Atlantis is a mysterious island whose unknown location and sudden disappearance have fascinated people for thousands of years. Self-styled experts claim that Atlantis was one of the most advanced civilizations in the ancient world, with impressive architecture, wealth, and power that inspired other cultures, such as Egypt and Mesopotamia. According to legend, it vanished within one day and one night. Many people have become obsessed with searching the globe for its ruins. Despite modern technology, Atlantis has not been found so far and has become the holy grail of modern pop-archaeology. We only know about its existence from the Greek philosopher Plato, who was the first person to write about the island and its fate in his two dialogues Timaeus and Critias around 360 BCE.
According to Plato, the island was named after its first king, Atlas. Timaeus and Critias tell Socrates a story about a conflict between Atlantis and Athens in Greece about 9,000 years before Plato, who states that he had heard the story from Solon, an Athenian lawgiver who had learned the story from Egyptian priests. Plato provides a detailed description of Atlantis and its location, describing it as an island kingdom 340 miles in length and 230 miles in width, with land rings and circular harbors located in front of the Pillars of Hercules. Its buildings were made of bronze, silver, and gold, and its mines filled with the orichalcum, a mythic metal that is only known by name. Atlanteans traded goods with Africa and Europe before they became convinced they were superior to other people. They began a series of wars and turned their prisoners into slaves. In 9,600 BCE, when they attempted to invade Athens, the island was afflicted by violent earthquakes and flooding, most likely a tsunami, and vanished without a trace.
Opinions in classical antiquity (eighth century BCE–ca. 300 CE) about Atlantis’s existence were as divided as they are in the present. Some academics believe Atlantis is a myth that was created entirely by Plato to demonstrate what can happen to a society that is too powerful. He might have been influenced by events such as the Thera eruption (or Santorini eruption) in 1630 BCE, the Trojan War during the twelfth or thirteenth century BCE, the failed Athenian invasion of Sicily in 415–413 BCE, or the destruction of the Greek city of Helike in 373 BCE.
There are others who are convinced that Atlantis existed like the legendary city of Troy, which, unlike Atlantis, has been discovered. For years, people thought that the Trojan War was a mere fantasy in Homer’s epic poem The Iliad. The people who believed in the existence of Troy were ridiculed, until the German archaeologist Heinrich Schliemann, using The Iliad as a roadmap, excavated the ruins in Turkey in 1870. Likewise, Plato’s description of Atlantis’s location has served as a tour guide. While the legend tells that the Pillars of Hercules are the promontories at the eastern entrance to the Strait of Gibraltar, having been set there by Hercules in memory of seizing the cattle of the three-bodied giant Geryon, suggestions of Atlantis’s locations include places all around the globe, such as Antarctica, the Bermuda Triangle, the Greek islands, or the Azores Islands.
According to one theory, Antarctica was once a tropical land on the equator, before a slippage of the earth’s crust moved it to the South Pole. Detailed maps and photos portray the island of Atlantis and its movement to the South Pole. A map of Atlantis based on ancient Egyptian sources and Plato’s description was published by the German Jesuit priest Athanasius Kircher in his 1665 book Mundus Subterraneus, placing Atlantis between Africa and the Americas. Satellite images in the twentieth century revealed the shape of the land beneath the ice-covered Antarctica, supposedly matching exactly the shape of Atlantis in this ancient map.
Another location could be the Bermuda Triangle between Florida, Bermuda, and Puerto Rico. The Bermuda Triangle is also known as a haunted place where people, ships, and planes disappear. While scuba diving around 1970, Dr. Ray Brown, a naturopathic practitioner, claimed to have found the so-called crystal pyramids, which are said to be nearly three times the size of the pyramids of Cheops in Egypt and to look like ice or glass. In 2001, Paul Weinzweig and Pauline Zalitzki recorded them through sonar images and claimed to discover sphinxes and stones arranged like Stonehenge as well as a written language engraved in the stones. Further research may show if this discovery is legitimate.
The Portuguese amateur sailor Diocletian Silva discovered another underwater pyramid off the Azores in 2013. It is purported to be 60 meters tall and, with a base of 8,000 m2, bigger than a football field. As the Azores are composed of volcanic islands, the Portuguese Navy suggests that the pyramid was created by volcanic eruption. Silva, in contrast, believes that humans built it and that it could be a remnant of Atlantis.
Other searchers believe that the Minoan civilization, which spread from Crete to the volcanic island of Santorini (formerly Thera) from about 2000 BCE to 1500 BCE, lived in Atlantis. The similarities are striking. Like Atlantis with its gorgeous temples, shrines, and highly ornamented palace in Plato’s description, the Minoan civilization was highly advanced and sophisticated, and created magnificent shrines and frescoes, as well as a beautiful palace. In the cultures of both Atlantis and the Minoan civilization bulls were a powerful symbol and part of political propaganda. Furthermore, what led to the demise of the Minoan culture has also remained a secret. One of the largest volcanic explosions in the history of civilization might have severely affected the culture. However, in contrast to Atlantis, the civilization did not disappear into the sea. Some people survived, and their survival is the biggest evidence against linking the Minoan culture to Atlantis.
John Cleves Symmes Jr. and the Hollow Earth Theory
Just as there have long been true believers concerning Atlantis, there are those who claim that another lost civilization exists beneath the surface of the Earth, which may be accessed through polar portals. Perhaps the most influential American Hollow Earth proponent was John Cleves Symmes Jr. (1780–1829), an Indian trader and amateur geologist who came from a wealthy and politically influential family that included his namesake and uncle John Cleves Symmes, a New Jersey delegate to the Continental Congress and eventual father-in-law of President William Henry Harrison. The Hollow Earth theory, although continuing to boast adherents, is at best a fringe belief reminiscent of the Flat Earth Society; it gained widespread popular notoriety, however, through Jules Verne’s Journey to the Center of the Earth, which has provided a subject of abiding interest best known to Americans through multiple TV and film adaptations, including 1959’s epic featuring James Mason and Pat Boone; recently this storyline was revitalized in a 2008 outing starring Brendan Fraser.
C. Fee
Based on Plato’s Pillars of Hercules, many people believe that Atlantis was located in the Strait of Gibraltar. The Doñana National Park in Spain, once a massive ancient bay, may provide a promising trace. In 1922, the French-born British-Spanish painter and archaeologist George Bonser and the German historian and archaeologist Adolf Schulten proposed that Atlantis was hidden there. Most scholars ignored this theory. In 2004, the German physicist Rainer Kuhn used solar photography to resurrect that theory and claimed to have found circular patterns that fitted exactly Plato’s description of a fort city with three rings. Kuhn’s solar images also showed an anomaly that seemed to represent Poseidon’s temple in the center of Atlantis. The national park is also claimed to have been home to the lost city of Tarshish, which is mentioned in the Bible many times, as well the city of Tartessos. One theory suggests that Tarshish, Tartessos, and Atlantis were one and the same place. All three cities abruptly ceased to exist. They were port cities and famous for metal craftsmanship, with great mineral wealth and access to gold, silver, and copper, attracting trade ships from the Middle East. In fact, the Doñana area has had a history of mining for more than 5,000 years. Many miles away from the coast, a series of different ancient villages called Cancho Roana seem to support the theory that these three cities were identical. The 2,500-year-old ruins of Cancho Roana were discovered in the 1970s and 1980s. People who had been pushed away from their home might have created them as a memorial of the lost kingdom of Atlantis. As Solon had heard the story of Atlantis from ancient Egyptian priests, it appears plausible that Egypt may have had direct contact with Atlantis. An Egyptian symbol was found at the entrances of the ritual villages of Cancho Roana. The ancient carving portrays a warrior with a sword drawn and concentric circles. The warrior guards the city, which has only one entrance. In the center of the city is the shrine from Plato’s description.
The unsuccessful search for Atlantis has inspired numerous authors to incorporate it in their writings. During the Renaissance, many humanists wrote about utopian topics that included Atlantis, such as Sir Francis Bacon’s novel New Atlantis, published in Latin in 1624 and in English in 1627, and Thomas More’s Utopia, published in Latin in 1516. In 1881, the U.S. congressman and writer Ignatius Loyola Donnelly advanced theories of the lost island in his publication Atlantis: The Antediluvian World, arousing the interest of pseudoscientists.
Atlantis has also become part of pop culture. The 1870 classic 20,000 Leagues under the Sea by Jules Verne includes a visit to Atlantis on the submarine Nautilus. In his 1929 science-fiction novel The Maracot Deep, Arthur Conan Doyle, the creator of Sherlock Holmes, describes a deep-sea diving expedition to the sunken city of Atlantis, whose inhabitants have adapted to living underwater. In J. R. R. Tolkien’s The Silmarillion (published posthumously in 1977), Númenor was home to the most advanced society of humans in the history of Middle-earth. Like Atlantis, the island disappeared into the sea in one night. Aragorn in The Lord of the Rings is a descendant of the survivors.
In the world of comics, Aquaman and Lori Lemaris from DC Comics come from a sunken Atlantis and are able to breathe in water. The DC Universe also features Atlantis-like civilizations such as Aquaman’s home Poseidonis and Lemaris’s home Tritonis. In Batman #19, the Nazis use Atlantis as a naval base. Marvel Comics portray Atlantis as a sunken but technologically advanced society. Namor the Sub-Mariner is the son of an Atlantean princess and can breathe in water. Also, Iron Man meets Atlanteans in Tales of Suspense #43, in which Queen Kala attempts to invade the surface with advanced technology.
Several films have featured Atlantis as well. For example, in the 1959 film Journey to the Center of the Earth, explorers on their way to the earth’s center come upon the remains of Atlantis. The island also may have provided the basis for Atlantica in the 1989 Disney animated film The Little Mermaid. In 2001, Disney released the animated film Atlantis: The Lost Empire, followed by the sequel Atlantis: Milo’s Return in 2003. The famous 1968 pop song “Atlantis” by the British singer Donovan was re-recorded with the German pop band No Angels to serve for the closing credits of Atlantis: The Lost Empire. As in the song, Atlantis has been a symbol of an inspiring civilization to many people who hope that like Troy, the lost island will eventually be found one day.
Daniela Ribitsch
See also Bermuda Triangle; Cibola or Cities of Gold; DC Comics; Fountain of Youth; Legend Tripping
Further Reading
Andrews, Shirley. 2004. Atlantis: Insights from a Lost Civilization. St. Paul, MN: Llewellyn.
Cayce, Edgar. 1999. Edgar Cayce on Atlantis. New York: Warner Books.
Donnelly, Ignatius. 1882. Atlantis: The Antediluvian World. New York: Harper and Brothers.
Martin, Michael. 2007. Atlantis. Mankato, MN: Capstone Press.
Plato. 2008. Timaeus and Critias. New York: Penguin Classics.
Spence, Lewis. 2007. The History of Atlantis. New York: Cosimo.
Atlantis—Primary Document
Ignatius Donnelly, Atlantis: The Antediluvian World (1882)
The myth of the lost civilization of Atlantis has existed in the Western literary tradition since Plato. However, in American folklore, Atlantis has undergone a geographic relocation from the Mediterranean to the mid–Atlantic Ocean, bringing it into contact with the peoples of the New World. In the distinctive pseudoscientific style of the Victorian era, Ignatius Donnelly argued that the similarities between Native American, European, and Semitic mythologies necessitated a common origin of all three civilizations. Atlantis, in his theory, was a colonial empire that was destroyed by a cataclysmic event, the memory of which has been preserved by the peoples of Egypt, Mesopotamia, Greece, and Central America. In addition to being a fascinating contribution to the Western myth of Atlantis, Donnelly’s book provides a unique collection of Mesoamerican folklore.
THE DELUGE LEGENDS OF AMERICA.
Atlantis and the western continent had from an immemorial age held intercourse with each other: the great nations of America were simply colonies from Atlantis, sharing in its civilization, language, religion, and blood. From Mexico to the peninsula of Yucatan, from the shores of Brazil to the heights of Bolivia and Peru, from the Gulf of Mexico to the head-waters of the Mississippi River, the colonies of Atlantis extended; and therefore it is not strange to find, as Alfred Maury says, American traditions of the Deluge coming nearer to that of the Bible and the Chaldean record than those of any people of the Old World.
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In the two curious picture-histories of the Aztecs preserved in the Boturini collection, and published by Gamelli Careri and others, there is a record of their migrations from their original location through various parts of the North American continent until their arrival in Mexico. In both cases their starting-point is an island, from which they pass in a boat; and the island contains in one case a mountain, and in the other a high temple in the midst thereof. These things seem to be reminiscences of their origin in Atlantis.
In each case we see the crooked mountain of the Aztec legends, the Calhuacan, looking not unlike the bent mountain of the monk, Cosmos.
In the legends of the Chibchas of Bogota we seem to have distinct reminiscences of Atlantis. Bochica was their leading divinity. During two thousand years he employed himself in elevating his subjects. He lived in the sun, while his wife Chia occupied the moon. This would appear to be an allusion to the worship of the sun and moon. Beneath Bochica in their mythology was Chibchacum. In an angry mood he brought a deluge on the people of the table-land. Bochica punished him for this act, and obliged him ever after, like Atlas, to bear the burden of the earth on his back. Occasionally he shifts the earth from one shoulder to another, and this causes earthquakes!
Here we have allusions to an ancient people who, during thousands of years, were elevated in the scale of civilization, and were destroyed by a deluge; and with this is associated an Atlantean god bearing the world on his back. We find even the rainbow appearing in connection with this legend. When Bochica appeared in answer to prayer to quell the deluge he is seated on a rainbow. He opened a breach in the earth at Tequendama, through which the waters of the flood escaped, precisely as we have seen them disappearing through the crevice in the earth near Bambyce, in Greece.
The Toltecs traced their migrations back to a starting-point called “Aztlan,” or “Atlan.” This could be no other than Atlantis. (Bancroft’s “Native Races,” vol. v., p. 221.) “The original home of the Nahuatlacas was Aztlan, the location of which has been the subject of much discussion. The causes that led to their exodus from that country can only be conjectured; but they may be supposed to have been driven out by their enemies, for Aztlan is described as a land too fair and beautiful to be left willingly in the mere hope of finding a better.” (Bancroft’s “Native Races,” vol. v., p. 306.) The Aztecs also claimed to have come originally from Aztlan. (Ibid., p. 321.) Their very name, Aztecs, was derived from Aztlan. (Ibid., vol. ii., p. 125.) They were Atlanteans.
The “Popul Vuh” tells us that after the migration from Aztlan three sons of the King of the Quiches, upon the death of their father, “determined to go as their fathers had ordered to the East, on the shores of the sea whence their fathers had come, to receive the royalty, ‘bidding adieu to their brothers and friends, and promising to return.’ Doubtless they passed over the sea when they went to the East to receive the royalty. Now this is the name of the lord, of the monarch of the people of the East where they went. And when they arrived before the lord Nacxit, the name of the great lord, the only judge, whose power was without limit, behold he granted them the sign of royalty and all that represents it … and the insignia of royalty … all the things, in fact, which they brought on their return, and which they went to receive from the other side of the sea—the art of painting from Tulan, a system of writing, they said, for the things recorded in their histories.” (Bancroft’s “Native Races,” vol. v., p. 553; “Popul Vuh,” p. 294.)
This legend not only points to the East as the place of origin of these races, but also proves that this land of the East, this Aztlan, this Atlantis, exercised dominion over the colonies in Central America, and furnished them with the essentials of civilization. How completely does this agree with the statement of Plato that the kings of Atlantis held dominion over parts of “the great opposite continent!”
Professor Valentini (“Maya Archæol.,” p. 23) describes an Aztec picture in the work of Gemelli (“Il giro del mondo,” vol. vi.) of the migration of the Aztecs from Aztlan:
“Out of a sheet of water there projects the peak of a mountain; on it stands a tree, and on the tree a bird spreads its wings. At the foot of the mountain-peak there comes out of the water the heads of a man and a woman. The one wears on his head the symbol of his name, Coxcox, a pheasant. The other head bears that of a hand with a bouquet (xochitl, a flower, and quetzal, shining in green gold). In the foreground is a boat, out of which a naked man stretches out his hand imploringly to heaven. Now turn to the sculpture in the Flood tablet (on the great Calendar stone). There you will find represented the Flood, and with great emphasis, by the accumulation of all those symbols with which the ancient Mexicans conveyed the idea of water: a tub of standing water, drops springing out—not two, as heretofore in the symbol for Atl, water—but four drops; the picture for moisture, a snail; above, a crocodile, the king of the rivers. In the midst of these symbols you notice the profile of a man with a fillet, and a smaller one of a woman. There can be no doubt these are the Mexican Noah, Coxcox, and his wife, Xochiquetzal; and at the same time it is evident (the Calendar stone, we know, was made in A.D., 1478) that the story of them, and the pictures representing the story, have not been invented by the Catholic clergy, but really existed among these nations long before the Conquest.”
Source: Donnelly, Ignatius. Atlantis: the Antediluvian World. New York: Harper & Brothers, 1882. Available online at The Gutenberg Project. http://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/4032/pg4032.html.