5th June: Destruction of Atlantis

June 5th 8498 BC is the traditional date of the natural calamity that destroyed the ancient civilization of Atlantis. Whether you believe that the lost city of Atlantis really existed, or if it was purely a figment of Plato's imagination, it's still fascinating. Here are 10 things you may not know about Atlantis:

 Ruin by the Sea, oil painting by Arnold Böcklin, 1881

1. The first mention of it was in two dialogues written by Plato in 360BC, Timaeus and Critias.
2. Plato's story was steeped in Greek mythology - when the Greek gods divided up the land so that each God had a place to rule, Poseidon got Atlantis. He was happy with this arrangement, as he discovered that the humans who lived there were exceptionally beautiful and intelligent. He fell in love with a princess, Cleito, and their union produced five sets of male twins. The eldest was Atlas, who became king of the island. The island and the Atlantic Ocean were named after him.
3. The island was larger than Ancient Libya and Asia Minor combined, with mountains in the north and fertile plains in the south. Poseidon turned one of the mountains into a palace and surrounded it with three moats.
4. The people who lived there produced their fair share of architects and engineers, who built bridges and canals to connect the rings of land and tunnels big enough for ships to sail through. They built walls from red, white and black rock quarried from the moats, and the walls were decorated with brass, tin and a metal not known anywhere else, orichalum. There was also a temple to Poseidon which was so tall that clouds drifted around its roof. Inside was a giant statue of the god built from gold.
5. Even in ancient times opinion was divided as to whether the place had ever really existed or not. Some philosophers, including Crantor, Strabo and Posidonius thought it was real, but early Christian writers declared it to be a pagan myth.
6. The modern day myths of Atlantis were stimulated by Ignatius L. Donnelly who wrote a book called Atlantis: the Antediluvian World in 1882. It was he who put forward the theory that all ancient civilizations were descended from the people of Atlantis, who were extremely technologically advanced. Donnelly believed that the Biblical flood was the disaster that wiped it out.
7. Donnelly's book was followed in 1888 by Madame Blavatsky's The Secret Doctrine, in which she claims the Atlanteans were a superior race, possibly of extra-terrestrial origin, from which the "Aryan race" (to which she belonged, naturally) was descended. They had supernatural powers, which included manipulating the weather and volcanic eruptions. Their misuse of these powers is what destroyed them. Her work was a gift to the Nazis, who claimed it was a valid precedent to their ideology.
8. The psychic Edgar Cayce, whose claim to fame was that he could go into a trance and channel information about the health (or otherwise) of his clients, and their past lives. Atlantis featured heavily in his work, with many of his subjects being told that they had lived there in their past lives. Cayce claimed that Atlantis would reappear in the 1960s (it didn't), and that the ancient texts of Atlantis are buried underneath the Sphinx in Egypt and that these will be revealed when the time is right (not proven).
9. Theories abound as to where it was located, including the Mediterranean Sea, especially the island of Santorini where there is geological evidence of an ancient volcanic eruption of massive proportions; on the mainland of Spain, because of archaeological discoveries of ancient civilizations there; somewhere in the Atlantic Ocean, because of the name connection; The Canary Islands; Antarctica (well, who knows what might be under all that ice) and the Bermuda Triangle.
10. Whether there is any truth in any of it or not, Atlantis has certainly provided plenty of inspiration for writers and film makers. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle wrote a science fiction novel, The Maracot Deep, about the discovery of Atlantis by deep sea divers; It is an ancient city on the other side of the universe linked to us by a StarGate (StarGate Atlantis); the home of the comic character Aquaman; and many more stories in all types of entertainment media. Fictional characters who have been there include Asterix, Donald Duck, Mickey Mouse, Batman, Flipper the Dolphin, SpongeBob Squarepants, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and of course, Doctor Who.