Plato’s story of Atlantis involves a powerful naval civilisation in the distant past being defeated in battle by the Greek city of Athens. Was this an allegory, or was this a genuine legend with a historical core? Opinions on this have varied almost as far back as the time of Plato himself.
The viewpoint that Atlantis was an allegory
The viewpoint that Atlantis was an allegory is a very popular one. In fact, it is the consensus among scholars today. Many people understood Plato’s account to be fictional, even as far back as ancient times. Even Plato’s own student, Aristotle, apparently did not believe that Atlantis was real.
What is the basis for this idea? Well, the fundamental basis is the fact that Plato was a philosopher, not a historian. Therefore, Plato was principally concerned with recording philosophical arguments, not genuine history or myths and legends.
For this reason, many of Plato’s dialogues contain allegories that help Plato to convey his philosophical ideas. One famous example is the Allegory of the Cave, which Plato invented and used to illustrate his ideas about the true nature of reality.
Furthermore, Plato’s dialogues take the form of conversations between Socrates and other participants, with Socrates generally being used as a mouthpiece by Plato to convey his ideas. For several reasons, scholars agree that these dialogues—perhaps with one exception—are fictional conversations. They are just a literary device used by Plato.
An allegory praising Athens
With this in mind, we do well to ask what the story of Atlantis (if it really is an allegory) is supposed to represent. Interestingly, there are various conflicting ideas about this. On the one hand, there is the idea that it was an allegory designed to praise Athens as the ideal state. On the other hand, many scholars argue that its purpose was to serve as a warning for the Athens of Plato’s day.
In what way could the story of Atlantis have been an allegory in favour of Athens? This idea is partially based on how Plato introduces the story of Atlantis in the Timaeus dialogue. There, Plato has Socrates mention how he wants to hear a story about the ideal state, Athens, in action.
Consequently, Critias responds by telling him the story of Atlantis. In this story, there is a war between Atlantis, a mighty naval empire, and Athens, a comparatively humble and unimportant city. Eventually, Athens wins the war and defeats Atlantis.
According to one line of thought, the story of Atlantis is supposed to serve as an allegory showing the superiority of Athens to its larger, more powerful opponents. For instance, consider the fact that Plato was writing in the fourth century BCE. In the century before that, Athens had fought off the mighty Persian Empire.
Therefore, according to this theory, the story of Atlantis served as an allegory for Athens’ victory over the Persians.
An allegory condemning Athens
However, there is an alternative viewpoint that is essentially the opposite of the previous one. Rather than being an allegory to praise Athens’ superiority over more powerful enemies, this interpretation views Plato’s story of Atlantis as a condemnatory allegory against the city.
Towards the end of the Critias dialogue, Plato describes how the Atlanteans lost their respect for the gods and became arrogant. Because of their hubris, they lost the gods’ favour. This is what ultimately resulted in the defeat and destruction of Atlantis.
Therefore, this theory interprets Atlantis as a warning against the hubris of Athens in Plato’s time. According to this interpretation, it was actually Atlantis that represented the historical Athens. Meanwhile, Athens in the story represented what Plato’s city should be like.
Must Atlantis have been an allegory?
Both of these viewpoints are very popular. However, some scholars believe that Atlantis was not a story invented by Plato as an allegory. In fact, there is a spectrum of interpretations.
Some scholars, as we have seen, consider Plato to have completely made up the story of Atlantis as an allegory. Others believe that Plato used or adapted an existing story or legend to serve as an allegory. For instance, anthropologist Jeb J Card wrote:
“Plato invented or modified myths to communicate an idea… Plato sourced his Atlantis in ancient Egyptian lore.”
While Plato was a philosopher, this does not mean that he never wrote about genuine history or pre-existing myths and legends. He did so whenever it was useful to the philosophical point he was making. For example, in the Timaeus itself, Plato has his characters discuss the myth of Phaethon, which predated Plato.
Hence, just because it may have served a philosophical point, there is no reason to necessarily interpret the story of Atlantis as something that Plato himself invented.
Why Atlantis might not have been an allegory
Some scholars go so far as to insist that there is evidence actively supporting the conclusion that the story of Atlantis was not just an allegory invented by Plato. For example, James Mavor highlighted some interesting points regarding the use of writing in Plato’s story.
According to Plato, an Egyptian priest related to the Athenian lawmaker Solon, the fact that the Greeks, in the distant past, had a system of writing. They then lost it, and then they adopted their current system of writing a long time later.
This matches what we know historically about the ancient Greeks’ use of Linear B, the loss of writing in the Dark Ages, and the subsequent adoption of the Phoenician alphabet. However, there is no evidence whatsoever that the Greeks were aware of this themselves. For example, Herodotus spoke about the adoption of the Phoenician alphabet as if it were the first time that the Greeks started writing.
Therefore, this strongly suggests to some researchers that Plato could not have made up this story himself.
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