by warmonger1981 on Thu Oct 29, 2015 1:45 pm
It is a fact Plato wrote about Atlantis as if it were a real place. You must read Wikipedia alot. Here's your interpretation from Wikipedia..Plato's vague indications of the time of the events—more than 9,000 years before his day[5]—and the alleged location of Atlantis—"beyond the Pillars of Hercules"—has led to much pseudoscientific speculation.
5. ^ The frame story in Critias tells about an alleged visit of the Athenian lawmaker Solon (c. 638 BC – 558 BC) to Egypt, where he was told the Atlantis story that supposedly occurred 9,000 years before his time.
Is this where you got your 9,000 years from. I'll give you time to find an earlier account of Atlantis from a different resource. You may find similarities in Egyptian writings. Similar stories like that of Jesus and Osiris or Horus.
Here we go....Scholars the world over have repeatedly declared that ancient sources describing Atlantis are plentiful, "but before Plato—nothing". They make such a declaration because of several reasons: (1) they disregard every record in which Atlantis is not mentioned by name; (2) they disregard any record utilizing a variant spelling of Atlantis; (3) they imply (whether consciously or unconsciously) that we possess all the ancient manuscripts ever written between the time of Solon and Plato; (4) they seem to be unfamiliar with the Sanskrit writings of India—apparently forgetting that those Sanskrit speakers originated in Central Europe. For a timeline of ancient writers before and after Plato, click Here. Let's survey what we've found.
First of all we have Hellanicus of Lesbos (490-410 B.C.), an ancient Greek writer whom scholars consider "transitional" between the earlier mythographers and later historians. Some thirty works of chronology, geography, and history are attributed to him, but we possess only fragments. Hellanicus made a distinction between what he saw as Greek mythology from history, and is known among modern scholars as a "Greek historian whose work marks an advance in the development of historiography." (Enc. Brit., 1961 edition.)
Among these efforts was a work entitled "Atlantis" (Bell, 1920; Jacoby, 1923, et al.), which could well be the oldest Greek writing mentioning Atlantis. Although not much is known about the content, we find the mention of Poseidon (founder of Atlantis), Poseidon's firstborn son Atlas (first king of Atlantis), as well as his seven daughters. The very title itself demonstrates the use of the word "Atlantis" at such an early date.
Possibly more important is this example from the same era in which Herodotus, the "father of history," mentions Atlantis by name in referring to the body of water into which it sank. Below is the Greek text of a portion of Clio (History, Bk I, 202) in which the waters beyond the Straits of Gibraltar is said to be known as the Atlantis Sea.
Greek text of Herodotus
Greek text from Herodotus' History mentioning the Atlantis Sea
"But one of the mouths of the Araxes flows with clarity into the Caspian Sea. Now the Caspian Sea is by itself, not connected to the other sea; but the sea navigated by all the Greeks and the one outside the Pillars called the Atlantis Sea and Erythaean are one and the same." (Translated by R. Cedric Leonard)
From the above quote we can see that the body of water beyond the Pillars was known both as the Atlantis Sea and as the Erythaean Sea—the latter is NOT the Persian Gulf! A word of clarification: the well-known mythologist, Prof. H. J. Rose (1969; 111), reminds us that the Greeks knew of an island in the Far West named Erythaea, the name of this island deriving from the color of the setting sun. The erudite L. Sprague de Camp mentions "the Pillars of Herakles, Tartessos, Gades, and the island of Erytheia where Geryon kept his kine." (1970; p. 222) The body of water surrounding the island of Erythaea would quite naturally be called the Erythaean Sea.
I know of at least three bodies of water all called Erythaean in ancient times (the Greek root ery simply means "red"), one of which, according to a number of authorities on Greek mythology (Bulfinch, 1885; Rose, 1969; Stapleton, 1978, et al.), was immediately west of Gibraltar. In the above quote Herodotus is noting that the Atlantis Sea and the Erythaean are two Greek names for the body of water located "outside the Pillars". Like it or not, the context of the above quote includes waters to the west "outside the Pillars"—not bodies of water half way around the world!
But most importantly, Herodotus tells us that this body of water was also called the Atlantis Sea. Some translators are guilty of "fudging" their translations (cf. George Rawlinson's translation), and translate the word in the text as "Atlantic"; but as is clearly demonstrated in the above text, the word actually used by Herodotus is "Atlantis". The accuracy of the Greek text shown here—as well as my translation of it—can be verified at any university dealing with classical Greek texts.
Herodotus could have chosen the adjectival inflection, atlantikos ("Atlantic"), meaning "of Atlas," in which case could be construed to refer to Mt. Atlas in Morocco; however he did not do so. Furthermore, I know of no major body of water named after a mountain. The "Atlantic Ocean" article (Enc. Brit., 1961 edition) states: "The term is supposedly derived from Atlantis, presumed to be a submerged continent below the present ocean." Needless to say, The Britannica definition has become more "guarded" in later editions.
The point here is that Atlantis was known before Plato—well enough known that even in Herodotus' time the sea outside Gibraltar was on occasion called the Atlantis Sea. It had acquired that name because some believed that Atlantis had once occupied that area. We carry the same tradition down when we refer to that body of water as the Atlantic Ocean. However, further research demonstrates that the Atlantic Ocean also had a geographically descriptive name in ancient times.
Ancient Egyptian, Sanskrit, Greek, and even Latin sources (e.g., Pliny the Elder), occasionally referred to the Atlantic Ocean as the "Western Ocean"—important if one is looking for ancient records of Atlantis. Hesiod, in his Works and Days, refers to the Isles of the Blessed (makarôn nêsoi) as lying in the "Western Ocean"—Pindar does likewise. Given this clue, even older records concerning Atlantis can be identified.
The eminent Greek historian, Prof. Walter Burkert of the University of Zurich, notes that Achilles is transported to the White Island which may refer to Tenerife Island in the Canaries. Burkert notes that the island of Tenerife was sometimes referred to as the "White Isle" by explorers. (Burkert, 1985) Was this White Island one of the Isles of the Blessed spoken of by the ancient Greek Hesiod, and could there somehow be an Atlantis connection? We will learn more about a White Island called "Atala" shortly.
As we encounter these writings, it should be noted that Atlantis itself is sometimes represented by various spellings (Philo Judaeus spelled it "Atalantes"); but it should also be noted that when the context is properly considered, there is no doubt about the identity of the island being referenced. And, as will be demonstrated, there is no doubt that the "Western Ocean" mentioned is indeed our present-day Atlantic Ocean.
According to Critias, Solon was given the story by the Egyptian priests at Saïs which they had obtained from engraved columns within the temple precincts. Manetho, whose writings form the basis of our knowledge of ancient Egyptian history, obtained his famous King-Lists from similar sources. So what about this source?
THE EGYPTIAN WRITINGS
Over a half-century ago Cambridge scholar and explorer, Harold T. Wilkins (1946), noted the depiction of a great festival on column 8 of the Great Hall of the temple of Rameses at Karnak, along with an accompanying text memorializing "the loss of a drowned continent in the Western Ocean". The column mentioned cannot be easily dismissed, and is a relevant example of the type of source to which Solon (in Plato's Timaeus) refers.
Plato described Atlantis as being ruled by ten kings before its demise. Egyptian king-lists going back thousands of years before Plato (we will look at one example here) establish four important facts which we should notice. They are:
1) Egyptian tradition begins with the "reign of the gods"
2) In all there were ten of these so-called "god-kings"
3) They were said to have reigned in a foreign country
4) From all appearances they were called "Atlanteans"
This last statement will be challanged by scholars, so let's take a closer look at the Egyptian king-lists. One noticeable fact is that Manetho (250 B.C.) calls the first series of kings who ruled during the "reign of the gods" Auriteans. The latter may be nothing more than a corruption of the word "Atlantean". Further, Manetho says these god-kings ruled not in Egypt itself, but in a "foreign land".
The "Auritean" kings of Manetho should have been transcribed as "Auliteans". (The r/l, l/r alternation is an old phonic phenomenon of world-wide distribution and is well known to linguists; Dinneen, 1967, Shipley, 1977, et al.) Thus the "Auriteans" of Manetho could equally well be "Auliteans": phonetically almost identical to "Atlanteans".
This idea obtains credible support from the fact that the ancient Phoenician historian Sanchuniathon (1193 B.C.) calls these very same kings Aleteans (Cory, 1826). Since "Auriteans" is obviously a borrowed word, it would be subject to the recognized rules of phonemic variation (Kurath, 1961; Ward, 1960), which could result in such a change.
Although there are numerous ancient Egyptian king-lists in existence, only a few include the famous "reign of the gods". These include the Palermo Stone (2565-2420 B.C.), the Turin Papyrus (1300 B.C.), and Manetho's Egyptian Chronicles (250 B.C.). Of these, the Turin Papyrus is by far the most complete source.
The Turin Papyrus (Gardiner, 1987; Smith, 1872) lists ten kings who ruled during the "reign of the gods," complimenting the fragments of Manetho which have come down to us. Most importantly, it informs us as to the correct number of actual kings, thus helping us to equate Egyptian names with the corresponding Greek names. Below is a list of god-kings from the Turin Papyrus, with Manetho's fragmented list alongside:
The Turin Papyrus Manetho's King-list
Ptah Hephaestus
Ra Helios
Su Agathodaemon
Seb Cronos
Osiris Osiris
Set Typhon
Horus . . .
Thoth . . .
Ma . . .
Horus Horus
So we have ten Aulitean (or, Aletean) kings reigning in a "foreign land" during the precise time Plato says ten Atlantean kings reigned in Atlantis. The Turin Papyrus also records the installation of the next series of kings in 9850 B.C.! This date is so close to the date given for the end of Atlantis that coincidence is virtually out of the question. In such a case, the equation "Aletean=Atlantean" doesn't seem out of the question.
