DEAR DHill,I told you even by private message that Atlantis was not in the Atlantic nor Mediterranean, simply because Plato in a poem said that "Atlantis was in that extreme part of the Atlantic-Ocean that was a SEA-Arm named the Atlantic SEA, from which the Ocean waqs not visisble
My contention was that this is ADEN in the Gulf-of-Aden"(= a SEA-Branche !)
Can you give any comment why Aden could not be Atlantis, from what I wrote to you earlier ?? THANK YOU Sincerely :"
BlueHue"
=:(
I would actually like to be the one to take you up on that. There is a common misconception among those searching for Atlantis that all they have to do is get past the Pillars of Hercules reference and the reference to the okeanous (ocean) and they can set it anywhere they damn well please.
That simply isn't the case. Let's look at the passages pertinent to Atlantis in both Timaeus and Critias and see how open one or any of them are to interpretation:
From Timaeus:
Many great and wonderful deeds are recorded of your state in our histories. But one of them exceeds all the rest in greatness and valour. For these histories tell of a mighty power which unprovoked made an expedition against the whole of Europe and Asia, and to which your city put an end. This power came forth out of the Atlantic Ocean,
As I cited in another thread, the Atlantic Ocean was first referred to by Herodotus, who wrote earlier than Plato. We know that there were records of two Phoencian voyages prior to Solon's visit (Hanno's voyage and the voyage ordered by the Pharoah Necho - proving that the Egyptians knew of the Atlantic, which they referred to incidentally as "the western ocean."
for in those days the Atlantic was navigable; and there was an island situated in front of the straits which are by you called the Pillars of Heracles;
All the references of the ancients to the Pillars that I can see refer to the common Straits of Gibraltar. I have heard reference to them being anywhere from Egypt to Turkey, there may be other "pillars," but none relate to the Pillars of Hercules, the actual myth (distinctive to Gibraltar) being that Hercules split the pillars of Gibraltar open, and then the Atlantic Ocean came flooding in.
the island was larger than Libya and Asia put together, and was the way to other islands, and from these you might pass to the whole of the opposite continent which surrounded the true ocean; for this sea which is within the Straits of Heracles is only a harbour, having a narrow entrance, but that other is a real sea,
This is about as clear a geographic description to the Med and it's relationship to the Atlantic as once can find, and it shows how well the Greeks knew their local geography. Forget the references to the pillars, explain how they could be so "spot on" if the location was meant to be anywhere else.
and the surrounding land may be most truly called a boundless continent. Now in this island of Atlantis there was a great and wonderful empire which had rule over the whole island and several others, and over parts of the continent, and, furthermore, the men of Atlantis had subjected the parts of Libya within the columns of Heracles as far as Egypt, and of Europe as far as Tyrrhenia.
The empire (originating in the Atlantic) seems to spread over, west to east, within the Pillars. It is consistent with an Atlantic Ocean-based Atlantis, and we would describe the territories from a different geographic orientation if it were not.
This vast power, gathered into one, endeavoured to subdue at a blow our country and yours and the whole of the region within the straits; and then, Solon, your country shone forth, in the excellence of her virtue and strength, among all mankind. She was pre-eminent in courage and military skill, and was the leader of the Hellenes. And when the rest fell off from her, being compelled to stand alone, after having undergone the very extremity of danger, she defeated and triumphed over the invaders, and preserved from slavery those who were not yet subjugated, and generously liberated all the rest of us who dwell within the pillars. But afterwards there occurred violent earthquakes and floods; and in a single day and night of misfortune all your warlike men in a body sank into the earth, and the island of Atlantis in like manner disappeared in the depths of the sea. For which reason the sea in those parts is impassable and impenetrable, because there is a shoal of mud in the way; and this was caused by the subsidence of the island.
The distinction, "within the pillars," by neccessity means that Atlantis was someplace
without. 