Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

To: blam

One last post. This is from Plato's dialogues:

Plato's accounts of Atlantis are in his works Timaeus and Critias. These philosophical dialogues, usually dated to the 360s BC, are the earliest known references to Atlantis. The Timaeus begins with an introduction, followed by an ccount of the creations and structure of the universe and ancient civilizations. In the introductory portion, Socrates muses on the perfect society (as described in Plato's Republic) and wonders if he and his guests could come up with a story which puts this society into action. Critias mentions an allegedly historical tale that he would make the perfect example, and follows up by describing Atlantis in the Critias dialogue, mainly its origins and form. (Ancient Athens represented the "perfect society," and Atlantis the opponent, representing the opposite of the "perfect" traits described in the Republic.) Critias' account is purported to have originated from a visit to Egypt by the Athenian lawgiver Solon, where Sonchis, priest of Thebes, translated it into Greek for him.

According to Critias, the Hellenic gods of old divided the land so that each god might own a lot; Poseidon was appropriately, and to his liking, bequeathed the island of Atlantis. The island was larger than Libya and Asia Minor combined, but has since been sunk by an earthquake and became an impassable mud shoal, inhibiting travel between the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea. The Egyptians described Atlantis as an island approximately 700 km across, comprising mostly mountains in the northern portions and along the shore, and encompassing a great plain of an oblong shape in the south "extending in one direction three thousand stadia [about 600 km], but across the centre inland it was two thousand stadia [about 400 km]."

Fifty stadia inland from the middle of the southern coast was a "mountain not very high on any side." Here lived a native woman with whom Poseidon fell in love and who bore him five pairs of male twins. The eldest of these, Atlas, was made rightful king of the entire island and the ocean (now the Atlantic Ocean), and was given the mountain of his birth and the surrounding area as his fiefdom. Atlas's twin Gadeirus or Eumelus in Greek, was given the easternmost portion of the island which also lay at its northern extreme facing Gades, a town in southern Spain. The other four pairs of twins — Ampheres and Evaemon, Mneseus and Autochthon, Elasippus and Mestor, and Azaes (the Azores?) and Diaprepes — "were the inhabitants and rulers of divers islands in the open sea."

Poseidon carved the inland mountain where his love dwelt into a palace and enclosed it with three circular moats of increasing width, varying from one to three stadia and separated by rings of land proportional in size. The Atlanteans then built bridges northward from the mountain, making a route to the rest of the island. They dug a great canal to the sea, and alongside the bridges carved tunnels into the rings of rock so that ships could pass into the city around the mountain; they carved docks from the rock walls of the moats. Every passage to the city was guarded by gates and towers, and a wall surrounded each of the city's rings. The walls were constructed of red, white and black rock quarried from the moats, and were covered with brass, tin and orichalcum, respectively.

According to Critias, 9,000 years before his lifetime, a war took place between those outside the Pillars of Heracles and those who dwelt within them. The Atlanteans had conquered the Mediterranean as far east as Egypt and the continent into Tyrrhenia, and subjected its people to slavery. The Athenians led an alliance of resistors against the Atlantean empire and as the alliance disintegrated, prevailed alone against the empire, liberating the occupied lands. “But afterwards there occurred violent earthquakes and floods; and in a single day and night of misfortune all your warlike men in a body sank into the earth, and the island of Atlantis in like manner disappeared in the depths of the sea."




Does this sound like the place "Sundaland"?
The article claims that the description matches Atlantis perfectly. Well, i dont see it.

1) The article claims that Atlanteans where teachers.
Plato does not mention anything about teaching but says they conquered everything in sight.

2) The shape and size of Atlantis doesn't match the image you posted. Let alone the location which isn't even close.

3) Atlantis supposedly went down around 10.000 years ago and Sundaland at least 15.000 years ago. Though the article conveniently mentions a few other dates. (always right!)

The only thing Atlantis and Sundaland would share is that they both supposedly sunk. But still under different circumstances. Well.. it aint convincing.

Also, I don't really picture Athenians marching up to invade Indonesia. How many ships and men would that have taken? Why is there no mention of this except in two dialogues of one man? Why did those Egyptians priests tell a stranger what they didn't even reveal to their own people?



34 posted on 05/09/2006 8:00:47 AM PDT by S0122017
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 33 | View Replies ]


To: S0122017
"Does this sound like the place "Sundaland"?
The article claims that the description matches Atlantis perfectly. Well, i dont see it."

It's all theory, everyone know that. Geez, don't get so bent out of shape over a theory. If it was conclusive, it would be headlines all over the world.

Everyone is looking for proof/evidence for their theories. That's all.

38 posted on 05/09/2006 8:19:13 AM PDT by blam
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 34 | View Replies ]

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article


FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson