*Ø* Blogmanac | June 5 | 8498 BCE Atlantis drowns
8498 BCE Today is a traditional date of the natural calamity that destroyed the supposed ancient civilization of Atlantis.
One wonders what is the origin of the human love of the unlikely, the irrational, the bizarre and the preposterous, but no amount of wondering will solve the puzzle. The chance that an advanced civilization lies beneath the ocean, undetected by 21st-century oceanography, satellite imaging, geology and any number of modern scientific aids, is slim indeed, but here we have a persistent legend that is probably believed by more people today than in the Middle Ages. I confess to having my own imp of fascination for many things to which I give no credence whatsoever. A hobgoblin, a tale from the crypt, or a UFO or two can brighten the dreariest evening.
Atlantis, or so it is said, was a huge island lying beyond the Pillars of Hercules (now known as the Straits of Gibraltar) and its culture had dominated the Mediterranean nine thousand years before Solon, the lawmaker of Athens. From its ideal condition as an advanced culture it deteriorated into a military aggressor, so the gods resolved to punish the civilisation. We have this on authority of Plato in his Timaeus and Critias (c. 350 BCE). He learned the story from his cousin, who got it from his grandfather, who heard it from his father, who got it from Solon himself, who heard it from the priests of Sais in Egypt in 590 BCE.
The story was known in Egypt’s Middle Kingdom, (c. 2040-1640 BCE). It might be related to the c. 1500 BCE eruption of the volcano on the Minoan-related island of Thera, and 40 years later its collapse into the sea. Crete’s civilisation might have perished at this time in the cloud of ash and the tsunami. (There was a huge volcanic eruption on Santorini in 1628 BC, calculated at between three and four times more explosive than Krakatoa in 1883. Plato says the island of Atlantis had a structure of concentric rings, which are discernible on Santorini.)
Over the centuries, the position of Atlantis has been postulated by various scholars and pseudo-scholars as being in almost every corner of the planet. That said, it is true that many unsolved mysteries remain with regard to the languages and cultures, myths and legends of peoples of all nations, and the search for connections is a fruitful one. Why are there pyramids in the Americas and distant Egypt? How do we explain the similar gods and words across the continents? The search for these threads of connection isn’t new: in the period of 1913-1925, English explorer Colonel Percy Fawcett searched for a fabled Atlantean outpost in the Amazon River basin. Fawcett, his companions and the fabulous lost city of quartz buildings that they were seeking, all vanished in 1925.
As an interesting sidelight, one of the most prominent 19th-century Atlantist authors (he made his fortune with Atlantis: the Antediluvian World) was Ignatius Donnelly (born Philadelphia, November 3, 1831), an idiosyncratic and somewhat quixotic American Congressman whose writings, particularly the utopian sci-fi novel, Cæsar's Column: A Story of the Twentieth Century, profoundly influenced the working class in pre-federation (1901) Australia. Perhaps ironically, he died in Minneapolis on January 1, 1901 (precisely 100 years before this Almanac was founded) on the first day of the century, the very day that Australia’s federation took effect.
Donnelly is perhaps better known for his The Great Cryptogram: Francis Bacon's Cipher in the So-Called Shakespeare's Plays about an alleged code in Shakespeare's work that reveals that Francis Bacon wrote much of Shakespeare’s work.
Ignatius Donnelly and the End of the World
Atlantis in Myth and Religion
Theories about Atlantis
More
More
Pip Wilson's articles are available for your publication, on application.
Further details
8498 BCE Today is a traditional date of the natural calamity that destroyed the supposed ancient civilization of Atlantis.
One wonders what is the origin of the human love of the unlikely, the irrational, the bizarre and the preposterous, but no amount of wondering will solve the puzzle. The chance that an advanced civilization lies beneath the ocean, undetected by 21st-century oceanography, satellite imaging, geology and any number of modern scientific aids, is slim indeed, but here we have a persistent legend that is probably believed by more people today than in the Middle Ages. I confess to having my own imp of fascination for many things to which I give no credence whatsoever. A hobgoblin, a tale from the crypt, or a UFO or two can brighten the dreariest evening.
Atlantis, or so it is said, was a huge island lying beyond the Pillars of Hercules (now known as the Straits of Gibraltar) and its culture had dominated the Mediterranean nine thousand years before Solon, the lawmaker of Athens. From its ideal condition as an advanced culture it deteriorated into a military aggressor, so the gods resolved to punish the civilisation. We have this on authority of Plato in his Timaeus and Critias (c. 350 BCE). He learned the story from his cousin, who got it from his grandfather, who heard it from his father, who got it from Solon himself, who heard it from the priests of Sais in Egypt in 590 BCE.
The story was known in Egypt’s Middle Kingdom, (c. 2040-1640 BCE). It might be related to the c. 1500 BCE eruption of the volcano on the Minoan-related island of Thera, and 40 years later its collapse into the sea. Crete’s civilisation might have perished at this time in the cloud of ash and the tsunami. (There was a huge volcanic eruption on Santorini in 1628 BC, calculated at between three and four times more explosive than Krakatoa in 1883. Plato says the island of Atlantis had a structure of concentric rings, which are discernible on Santorini.)
Over the centuries, the position of Atlantis has been postulated by various scholars and pseudo-scholars as being in almost every corner of the planet. That said, it is true that many unsolved mysteries remain with regard to the languages and cultures, myths and legends of peoples of all nations, and the search for connections is a fruitful one. Why are there pyramids in the Americas and distant Egypt? How do we explain the similar gods and words across the continents? The search for these threads of connection isn’t new: in the period of 1913-1925, English explorer Colonel Percy Fawcett searched for a fabled Atlantean outpost in the Amazon River basin. Fawcett, his companions and the fabulous lost city of quartz buildings that they were seeking, all vanished in 1925.
As an interesting sidelight, one of the most prominent 19th-century Atlantist authors (he made his fortune with Atlantis: the Antediluvian World) was Ignatius Donnelly (born Philadelphia, November 3, 1831), an idiosyncratic and somewhat quixotic American Congressman whose writings, particularly the utopian sci-fi novel, Cæsar's Column: A Story of the Twentieth Century, profoundly influenced the working class in pre-federation (1901) Australia. Perhaps ironically, he died in Minneapolis on January 1, 1901 (precisely 100 years before this Almanac was founded) on the first day of the century, the very day that Australia’s federation took effect.
Donnelly is perhaps better known for his The Great Cryptogram: Francis Bacon's Cipher in the So-Called Shakespeare's Plays about an alleged code in Shakespeare's work that reveals that Francis Bacon wrote much of Shakespeare’s work.
Ignatius Donnelly and the End of the World
Atlantis in Myth and Religion
Theories about Atlantis
More
More
Pip Wilson's articles are available for your publication, on application.
Further details
Pip Wilson posted item above at 1:44 AM | Permalink
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