Atlantis
Sign in to savethumb|upright=1.6|Athanasius Kircher's map of Atlantis, placing it in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, from Mundus Subterraneus 1669, published in Amsterdam. The map is oriented with south at the top.
AI overview
Atlantis is a fictional island first described by the ancient Greek philosopher Plato in his dialogues, which has captured people's imaginations for thousands of years as a legendary lost civilization. It matters because the story has inspired countless theories, artistic works, and scientific expeditions, making it one of history's most enduring myths despite having no archaeological evidence of its actual existence.
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Article
31 sectionsContents
- Plato's dialogues
- ''Timaeus''
- ''Critias''
- Interpretations
- Ancient
- Jewish and Christian
- Modern
- Early influential literature
- Impact of Mayanism
- Ignatius Donnelly
- Madame Blavatsky and the Theosophists
- Nazism and occultism
- Edgar Cayce
- Recent times
- Location hypotheses
- In or near the Mediterranean Sea
- In the Atlantic Ocean
- In Europe
- Other locations
- Literary interpretations
- Ancient versions
- Utopias and dystopias
- A land lost in the distance
- Verse narratives
- Artistic representations
- Music
- Painting and sculpture
- See also
- Notes
- References
- Further reading
thumb|upright=1.6|Athanasius Kircher's map of Atlantis, placing it in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, from Mundus Subterraneus 1669, published in Amsterdam. The map is oriented with south at the top.
Atlantis () is a fictional island mentioned in Plato's works Timaeus and Critias as part of an allegory on the hubris of nations. By describing Atlantis as a naval empire from the west that had conquered most of Europe and Libya, Plato purposely created a literary contrast with the Achaemenid Empire, the great land-based power that ruled the east (what the Greeks called Asia). In Plato's account, Atlantis loses divine favor after an ill-fated campaign against a fictionalized Athens, and subsequently submerges into the Atlantic Ocean. By portraying the victorious Athens in the image of his ideal state from the Republic, Plato intended the Atlantis story to bear witness to the superiority of his concept of a state.