Why Santorini Isn’t Atlantis

Do you believe Plato when he says that Atlantis existed and was later destroyed?

I do not believe Plato when he says Atlantis existed. The fact that I am meant to believe that Santorini was Atlantis is absurd. Plato’s dialogues state that the island of Atlantis was sunk below the ocean by a catastrophe caused by Poseidon, but Santorini is still above the surface today. Plato’s dialogue also state that the island of Atlantis was west of the Pillars of Heracles, although the island of Santorini is a very long way west of the Pillars of Heracles would only have known it was east of the Pillars. Plato’s dialogues also state, “This power came forth out of the Atlantic Ocean, for in those days the Atlantic was navigable; and there was an island situated in front of the straights which are by you called the Pillars of Heracles”. Santorini is not in the Atlantic Ocean it is in the Mediterranean Sea.

Much of Plato’s dialogues would be very untrue as the “Chinese Whispers Effect”, as I like to call it, would come into play. The “Chinese Whispers Effect” is when a story is passed down from one person to another by word and is never written down. A large story such as the one of Atlantis would have been severely altered over the thousands of years it has been told. The story of Atlantis was first told by Egyptian priests 9000 years after Atlantis was destroyed, who have, I believe, just made up this story. They told Solon, “the wisest of the seven sages”, according to Plato. Solon told Dropides who told it to his son, Critias, when he was just a boy. Critias, having not told the story for many decades and would certainly have forgotten at least some of the story, told the story when he was 90 to his grandson also named Critias. Critias Jr. then told the story to Socrates who, in turn, told the story to his apprentice, Plato. Surely even the greatest story worth remembering would have been partly forgotten over time.

Plato’s dialogues state the aspects of Atlantis. They are: the structures are red, white and black; they sacrificed bulls; they loved fine arts; elephants inhabited the place; a cataclysm destroyed Atlantis; it was destroyed around 9000 B.C.; there was a system of circular canals.