DevilsWelshAdvocate t1_ivm7mts wrote
Reply to comment by CAPTAIN_DIPLOMACY in TIL that the "Lost City of Atlantis" was invented by the philosopher Plato, as a fake enemy for Athens that lost favour of the gods and was sunk in to the sea. by PDRugby
Its not well established he made it up, he claims to have heard it from a distant relative who had travelled to Egypt. To say it is well established as made up is a farce based on incomplete data
Unlimitles t1_ivmjv0q wrote
thank you for fighting against this clear purposeful misinformation.....there seems to be a real push of it.
CAPTAIN_DIPLOMACY t1_ivnu3x0 wrote
How is it misinformation, citations please.
BirdUp69 t1_ivmxv6v wrote
To clarify: Plato heard it from Solon. Solon is well regarded as a key figure in Ancient Philosophy. And it was well within his capabilities at the time to travel to Egypt to visit with the priest at Sais. Interestingly, Sais is also claimed as the place Paris and Helen eloped to, but were sent home, the Egyptians realising the problems they were bringing with them.
beachedwhale1945 t1_ivn89i0 wrote
Herodotus, the Father of Lies, claimed to have heard all his stories from other people. Just because someone said “I heard it from reliable sources” doesn’t mean it’s accurate, especially since the Plato descriptions are part of a philosophical discussion about the perfect society with Atlantis playing the part of the opposite of the ideal Athens and it’s a very safe bet that Plato’s account is fiction.
Kalglodril t1_ivo12ni wrote
"He" never claimed anything. A fictional character in one of his fictional dialogues claimed that he heard it from a pseudo-fictional relative in a fictional anecdote.
Plato's Timaeus is the first instance of Atlantis being mentioned in any Greek text, which as a historical culture rehashes or discusses older stories is relatively remarkable and heavily implies that Plato was the originator of the myth.
DevilsWelshAdvocate t1_ivo3mxf wrote
Everything is fictional if you don’t know the facts. We’re talking about a time where extremely little was written down, let alone maintained and kept for todays world to see and understand. You can make your presumptions and perhaps are more likely to be correct than I, but there could be more to this, such as the timespan being in line with the younger dryas in the story, a crazy incredible coincidence?
Kalglodril t1_ivo44az wrote
No, those are literal fictional. Timaeus is a Platonic dialogue, it's fictional.
These are not presumptions, this is based in literature. Timaeus (the text where this was first mentioned) and its relationship to myth was the subject of my Undergraduate dissertation and then I wrote a further 40'000 words on Platonic dialogues in my research based MLitt. I severely doubt you have read as much primary or secondary academic literature concerning Plato.
DevilsWelshAdvocate t1_ivo47xf wrote
Conveniently leaving out the year lining up to the younger dryas period huh, I wonder why..
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