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To: Nikas777

Isn’t the location of Atlantis in the Atlantic Ocean primarily based on a passing comment (Plato? Herodotus?) that it lay “outside the Pillars of Hercules”? Setting aside that Herodotus was the Original Gossip Columnist (he got a lot of stuff right, just the same), I wonder if (a) there’s more than one location of that name; and (b) how far removed the author was from the event by that time. Also whether that might just mean “a long, long way away”, like our “once upon a time” or “Land of Nod”.


33 posted on 09/28/2009 11:23:52 AM PDT by AnAmericanMother (Ministrix of Ye Chasse, TTGC Ladies' Auxiliary (recess appointment))
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To: AnAmericanMother
I have heard one theory state that the story of Atlantis was a story told to Solon when he visited Egypt by their learned men.

But what Solon did not know is that the Egyptians were retelling Solon about the events of the Trojan war/Thera but changed or elaborated the story over time to the point the Greeks did not recognize it (though maybe Plato did in his commentaries which explains why he dropped the subject suddenly). So it could be that when the story was first told Thera (or Troy) seemed far away to the Egyptians but as time went on those places were not so exotic anymore because of all that trade with the Greeks so the Egyptians changed the location to one that seemed the correct distance away to compensate.

Sort of like how to a story teller New Orleans seemed once a long distance away from New York in the 1700s but 200 years later it was not and it would be like the story tellers now substituting Los Angeles with New Orleans to emphasis the long distance in such an imaginary story.

38 posted on 09/28/2009 12:50:10 PM PDT by Nikas777 (En touto nika, "In this, be victorious")
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To: AnAmericanMother

It is interesting to note that Plato’s (Solon’s) story of the location of Atlantis clearly refers to the existence of true continents to the west of the island. The explicit description of the island being beyond the Pillars of Hercules tells me that it was not Thera. Nor does the description of its end jibe with a massive volcanic eruption as occurred at Santorini.


60 posted on 09/28/2009 10:37:28 PM PDT by arrogantsob
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