ATLANTIS airs Oct 7th on History Channel

Scholars debate as to whether Atlantis was real or allegory.  It is my opinion, that it was both.

Plato says he's using Solon's notes to write the dialogs.  Fine.  The Egyptians kept wonderful records and it's possible that while chatting about what they knew - and Solon was on a mission to gain knowledge wasn't he? - they talked about a peoples to the west of them and described what THEY had been told about them.  Now according to Siculus, it seems that whoever wrote the history he was copying for his works, took it for granted that the Atlantians were located near the Amazons.  It was not a great mystery to THEM where the Atlantians lived because after all, theirs was the land where the gods were born and where everything was as it should be.  In other words, perfect.  How could it be otherwise - in the land of the gods' birth?  Plato was striving to teach the Greeks to be perfect.  Who else would he hold up for an example, but those who already WERE supposedly perfect?  The story of Atlantis is Plato's idea of perfection, before it deteriorated.  He's trying to point out that yes, even perfection can be destroyed if it's allowed.  So we get this wonderful description of Atlantis, Plato's idea of the ideal.  Everything necessary to luxurious living was available if they wanted to use it, but being of a more spiritual bent, they chose not to (until later). 

Now I'm absolutely dense when it comes to the origin of the gods, and I don't know who first wrote about the gods and their achievements so correct me if I'm wrong here.  Was it Plato or someone else who told about the God Poseidon mating with Clieto and having 10 sons?  Then, according to someone - I don' know who - one of those sons had 10 sons (one of Atlas's brothers that is) and they became the Titans.  Right?  So was it Plato who actually started this myth, or was it in existence previously?  It seems the Greeks (from hind site looking back) believed Poseidon mated with Clieto and had 10 sons, but nothing was said about their home life or the land they lived in until Plato described it.

We must keep in mind that Plato had been asked to tell a story of stories, one that would outshine all the stories they'd told as children to earn awards. He wouldn't have been asked if he wasn't good at it in the first place.   Everyone says Plato was not a historian he was a philosopher and because of that, he got things mixed up and had no imagination.  I say because he was a philosopher and knew the minds of men, he would have had a fabulous imagination and knew how to get through to the mind set of his times.  Not only that, he had in mind what would be a perfect society.  He knew what his peers wanted to hear and he did a fantastic job of marrying the two ideals together and still be true to his own innate beliefs of a perfect society.  Who better to choose for his example of an ideal, but the gods themselves?  Plato more than achieved what he'd been asked to do. 

He told the story of all time when you think about it, as we're still trying to find the place he talked about. Here's a man that took it upon himself to actually describe the home of the gods.  Whether anything like this was actually in Solon's notes, we'll never know, but if you're going to tell an award winning story, why not start at the beginning, with the land of the gods?  Atlantis, where in the beginning they were spiritual and peaceful.  Just what Plato was hoping the Greeks would aspire to. 

What I question is the war because I don't see such a thing actually happening especially in the time line Plato gives.  Also, altho is he telling the Greeks that they should change and try to be perfection, it was the Greeks that supposedly won out against the people who had been perfection in the past.  Therefore, what would be the point of the Greeks becoming like the Atlantians, when the Atlantians lost?  He also shows that perfection cannot be maintained, so why should they try for it in the first place?