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Could the legend of Atlantis just been a reference to early European sailors visiting North Africa, across the Mediterranean?
by calrain 2y ago
Could the legend of Atlantis just been a reference to early European sailors visiting North Africa, across the Mediterranean?
- forgotTheLast 2y agoNo. Plato's Atlantis is mentioned as being past the pillars of Hercules in the Atlantic
- Detrytus 2y agoPillars of Hercules name itself is ambiguous, one of the theories is that Plato referred to a pair of Greek islands, not Gibraltar. That would place Atlantis somewhere in the Mediterrain Sea.
- card_zero 2y agoThe source has Ἡρακλέους στήλας. Wiktionary tells me that's more like blocks of Heracles, or slabs or monuments. https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0179%3Atext%3DTim.%3Asection%3D24e https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext... (press "focus" to swap language) https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%CF%83%CF%84%CE%AE%CE%BB%CE%B7 https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%CF%83%CF%84%CE%AE%CE%BB%CE%B... It's kind of completely unambiguous though, given all the details: > from a distant point in the Atlantic ocean, > the ocean there was at that time navigable; > in front of the mouth which you Greeks call, as you say, 'the pillars of Heracles,' The location is clearly out in the unnavigable Atlantic, and the [whatever] of Heracles form a mouth.
- sham1 2y agoWell given that the story of Atlantis is quite clearly allegorical, probably not. Although there probably was some sort of maritime link from Greece to beyond Gibraltar, the link to the Atlantis myth seems rather tenuous and moreover, isn't needed to explain where Platon got the idea for this ancient thalassocracy since he of course lived in Athens when they were doing similar stuff with the Delian League.