Atlantis – Fact or Fantasy??
The story of Atlantis in a nutshell is a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside of an enigma. However, Atlantis is no small, run-of-the-mill mystery. The alluring appeal of this story of a sunken civilization serves a truly powerful cocktail of fact and fiction, myth and history, legend and allegory and last but not the least natural and supernatural. The combination and juxtaposition of so many crucial elements within the confines of one single saga makes for a truly gripping read and still inflames the chariot of curiosity of an octogenarian much the same way it does that to an adolescent even today. However, what makes the mystery of Atlantis so special is the fact that scientists and explorers alike are still at loggerheads in determining whether this tale of a Utopian society is indeed true or the entire story is a subtle premonition to all the future civilizations in the form of a grandiose allegory.
Quite unlike other legendary civilizations whose genesises have either been lost or are still shrouded in the labyrinthine passages of time, the storied details of Atlantis and its very origin can easily be traced to two of Plato’s works that is, “Timaeus” and “Critias” written about 330 B.C. However, the original story actually predates even the life and career of Plato. This lost civilization was said to have existed some 9000 years before Plato’s time which placed it within the furthest corner of remote antiquity. According to Plato the story had been passed down for generations by poets, priests and many others. However, Plato’s account of Atlantis is the only known source of information to us so far in this regard.
According to Plato, this highly advanced civilization was located beyond the “Pillars of Hercules” (Strait of Gibraltar) on an island in the Atlantic Ocean with a combined size more than that of Libya and Asia put together. Clearly it must have been an island continent floating in the Atlantic Ocean if we are to go by Plato’s account in this very context. To begin with, Atlantis owed its origin to Poseidon (the Hellenic God of Sea) who consorted with Cleito and had five sets of twins out of their wedlock. The island continent and the surrounding ocean were named after their firstborn, Atlas. The capital of the island continent i.e., Atlantis stood out for its architectural brilliance and innovative engineering. Everything was going well in this prehistoric Elysium when some 9000 years before the time of Plato decadence and moral bankruptcy started to take firmer roots within the inhabitants of this island continent, who were otherwise a technologically sophisticated race. Being enraged at what they saw the Hellenic Gods decided to teach them a lesson which would take the Atlanteans beyond all sorts of redemption and salvation. A violent earthquake combined with cataclysmic tidal waves arising out of a possible tsunami dealt a death blow to this archipelago and the island nation sank within the span of a single day into the unfathomable depths of the sea to be seen never again. And thus ends the physical existence of Atlantis from the face of the Earth.
However, much like a hydra-headed monster, the mystery of Atlantis resurfaces again after passing almost two millennia of hibernation that borders on near-anonymity. But with the publication of Atlantis: the Antediluvian World in 1882 Ignatius Donnelly truly set the cat among the pigeons afresh by hypothesizing that all known civilizations of yore must have descended from one technologically advanced, superior culture namely Atlantis. Donnelly was not content with yet. And his outrageous claims soon assumed a biblical proportion as he audaciously drew parallels between the Great Flood mentioned in the Bible with the one that eventually destroyed and wiped out this so called fountainhead of almost all the prominent ancient civilizations. Donnelly’s theory received much acclaim and triggered a chain of occultists and theosophists alike whose voices resonated with ideas linked with that great lost civilization called Atlantis.
Other noted personalities who not only took up the cudgels for Atlantis but were also credited with adding a distinct speculative spin of their own to this entire saga of fact and fantasy included occultist Madame Blavatsky ("The Secret Doctrine", 1888) and psychic Edgar Cayce. Cayce made a series of startling predictions connected with Atlantis. He also alleged to have predicted that Atlantis would rise again during the decade of 1960 which triggered a wave of popularity surrounding the mystery of Atlantis. Another tantalizing remark of Cayce informed us that there is a "Hall of Records" beneath the Egyptian Sphinx, which holds the historical texts of Atlantis.
The story of Atlantis and its spin offs were so powerful that the impact of its spillover could be noticed even in other fields of work notably in English literature. The concept of an imaginary, idealistic world only to be used as a benchmark for other future civilizations captured the imagination of common mass as well as the writers of Renaissance period. With Sir Thomas More the “Utopia” (1516) came into being only to connote a Platonic idealistic land where men and women are accepted as paragon of virtue. “The New Atlantis” (1626) by Francis Bacon, though unfinished, is another addition in the tradition of Sir Thomas More’s “Utopia”. The title of the work by Bacon is, quite understandably, an allusion to the mythical land mentioned by Greek philosopher Plato in his works “Timaeus” and “Critias”.
It is a sheer irony of fate that in spite of having so much of information about Atlantis we are still at odds even over the specific location of the destroyed metropolis and its adjoining areas. And it is truly confounding to note that the same set of information (Plato’s account) has led to so many differing interpretations and opinions on the same subject and its specifics. The entire matter assumes a proportion of incredulity when taken into account the mind-boggling advancements made in oceanography and ocean floor-mapping technology. Possible locations of Atlantis range from Atlantic Ocean to Mediterranean Sea to Europe to Indonesia to Bermuda Triangle again. Even some have opined that Antarctica might be the possible site of the apocalypse. However, in concrete terms nothing has so far been discovered that comes even close to being called Atlantis. It is totally understandable that our oceans do contain as well as suppress a lot of arcane information yet given the progress made in the field of oceanography how is it possible to hide a landmass that is more than the size of Asia and Libya put together is a very pertinent question.
Among all the probable sites for Atlantis the one which comes closest to Plato’s description in terms of scientific acceptance is the Greek island Santorini (ancient Thera) where volcanic eruption puts paid to the Minoan Empire around 1500 B.C. The Minoan civilization had all the matching characteristics of Atlantis mentioned by Plato in his works. However, in order to match Atlantis with that of Minoan civilization we have to address one big “if”. According to Plato the island Kingdom of Atlantis disappeared some 9000 years before his time while the Minoan Empire was almost a contemporary civilization of Plato. This glaring mismatch in historical period has been explained by some Atlantean experts as mere anachronism on the part of Plato and nothing else. However, in doing so other relevant information starts to contradict and we end up exactly where we started in the beginning.
This apparent failure to locate this island of continental dimension has led many to question the historicity of the entire account afresh. According to this school of thought the entire Atlantis thing is a moral fable designed to serve a Delphic premonition to all the future civilizations about the perils of moral decadence and decrepitude. Explanations come and explanations go but the story of Atlantis like the pole star remains elusive and yet constant. Unless and until we find satisfactory answers to all the questions, the mystery and conundrum of Atlantis will continue to tease and haunt us forever. I believe the answer remains seated in the womb of future and thus the mystery remains…………………...
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