Message #221009

[Ostanes]

Plato is not telling the truth, even though he says he is. 

Said the Sophist about the philosopher.

In this story, we find that Atlas is the son of Uranus, not Poseidon. 

So?

In Hellanicus of Lesbos's version it's Poseidon.

So since some say Rome was founded by Romulus and Remus and others say Aeneas, therefore Rome does not exist...

So why would Plato say Atlas was the son of Poseidon?

Hmmm...I'm guessing because Plato actually knew what he's talking about and you don't.

"Plato's detractors have accused him of inventing the Atlantis myth in its entirety, but a book called Atlantis was written a century before. Unfortunately, only a fragment of Hellanicus' Atlantis survives, including the line, 'Poseidon mated with Celaeno, and their son Lycus was settled by his father in the Isles of the Blest and made immortal.' This bears similarities with Plato's account where Poseidon mates with Cleito and their son Atlas becomes the ruler of a marvelous land, while Hellanicus in turn may have taken the story from a still earlier Atlantis epic; alternatively, both may have drawn on Solon's story, which may have had a wider currency in the sixth century than we now realize." -- Rodney Castleden, author, Atlantis Destroyed, 1998