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sennbat t1_ivlzorx wrote

Reply to comment by 7LBoots 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

It was Plato, yes, in Timaeus, which we still have copies of. You can read a translation of it here: http://classics.mit.edu/Plato/timaeus.html

It's possible it was inspired by some other story (in the same way as the places in "Gullivers Travels" are inspired by real places and previous stories, I suppose), but Atlantis itself, and certainly all the details he gives, are clearly created part of the allegory.

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BirdUp69 t1_ivmw4kj wrote

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.

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Gyddanar t1_ivo3rde wrote

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)

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