The Myth of Atlantis
Atlantis was said to have been an island empire the size of 'Libya and Asia put together',
founded by the sea-god Poseidon. It possessed a cosmopolitan metropolis, with palaces,
royal courts, harbor works and waterways that constantly received sea-going vessels
from afar.
For many generations Atlantis ruled the Atlantic Ocean as well as parts of the `opposite
continent'. Yet soon the empire set its sights on controlling the lands inside the Medi-
terranean basin. It was at this point that the fair race of Athens rose up against the
Atlantean aggressor and in a decisive naval battle defeated its enemy. Some time after-
wards the god Zeus unleashed 'earthquakes and floods' that drowned the Athenian navy
and submerged the island of Atlantis in one `terrible day and night'.
The date given for this catastrophe is post 8570 BC in Plato's dialogue the Timaeus and
9421 BC in its sequel the Critias.
Such is what Plato tells us about Atlantis, but we must never lose sight of the fact that
he was writing around 350 BC at the height of the classical age. Much of what he had to
say was influenced or based on political issues of his day, as well as matters of importance
debated in the philosophical schools in which he moved. Unquestionably, they would have
included whether or not there existed in the sea of Atlas, the modern Atlantic ocean, inhabit-
able islands reached by ocean-going mariners. Other contemporary writers spoke of islands
to the west that had been discovered and occupied by Phoenician and Carthaginian mariners,
who kept quiet about their existence in case of drawing undue interest from foreign nations.
Yet the evidence is there that these same voyagers crossed over the ocean and were aware
not only of the Sargasso Sea, but also the islands of the Bahamas and Caribbean. Indeed,
there is every indication that the Phoenicians and Carthaginians entered the Gulf of Mexico
and made landfall on the Gulf coast, where they could have traded goods such as tobacco
and coca leaves with cultures such as the Olmec and Maya of the Yucatan.