Changes

===''Timaeus''===

===''Timaeus''===

In the ''Timaeus'' Plato recounts (in the voice of Critias) a story told to him by his grandfather Critias the Elder, who had heard it from the famous lawgiver [[Solon]]. Solon in turn was said to have learned from an [[Egypt|Egyptian]] priest) in Sais, a city in the Nile delta, of the heroic stand of [[Athens|Athenian]] solders against the forces of Atlantis which sought to enslave them and the Egyptians:  

In the ''Timaeus'' Plato recounts (in the voice of Critias) a story told to him by his grandfather Critias the Elder, who had heard it from the famous lawgiver [[Solon]]. Solon in turn was said to have learned from an [[Egypt]]ian priest) in Sais, a city in the Nile delta, of the heroic stand of [[Athens|Athenian]] solders against the forces of Atlantis which sought to enslave them and the Egyptians:  

:''Many great and wonderful deeds are recorded of your state in our histories. But one of them exceeds all the rest in greatness and valour. For these histories tell of a mighty power which unprovoked made an expedition against the whole of Europe and Asia, and to which your city put an end. This power came forth out of the Atlantic Ocean, for in those days the Atlantic was navigable; and there was an island situated in front of the straits which are by you called the Pillars of Heracles; the island was larger than Libya and Asia put together, and was the way to other islands, and from these you might pass to the whole of the opposite continent which surrounded the true ocean; for this sea which is within the Straits of Heracles is only a harbour, having a narrow entrance, but that other is a real sea, and the surrounding land may be most truly called a boundless continent. Now in this island of Atlantis there was a great and wonderful empire which had rule over the whole island and several others, and over parts of the continent, and, furthermore, the men of Atlantis had subjected the parts of Libya within the columns of Heracles as far as Egypt, and of Europe as far as Tyrrhenia.''

:''Many great and wonderful deeds are recorded of your state in our histories. But one of them exceeds all the rest in greatness and valour. For these histories tell of a mighty power which unprovoked made an expedition against the whole of Europe and Asia, and to which your city put an end. This power came forth out of the Atlantic Ocean, for in those days the Atlantic was navigable; and there was an island situated in front of the straits which are by you called the Pillars of Heracles; the island was larger than Libya and Asia put together, and was the way to other islands, and from these you might pass to the whole of the opposite continent which surrounded the true ocean; for this sea which is within the Straits of Heracles is only a harbour, having a narrow entrance, but that other is a real sea, and the surrounding land may be most truly called a boundless continent. Now in this island of Atlantis there was a great and wonderful empire which had rule over the whole island and several others, and over parts of the continent, and, furthermore, the men of Atlantis had subjected the parts of Libya within the columns of Heracles as far as Egypt, and of Europe as far as Tyrrhenia.''

===Ignatius Donnelly===

===Ignatius Donnelly===

Ignatius Loyola Donnelly, a [[Minnesota]] writer, populist, state legislator and United States Congressman, was fascinated by the tales of Atlantis as postulated by de Bourbourg.  Going several steps further, Donnelly set out to prove the existence of Atlantis as a fact with his 1882 best-seller ''Atlantis: The Antediluvian World''<ref>http://www.sacred-texts.com/atl/ataw/index.htm</ref>, which stimulated popular interest in Atlantis during the following century.  Using the science of the times, Donnelly made a serious attempt to explain that Atlantis was the "mother culture" of all civilization; that there was a connection between the mythical country of "Aztlan" of the Aztecs and Atlantis; and that the Aryan race which settled in the Punjab of India were direct descendants of Atlanteans<ref>http://www.sacred-texts.com/atl/ataw/ataw510.htm</ref>. Largely debunked over the years, Donnelly's ''Atlantis'' still maintains a following among New-Agers and spiritualists.

Ignatius Loyola Donnelly, a [[Minnesota]] writer, populist, state legislator and United States Congressman, was fascinated by the tales of Atlantis as postulated by de Bourbourg.  Going several steps further, Donnelly set out to prove the existence of Atlantis as a fact with his 1882 best-seller ''Atlantis: The Antediluvian World'',<ref>http://www.sacred-texts.com/atl/ataw/index.htm</ref> which stimulated popular interest in Atlantis during the following century.  Using the science of the times, Donnelly made a serious attempt to explain that Atlantis was the "mother culture" of all civilization; that there was a connection between the mythical country of "Aztlan" of the Aztecs and Atlantis; and that the Aryan race which settled in the Punjab of India were direct descendants of Atlanteans.<ref>http://www.sacred-texts.com/atl/ataw/ataw510.htm</ref>  Largely debunked over the years, Donnelly's ''Atlantis'' still maintains a following among New-Agers and spiritualists.

===Nazism===

===Nazism===

The Aryan race was the "master race", according to Nazi philosophy.  To expand on the gains made by the Nazi Party in the control of Germany during the early-1930's, the head of the S.S., Heirich Himmler, created "Ancestral Heritage" in 1935, an organization dedicated to discovering the Aryans hidden past, as well as a site which attracted as many scientific cranks that the Nazis could provide.  To see if Tibet was an ancestral home, in 1938 an expedition was led for the purpose of anthropological and linguistic study, and led by an ornithologist named Ernst Schäfer, a man with a reputation for firing a gun on anything moving (and who accidentally killed his own wife on the expedition)<ref>http://www.phayul.com/news/article.aspx?id=249&t=4</ref>. Despite numerous studies taken and plaster casts of Tibetan features, no evidence was collected which proved an Aryan-German-Atlantean connection; the organization was shut down as a result of [[World War II]]; and the leading members of the expedition were reassigned to assist in the death camps.

The Aryan race was the "master race", according to Nazi philosophy.  To expand on the gains made by the Nazi Party in the control of Germany during the early-1930's, the head of the S.S., Heirich Himmler, created "Ancestral Heritage" in 1935, an organization dedicated to discovering the Aryans hidden past, as well as a site which attracted as many scientific cranks that the Nazis could provide.  To see if Tibet was an ancestral home, in 1938 an expedition was led for the purpose of anthropological and linguistic study, and led by an ornithologist named Ernst Schäfer, a man with a reputation for firing a gun on anything moving (and who accidentally killed his own wife on the expedition).<ref>http://www.phayul.com/news/article.aspx?id=249&t=4</ref>  Despite numerous studies taken and plaster casts of Tibetan features, no evidence was collected which proved an Aryan-German-Atlantean connection; the organization was shut down as a result of [[World War II]]; and the leading members of the expedition were reassigned to assist in the death camps.

===Edgar Cayce===

===Edgar Cayce===

==Minoan Civilization as Atlantis==

==Minoan Civilization as Atlantis==

[[Image:Pic-fresco.jpg|right|200px|thumb|Detail of the "ringed island" portion of the Flotilla Fresco]]

[[Image:Pic-fresco.jpg|right|200px|thumb|Detail of the "ringed island" portion of the Flotilla Fresco]]

Spyridon Marinatos (1901-1974), a Greek archaeologist who continued the earlier excavations on Crete begun by [[Arthur Evans]], was among the first to believe there may have been a connection between the Atlantis myths and the [[Minoan Civilization]], which flourished there up to ca. 1470 B.C., when it disappeared from the historical record.  Like the Atlantis myths, the Minoans were a seafaring nation who made contact with Egypt, and had engaged in rituals and sport involving bulls.  Structures which have been excavated and studied, such as the palace at Knossos, indicated a skill in engineering and architecture superior to any other prior to the Romans.  By 1939, Marinatos' excavations had revealed extensive deposits of volcanic pumice, and he had suggested that the nearby island of Thera - which was then suspected of going through a catastrophic explosion at that point in history - had been the real source of the Atlantis myth.  "The Egyptians unquestionably had heard about the sinking of an island, which was Thera," he wrote, "but this island, small and insignificant, was unknown to them.  This event they transferred to the neighboring Crete, an island which was dreadfully struck, and with which they had lost contact suddenly"<ref>http://books.google.com/books?id=WwEOv4Zt8K8C&pg=PA44&lpg=PA44&dq=Spyridon+Marinatos+on+atlantis&source=bl&ots=5KBCClttfP&sig=iKvaSjRyiIlqOR3mpKtBy3OafDk&hl=en&ei=aNiATefCGuyD0QH5mLmFCQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=2&ved=0CCIQ6AEwATgK#v=onepage&q=Spyridon%20Marinatos%20on%20atlantis&f=false</ref>. His search would take him to the islands of Santorini, of which Thera is the largest; on the southernmost side he would discover the city of Akrotiri in 1967, built with a skill surpassing that of Crete.

Spyridon Marinatos (1901-1974), a Greek archaeologist who continued the earlier excavations on Crete begun by [[Arthur Evans]], was among the first to believe there may have been a connection between the Atlantis myths and the [[Minoan Civilization]], which flourished there up to ca. 1470 B.C., when it disappeared from the historical record.  Like the Atlantis myths, the Minoans were a seafaring nation who made contact with Egypt, and had engaged in rituals and sport involving bulls.  Structures which have been excavated and studied, such as the palace at Knossos, indicated a skill in engineering and architecture superior to any other prior to the Romans.  By 1939, Marinatos' excavations had revealed extensive deposits of volcanic pumice, and he had suggested that the nearby island of Thera - which was then suspected of going through a catastrophic explosion at that point in history - had been the real source of the Atlantis myth.  "The Egyptians unquestionably had heard about the sinking of an island, which was Thera," he wrote, "but this island, small and insignificant, was unknown to them.  This event they transferred to the neighboring Crete, an island which was dreadfully struck, and with which they had lost contact suddenly".<ref>http://books.google.com/books?id=WwEOv4Zt8K8C&pg=PA44&lpg=PA44&dq=Spyridon+Marinatos+on+atlantis&source=bl&ots=5KBCClttfP&sig=iKvaSjRyiIlqOR3mpKtBy3OafDk&hl=en&ei=aNiATefCGuyD0QH5mLmFCQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=2&ved=0CCIQ6AEwATgK#v=onepage&q=Spyridon%20Marinatos%20on%20atlantis&f=false</ref>  His search would take him to the islands of Santorini, of which Thera is the largest; on the southernmost side he would discover the city of Akrotiri in 1967, built with a skill surpassing that of Crete.

[[Image:Akrotiri Flotilla Fresco.jpg|center|800px|thumb|The Flotilla Fresco, from Akrotiri, Thera]]

[[Image:Akrotiri Flotilla Fresco.jpg|center|800px|thumb|The Flotilla Fresco, from Akrotiri, Thera]]

==References==

==References==

*[http://classics.mit.edu/Plato/timaeus.html ''Timaeus'', by Plato (complete text online)]

*[http://classics.mit.edu/Plato/timaeus.html ''Timaeus'', by Plato (complete text online)]

*[http://www.ellopos.net/elpenor/physis/plato-timaeus/atlantis-athens.asp ''Timaeus'', in Greek and English]

*[http://www.ellopos.net/elpenor/physis/plato-timaeus/atlantis-athens.asp ''Timaeus'', in Greek and English]