Plato and the Magical World of Atlantis

Essay by EssaySwap ContributorHigh School, 12th grade February 2008

download word file, 3 pages 4.0

Downloaded 1563 times

Plato, the famous ancient Greek writer who wrote many stories to entertain and boggle the human mind told a fascinating story or an island called Atlantis. Atlantis was really the island of Thera. First I will provide Plato's description of Atlantis. His first and original description of Atlantis was in his two dialogs Timeaeus and Critias (Wilson). In both works the story is told by Critias, who was Plato's great grandfather, for a conversation between Solon and an Egyptian priest. The priest speaks of a powerful country called Atlantis that lies outside the pillars of Hercules (Koudriavtsev).

Atlantis means a brilliant civilization (Atlantis, World book) It was a large island with fertile soil and was densely populated (Koudriavtsev). At the top of the central hill a temple was built to honor Poseidon the sea god, the rulers of Atlantis came here to discuss and pass laws. The city lay outside an outer ring of water and spread across a plain for about 11 miles.

Most of the population lived here (Atlantis). Place topes were situated high above the sea level which rises precipitously and would rise over the flat plain surrounding the city (Koudriavtsev).

"At the center of the island near the sea was a plain said to be the most beautiful and most fertile of all plains, as was described in Critias 113b. (Koudriavtsev). The flat plain was enclosed by mountains which came right down and touched the sea. Plato said that Atlantis was larger then Asia and Libya combined (Koudriavtsev).

Then an unexpectedly catastrophe happened. There were violent earth quakes, tidal waves and volcanoes which supposedly led to Atlantis sinking, 9000 years before Solon's visit to Egypt. Making it happen before the eruption at Thera (Koudriavtsev).

If you compare an ancient greek calendar and a ancient Egyptian calendar you'll notice 900 years in Egypt would be 9000 in Grease. That would make Atlantis's catastrophe the same time period as Thera's (Atlantis the lost Continent).

Thera is a Greek island in the middle of the Aegean Sea. It was blown to bits during one of the worst volcanic explosions in history. The explosion created monumental tidal waves (Atlantis the lost Continent). Before the eruption It was a large volcanic island that would have been very fertile. It was surrounded by mountains and plains, and when the water level went down it would display fingers of land, forming rings around the center island. Just like Plato's description of Atlantis (Atlantis the lost Continent) Thera is located in between Asia and Libya. After Plato's description of Atlantis being recopied so many times the word mesa which means between, was recopied as mesion which means larger then. So if Atlantis is between Asia and Libya that just gives more proof that it was Thera (Atlantis the lost Continent).

It's said the pillars of Hercules is really the straight of Gibraltar (Atlantis), but what if researchers were mistaken? The pillars of Hercules could be referring to two rock caves which stand across from each other in the Peloponnesus Atlantis was in Plato's back yard the whole time (Atlantis the lost Continent).

On Thera researchers have found building under ground. Archeologist named the site akratery. Akratery is 1 city block of houses and buildings that took over half a century to dig up. The volcanic ash preserved the homes, paintings and so much more.

What they have found so far gives evidence to a very brilliant and advanced civilization.

Many of the homes and building were over stories high, and the bathtubs had two pipe lines one for hot and one for cold. The paintings were magnificent. They were drawn to scale and displayed how they got from place to place. They showed how the people who once lived there looked. There were accurate pictures of animals that do not exist on Thera today, but according to Plato existed on Atlantis. They described what the island looked like before the catastrophe and it was much like Atlantis.

(Atlantis the lost Continent) Researchers went under water for more evidence and found sunken land masses off the coast of Thera which may have been parts of the missing ring.

In conclusion there is so much evidence to prove that Atlantis is really the island of Thera I just touched on the basics. Everything I provided proves that Atlantis really just might be the island of Thera. We have geographical location, historical evidence, and we have Plato's description which matches up perfectly with the island of Thera. (Atlantis the lost Continent)