Unearthing Atlantis

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What happened to Atlantis, that lost civilization that vanished without a trace? Atlantis has captured our imaginations; and poets, writers, philosophers, and dreamers continue delve into the secrets of that lost continent.

In "Unearthing Atlantis," Charles Pellegrino follows the early history of our fascination with Atlantis. He says, "Tracking the origin of the Atlantis legend leads through volcanology, paleontology, classical literature, world history, the Bible..."

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Plato's Source?

Plato wrote about Atlantis in his dialogues: "Timaeus" and the incomplete "Critias." As Pellegrino writes,

"Plato could not have known, when he penned his history of Atlantis in 347 B.C. that he was generating enough questions to keep historians, archaeologists, geologists, poets, philosophers, and theologians busy for a very long time."

Plato's writings were based on notes from Solon, a Greek traveler and historian, who learned of Atlantis on a trip to Egypt. In "Timaeus," Plato explains, "Had Solon only had the leisure which was required to complete the famous legend which he brought with him from Egypt he would have been as distinguished as Homer and Hesiod."

Instead of making a name for Solon, the Atlantis material as relayed by Plato was so widely reproduced and distributed that it survived the test of time and other destructive elements.

Of course, the skepticism regarding the true existence and location of Atlantis still goes on... Even as Plato's story was becoming popular in Greece, Pellegrino says, "Aristotle dismissed it as a sort of fairy tale, suggesting that Plato had invented Atlantis to help him demonstrate a point, and then removed the continent once it had served its purpose."

Cantor, a contemporary of Aristotle, went so far as to check out Plato's story when he traveled to Egypt around 300 B.C. and asked the priests about the ancient Atlantis manuscripts. Pellegrino says, "The priests confirmed that such records still existed, though no one seemed to know the exact location of the lost world."

Swept Away...

And the question remains: What event could have destroyed Atlantis in one day? Was it a tsunami, volcanic activity, earthquake, or some other catastrophic disaster? Pellegrino says,

"Plato's 'Timaeus' and 'Critias,' along with a dozen or more biblical references to cities going up like the smoke of a furnace and being swallowed by waves, may be records of eyewitness accounts, but from very far away, and the accounts were blurred by many centuries of telling and retelling before finally being committed to paper."

Perhaps, it's the journey of discovery that's more important than whether we ever learn all of the answers to our questions about Atlantis. And, what do our dreams tell us, as we create new myths, new realities, and then we retell the age-old story of a civilization that vanished in a day--just at the height of its power?