Episode 9 - Atlantis

You have made your home upon the island for many years.

You and your family before you for generations have made their home in the wide fields and idyllic ranges of this place.

A place built for you by the gods, at least, one of the gods.

You know the stories are true, at least, in part.

Poseidon built this place for you and yours, for his mortal lover and their sons. For your king, Atlas, and all of his brothers.

He carved this island out of the seas to be a perfect utopia.

It, and the ocean around it, were named for that glorious family. It became the Atlantic, and this place, your home…

That became known as Atlantis.

Few myths from Ancient Greece captured the public’s imagination like the story of Atlantis.

Atlantis is a fiction. Written into Plato’s allegories on the hubris of nations.

In many ways, Atlantis possessed little importance to the stories in which it was introduced, but in spite of that, it has left an immense mark on popular culture and literature.

Plato wrote about Atlantis and the Atlanteans in his works Timaeus and Critias, where it became an antagonistic naval force and kingdom that rivaled ancient Athens.

Athens, in Plato’s works, represented his ideal state, and thus Atlantis was used as a powerful enemy that Athens would triumph over.

Eventually, the works concluded with Atlantis falling out of favor with the gods and its eventual submersion into the ocean.

The Lost City of Atlantis.

A Utopian island, possessed of beautiful artwork, a powerful military, and immense favor with the gods.

At least, for a time.

Eventually, even such a favored place, a city with marvelous science and magic, and ruled by the son of a god, can fall out of favor.

Atlantis is an odd story. And it is, in many ways, just a story. Everyone agrees that the city itself is a fiction.

A myth of minor importance that eventually became shrouded in mystery and became the inspiration for many stories to come.

I am Andrew Eagle, dear listeners, and it is my pleasure to invite you to travel with me to a city before it sank.

To join me as we go, Through the Veil.

Poseidon built the island for Cleito, one of his mortal lovers.

He pulled it from his ocean domain to make a home for Cleito and their children.

The eldest, Atlas, he named king of the entire island, and carved the very mountains into a palace for his mortal and demi-god family.

The others were each given fiefdoms under Atlas, to rule and protect on the beautiful island.

Your family made their way to the island long ago, to serve under King Atlas, and to help construct the foundations of the island.

Your ancestors helped dig the three circular moats that enclosed the mountain palace.

They helped to construct bridges and roads that crossed the island’s green and golden fields.

And in the center of the island, near the palace, was the capital.

Every passage was guarded by gates and towers, possessed several walls, and each was constructed of colorful stone and reinforced with metals.

It was beautiful and hospitable. A true paradise. Where you and yours have dwelled as long as anyone remembers.

Plato discussed Atlantis in two of his Dialogues.

These two dialogues, Timaeus and Critias, are the only two primary sources for Atlantis.

All other references are based on those first two.

The first was Timaeus, which claims to quote Solon discussing his visit to Egypt from 590 and 580 BC.

There he mentions that he translated ancient Egyptian records of Atlantis.

Timaeus was written in 360BC, and that is where the legend of Atlantis begins.

Solon claims that records relate how Athens stopped a mighty host. A powerful army originating from a distant place in the Atlantic Ocean.

The army sought to conquer Europe and Asia and the oceans and it came from a massive island to the west.

It claimed this land was Atlantis, and it was ruled by a confederacy of kings, each of whom wielded great power, and who ruled over all of the island and many others in the ocean.

The Timaeus is written as a musing by Socrates about the perfect society. And Critias continued that story by defining Atlantis as its antithesis.

In the end, the story that Critias tells is of the construction of Atlantis by Poseidon, their rise to power and conquering, and their eventual defeat by Athens.

Following their defeat, they lost the boons of Poseidon and shortly thereafter, the island itself sank into the waters, disappearing forever.

Your people sailed forth from your paradise island with your sights on distant lands.

You captained a ship, and served under your king, Atlas’s twin Gadeirus.

He was to rule all of north Africa, from Libya to Egypt, and you were among his commanders.

Over years, many kingdoms fell beneath your banners. No city nor people could stand against you.

One by one they fell. The people of each put to the service of your king.

Within months you had expanded the holds of Atlantis, across northern Africa and into Asia.

Your fleets had conquered cities along the Mediterranean coast of Europe.

It seemed that truly, you were unstoppable.

Over the course of time, there have been dozens of locations proposed for Atlantis.

Many of which do not even fall within the Atlantic Ocean.

All relevant scholarly and historical hypotheses have long since fallen out of favor, and the fictional nature of the city accepted at large.

In spite of that, there are a number of sites claimed by people ranging from psychics to self-proclaimed Atlantis researchers.

The sites, even those that do not fall within the Atlantic Ocean, generally share some characteristics that are similar to the original Atlantis story.

Generally, it’s an island that met a catastrophic end, and was settled during the relevant time period.

Perhaps the most common proposed inspiration for the story was the Thera eruption. A volcanic event that caused a massive tsunami that devastated the people of Crete.

Another possible location are the Canary Islands in the Atlantic.

Although the islands have steadily been uplifted, suffering no subsidence or sinking, they sit in the Atlantic Ocean near the Mediterranean Sea.

Some believe the story references the former island of Spartel. Spartel vanished beneath the ocean waves sure enough. However, it submerged some 12,000 years ago. Far too early to support the story that Plato told.

Over the years, so many theories about the location have been proposed that it seems almost impossible to find someplace that hasn’t been theorized as Atlantis’ location.

In the Mediterranean, off the coast of Spain, Ireland, Sweden, off the coast of India, or even under Antarctica.

Seems the only thing about Atlantis that can be agreed upon, is that we do not know where it might have been.

By the time word reaches you of the first uprising, the resistance has already advanced.

Cities that had fallen so quickly to you and the armies of Atlantis grew bold, and rose up.

The tide turned against you fast.

You learned your enemies were supported and led by Athenians.

The war was brutal. An alliance of your enemies had formed around the leadership of Athens.

But as each city rose up, their troops remained behind. Until all the cities were free of Atlantean banners.

And then Athens marched alone, seeking to drive you and your king right back into the sea.

The battle was fierce, but slowly. Bloody step, by bloody step, you were driven back.

In retreat, your king commanded everyone to board the ships and return home.

You sailed away, leaving a victorious Athens behind you.

Defeated you sailed toward Atlantis to recover from the loss and plan your return to a land seen as rightfully yours.

After Atlantis first appeared in Plato’s works, it showed up in several poems based on Plato’s account during the third century AD.

Then it vanished for a while, until a resurgence of the concept appeared alongside the rise of Utopian and dystopian fiction that developed after the Renaissance.

It reappeared in Francis Bacon’s New Atlantis in 1627, and described an ideal society. Others followed, and it was not long before Atlantis was being used to describe the ideal and the terrible. It was used as satire and as proposal.

Although it again fell out of favor in literature after the early 1700s, it resurfaced in the 1900s.

Since then, it has become an inspiration to many forms of art. It is read about in books, seen in movies, and even inspired music and poetry.

It did not take long, once you made landfall, to notice something was wrong.

The fields of your beautiful home began to wilt. The walls began to crumble.

It had maybe been a month before the earth shook with Poseidon’s wrath.

Prayers fell on deaf ears. He was displeased and faith would not sate him.

The mountains began to fall into the sea and the waters rose.

The land shuddered and your idyllic Atlantis began to collapse.

There was no time to save anything. You barely made it to your ship with your family, and a few others, before the island had rumbled into the sea.

Everything was gone, leaving the area an impassable mud shoal.

The only remnant of the once great kingdoms of Atlantis the small cluster of ships, loaded with refugees.

It may be that Atlantis only ever existed in fiction.

But that does not make it unimportant.

It is a story that has worn many faces.

It has taken charge of our imaginations in a way that few stories have.

We have constantly found reason to return to it.

It obviously carries with it some impact, some reason that it can hold our attention.

It has been the perfect society, and the most violent.

It has been an example to follow and to avoid.

And it has been lost to time. And nothing quite captures the imagination like a lost treasure.

I hope that you enjoyed this episode of Through the Veil, and that you subscribe to hear new episodes weekly wherever you choose to listen.

As always, we will continue our exploration of folklore, legends, myth, and magic.

If you are enjoying the show, and you have topics you would like to hear covered: Feel free to email me at throughtheveilpodcast@gmail.com or reach out on Twitter. You can find me @ThroughVeil

And as always, thank you, for listening.