Atlantis is the most famous legendary land of antiquity. This mythical island-state is best described in Plato's dialogues. Questions about the existence of Atlantis are controversial, it is quite possible that this island never existed, but was simply fantasized by Plato. Other notable references do not add credibility to the existence of Atlantis, since almost all of them could have arisen under the influence of readings of Plato's fantasies.
Ancient testimony about the location of Atlantis is uncertain. According to Plato, the island was located west of the Pillars of Hercules, opposite the Atlanta Mountains. During a strong earthquake, accompanied by a flood, the island was swallowed up by the sea in one day, along with its Atlanteans. Plato indicates the time of the catastrophe as "9,000 years ago", that is, around 9500 BC. eh..
Interest in stories about Atlantis manifested itself during the Renaissance. In modern science, questions about the existence of Atlantis are controversial. There is an atlantology teaching specially developed in the late 1950s. People who search and generalize any information about Atlantis are called Atlantologists.
Plato talks about Atlantis in two dialogues: more in detail in "Critias" and briefly in "Timaeus".
As for other authors, modern Atlantologists are inclined to attribute to the references to Atlantis stories about the Atlanteans - an African (apparently Berber) tribe in the Atlas mountains, which Herodotus, Diodorus Siculus and Pliny the Elder speak of. These Atlanteans, according to their stories, did not have their own names, did not see dreams, and in the end were exterminated by their troglodyte neighbors. Diodorus of Siculus also reports that they fought with the Amazons.
As for Atlantis itself, the conventional wisdom boiled down to the phrase (attributed to Aristotle) that "(the very same creator) made it disappear." This opinion was opposed by Posidonius, who, interested in the facts of land subsidence, on this basis found the story plausible (Strabo, Geography, II, 3.6).
In the II century. Elian, who was, in fact, only a collector of anecdotes, among other things, reports how the kings of the Atlanteans dressed in the skins of male "sea rams", and the queens wore a headdress made from the skins of the females of these unknown animals to emphasize their origin from Poseidon.
In the V century. Neoplatonist Proclus, in his commentaries on Timaeus, tells about Plato's follower Crantor, who about 260 BC. e. specially visited Egypt in order to learn about Atlantis and allegedly saw columns with inscriptions telling her story in the temple of the goddess Neith in Sais. In addition, he writes: “The fact that an island of this character and size once existed is evident from the stories of some writers who have explored the vicinity of the Outer Sea. For, according to them, in that sea in their time there were seven islands dedicated to Persephone, and also three other islands of enormous size, one of which was dedicated to Pluto, the other to Ammon, and then to Poseidon, the size of which was a thousand stades (180 km); and their inhabitants - he adds - have preserved the legends coming from their ancestors about the immeasurably larger island of Atlantis,which actually existed there and which for many generations ruled all the islands and was also dedicated to Poseidon. Now Marcellus described it in the Ethiopic. This Marcellus is unknown from other sources; it is believed that his Ethiopica is simply a novel.
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Plato, unlike Aristotle and even more so historians, never set himself the goal of communicating to the reader any real facts, but only ideas illustrated by philosophical myths. To the extent that the story is verified, it is refuted by all available archaeological material. There are no traces of any advanced civilization in Greece or in western Europe and Africa, neither at the end of the ice age and post-ice ages, nor in the following millennia. It is significant that supporters of the historicity of Atlantis often ignore the verifiable part in their dialogues (including the crucial theme of Athenian civilization) and focus their research exclusively on the unverifiable Atlantis. Further, the source of information is declared to be the Egyptian priests (who were reputed in Greece as the keepers of the mysterious ancient wisdom);however, among the many ancient Egyptian texts, nothing has been found that even remotely resembles Plato's story. All the names and titles in the text of Plato are Greek, which also testifies rather in favor of their composition by Plato, rather than reproduction of any ancient legends by him. True, Plato explains this by the fact that Solon de translated "barbaric" names into Greek; but such handling of names was never practiced in Greece.but such handling of names was never practiced in Greece.but such handling of names was never practiced in Greece.
In addition, Atlantis fit perfectly into the Platonic scheme of the involution of political forms - their gradual transition to more primitive forms of existence. According to Plato, first, the world was ruled by kings, then by aristocrats, then by the people (demos) and, finally, by the crowd (ohlos). Plato consistently found the power of the aristocracy, the people and the crowd in the history of the Greek city-states. But he could not find the power of "godlike kings" who created mighty powers in Greece. In this sense, Atlantis fits perfectly into the logic of Plato's socio-philosophical theory.
As for the death of Atlantis, it is obvious that, having composed this country, Plato had to destroy it simply for external plausibility (to explain the absence of traces of such a civilization in the modern era). That is, the picture of the death of Atlantis is dictated entirely by the internal tasks of the text.
The most plausible hypothesis about the sources of the story names two events that occurred during the life of Plato: the defeat and death of the Athenian army and navy during an attempt to conquer Sicily in 413 BC. e., and the death of the town of Gelika in the Peloponnese in 373 BC. e. (Helika was flooded in one night by an earthquake accompanied by flooding; for several centuries its remains were clearly visible under water and sand).
The main role of Atlantis in the modern world is a source of inspiration for many generations of writers, artists, playwrights, and directors. Many films, books, comics and games are devoted to the life of Atlantis, the search for it, or use Atlantis as an allegory.