Atlantis! One word is enough to create images of mermaids, underwater cities, sunken ruins. But that's not all: the main image that this word evokes is an ancient, technologically advanced civilization that died at the whim of unkind gods or because of its own negligence.
Where did the idea of Atlantis come from? Was this a real place, or is it just an old tale?
The history of Atlantis begins with ancient Greek philosophy, then finds a continuation in a literary movement inspired by Christopher Columbus, and then its popularity skyrockets again when a congressman from Minnesota decides to try his hand at science and linguistics. Add to this the considerable interest from the leaders of the Third Reich and countless pseudoscientific theories. And yet, today there are a huge number of people who are still on the hunt for the lost continent.
Get ready for a deep dive into the history of the sunken city of Atlantis.
Plato
To understand the origin of Atlantis, you need to know a little about the Greek philosopher Plato. He lived in Greece in the 5th century BC, and it was on his works that Socrates built his philosophy. He is without doubt the most famous and influential philosopher of all time.
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Plato introduced the idea of a lost continent called Atlantis in his writings. Plato describes Atlantis as a large continent. According to him, Atlantis was originally a rather bizarre place that Poseidon himself loved.
The state was headed by kings who worked in alliance with each other, making the state a powerful formation. However, 9000 years before the time of Plato, the Atlanteans became too warlike, which angered the gods. And they, as Plato assures, sent the state to the bottom.
Etymology and mythology
According to the myth presented by Plato, the Greek gods at the dawn of time divided the lands among themselves, and Poseidon got Atlantis. There he fell in love with the girl Clito, whom he “protected” by taking her to a cave surrounded by ring-shaped mountains and the sea.
Presumably, this "concern" protected Clito from escaping. And it should be noted that she had something to run from: she gave birth to Poseidon 5 pairs of twins, and they were just huge children. The eldest of them, Atlas, was appointed the rightful king of this place. The entire island nation was named after him. Plato claims that the Atlantic Ocean was named after this ancient king (although modern science has a different version and connects the name of the ocean with the Atlas Mountains).
Allegory
The history of Atlantis is an allegory, a kind of extended metaphor, whose hidden meaning reveals a deeper philosophical moment. Plato uses this move quite often, and perhaps his most famous example is The Cave Myth, which he uses to explain his theory of forms.
In this case, Plato's allegory is associated with the idea of an ideal state. Atlantis appears as anti-Athens. Her ambitious war plans end in failure.
Utopian literature
Plato's works had a great influence on medieval philosophy, but scientists sometimes find it difficult to understand where the ancient thinker is serious, and where he uses artistic techniques.
The discovery by Europeans of land to the west of Gibraltar opened up a whole new world, expanded the boundaries of the possible. Utopian literature established the existence of previously unknown worlds, whose culture and mores were presented as different from "normal" European ones. The idea of Atlantis has received a new round.
One such work, Francis Bacon's New Atlantis, revived interest in the lost continent. At the time, European settlers were trying to learn more about the origins and mysteries of the Indian peoples, and Bacon's work helped spark the idea that the Maya were descendants of the Atlanteans.
Intended locations
The next milestone is the 1882 book Atlantis: Antediluvian World by Ignatius Donnelly.
Donnelly uses some really sophisticated linguistics combined with racist theories of Mayanism to suggest that Atlantis was not only real - it was the ancestral home of all mankind.
His ideas became extremely popular, and people soon began looking for the real location of Atlantis. Even real-life islands - Sardinia and Crete - were included in the list of "suspects". Plato left a too vague definition: "west of Gibraltar." Therefore, the geography of searches was quite extensive.
In art and literature
Since Donnelly's book, Atlantis has been mentioned throughout popular culture and art. In those days, science fiction was beginning to take shape as a genre. This gave us Captain Nemo, who found the sunken continent 20,000 leagues under the sea. Edgar Burroughs ("The Lost Continent"), Alexey Tolstoy ("Aelita"), Arthur Conan Doyle ("Marakotova Abyss"), Kir Bulychev ("End of Atlantis"), Andrea Norton ("Operation Search in time ") and many others.
Dozens of films have shown the life of the mysterious continent, including Disney in 2001 (Atlantis: The Lost Empire).
The most chilling example is the opera "The Emperor of Atlantis," an allusion to Hitler, which was written by a prisoner in a concentration camp.
Occultism
One of the main works of Theosophy is HP Blavatsky's Secret Doctrine, which, according to Elena herself, was dictated to her in Atlantis.
Blavatsky's Atlantis differs from Plato's. For her, the Atlanteans were heroic figures that existed a million years ago, and destroyed for careless handling of magic.
Nazis
The 1985 book The Occult Roots of Nazism describes that Nazi philosophy had a connection with Ariosophy, a white nationalist occult philosophy. According to The Independent, the head of the SS, Heinrich Himmler, sought the Holy Grail to prove Christ's Aryan origin.
The founding works of Nazi philosophy include Alfred Rosenberg's "Myth of the Twentieth Century," based on a racial theory that modern white Europeans are descended from the Hyperboreans who came out of Atlantis.
Reliable data on the research of the Third Reich are extremely scarce. But it is reliably known that they were carried out.
Other lost and sunken lands
Atlantis is called the most famous lost continent. But she's not one of a kind. In fact, there are some pretty shocking facts about other land areas. To paraphrase Oscar Wilde, we can say that the loss of one continent is a misfortune; and losing a dozen is just statistics.
One of the most famous continents to be lost is Lemuria. The version about it was first put forward by the British zoologist Philip Latley Sclater to explain why the ranges of lemur-like animals are separated by oceans. This idea has never received any real scientific interpretation, but thanks to the mention of Blavatsky, it has become firmly established in popular culture.
The Lost Continent of Mu was an attempt to explain the similarities between distant cultures (like the pyramids in Egypt and Central America) before extraterrestrials were drawn into the story.
An ancient legend has it that off the coast of Ireland there was an island called Hy-Brasil, which mysteriously appeared once every seven years, before once plunged into the abyss forever. Note that, despite the similarity in names, this has nothing to do with real Brazil.
Bad news
Let's remember the fact that there is no historical evidence of the existence of the mysterious continent. And thousands of researchers returned from expeditions with nothing. In truth, scientists have more facts to refute the myth than to prove it. Modern science has absolutely no reliable facts that could reassure those keen on Atlantis.
But this is not enough. Man continues to believe that one day the secret of the depths will be revealed, and the ancient continent will appear in all its glory.
Author: Natasha Ryseva