Re: Atlantis (was Re: Juvenile fooleries (was: Re: Neanderthal and PIE (Long!))
| From: | Jörg Rhiemeier <joerg_rhiemeier@...> |
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| Date: | Monday, October 20, 2008, 19:03 |
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Hallo!
On Mon, 20 Oct 2008 00:46:34 +0200, Lars Finsen wrote:
> Den 17. okt. 2008 kl. 23.19 skreiv Jörg Rhiemeier:
> >
> > The dates given in Plato's tale are
> > of course complete hogwash,
> > ...
> > To conclude: I think Atlantis is just a tall tale Plato
> > invented to make a philosophical point, but he may have
> > drawn on stories that were in circulation in his time,
> > including tales about the Santorini catastrophe
>
> If Plato exaggerated the size of Atlantis by a factor of 10, its
> dimensions would fit reasonably well with Crete, and if he
> exaggerated the age by the same factor, it would fit reasonably well
> with the time of the mentioned catastrophe, it seems. Cheap
> storytelling trick, I guess.
Yes. It is also sometimes proposed that Solon (whom Plato cites as
source of the myth) mistranslated from Egyptian. Indeed, the Minoan
hypothesis is widely considered one of the more likely candidates,
but it suffers from the problem that Crete and Santorini are not, as
seen from either Greek or Egypt, beyond the Pillars of Hercules.
... brought to you by the Weeping Elf
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