Re: Atlantean

On Friday, January 9, 2004, at 11:54 AM, John Cowan wrote:

> Andreas Johansson scripsit:
>
>> I wouldn't say the identification is "unmistakable" - certainly alot
>> of more- or-less clever people have made other identifications! -
>> but I agree the Minoan hypothesis is the best one.
>
> To me the most plausible explanation is that Plato made the story up
> in order to make a point.
Amen.

> Nobody bothers to try to discover whence
> Thomas More got the story of Utopia, or what part of the Earth he
> could possibly have been referring to, after all!
Very true - and if anyone thinks Plato wouldn't similarly make up a
story of a utopian world, they don't know Plato.  He wasn't just a
philospher; he was a creative artist (despite what is said about poets
in the Republic); and, of course, he used 'mythos' (his term) to make
points in very much the same way that Jesus used parables (which IME
is still a technique used by Jewish rabbis in order to make a point).

Indeed, in view of Plato's common use of mythos/parable, one wonders why
this particular one got single out for literalist treatment.  Maybe.....

as Gary Shannon wrote on Friday, January 9, 2004, at 05:38 PM, :
[snip]
> Ah, but the important question is not "Is it true?"
> but rather "Is it fun to believe?"
>
> If it's fun to believe then who cares if it's true or not?
Just like it's fun believing in the Donut Fairy   :)

Ray
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