BirdUp69 t1_ivmw4kj wrote on November 9, 2022 at 2:56 AM

Reply to comment by sennbat 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

I would say the Critias comes across as allegory with regards to Atlantis, describing something like a Utopia. The Timaeus is more matter of fact, describing key historical point passed down through Solon.

Gyddanar t1_ivo3rde wrote on November 9, 2022 at 11:13 AM

Technically Atlantis wasn´t a utopia - or if it had been, it was a fallen/failed one.

It was set in a fictional time period where everything was just "better". The tone you should be going for while reading Critias and Timaeus is something like "these days, everything is shit".

The utopias in Timaeus are the Mythic/Golden Athens and arguably Egypt (if only as a source of wisdom, knowledge, and learning)