Message #160278

[Autolocus]

THE ATLANTIS LEGEND

We may be safe in styling Atlantis (Ch. II) the earliest mythi-
cal island of which we have any knowledge or suggestion, since
Plato's narrative, written more than 400 years before Christ, puts
the time of its destruction over 9,000 years earlier still. It seems
pretty certain that there never was any such mighty and splendid
island empire contending against Athens and later ruined by
earthquakes and engulfed by the ocean. Atlantis may fairly be
set down as a figment of dignified philosophic romance, owing its
birth partly to various legendary hints and reports of seismic and
volcanic action but much more to the glorious achievements of
Athens in the Persian War and the apparent need of explaining a
supposed shallow part of the Atlantic known to be obstructed
and now named the Sargasso Sea. Perhaps Plato never intended
that any one should take it as literally true, but his story undoubt-
edly influenced maritime expectations and legends during medi-
eval centuries. It cannot be said that any map unequivocally
shows Atlantis; but it may be that this is because Atlantis van-
ished once for all in the climax of the recital.