. Their main rival was Atlantis. “This island was larger than Libya and Asia combined.” A “kingdom of amazing size and power” arose on it, ruling all of Libya to Egypt and Europe to Tyrrhenia (western Italy). All the forces of this kingdom were thrown into the enslavement of Athens. The Athenians stood up to defend their freedom at the head of the Hellenes (ancient Greeks); and although all their allies betrayed them, they alone, thanks to their valor and virtue, repelled the invasion.
The Atlanteans were crushed, and the peoples they enslaved were freed. Following this, however, a tremendous natural disaster occurred, as a result of which the entire army of the Athenians died in one day, and Atlantis sank to the bottom of the sea.
The dialogue “Critias”, with the same participants, serves as a direct continuation of “Timaeus” and is entirely devoted to Critias’ story about ancient Athens and Atlantis. Athens then (before the earthquake and flood) was the center of a large and unusually fertile country; they were inhabited by a virtuous people who established the ideal (from Plato’s point of view) government structure. Namely, everything was managed by the rulers and warriors who lived separately from the main agricultural and craft mass - on the Acropolis - by the community (Acropolis is a hill in Athens on which the main temple of the ancient Greeks, the Parthenon, was built and is still located). Modest and virtuous Athens is contrasted with the arrogant and powerful Atlantis.
The ancestor of the Atlanteans, according to Plato, was the god of the seas Poseidon, who met with the mortal girl Cleito, who gave birth to ten divine sons from him. The eldest of them was called Atlas, after his name the island was named Atlantis, and the sea was named Atlantic.
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There was also a temple dedicated to Poseidon; there was something barbaric in the appearance of the building. All outer surface They lined the temple, except for the acroteria, with silver, and the acroteria with gold; inside the view was a ceiling made of Ivory, all decorated with gold, silver and orichalcum, and the walls, pillars and floors were entirely lined with orichalcum (aurichalcum, literally “golden copper” - author’s note).
The altar was commensurate with this wealth in size and decoration; in the same way, the royal palace was in proper proportion, both with the greatness of the state and with the decoration of the sanctuaries. |
From Atlas came a particularly numerous and revered family, in which the eldest was always king and passed on the royal rank to the eldest of his sons, maintaining power in the family from generation to generation, and they accumulated such wealth that no one had ever had 
They also placed golden statues there: the god himself on a chariot, driving six winged horses and his head reaching to the ceiling, around him were one hundred Nereids on dolphins (for people in those days imagined their number to be like that)... Outside around the temple there were golden images of wives. and all those who descended from the ten kings, as well as many other expensive offerings from the kings and from private individuals of this city and those cities that were subject to it.From Plato's Dialogues
According to Plato, Atlantis was located in the Atlantic Ocean beyond Gibraltar and died approximately 12 thousand years ago (between 9750 and 8570 BC). The dialogue "Critias" gives detailed description Atlantis, its relief, cities, social order. And before that there follows an equally detailed story about the ancient homeland of the Athenians (present-day Attica - or even Greece - in the words of Critias, “is only the skeleton of a body exhausted by illness, when all the soft and rich earth was washed away and only one skeleton is still before us”), about its capital with the Acropolis, which was much superior to the current one, about its inhabitants - “the leaders of all other Hellenes by the good will of the latter” (testimony of Critias). The code of laws that Poseidon himself gave to the Atlanteans was inscribed on a high orichalcum pillar installed in the middle of the island. Atlantis was ruled by ten kings, each with their own part of the island. Once every five or six years they gathered behind this pillar. Here they “consulted about general affairs or they examined whether anyone had committed any offense, and held court.”
The Atlanteans were distinguished by their nobility and exalted way of thinking, “looking at everything except virtue with disdain, they valued little the fact that they had a lot of gold and other acquisitions, they were indifferent to wealth as a burden, and did not fall to the ground in the intoxication of luxury, losing power over oneself.
But the “nature inherited from God” was exhausted, “repeatedly dissolved in mortal admixture, and human disposition prevailed” - and then the Atlanteans “were unable to bear their wealth any longer and lost their decency,” having lost the most beautiful of their values, although they “seemed most beautiful and happiest just when unbridled greed and power were seething in them.”
Time passed - and the Atlanteans changed, they were filled with “the wrong spirit of self-interest and power.” They began to use their knowledge and achievements of their culture for evil.
| Atlantis had a strong army and navy, consisting of one thousand two hundred warships. And so all this united power was thrown at one blow to plunge both your and our lands and all the countries on this side of the strait into slavery. It was then, Solon, that your state showed the whole world a brilliant proof of its valor and strength; Surpassing everyone in strength of spirit and experience in military affairs, it first stood at the head of the Hellenes, but due to the betrayal of its allies it found itself left to its own devices, faced extreme dangers alone and still defeated the conquerors and erected victorious trophies. It saved those who were not yet enslaved from the threat of slavery; but all the rest, no matter how many of us lived on this side of the Pillars of Hercules, it generously made free. |
Testimony of Timaeus
Eventually, Zeus became angry with the Atlanteans, and “in one day and one disastrous night, the island of Atlantis disappeared, plunging into the sea.” According to Plato, this happened in the 10th millennium BC.
And the debate about whether Atlantis really existed or was invented by Plato began in ancient times.
Afterword
It is natural to assume that after reading the article the reader will have a reasonable question: What is the purpose of the proposed series of publications on the portal. As mentioned in the annotation to the article, more than 6 thousand volumes of books have been published about Atlantis, and hundreds of thousands of articles have been written. Not only venerable scientists, but also science fiction writers, journalists, and poets took part in writing articles and books. So is it still necessary to produce more articles, especially not for a professional researcher, not a geocachingist or a columnist?
The fact is that when selecting materials for publications, I came across a great variety of sources (books, reviews, abstracts, portals), each of which sometimes contains up to several hundred pages. Often the texts are repeated to a large extent. Reading and analyzing these materials is labor-intensive and tedious. Therefore, I wanted to write a small series of articles that would give the most concise general ideas about the legendary Atlantis (about hypotheses of its location on the planet, the causes and time of its death, about earthly civilizations and cataclysms, etc.). This is not an easy task, and therefore I am not sure whether I can cope with it. However, I will try if I see readers’ interest in continuing the story. In each article, I intend to provide links to sources of information that, if desired, inquisitive readers can find and obtain more complete and in-depth knowledge about Atlantis.
The article uses sources from the Internet:
- Plato on Atlantis (original from the dialogues Timaeus and Critias)
- Atlantis. Wikipedia
- A.M. Kondratov. "Atlantis of the Tethys Sea"
- Historical portal
- Article "Renaissance Titans"
- Ancient Greece. Wikipedia
- Encyclopedia "Around the World". Atlantis (Alexander Gorodnitsky)
To be continued
World Travel Encyclopedia Help
Pythagoreans They led a special way of life, they had their own special daily routine. The Pythagoreans had to start their day with poetry: “Before getting up from the sweet dreams evoked at night, think, think about what the day has in store for you.”
Strange, but in the section “Ancient Greece” (in the same Wikipedia) the historical periods of Greece are given somewhat (!) later:
This is completely inconsistent in time with Plato's dialogues.
To be continued
In the works of some ancient Greek historians, geographers, mythographers, mathematicians, theologians and astronomers, there is mention of one state that has sunk into eternity: the legendary island of Atlantis. About two thousand years ago, Plato, Herodotus, Diodorus and other respected authors wrote about it in their works.
Ancient authors about the sunken island of Atlantis
Basic information about the lost Atlantis is contained in the writings of Plato. In the dialogues Timaeus and Critias, he talks about an island state that existed about 11,500 years ago.
According to Plato, the ancestor of the Atlanteans was the god Poseidon. He connected his life with a mortal girl, who bore him ten sons. When the children grew up, the father divided the island between them. The best part of the land went to Poseidon's eldest son: Atlan.
Atlantis was a powerful, rich and populous state. Its inhabitants erected a serious defense system against external enemies and built a network of circular canals leading to the sea, as well as an internal port.
Large cities were distinguished by amazing architectural structures and beautiful sculptures: temples made of gold and silver, golden statues and sculptures. The island was very fertile, with a variety of natural world; people mined copper and silver in the depths of the earth.
The Atlanteans were a warlike people: the army of the state included a navy of 1000 ships, the number of crews was 240 thousand people; The ground army numbered 700 thousand people. The descendants of Poseidon successfully fought for many years, conquering new territories and wealth; This was the case until Athens stood in their way.
To defeat the Atlanteans, the Athenians created a military alliance with the peoples of the Balkan Peninsula. But on the day of the battle, the allies refused to fight, and the Athenians were left alone with the enemy. Fearless, courageous Greeks defeated the aggressor and liberated the peoples previously enslaved by him.
But early on, the Greek warriors rejoiced at their achievements: they decided to intervene in the affairs of people, who had been monitoring the inhabitants of Atlantis for the last centuries. Zeus considered that the Atlanteans had become greedy, greedy, depraved and decided to punish them to the fullest extent by flooding the island along with its inhabitants and the Athenians who did not have time to celebrate the victory.
This is what Plato writes about Atlantis in his two works. At first glance, this is just a beautiful legend, an interesting fairy tale. There is no direct evidence of the existence of Atlantis in ancient times, nor any references to authoritative sources.
But these two dialogues survived not only Plato himself, but also two more millennia - during which time many disputes and theories arose regarding the lost state.
Plato’s student Aristotle, who listened to the speeches of Platonist philosophers for about 20 years, eventually categorically rejected the existence of Atlantis, declaring that the dialogues “Timaeus” and “Critius” were simply fiction, the ravings of an old man.
It was because of Aristotle that Atlantis was talked about reluctantly, in a low voice, until late XVIII century. After all, this venerable philosopher enjoyed unquestioned authority in Europe, especially in the Middle Ages. All of Aristotle's statements were perceived by Europeans as the ultimate truth.
So why was Aristotle so sure that Atlantis was a fiction, because he had no irrefutable evidence of this? Why was he so harsh in his judgments? Some sources claim that the philosopher simply did not like his mentor, so he decided in this way to spoil Plato’s authority in the eyes of his fans and admirers.
Mentions of the Atlanteans in the works of other ancient authors
Other ancient authors wrote very little about Atlantis: Herodotus claimed that the Atlanteans had no names, did not see and were defeated by troglodytes - cavemen; According to the stories of Diodorus, the inhabitants of Atlantis fought with the Amazons. Posidonius, interested in the causes of land subsidence, believed that Plato’s story was plausible.
Proclus in his writings talks about one follower of the ancient thinker: a resident of Athens, Krantor.
Allegedly, he specially went to 47 years after the death of the philosopher to find evidence in favor of the existence of the island state; Having returned from his trip, Krantor said that in one of the ancient temples he saw columns with inscriptions retelling the historical events described by Plato.
Search for Atlantis
It is quite difficult to indicate the exact location of the lost Atlantis: there are many hypotheses about where the sunken state could be located.
Plato wrote that a huge island was once located in the ocean beyond the Pillars of Hercules (i.e., beyond Gibraltar). But his searches in the area of the Canary, Balearic, Azores and British Islands led to nothing.
Some researchers propose to look for the remains of the material culture of the Atlanteans in the Black Sea, linking the flooding of the island with the “Black Sea flood” that occurred 7-8 thousand years ago - then the sea level rose in less than a year, according to various estimates, from 10 to 80 meters.
There is a hypothesis according to which Antarctica is the lost Atlantis. Scientists who adhere to this theory believe that Antarctica in ancient times was shifted to the south pole due to lithospheric shift, or a sharp displacement of the earth's axis as a result of the collision of our planet with a large cosmic body.
There is also an opinion that traces of Atlantis can be found in South America or Brazil. But most interpreters of Plato’s dialogues are sure: the lost island must be looked for only in the Atlantic Ocean.
IN last decades The lost state sought out many expeditions, most of which returned empty-handed. True, from time to time the whole world is excited by news about the found traces of a submerged island.
Did the Russians find Atlantis?
In 1979, a Soviet expedition, while testing a diving bell, accidentally discovered some objects in the Atlantic Ocean that looked like the ruins of an ancient city.
The action took place just behind the “Pillars of Hercules” indicated by Plato, 500 km from Gibraltar, above the Ampere seamount, which many thousands of years ago protruded above the surface of the ocean, but then for some reason went under water.
Three years later, the Soviet ship Rift set off to the same place to explore the ocean floor using the Argus submersible. The aquanauts were amazed by what they saw; from their words, a panorama of city ruins opened up to them: the remains of rooms, squares, streets.
But the expedition that took place in 1984 did not live up to the hopes of the researchers: an analysis of two stones raised from the ocean floor showed that it was just volcanic rock, frozen lava, and not the creation of human hands.
The opinion of modern scientists about Atlantis
Atlantis is a fiction
Most modern historians and philologists are convinced: Plato’s dialogues are just a beautiful legend, of which the philosopher has many. There are no traces of this state either in Greece, or in western Europe, or in Africa - this is confirmed by archaeological excavations.
The opinion of scientists that Atlantis is only a figment of the imagination is also based on the following: the philosopher writes about a network of canals built on the island, about an inland port, but such large-scale projects in ancient times were beyond the power of people.
Plato indicated the approximate date of the island's immersion in the ocean depths: 9000 years before he wrote his dialogues (i.e. approximately 9500 BC). But this contradicts the data modern science: At that time, humanity was just emerging from the Paleolithic era. It is not easy to believe that somewhere in those times there lived a people who were thousands of years ahead of the entire human race in their development.
Many scientists are convinced that Plato, when writing his works, took as a basis some events that occurred during his life: for example, the defeat of the Greeks during their attempt to conquer the island of Sicily and the flooding of the town of Gelica as a result of an earthquake followed by flooding.
Other researchers believe that the basis for the philosopher’s works was the eruption of a volcano on the island of Santorini, which subsequently hit the coast of Crete and other islands. Mediterranean Sea tsunami - this disaster led to the decline of the developed Minoan civilization.
The version is supported by the following fact: the Minoans really fought with the Archeans who inhabited Greece in ancient times and were even defeated by them (just as the Atlanteans were defeated by the Greeks in the dialogues “Timaeus” and “Critias”).
In general, many researchers of the thinker’s works believe that Plato, being an idealistic utopian, with his writings only wanted to call on his contemporaries to build an ideal exemplary humane state in which there would be no place for dictatorship, violence and tyranny.
However, the philosopher himself constantly emphasizes in his dialogues that Atlantis is not just a legend, but a real island state that once existed.
Plato doesn't lie
Some researchers still admit: there is a grain of truth in the works of the ancient thinker. Excavations carried out by archaeologists in recent years have helped scientists obtain new information about the life and technical achievements of our ancestors living 5-10 thousand years ago.
Modern archaeologists find the remains of grandiose structures created by ancient people everywhere: in Egypt, Sumer, Babylon. Collection tunnels groundwater, many kilometers of adits, stone dams, man-made lakes - all these structures were in operation long before the birth of Plato.
Consequently, the philosopher’s dialogues cannot be attributed to fiction only on the grounds that humanity 11 thousand years ago was unable to build a network of canals and bridges: recent archaeological excavations prove the opposite.
In addition, since Plato’s works have come down to us, rewritten more than once, there is a possibility that over two millennia there has been confusion with the dates.
The fact is that in the system Egyptian hieroglyphs the number "9000" is indicated by lotus flowers, and the number "900" is represented by rope knots; supporters of the existence of Atlantis believe that later copyists of dialogues could easily confuse symbols that were so similar to each other, thus pushing aside historical event several thousand years ago.
On top of that, Plato, who belongs to one of the highly revered Ancient Greece family, in his dialogues he refers to his ancestor: the wisest of the “seven wise men”, the legislator Solon. And the ancient Greeks were very sensitive to their roots and tried to preserve the sacred memory of their relatives. Would Plato, given his moral qualities, have referred to Solon in his works, because if this whole story with Atlantis was just a fiction, he would have tarnished the name of the wisest representative of the family?
Afterword
Atlantis has been shrouded in an aura of mystery for many centuries. People have been trying to find the suddenly disappeared state for almost two thousand years: some wanting to take possession of the treasures described by Plato, others out of scientific interest, others simply out of curiosity.
In the 50s of the last century, a doctrine called “Atlantology” even appeared; its main task is to identify true information about Atlantis in historical sources and mythical legends.
The debate about whether the mysterious land once existed or whether the ancient Greek thinker simply made it up continues to this day. Various theories are born and die, guesses appear and disappear. Some of them are supported by science, while others are more like a beautiful fairy tale.
Perhaps our children or grandchildren will solve the riddle of Atlantis. But it may happen that another two thousand years will pass, and the mystery of the lost island will remain unsolved, and our descendants, just like us today, will be tormented by guesses and assumptions.
ARTICLE IN VIDEO FORMAT
The world was first told about the island-state of Atlantis in 355 BC. e. ancient Greek scientist Aristocles, known to mankind under the name Plato of Athens (428 or 427 - 348 or 347 BC), a student of the greatest philosopher of that time, Socrates (470–399 BC). Plato's dad, Ariston, came from the family of the last Athenian king, Codrus. Plato's ancestor on his mother's side, Periktiona, (his great-great-grandfather) was the legislator Solon (640–559 BC), who traveled widely and, starting around 570 BC. e., spent about 10 years in the land of the pharaohs, Egypt. There Solon had conversations with the priests of the goddess Neith about ancient times and got acquainted with documents relating to the distant past of Greece, Egypt and... Atlantis.
In 404 BC. e. As a very young man, Plato witnessed the capture of Athens by the troops of Sparta. Thus ended the Peloponnesian War.
The democratic system in Athens was destroyed, and power in the city passed to 30 tyrants. Among them was Plato’s relative and friend Critias the Younger, who was the first uncle. However, a year later, in a battle with the democrats, Critias was killed and democracy triumphed in Athens again.
Young Plato had to leave Athens for a long time. It was then that, during his travels, he visited Syracuse, many Mediterranean cities and countries, including Egypt, where the “wisest of the seven wise men” of Greece, Solon, once studied.
Any story about Atlantis begins with a mention of two (out of ten that have come down to us) Plato’s philosophical dialogues - “Timaeus” and “Critius”, which are a retelling of the lessons of Socrates to his students. This immutable rule is followed by both supporters and opponents of the existence of a legendary country in the Atlantic in the past.
Plato wrote these dialogues at the end of his life. The first of them, Timaeus, describes the Athenian state at war with the Atlanteans, and the second, Critias, describes Atlantis. Both of these dialogues form a single cycle with another (third!) Plato’s dialogue - “The Republic”, which, with reference to Socrates, talks about the “journey” to the afterlife. Consequently, the dialogues “Republic”, “Timaeus” and “Critias” are interconnected; the same persons speak in them.
Actually, the story about Atlantis itself became known from Plato only 200 years after Solon visited Egypt and almost 50 years after Plato’s trip to this country. However, he did not say a word about whether he had a chance to independently see the documents about Atlantis that the Egyptian priests had or not.
True, from both dialogues it follows that the legend of Atlantis and the reasons for its destruction was known to Plato before his trip to Egypt.
The entire myth about this island-state of Atlantis and the disaster that befell it is narrated by Plato in paragraphs 20d-26e of the Timaeus and 108d-121c of the Critias.
In the dialogue “Timaeus,” the role of narrator is assigned to the poet and historian Critias the Younger, who was one of Socrates’ students who was present at this conversation. Critias tells his teacher and two of his friends (Timaeus and Hermocrates) “an ancient legend” that he heard in childhood from his grandfather Critias the Elder, to whom Solon himself conveyed it.
Critias addresses Socrates with the following words:
“Listen, Socrates, to a legend, although very strange, but undoubtedly true, as Solon, the wisest of the seven sages, once testified. He was a relative and great friend of our great-grandfather Dropidas... and told our grandfather Critias that in ancient times great and amazing deeds were accomplished by our city, which were then forgotten due to the passage of time and the death of people...”
The great and wise Solon once traveled to Egypt, namely to the city of Sais, located “at the top of the Delta, where the Nile diverges into separate streams,” whose patron is the goddess Neith, “and in Hellenic, as local residents say, this is Athena.” .
Solon said that there “he was received with great honor.” One day, “when... he set out to ask the most knowledgeable among the priests about ancient times,” then “he had to make sure that neither he himself, nor any of the Hellenes in general, one might say, knew almost nothing about these subjects.” . And then one of the priests exclaimed: “Ah, Solon, Solon! You Hellenes always remain children, and there is no elder among the Hellenes.” And the reason for this is that the minds of the Hellenes do not retain in themselves “any tradition that has passed from generation to generation from time immemorial, and no teaching that has grown gray with time.”
According to the Egyptian priests, civilizations are mortal. Many of them died due to great fires that occurred due to stars deviating from their paths. Others perish “when... the gods, working to cleanse the Earth, flood it with water.” In Egypt, there are temples that have never been threatened by fires or floods, and they have preserved records that record all the wonderful earthly events.
These texts speak not only of many floods, but also of the state "which is now known by the name of Athens." Tradition attributes to him such unprecedented deeds, “which are more beautiful than anything that we know under heaven.” It was Athens, just before the devastating flood, that “set the limit to the audacity of the countless military forces that were sent to conquer all of Europe and Asia.” And these military forces were heading from one of the islands of the Atlantic Sea.
“In those days it was possible to cross this sea (the Atlantic. - A.V.), for there was also an island (Atlantis. - A.V.) lying in front of that strait, which in your language is called the Pillars of Hercules (Abilik rocks and Kalpa of the Strait of Gibraltar. - A.V.). This island was larger in size than Libya and Asia (the ancient Greeks called Libya and Asia, respectively, the inhabited territories of Africa without Egypt and the peninsula of Asia Minor. - A.V.), taken together, and from it it was quite easy for travelers of that time to move to other islands (nowadays mostly flooded. - A.V.), and from the islands - to the entire opposite continent (America. - A.V.), which covered the sea that truly deserves such a name (after all, the sea on this side of the mentioned strait is only a bay with a certain narrow passage into it, while the sea on the other side of the mentioned strait is a sea in the proper sense of the word (Atlantic Ocean - A.V.), just as the land surrounding it can truly and quite rightly be called the continent. On this island, called Atlantis, a great and amazing alliance of kings appeared, whose power extended over the entire island, many other islands and part of the mainland (America - A.V.), and moreover, on this side of the strait they ruled Libya all the way to Egypt and Europe all the way to Tyrrhenia (a region in Central Italy, off the coast of the Tyrrhenian Sea. - A.V.)..."
The above quote is interesting for us because it speaks not only about the location of Atlantis, but also its size. So, from the words of Plato it clearly follows that Atlantis was in the Atlantic Ocean and not just anywhere, but only in front of the Strait of Gibraltar. It is in this place that you need to look for it. However, we will return to this issue many times in the future.
As for the size of Atlantis, the information obtained from Plato’s dialogues is indeed extremely contradictory. The fact is that the value of the stage, this unit of measurement of distances, as it turned out, changes to a significant extent. By the way, the stage was equal to the segment of the path that a person travels at a uniform pace during the full rise of the Sun's disk above the horizon, i.e. within two minutes. In ancient Hellas there were, for example, two stages: 178 meters - Attic and 193 meters - Olympic. The next stage, equal to 98 meters, was in Egypt. It is clear that this fact is very important for us, since the legend about Atlantis itself came to us from Egypt and, apparently, in the future we need to use these meanings of the “Egyptian” stage.
Thus, if we take into account only the inhabited areas of the territory of “Libya and Asia taken together” and the fact reported by Plato that Atlantis extended in one direction for three thousand stadia (about 300 kilometers), and in the other for two thousand (about 200 kilometers), it turns out that Atlantis was indeed a large island, but its size is still somewhat exaggerated.
According to Plato, the island of Atlantis itself had the shape of a regular oblong rectangle.
Framed on three sides by mountains that protected the island from northern winds, it was open to the sea on the southern side. Along the border of the plain and the mountains ran a canal of enormous size: about 25 meters deep, about 100 meters wide and about 1000 kilometers long. From the bypass canal, direct canals were cut across the entire plain, which also had access to the sea. Forest cut down in the mountains was floated along these canals. Here is briefly everything that Plato told us in general about the island-state of Atlantis.
Further in the Timaeus it is said that the Atlanteans intended at one blow to convert into slavery all the countries and lands that did not submit to them on this side of the Strait of Gibraltar. The Athenian state initially led the Hellenic alliance, which opposed this plan, “but due to the betrayal of the allies, it was left to its own devices, faced extreme dangers alone and still defeated the conquerors...” However, “later, when the time came for unprecedented earthquakes and floods , in one terrible day, all your military strength was swallowed up by the opening of the earth; in the same way, Atlantis disappeared, plunging into the abyss (reverse Special attention to the fact that it does not say about the disappearance of the island of Atlantis within one day. - A.V.)... After which the sea in those places (we are talking here only about the entrance to Gibraltar from the Atlantic. - A.V.) has become unnavigable and inaccessible to this day due to shallowing caused by a huge amount of silt, which left behind a settled island..." In fact, this passage in Timaeus ends the story of Atlantis, but the text of the dialogue continues...
ABOUT large quantities silt on the other side of the Strait of Gibraltar, along with Plato, was also reported by his students Aristotle and Theophrastus. This circumstance may cause bewilderment among the modern reader: what kind of silt in the Atlantic Ocean can we actually talk about? However, this misunderstanding dissipates upon closer acquaintance with modern map bottom Atlantic Ocean. A volcanic underwater ridge that occupies the entire mid-central part of the ocean is capable of ejecting such lung amount material, for example, such as pumice, which can not only hamper navigation, but also make it impossible in a particular area.
There is a different story about the island-state in Plato’s dialogue “Critias”, where Critias the Younger has a conversation with Hermocrates.
Critias reminds his interlocutor of what was previously told to him and Socrates: the existence of the island, its size and location, the war with Athens and the reasons for the subsequent disappearance. Having listed these events, Critias continues his tale, describing in detail the ancient homeland of the Athenians (current Attica is “only the skeleton of a body exhausted by illness, when all the soft and fat earth was washed away and only one skeleton is also in front of us”); its capital with an acropolis much superior to the present one, and its inhabitants - “the leaders of all other Hellenes by the good will of the latter.”
After which Critias tells what Atlantis was like at the moment when “the gods divided among themselves by lot all the countries of the earth.”
The climate of Atlantis was extremely mild. No winter, the sky is always blue. Its shores, composed of white, black and red rocks, fell steeply to the sea, so that the island was mountainous. However, among the mountains lay vast plains with highly fertile lands.
“So Poseidon, having received Atlantis as his inheritance, populated it with his children, conceived from a mortal woman, in approximately this place of the city: at an equal distance from the shores and in the middle of the entire island there was a plain, according to legend, more beautiful than all other plains and very fertile, and again in the middle of this plain, approximately fifty stadia from its edges, stood a mountain, low on all sides. On this mountain lived one of the men who were born there at the very beginning of the earth, named Evenor, and with him his wife Leucippe, their only daughter was called Cleito. When the girl has already reached marriageable age, and her mother and father have passed away, Poseidon, inflamed with lust, unites with her: he strengthens the hill on which she lived, separating it from the island along its circumference and fencing it alternately with water and earthen rings (there were earthen rings) two, and water - three) of a larger or smaller size, drawn at an equal distance from the center of the island, as if with a compass. This barrier was insurmountable for people...”
Next, Poseidon gave a well-maintained appearance to the island in the middle of the plain, and issued two springs from the ground - one with warm water, and another with cold - and forced the earth to produce varied and sufficient food for life.
“Having given birth to male twins five times, Poseidon raised them and divided the entire island of Atlantis (in this case, the entire country is meant - A.V.) into ten parts, and to the one of the eldest couple who was born first ( his name was Atlas, but he should not be confused with another Atlas, the brother of Prometheus and the father of the Hesperides, who held the firmament of heaven on his shoulders in the far west - A.V.), he gave his mother’s house and the surrounding possessions as the largest and best share and set it. his king over the rest...
From Atlas came a particularly numerous and revered family, in which the oldest was always king and passed on the royal rank to the eldest of his sons, maintaining power in the family from generation to generation, and they accumulated such wealth that no royal dynasty had ever had in the past and it is unlikely that it will ever be the same, because they had at their disposal everything that was prepared both in the city and throughout the country. Much was imported to them from subject countries, but most of what was needed for life was provided by the island itself, first of all, all types of fossil hard and fusible metals, and among them what is now known only by name, but then existed in reality: native orichalcum, extracted from the bowels of the earth in different places on the island. The forest provided in abundance everything that builders needed for work, as well as for feeding domestic and wild animals. There were even a great many elephants on the island, for there was enough food not only for all other living creatures inhabiting swamps, lakes and rivers, mountains or plains, but also for this animal, the most significant and voracious of all animals.”
The land of Atlantis was rich in incense, which was found and grown in roots, herbs, wood, oozing resins, flowers or fruits. And “every fruit and grain cultivated by man”, from which food and bread were prepared - the sea channel hippodrome - all this grew on the island “beautiful, amazing and abundant.” Taking advantage of these wonderful gifts of the earth, the kings of Atlantis built various sanctuaries, palaces, harbors, shipyards and put the whole country in order. First of all, they threw numerous bridges over the water canals that surrounded the ancient metropolis, thereby creating a route connecting the capital with these areas.
“They mined white, black and red stone in the depths of the middle island and in the depths of the outer and inner earthen rings, and in the quarries, where there were double depressions covered with the same stone on top, they arranged anchorages for ships. If they made some of their own buildings simple, then in others they skillfully combined stones for fun. different colors, giving them natural charm; They also lined the walls around the outer earthen ring in copper around the entire circumference, applying the metal in molten form, the wall internal shaft covered with tin casting, and the wall of the acropolis itself with orichalcum, which emitted a fiery shine.”
The main royal dwelling was built where the abode of god and ancestors had previously been located. It was arranged as follows. In the middle stood the sacred temple of Cleito and Poseidon, surrounded by a golden fence. There was also a temple dedicated to Poseidon alone. The outside of its building was covered with silver, and the pillars at its corners were made of gold. The inside of the temple was impressive: the ceiling was made of ivory, painted with gold, silver and orichalcum; the walls, internal columns and floor were also covered with orichalcum.
Inside the temple there was a huge golden statue of Poseidon. Standing in a chariot with his head touching the ceiling, he rode six winged horses, surrounded by Nereids sailing on dolphins. In the temple there were many other statues donated by private individuals, and outside it were golden images of the royal wives and all their descendants who were born from the ten kings of Atlantis. In addition, near the temple there were images of private individuals from the capital city and from other cities over which Atlantis dominated.
There were two springs at the service of the kings - one with warm and the other with cold water. She, who had an amazing taste and had healing properties, was taken to reservoirs and to the sacred grove of Poseidon - a group of different types of trees of extraordinary beauty and height.
Thanks to constant improvements by the rulers, who tried to surpass its predecessor, the palace building turned into a structure of amazing size and beauty. This is how the place where the kings of Atlantis lived was arranged.
From the sea to the very last of the three water rings of the capital, the width of which was approximately 100, 200 and 300 meters, the Atlanteans dug a canal, the width of which was about 100 meters, the depth was more than 30 meters and the length was about 5 kilometers. By this, in the first channel from the sea and the widest possible, a large harbor was created, continuously filled with ships, on which merchants arrived from everywhere in such numbers that talking, noise and knocking could be continuously heard here day and night.
The army of the Atlanteans was a formidable force. Their fleet, for example, consisted of 1,200 ships and 240 thousand sailors. True, it is difficult to imagine a fleet of more than a thousand ships, and a quarter of a million sailors is too much even for the entire country of Atlantis.
After all, in those ancient times, when, according to modern ideas, the population of the entire Earth was only a few million people; Atlantis could have accounted for no more than two or three million inhabitants. And who could such a large fleet fight with? However, let's listen further to Plato.
Later in the dialogue Critias describes “the nature rural areas and how it was arranged.” As already noted, this entire region was located very high above sea level. The plain surrounding the city was itself surrounded by mountains. The perimeter length of this quadrangular area was approximately a thousand kilometers (10,000 stadia). Each section of the plain “had to supply one warrior-leader, and the size of each section was ten by ten stadia, and the total number of sections was sixty thousand; and the countless number of simple warriors, which were recruited from the mountains and from the rest of the country, were distributed among the leaders according to the number of participants.”
As we see, the land army of Atlantis can only be characterized with the help of fantastic figures. It numbered more than 700 thousand people. Only a very large modern power can do this. Therefore, the data presented can only indicate one thing: Plato’s figures are clearly overestimated, approximately 100 times! However, this is only our assumption and it is not possible to prove it. And therefore we must believe Plato...
The laws in Atlantis were established in accordance with the instructions of the god Poseidon and inscribed "by the first kings on the orichalcum stele, which stood in the center of the island - inside the temple of Poseidon." In this temple, all ten kings of Atlantis gathered once every five or six years to “consult about common concerns, examine whether any of them had committed any violation, and hold court.” Before starting the trial, they, armed only with sticks and lassos, caught a bull in the grove at the sanctuary of Poseidon, after which they “brought it to the stele and slaughtered it over its top, so that the blood flowed onto the writing,” took the appropriate oath and “sat down.” to the ground with an oath burning and at night, having extinguished all the lights in the temple, they performed justice and were subject to judgment if any of them violated the law.”
However, “the share inherited from God weakened, repeatedly dissolving into mortal admixture, and human character prevailed, then they were unable to bear their wealth any longer and lost decency.” The rulers of Atlantis lost their best value, however, they “seemed most beautiful and happiest just when unbridled greed was seething in them.”
“And so Zeus, the god of gods, who observes the laws, perfectly able to discern what we were talking about, thought about the glorious race that had fallen into such pitiful depravity, and decided to impose punishment on it, so that, having sobered up from trouble, it would learn good manners. Therefore, he called all the gods to the most glorious of his abodes, established in the center of the world, from which one can see everything involved in birth, and addressed those gathered with these words ... "
With these lines about Zeus and his punishment, the dialogue “Critius” ends, i.e. it remained unfinished. We will never know for sure what Plato wanted to say with this unfinished phrase. Soon after, Plato died.
It is not without interest in this case to highlight that the dialogue “Critias” was not last job philosopher: after him the “Laws” were written. Therefore, the version that the dialogue “Critius” was not completed due to Plato’s lack of time for this work is untenable. Most likely, the ending of the dialogue was subsequently lost, as happened with some of Plato’s other works.
From what is told about Atlantis in the Timaeus and the beginning of Critias, we still know that last words Zeus predetermined the fate of this legendary country. Zeus, according to ancient Greek myths, more than once imposed punishment on the human race.
It is necessary to remember the Deucalion flood, Zeus’s attempt to destroy the old race of people and “plant” a new one. The Trojan War, in its essence, is also a consequence of the plea of Mother Earth, Gaia, to Zeus to punish people for their wickedness.
Zeus sent his own punishing lightning to Atlantis, ultimately causing this island country to disappear completely and irrevocably into the depths of the sea... The god of gods, Zeus, punished cruelly when it came to making people “more moderate and wiser”!
