Atlantis–lost Island or Remembered Myth?
by Atlantis is an ancient island that sunk into the sea, according to the classical Greek philosopher Plato, who tells the story in his Dialogues.
While most people today believe that the story of Atlantis is just allegory, the idea of a lost continent has captured the public imagination since the days of Plato. Atlantis was, in theory, home to an advanced civilization that had conquered many nations before it went into battle against Athens and collapsed into the sea during an earthquake.
In the classical era was, philosophers and historians were divided over whether the story of Atlantis had a basis in reality. Although some claimed to have evidence on the island’s existence, some of it was non-definitive. Some writers of antiquity wrote their own stories of lost utopias that seem to parody Plato’s Atlantis.
In the Middle Ages the story of Atlantis was largely forgotten, but it emerged during the Enlightenment, when Francis Bacon used it as a symbol of Utopia in his The New Atlantis (1626).
Bacon’s account of Atlantis is the same as Plato, except that Bacon places on the island in America. At the end of the 19th century, again the idea of a historical Atlantis gained popularity, and many expeditions attempted to prove its existence.
Researchers theorized a link between Atlantis and the Mesoamerican cultures such as the Aztecs. Atlantis was often portrayed as a very complex society, with technology surpassing that of the present day, and it began to be discussed widely in spiritualist-circles.
Although Plato’s Atlantis may have been a mistake, the idea of such a community is increasingly interpreted as the pinnacle of culture and enlightenment in modern times. Atlantis appears often in science fiction and fantasy works of all kinds, from books and movies to video games and comics which keep alive this mythological island–or is it real? We may know for certain someday, but so far it is still speculation.
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