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Critias
Plato (428/427 BC-348/347 BC), whose original name was Aristocles, was an ancient Greek philosopher, the second of the great trio of ancient Greeks - succeeding Socrates and preceding Aristotle - who between them laid the philosophical foundations of Western culture. Plato was also a mathematician, writer of philosophical dialogues, and founder of the Academy in Athens, the first institution of higher learning in the western world. Plato is widely believed to have been a student of Socrates and to have been deeply influenced by his teacher's unjust death. Plato's brilliance as a writer and thinker can be witnessed by reading his Socratic dialogues. Some of the dialogues, letters, and other works that are ascribed to him are considered spurious. Plato is thought to have lectured at the Academy, although the pedagogical function of his dialogues, if any, is not known with certainty. They have historically been used to teach philosophy, logic, rhetoric, mathematics, and other subjects about which he wrote.
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First published January 1, 351
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Plato
5,203 books8,607 followersPlato (Greek: Πλάτων), born Aristocles (c. 427 – 348 BC), was an ancient Greek philosopher of the Classical period who is considered a foundational thinker in Western philosophy and an innovator of the written dialogue and dialectic forms. He raised problems for what became all the major areas of both theoretical philosophy and practical philosophy, and was the founder of the Platonic Academy, a philosophical school in Athens where Plato taught the doctrines that would later become known as Platonism.
Plato's most famous contribution is the theory of forms (or ideas), which has been interpreted as advancing a solution to what is now known as the problem of universals. He was decisively influenced by the pre-Socratic thinkers Pythagoras, Heraclitus, and Parmenides, although much of what is known about them is derived from Plato himself.
Along with his teacher Socrates, and Aristotle, his student, Plato is a central figure in the history of philosophy. Plato's entire body of work is believed to have survived intact for over 2,400 years—unlike that of nearly all of his contemporaries. Although their popularity has fluctuated, they have consistently been read and studied through the ages. Through Neoplatonism, he also greatly influenced both Christian and Islamic philosophy. In modern times, Alfred North Whitehead famously said: "the safest general characterization of the European philosophical tradition is that it consists of a series of footnotes to Plato."
Plato's most famous contribution is the theory of forms (or ideas), which has been interpreted as advancing a solution to what is now known as the problem of universals. He was decisively influenced by the pre-Socratic thinkers Pythagoras, Heraclitus, and Parmenides, although much of what is known about them is derived from Plato himself.
Along with his teacher Socrates, and Aristotle, his student, Plato is a central figure in the history of philosophy. Plato's entire body of work is believed to have survived intact for over 2,400 years—unlike that of nearly all of his contemporaries. Although their popularity has fluctuated, they have consistently been read and studied through the ages. Through Neoplatonism, he also greatly influenced both Christian and Islamic philosophy. In modern times, Alfred North Whitehead famously said: "the safest general characterization of the European philosophical tradition is that it consists of a series of footnotes to Plato."
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November 27, 2022
Critias is a short Platonic dialogue. Actually, only the beginning portion of the dialogue survives - the dialogue breaks off at the point where Critias, the main speaker, describes in more depth ancient Athens and the lost island of Atlantis.
Nothing like a lost, ancient civilization to spark the creative imagination – scores of books have been written and films made of the lost world of Atlantis. I find this dialogue particularly enjoyable since Plato could really set his imagination free, embellishing on a topic near and dear to his heart: the ideal city. Below are several direct quotes from the dialogue along with my comments:
Here is a snippet of the description given by Critias of the good old days, that is, of ancient Athenian society, many generations prior to the age of Plato: “On the north side they had dwellings in common and had erected halls for dining in winter, and had all the buildings which they needed for their common life, besides temples, but there was no adorning of them with gold and silver, for they made no use of these for any purpose; they took a middle course between meanness and ostentation, and built modest houses in which they and their children's children grew old, and they handed them down to others who were like themselves, always the same."
Ah, the prototypical conservative worldview: once society attains a prosperous equilibrium and citizens reach a point of living the ideal life of moderation and reason, no one is allowed to rock the boat. Society must remain forever the same. Any poets or visionary artists who would like to shake things up are welcome to leave.
A bit further on in the dialogue Critias notes: “Such were the ancient Athenians, and after this manner they righteously administered their own land and the rest of Hellas; they were renowned all over Europe and Asia for the beauty of their persons and for the many virtues of their souls, and of all men who lived in those days they were the most illustrious.”
So, in addition to spiritual virtues, Plato values a certain kind of beauty - not the beauty of fine cloths, jewelry and luxury, but what we can take to mean physical health and well-proportioned harmony, a physical bearing radiating tranquility and joy. So sorry Madison Avenue with all your glitz and glamor, according to Plato, you just don’t cut it.
Turning to Atlantis, Critias says: “Some of their buildings were simple, but in others they put together different stones, varying the color to please the eye, and to be a natural source of delight.”
Plato emphasizes how the architecture and physical appearance of the ideal city is one of beauty. And with all the beautiful buildings, people will naturally be delighted and will take pride and experience joy in the attractiveness of their city. Darn, this could serve as a lesson for city planners and land developers so focused on "usefulness" and the supreme priority of making a profit. As contemporary philosopher Roger Scruton noted, no buildings become useless more quickly than those built to be merely useful.
As part of the detail of Atlantis, Critias notes: “Of the water which ran off they carried some to the grove of Poseidon, where were growing all manner of trees of wonderful height and beauty, owing to the excellence of the soil, while the remainder was conveyed by aqueducts along the bridges to the outer circles; and there were many temples built and dedicated to many gods; also gardens and places of exercise."
Behold the land of milk and honey. Critias goes on to describe the city as having many planted trees and surrounded by mountains celebrated for their number and size and beauty. Such an emphasis on people living surrounded by natural beauty. Again, a lesson for city and suburban planners: there are severe consequences if every tree in sight is cut down. Additionally, treed parks are a great place to exercise.
We are told the population of Atlantis were descendants of the god Poseidon. And toward the end of the surviving portion of dialogue, Critias observes: “But when the divine portion began to fade away, and became diluted too often and too much with the mortal admixture, and the human nature got the upper hand, they then, being unable to bear their fortune, behaved unseemly, and to him who had an eye to see grew visibly debased, for they were losing the fairest of their precious gifts; but to those who had no eye to see the true happiness, they appeared glorious and blessed at the very time when they were full of avarice and unrighteous power."
Here is yet again another lesson for our modern world: when our divine nature begins to fade and our "human" nature takes over, watch out. In other words, using our twenty-first century language, when we no longer draw strength from our spiritual and creative depths but live exclusively on the superficial surface, our desires and ceaseless cravings can quickly spiral out of control.
April 25, 2017
رساله ى كريتياس، دنباله ى رساله ى تيمائوس است و به تاريخ سرزمين غرق شده ى آتلانتيس مى پردازد. هدف از اين رساله آن است كه نظريه ى مدينه ى فاضله ى افلاطون را (كه در كتاب جمهور مطرح شده) در ضمن يك دولت واقعى به نمايش گذارد. رساله ناقص است و نيمه ى دوم آن مفقود شده.
تاریخچه آتلانتیس
يازده هزار سال قبل، در ميان اقيانوس اطلس (آتلانتيك)، سرزمينى قرار داشت به نام "آتلانتيس" كه مساحت آن به قدر آسيا و ليبى بود.
پوزئيدون، خداى دريا معشوقه ى فانى خود را به آن جزيره برد تا برايش فرزندانى بزايد، و از همه گونه نعمات در آن به وفور قرار داد، و خود قوانينى براى اداره ى آن وضع كرد. اين قوانين الهى، كه همان نظريه ى مدينه ى فاضله ى افلاطون است، باعث شد تا سال هاى سال مردم آتلانتيس در نهايت تنعم و اقتدار زندگى كنند و بسيارى از كشورهاى اروپا و افريقا را به زير سلطه ى خود درآورند.
تا اين كه به خاطر طبيعت فانى انسانى، حكومت و مردم آتلانتيس به فساد گرايش پيدا كردند و از قوانين سعادت بار الهى سر پيچيدند.
زئوس كه ديد انسان هايى چنان سعادتمند به پستى گراييدند، آن ها را مجازات كرد تا عبرت آيندگان شوند، و جزيره با تمام عظمتش بر اثر زلزله اى سهمگين به زير آب رفت.
تاریخچه آتلانتیس
يازده هزار سال قبل، در ميان اقيانوس اطلس (آتلانتيك)، سرزمينى قرار داشت به نام "آتلانتيس" كه مساحت آن به قدر آسيا و ليبى بود.
پوزئيدون، خداى دريا معشوقه ى فانى خود را به آن جزيره برد تا برايش فرزندانى بزايد، و از همه گونه نعمات در آن به وفور قرار داد، و خود قوانينى براى اداره ى آن وضع كرد. اين قوانين الهى، كه همان نظريه ى مدينه ى فاضله ى افلاطون است، باعث شد تا سال هاى سال مردم آتلانتيس در نهايت تنعم و اقتدار زندگى كنند و بسيارى از كشورهاى اروپا و افريقا را به زير سلطه ى خود درآورند.
تا اين كه به خاطر طبيعت فانى انسانى، حكومت و مردم آتلانتيس به فساد گرايش پيدا كردند و از قوانين سعادت بار الهى سر پيچيدند.
زئوس كه ديد انسان هايى چنان سعادتمند به پستى گراييدند، آن ها را مجازات كرد تا عبرت آيندگان شوند، و جزيره با تمام عظمتش بر اثر زلزله اى سهمگين به زير آب رفت.
December 31, 2019
I confess, I've been struggling to reach my quota of 52 books for this year's reading challenge, and that's part of the reason why I picked this short book. (It's down to the wire now; I'll be finishing my last book on New Year's Eve.) But in spite of its short length, it was a satisfying read. I've heard Atlantis being referenced by modern authors in ways that made it sound mysterious and dreamy, so I was curious to read about it from an earlier source like Plato, even though the city supposedly existed thousands of years before his time. (It probably didn't exist in reality, but it may have existed in people's minds, being passed down from generation to generation.) This is a good example of why I want to read books from different eras: so I can unlock the mysteries of the history of thought. I'm a fan of Socrates, so it was refreshing when he made his appearance, even though this wasn't like his typical dialogues. He just does a little introduction and his buddy Critias tells the story. Critias's description of the city is beautiful and poetic. Jowett's analysis takes up a good part of the book and is insightful. I would give it 4.5 stars, but I have to take off one star for its abrupt ending, leaving it at 3.5.
January 16, 2019
Welcome to Atlantis
15 January 2019
This incomplete ancient book has certainly triggered quite a stir over the centuries, particularly in the modern age. In fact, from all of my readings of historical and early literature, it really only seems that the whole Atlantis fad is a recent phenomena, which is quite odd because it isn’t as if this book is a recent discovery – people have known about it for donkey’s years. Okay, there are countless numbers of science-fiction shows, with a number of them starring Jason Moma, about this mythical lost continent, and let us not even go down the road of those new age philosophies.
So, the question is what do we make of it. Well, one of the issues I have with it is that Plato is not an historian. In fact, he doesn’t even touch on history in any of his other texts, so why, all of the sudden, is he talking about an ancient empire now? Then again, Plato doesn’t touch science either, but we have the Timaeus, which is clearly him attempting to explore the world in a scientific manner. Well, at least as far as the ancients did.
The other odd thing is that this is the only text in which Atlantis is mentioned – nowhere else do they talk about this particular place. Well, there are a number of theories, with the general consensus (at least as far as my Classics Lecturer was concerned) was that Plato is actually talking about the Minoan Empire, and its destruction came about due to the eruption of the island of Santorini – but why then did he refer to it as Atlantis, when the legends of Theseus didn’t refer to it as such? Another idea, is that it could actually be referring to the Antediluvian world, you know, that world that existed before Noah and all that. In fact, there are actually quite a few theories floating around, and theories that come out of academia, that have proposed some ideas regarding Noah’s flood (one of them involving the Black Sea).
Interestingly, a Youtuber has posted a number of videos speculating that the empire could have been located in the middle of the Sahara desert at a place known as the Richat Structure, a structure that has only recently been discovered (thanks to satalites, and aeroplanes, of course). He might have a point, but he lost me when he started making statements about conspiracy theories and cover ups, such as the fact that there is no mention of it on Wikipedia, and whenever somebody attempts to make that connection the moderators promptly remove it.
Honestly, I’m not at all surprised, and I actually wonder whether he has done some more thorough research as to why the moderators remove these comments. In fact, the reasons are actually quite easy to find, and the major one is that a Youtuber isn’t sufficient grounds to make mention of something on a Wikipedia page, particularly when you are dealing with something as controversial as Atlantis. The thing is that a youtube video simply cannot be considered to be a peer reviewed work of academia. Sure, there have been academics that have rocked the community with new ideas – Einstein and Newton come to mind – but the thing is that sometimes these ideas take time to become accepted. Oh, and there is also the comparison with Troy, but the thing with Troy is that this particular city so permeates Greek culture that it is hard to miss, whereas there is only one mention of Atlantis – Plato.
So, what is the point of this particular piece of work. Well, I’m not actually sure. In fact, it seems as if Plato started writing it, but then decided to leave it and to move onto something a bit more substantial. This is one of the problems that Plato was struggling with, and that is seeing the ideal and the actual work together. He theorised his ideal government in The Republic, but when he attempted to actually set something up, it simply didn’t work (the whole Sicilian experiment was a complete disaster). The other thing that I suspect is that as he was writing, and thinking about this work, he realised that no, this wasn’t an example of his ideal government, and there was no way he could see that it would work out this way.
Maybe, he also realised that it was just a load of rubbish, and decided that he had better things to waste his time on, such as running an Academy.
15 January 2019
This incomplete ancient book has certainly triggered quite a stir over the centuries, particularly in the modern age. In fact, from all of my readings of historical and early literature, it really only seems that the whole Atlantis fad is a recent phenomena, which is quite odd because it isn’t as if this book is a recent discovery – people have known about it for donkey’s years. Okay, there are countless numbers of science-fiction shows, with a number of them starring Jason Moma, about this mythical lost continent, and let us not even go down the road of those new age philosophies.
So, the question is what do we make of it. Well, one of the issues I have with it is that Plato is not an historian. In fact, he doesn’t even touch on history in any of his other texts, so why, all of the sudden, is he talking about an ancient empire now? Then again, Plato doesn’t touch science either, but we have the Timaeus, which is clearly him attempting to explore the world in a scientific manner. Well, at least as far as the ancients did.
The other odd thing is that this is the only text in which Atlantis is mentioned – nowhere else do they talk about this particular place. Well, there are a number of theories, with the general consensus (at least as far as my Classics Lecturer was concerned) was that Plato is actually talking about the Minoan Empire, and its destruction came about due to the eruption of the island of Santorini – but why then did he refer to it as Atlantis, when the legends of Theseus didn’t refer to it as such? Another idea, is that it could actually be referring to the Antediluvian world, you know, that world that existed before Noah and all that. In fact, there are actually quite a few theories floating around, and theories that come out of academia, that have proposed some ideas regarding Noah’s flood (one of them involving the Black Sea).
Interestingly, a Youtuber has posted a number of videos speculating that the empire could have been located in the middle of the Sahara desert at a place known as the Richat Structure, a structure that has only recently been discovered (thanks to satalites, and aeroplanes, of course). He might have a point, but he lost me when he started making statements about conspiracy theories and cover ups, such as the fact that there is no mention of it on Wikipedia, and whenever somebody attempts to make that connection the moderators promptly remove it.
Honestly, I’m not at all surprised, and I actually wonder whether he has done some more thorough research as to why the moderators remove these comments. In fact, the reasons are actually quite easy to find, and the major one is that a Youtuber isn’t sufficient grounds to make mention of something on a Wikipedia page, particularly when you are dealing with something as controversial as Atlantis. The thing is that a youtube video simply cannot be considered to be a peer reviewed work of academia. Sure, there have been academics that have rocked the community with new ideas – Einstein and Newton come to mind – but the thing is that sometimes these ideas take time to become accepted. Oh, and there is also the comparison with Troy, but the thing with Troy is that this particular city so permeates Greek culture that it is hard to miss, whereas there is only one mention of Atlantis – Plato.
So, what is the point of this particular piece of work. Well, I’m not actually sure. In fact, it seems as if Plato started writing it, but then decided to leave it and to move onto something a bit more substantial. This is one of the problems that Plato was struggling with, and that is seeing the ideal and the actual work together. He theorised his ideal government in The Republic, but when he attempted to actually set something up, it simply didn’t work (the whole Sicilian experiment was a complete disaster). The other thing that I suspect is that as he was writing, and thinking about this work, he realised that no, this wasn’t an example of his ideal government, and there was no way he could see that it would work out this way.
Maybe, he also realised that it was just a load of rubbish, and decided that he had better things to waste his time on, such as running an Academy.
June 17, 2024
Critias is a fascinating, though incomplete, work offering a peek into Plato's philosophical and historical ideas.
February 22, 2016
Few people are aware of the fact that the mythical city of Atlantis was invented by Plato. In this dialogue, he explores this utopia in ridiculously annoying detail with excessive technological jargon. What we have now is a "skeleton whose bones are all that remain." The dialogue also cuts off mid-sentence, meaning that the dialogue was either lost or unfinished, which really makes it an opaque pebble among the gemstones of Plato's dialogues.
December 7, 2017
Plato'nun, Kayıp kıta Atlantis ve eski yunan kentlerinin yaşamlarını anlatan okunası ve maalesef yarım kalmış eseri. (Bu noktadan sonra spoiler var) Plato'na göre, Atlantis kıtası Deniz Tanrısı Poseidon'un 10 erkek çocuğuna hediyesidir. Öyle ki, Poseidon her bir çocuğu için bir ülke yaratmıştır bu kıtada. On krallığın başına da en büyük oğlu Atlası getirmiştir. Uzun bir süre Poseidon'a ve onun emirlerine sadık kalarak bilgeli, erdemli, adil ve alçakgönüllü bir yaşam süren kralların soyu, ölümlü insanlarla evlendikçe bozulmaya başlar. En nihayetinde, nesilden nesile başa geçen krallar, ölümlü kadınlarla evlendikçe, doğan yeni kralların ruhlarındaki insan özü tanrı özünü geçer. Böylece, yeni krallar aç gözlü, erdem ve adaletten yoksun birer "insan" olurlar. Ve bu trajik dönüşüme daha fazla tepkisiz kalamayan Zeus, kıtayı yerle yeksan ederek cezalarını verir.
Bu eser de, Platonun diğer eserlerindeki aciz insan özü ile tanrısal öz arasındaki farkı ortaya koymaya çalışmış. En adil, erdemli, bilge ruh olarak yine Tanrısal ruh ön plana çıkmış. Plato, ulaşmak istediği, hatta tüm insanlara nihai hedef olarak gösterdiği Tanrısal olana ulaşma (idea dünyası) amacını ve bunun neden gerekli olduğunu anlatmaya çalışmış, ama maalesef eser yarım kalmış. Okumanızı tavsiye ederim. İyi okumalar...
Bu eser de, Platonun diğer eserlerindeki aciz insan özü ile tanrısal öz arasındaki farkı ortaya koymaya çalışmış. En adil, erdemli, bilge ruh olarak yine Tanrısal ruh ön plana çıkmış. Plato, ulaşmak istediği, hatta tüm insanlara nihai hedef olarak gösterdiği Tanrısal olana ulaşma (idea dünyası) amacını ve bunun neden gerekli olduğunu anlatmaya çalışmış, ama maalesef eser yarım kalmış. Okumanızı tavsiye ederim. İyi okumalar...
April 27, 2018
Really only worth it for the end. To think a society like Atlantis existed, even in a rough approximation to what was described, is an exciting prospect, theologically. Much like the Tower of Babel, this civilization was punished for their pride and extravagance. And many could learn from this.
December 23, 2014
A very interesting fragment of a dialogue that gives an introductory description of the lost Atlantis, its origin, geography, and the inhabitants! Unfortunately, this enchanting dialogue was interrupted. Moreover, it is interesting how this dialogue, along with “Timaeus” left a long lasting sensation throughout history about Atlantis and its existence (whether it is fictional or factual place). I found it fascinating from the first lines.
December 29, 2014
Basically a description of Atlantis and then it cuts out. Not much to see here, folks.
May 8, 2020
Platon compare, par Critias, la politique des anciens athéniens et des anciens atlantes. Oui, c'est de ce livre et de Timée que nous vient le mythe de l'Atlantide. Malheureusement, la fin du récit ne nous est pas parvenue et cela nous laisse avec ce sentiment que l'on ressent lorsque...
April 10, 2017
عرض مفصل بشكل ساخر عن أتلانتيس!
حسب رأي المترجم!
محاورتا طيماوس وكريتياس أحالتاني إلى عبارة لصدر الدين الشيرازي عن أفلاطون ومؤلفاته. مفادها أن كل ما كتبه افلاطون كان بشكل رمزي بل غارق في الرمزية لم يتقن فك طلاسمها إلا القليل. بالطبع لست من هؤلاء القلة إلا أنني أعي سذاجة دعاوى الدكتور صلاح الراشد المعنونة بأتلانتس والبحث عن أتلانتس!
فلست أفهم علة التمسك باستخدام أيقونة أتلانتيس لتنمية الذات. وهي أيقونة معروضة في الغالب الأعم بشكل أسطوري ساخر!
حسب رأي المترجم!
محاورتا طيماوس وكريتياس أحالتاني إلى عبارة لصدر الدين الشيرازي عن أفلاطون ومؤلفاته. مفادها أن كل ما كتبه افلاطون كان بشكل رمزي بل غارق في الرمزية لم يتقن فك طلاسمها إلا القليل. بالطبع لست من هؤلاء القلة إلا أنني أعي سذاجة دعاوى الدكتور صلاح الراشد المعنونة بأتلانتس والبحث عن أتلانتس!
فلست أفهم علة التمسك باستخدام أيقونة أتلانتيس لتنمية الذات. وهي أيقونة معروضة في الغالب الأعم بشكل أسطوري ساخر!
June 2, 2025
Continues mythology of Timaeus. Turns from natural to human history.
November 9, 2018
PERSONS OF THE DIALOGUE: Critias, Hermocrates, Timaeus, Socrates.
Information on Atlantis Retrieved from Egytian Translations by Solon...
“Solon, who was intending to use the tale for his poem, enquired into the meaning of the names, and found that the early Egyptians in writing them down had translated them into their own language, and he recovered the meaning of the several names and when copying them out again translated them into our language. My great-grandfather, Dropides, had the original writing, which is still in my possession, and was carefully studied by me when I was a child. Therefore if you hear names such as are used in this country, you must not be surprised, for I have told how they came to be introduced. The tale, which was of great length, began as follows:"
Creation of Atlantis...
“And Poseidon, receiving for his lot the island of Atlantis, begat children by a mortal woman, and settled them in a part of the island, which I will describe. Looking towards the sea, but in the centre of the whole island, there was a plain which is said to have been the fairest of all plains and very fertile. Near the plain again, and also in the centre of the island at a distance of about fifty stadia, there was a mountain not very “high on any side. In this mountain there dwelt one of the earth-born primeval men of that country, whose name was Evenor, and he had a wife named Leucippe, and they had an only daughter who was called Cleito. The maiden had already reached womanhood, when her father and mother died; Poseidon fell in love with her and had intercourse with her, and breaking the ground, inclosed the hill in which she dwelt all round, making alternate zones of sea and land larger and smaller, encircling one another; there were two of land and three of water, which he turned as with a lathe, each having its circumference equidistant every way from the centre, so that no man could get to the island,”
King of Atlantis...
“He also begat and brought up five pairs of twin male children; and dividing the island of Atlantis into ten portions, he gave to the first-born of the eldest pair his mother's dwelling and the surrounding allotment, which was the largest and best, and made him king over the rest; the others he made princes, and gave them rule over many men, and a large territory. And he named them all; the eldest, who was the first king, he named Atlas, and after him the whole island and the ocean were called Atlantic. ”
Atlantis Mountains...
“This part of the island looked towards the south, and was sheltered from the north. The surrounding mountains were celebrated for their number and size and beauty, far beyond any which still exist,”
Approaching the End of Atlantis...
“Such was the vast power which the god settled in the lost island of Atlantis; and this he afterwards directed against our land for the following reasons, as tradition tells: For many generations, as long as the divine nature lasted in them, they were obedient to the laws, and well-affectioned towards the god, whose seed they were; for they possessed true and in every way great spirits, uniting gentleness with wisdom in the various chances of life, and in their intercourse with one another. They despised everything but virtue, caring little for their present state of life, and thinking lightly of the possession of gold and other property, which seemed only a burden to them; neither were they intoxicated by luxury; nor did wealth deprive them of their self-control; but they were sober, and saw clearly that all these goods are increased by virtue and friendship with one another, whereas by too great regard and respect for them, they are lost and friendship with them. By such reflections and by the continuance in them of a divine nature, the qualities which we have described “grew and increased among them; but when the divine portion began to fade away, and became diluted too often and too much with the mortal admixture, and the human nature got the upper hand, they then, being unable to bear their fortune, behaved unseemly, and to him who had an eye to see grew visibly debased, for they were losing the fairest of their precious gifts; but to those who had no eye to see the true happiness, they appeared glorious and blessed at the very time when they were full of avarice and unrighteous power. Zeus, the god of gods, who rules according to law, and is able to see into such things, perceiving that an honourable race was in a woeful plight, and wanting to inflict punishment on them, that they might be chastened and improve, collected all the gods into their most holy habitation, which, being placed in the centre of the world, beholds all created things. And when he had called them together, he spake as follows—”
Unfortunately :( ...
The rest of the Dialogue of Critias has been lost.
Information on Atlantis Retrieved from Egytian Translations by Solon...
“Solon, who was intending to use the tale for his poem, enquired into the meaning of the names, and found that the early Egyptians in writing them down had translated them into their own language, and he recovered the meaning of the several names and when copying them out again translated them into our language. My great-grandfather, Dropides, had the original writing, which is still in my possession, and was carefully studied by me when I was a child. Therefore if you hear names such as are used in this country, you must not be surprised, for I have told how they came to be introduced. The tale, which was of great length, began as follows:"
Creation of Atlantis...
“And Poseidon, receiving for his lot the island of Atlantis, begat children by a mortal woman, and settled them in a part of the island, which I will describe. Looking towards the sea, but in the centre of the whole island, there was a plain which is said to have been the fairest of all plains and very fertile. Near the plain again, and also in the centre of the island at a distance of about fifty stadia, there was a mountain not very “high on any side. In this mountain there dwelt one of the earth-born primeval men of that country, whose name was Evenor, and he had a wife named Leucippe, and they had an only daughter who was called Cleito. The maiden had already reached womanhood, when her father and mother died; Poseidon fell in love with her and had intercourse with her, and breaking the ground, inclosed the hill in which she dwelt all round, making alternate zones of sea and land larger and smaller, encircling one another; there were two of land and three of water, which he turned as with a lathe, each having its circumference equidistant every way from the centre, so that no man could get to the island,”
King of Atlantis...
“He also begat and brought up five pairs of twin male children; and dividing the island of Atlantis into ten portions, he gave to the first-born of the eldest pair his mother's dwelling and the surrounding allotment, which was the largest and best, and made him king over the rest; the others he made princes, and gave them rule over many men, and a large territory. And he named them all; the eldest, who was the first king, he named Atlas, and after him the whole island and the ocean were called Atlantic. ”
Atlantis Mountains...
“This part of the island looked towards the south, and was sheltered from the north. The surrounding mountains were celebrated for their number and size and beauty, far beyond any which still exist,”
Approaching the End of Atlantis...
“Such was the vast power which the god settled in the lost island of Atlantis; and this he afterwards directed against our land for the following reasons, as tradition tells: For many generations, as long as the divine nature lasted in them, they were obedient to the laws, and well-affectioned towards the god, whose seed they were; for they possessed true and in every way great spirits, uniting gentleness with wisdom in the various chances of life, and in their intercourse with one another. They despised everything but virtue, caring little for their present state of life, and thinking lightly of the possession of gold and other property, which seemed only a burden to them; neither were they intoxicated by luxury; nor did wealth deprive them of their self-control; but they were sober, and saw clearly that all these goods are increased by virtue and friendship with one another, whereas by too great regard and respect for them, they are lost and friendship with them. By such reflections and by the continuance in them of a divine nature, the qualities which we have described “grew and increased among them; but when the divine portion began to fade away, and became diluted too often and too much with the mortal admixture, and the human nature got the upper hand, they then, being unable to bear their fortune, behaved unseemly, and to him who had an eye to see grew visibly debased, for they were losing the fairest of their precious gifts; but to those who had no eye to see the true happiness, they appeared glorious and blessed at the very time when they were full of avarice and unrighteous power. Zeus, the god of gods, who rules according to law, and is able to see into such things, perceiving that an honourable race was in a woeful plight, and wanting to inflict punishment on them, that they might be chastened and improve, collected all the gods into their most holy habitation, which, being placed in the centre of the world, beholds all created things. And when he had called them together, he spake as follows—”
Unfortunately :( ...
The rest of the Dialogue of Critias has been lost.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
April 5, 2019
Strange to say, this might be the most contemporary-feeling of all Plato's dialogues. A detailed description of a city bound by concentric rings of sea and land, rationally ordered along lines of wealth and holiness converging on a citadel of overwhelming opulence. Each ring is bridged and has a connective canal which flows eventually to sea. There are echoes of this in the medieval chain-of-being. Particularly, for example, in the mention of the different metals used to plate the walls, which grow in value from tin to orichalcum to gold as they approach the centre. But it is of modern fantasy and sci-fi one first thinks of. Particularly the physical and architectural replication of social differences and roles, likewise in truly fantastical descriptions of the inner temple stuffed with statuary: 'as to the interior, they made the roof all of ivory in appearance, variegated with gold and silver and orichalcum, and all the rest of the walls and pillars and floors they covered with orichalcum. And they placed therein golden statues, one being that of the God [Poseidon] standing on a chariot and driving six winged steeds, his own figure so tall as to touch the ridge of the roof, and round about him a hundred Nereids on dolphins."
The whole is built on a God-levelled plane in the shape of a rectangle, otherwise completely surrounded by mountains said to tower over any such others in the known world. The canal which flows from the central palace to the sea is 'roofed over above so that the sea-way was subterranean.' Each ring of land has space devoted to horses and barracks, and the rings contain battle-ready triremes with attendant tack. All this before the supposed battle took place against ancient Athens and the entire island suck beneath the waves!
The whole is built on a God-levelled plane in the shape of a rectangle, otherwise completely surrounded by mountains said to tower over any such others in the known world. The canal which flows from the central palace to the sea is 'roofed over above so that the sea-way was subterranean.' Each ring of land has space devoted to horses and barracks, and the rings contain battle-ready triremes with attendant tack. All this before the supposed battle took place against ancient Athens and the entire island suck beneath the waves!
September 1, 2025
I bé, a penes un no-res, una resta de diàleg, surant al mar dels temps, com l’Atlàntida mateixa que esmenta i que, evidentment, és purament mítica. Aquí es fa èmfasi en la certesa platònica de la història com a cicle, de la virtut al vici, de l’estat ideal a la tirania i torna a començar, al mateix ritme que el propi univers tira endavant, tira enrere: en fi, kósmos i pólis, evidentment, sempre relacionades.
July 2, 2025
me gustó mucho el contenido de este libro, contiene el tipo de literatura mitológica, contenido acerca de la isla de la atlantida, me gusta que nos dan a entender que platón que a pesar de lo buena que pueda ser una civilización o ser la más rica o la más poderosa, pueden perder todo si pierden los valores más importantes como la virtud, me gustó el texto, había de la atlantida y es un escrito antiguo, por eso le llamo la atención, es una parte de tres, por eso no tiene un final en especial, me gustó el lenguaje y la manera en la que narra la trama, lo recomendaría y lo volvería a leer.
January 29, 2021
The city of Atlantis is mentioned in two texts by Plato: Timaeus and Critias. These works are roughly 2371 years old, and the stories told of Atlantis, places the city 9000 years further back in time, that puts Atlantis existence at least 11370 years into the past. This in itself is no proof of its existence, yet it is interesting to read about it from the earliest sources. That date puts us awfully close to the recent discovery of a 31 kilometer wide impact crater found under the ice of Greenland. Source here: https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2018/...
One might wonder then, if Graham Hancock is right, that we are indeed a species with close to absolute amnesia of our deep past.
Direct quotes:
Of the combatants on the one side, the city of Athens was reported to have been the leader and to have fought out the war; the combatants on the other side were commanded by the kings of Atlantis, which, as was saying, was an island greater in extent than Libya and Asia, and when afterwards sunk by an earthquake, became an impassable barrier of mud to voyagers sailing from hence to any part of the ocean.
Many great deluges have taken place during the nine thousand years, for that is the number of years which have elapsed since the time of which I am speaking..
One might wonder then, if Graham Hancock is right, that we are indeed a species with close to absolute amnesia of our deep past.
Direct quotes:
Of the combatants on the one side, the city of Athens was reported to have been the leader and to have fought out the war; the combatants on the other side were commanded by the kings of Atlantis, which, as was saying, was an island greater in extent than Libya and Asia, and when afterwards sunk by an earthquake, became an impassable barrier of mud to voyagers sailing from hence to any part of the ocean.
Many great deluges have taken place during the nine thousand years, for that is the number of years which have elapsed since the time of which I am speaking..
August 4, 2020
A short platonic dialogue that blurs the lines between myth and history. I found Critias’ description of the ideal city, Atlantis, quite imaginative.
May 31, 2022
Well, this book supposed to talk about higher matter, of gods, etc. But the content was not full and the text lost in the middle. So we don't have the complete version of this book.
Read
June 6, 2022Nice short dialogue about structure and laws of Atlantis
June 11, 2021
Ytterligare en genomgång av Atlantismyterna, denna gång beskrivande platons föreställningar om öns storlek och läge. Jag rekommenderar den inte.
Read
August 25, 2024QUE LES DIJO
December 2, 2025
La relecture a été plus agréable que la première lecture. Cependant, heureusement que je l'ai acheté d'occasion à 3euros à quelqu'un qui l'avait acheté neuf en 2002 à 6euros, et non pas neuf actuellement à 11euros comme indiqué sur le site de l'éditeur ...
October 12, 2012
There is way more to Plato than just ethereal forms: he seems to have had quite a poetic talent and here he was just getting quite good when he didn't finish and suddenly
March 20, 2019
It’s extremely short because half of the text is missing but if you find ancient text about Atlantis interesting, give this a quick read.
June 6, 2023
The origin of the Atlantis myth
“Such was the vast power which the god settled in the lost island of Atlantis; and this he afterwards directed against our land” of Athens. - Timaeus (c. 360 BCE)
Plato’s dialogues Timaeus and Critias provide the original story of Atlantis. It was a great civilization whose people eventually became “unable to bear their fortune, behaved unseemly, and…grew visibly debased.” They engaged in an unprovoked war against Europe and Asia. The much smaller state of Athens defeated Atlantis in battle and freed everyone the Atlantians had enslaved. After the battle, a series of earthquakes and floods sunk the island of Atlantis into the sea with its entire human population.
“The combatants on the other side were commanded by the kings of Atlantis, which…was an island greater in extent than Libya and Asia, and when afterwards sunk by an earthquake, became an impassable barrier of mud to voyagers sailing from hence to any part of the ocean.”
Plato estimates that the events took place 9,000 years before his time, or around 9,500 BCE. That was long before Athens came into existence, as archeologists estimate that humans didn’t even settle the region known as Athens until around 3000 BCE. It is highly unlikely that Plato intended the story of Atlantis to be taken as factual history. He was a philosopher not an historian. His writings that still exist are fictionalized dialogues that are used to convey philosophical discussions between a small number of historical figures, often real-life people that he probably knew personally. This was a common literary technique during his day and age. Plato never appears to have been trying to give his readers insight into these characters, rather he used them to help draw his readers into the discussions. The story of Atlantis is almost certainly fictional and used to prove a philosophical point. As I understand it, the fate of Atlantis is an allegory to warn his readers about the risk of hubris destroying great nations. Timaeus and Critias are the oldest accounts of Atlantis. All later texts about the empire are clearly inspired by Plato’s work.
While modern popular culture often depicts Atlantis as an Utopia, Plato very clearly does not depict it as a society that should be admired. Atlantis in Timaeus and Critias is an empire sired by the great god Poseidon and grows debased over time, leading to its humiliating defeat by a much smaller city-state (Athens) and total destruction at the hands of the gods.
Additionally, there is no evidence of highly advanced technology in Atlantis that we often see depicted in the 20th and 21st century. Atlantis is highly advanced by the standards of Plato’s day, but certainly not by the standards of our day:
The myth of Atlantis as found in Timaeus and Critias makes for interesting reading, even though Critias is incomplete. Rather than being an historical civilization, Atlantis was probably inspired by recent history of Plato's day, Athens’ conflicts with the much larger Persian empire (499 BCE-449 BCE), the ancient Minoan civilization (circa 3500-1100 BCE), the history of floods in the region, and other sources. The raft of conspiracy theories about Atlantis that exist today were mostly inspired by the Atlantis: The Antediluvian World (1882) by Ignatius L. Donnelly, who just made a whole bunch of things up out of thin air.
Sources:
Critias (Jowett translation): http://classics.mit.edu/Plato/critias...
Timaeus (Jowett translation): http://classics.mit.edu/Plato/timaeus...
Cinizia DuBois (The Lady of the Library): “Was Atlantis Real? Atlantis and the Minotaur | Part 1” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CeHIb...
Cinizia DuBois (The Lady of the Library): “Did Egypt Know of Atlantis? | Debunking Atlantis Ep.2” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W-d6e...
Title: Timaeus
Author: Plato
Year: circa 360 BCE
Translator: Benjamin Jowett
Translation year: 1871
Genre: Fiction/Nonfiction - Philosophy, Socratic dialogue
Date(s) read: 12/2/22-12/3/22
Reading journal entry #318 in 2022
Plato's dialogues:
Early:
Apology,
Charmides,
Crito,
Euthyphro,
Gorgias
Hippias Minor,
Hippias Major,
Ion,
Laches,
Lysis,
Protagoras,
Menexenus
Alcibiades I
Middle:
Cratylus,
Euthydemus,
Meno,
Parmenides,
Phaedo,
Phaedrus,
Clitophon,
Republic,
Symposium,
Theaetetus
Late:
Critias,
Sophist,
Statesman,
Timaeus,
Philebus,
Laws
“Such was the vast power which the god settled in the lost island of Atlantis; and this he afterwards directed against our land” of Athens. - Timaeus (c. 360 BCE)
Plato’s dialogues Timaeus and Critias provide the original story of Atlantis. It was a great civilization whose people eventually became “unable to bear their fortune, behaved unseemly, and…grew visibly debased.” They engaged in an unprovoked war against Europe and Asia. The much smaller state of Athens defeated Atlantis in battle and freed everyone the Atlantians had enslaved. After the battle, a series of earthquakes and floods sunk the island of Atlantis into the sea with its entire human population.
“The combatants on the other side were commanded by the kings of Atlantis, which…was an island greater in extent than Libya and Asia, and when afterwards sunk by an earthquake, became an impassable barrier of mud to voyagers sailing from hence to any part of the ocean.”
Plato estimates that the events took place 9,000 years before his time, or around 9,500 BCE. That was long before Athens came into existence, as archeologists estimate that humans didn’t even settle the region known as Athens until around 3000 BCE. It is highly unlikely that Plato intended the story of Atlantis to be taken as factual history. He was a philosopher not an historian. His writings that still exist are fictionalized dialogues that are used to convey philosophical discussions between a small number of historical figures, often real-life people that he probably knew personally. This was a common literary technique during his day and age. Plato never appears to have been trying to give his readers insight into these characters, rather he used them to help draw his readers into the discussions. The story of Atlantis is almost certainly fictional and used to prove a philosophical point. As I understand it, the fate of Atlantis is an allegory to warn his readers about the risk of hubris destroying great nations. Timaeus and Critias are the oldest accounts of Atlantis. All later texts about the empire are clearly inspired by Plato’s work.
While modern popular culture often depicts Atlantis as an Utopia, Plato very clearly does not depict it as a society that should be admired. Atlantis in Timaeus and Critias is an empire sired by the great god Poseidon and grows debased over time, leading to its humiliating defeat by a much smaller city-state (Athens) and total destruction at the hands of the gods.
Additionally, there is no evidence of highly advanced technology in Atlantis that we often see depicted in the 20th and 21st century. Atlantis is highly advanced by the standards of Plato’s day, but certainly not by the standards of our day:
“I will now describe the plain, as it was fashioned by nature and by the labours of many generations of kings through long ages. It was for the most part rectangular and oblong, and where falling out of the straight line followed the circular ditch. The depth, and width, and length of this ditch were incredible, and gave the impression that a work of such extent, in addition to so many others, could never have been artificial. Nevertheless I must say what I was told. It was excavated to the depth of a hundred, feet, and its breadth was a stadium everywhere; it was carried round the whole of the plain, and was ten thousand stadia in length. It received the streams which came down from the mountains, and winding round the plain and meeting at the city, was there let off into the sea. Further inland, likewise, straight canals of a hundred feet in width were cut from it through the plain, and again let off into the ditch leading to the sea: these canals were at intervals of a hundred stadia, and by them they brought down the wood from the mountains to the city, and conveyed the fruits of the earth in ships, cutting transverse passages from one canal into another, and to the city. Twice in the year they gathered the fruits of the earth-in winter having the benefit of the rains of heaven, and in summer the water which the land supplied by introducing streams from the canals.”
The myth of Atlantis as found in Timaeus and Critias makes for interesting reading, even though Critias is incomplete. Rather than being an historical civilization, Atlantis was probably inspired by recent history of Plato's day, Athens’ conflicts with the much larger Persian empire (499 BCE-449 BCE), the ancient Minoan civilization (circa 3500-1100 BCE), the history of floods in the region, and other sources. The raft of conspiracy theories about Atlantis that exist today were mostly inspired by the Atlantis: The Antediluvian World (1882) by Ignatius L. Donnelly, who just made a whole bunch of things up out of thin air.
Sources:
Critias (Jowett translation): http://classics.mit.edu/Plato/critias...
Timaeus (Jowett translation): http://classics.mit.edu/Plato/timaeus...
Cinizia DuBois (The Lady of the Library): “Was Atlantis Real? Atlantis and the Minotaur | Part 1” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CeHIb...
Cinizia DuBois (The Lady of the Library): “Did Egypt Know of Atlantis? | Debunking Atlantis Ep.2” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W-d6e...
Title: Timaeus
Author: Plato
Year: circa 360 BCE
Translator: Benjamin Jowett
Translation year: 1871
Genre: Fiction/Nonfiction - Philosophy, Socratic dialogue
Date(s) read: 12/2/22-12/3/22
Reading journal entry #318 in 2022
Plato's dialogues:
Early:
Apology,
Charmides,
Crito,
Euthyphro,
Gorgias
Hippias Minor,
Hippias Major,
Ion,
Laches,
Lysis,
Protagoras,
Menexenus
Alcibiades I
Middle:
Cratylus,
Euthydemus,
Meno,
Parmenides,
Phaedo,
Phaedrus,
Clitophon,
Republic,
Symposium,
Theaetetus
Late:
Critias,
Sophist,
Statesman,
Timaeus,
Philebus,
Laws
September 9, 2019
Beogradski izdavačko-grafički zavod
Beograd, 1983.
"Prevod sa grčkog i predgovor:" Ksenija Maricki Gađanski
Branko Pavlović je autor konkretnog predgovora dijaloga "Kritija" (izdanje posjeduje unutar istih korica još druga dva dijaloga, Koja? Ha, posudite knjigu pa vidite!).
Pavlovićev predgovor je lame, na vrlo plitki način pristupa ovom dijalogu. Pokušava geografski odrediti Atlandtidu da bi još površnije zaključio da je Atlantida metafora društva kakvo bi trebalo postojati.
Sama Ksenija Maricki Gađanski ima u druga dva predgovora također uskogrudne materijalističke pristupe Platonu. Bljak!
Dijalog je poseban prije svega jer glavnu spiku vodi Kritija, a ne Sokrat. Time je Kritija glas Platona u ovom dijalogu. Pavlović u tom smislu dobro zaključuje kako je "Kritija" vjerojatno dio "Timaja", a ne zaseban dijalog, jer zašto bi "Kritija" bio toliko poseban dijalog da tu Sokrat nije DJ?
Kako je "Kritija" nedovršen dijalog nikad nećemo moći sa sigurnošću reći koliko se može uistinu smatrati zasebnim dijalogom.
U vez plitkih materijalističkih stvari kul su dvije pojave u dijalogu.
Legura oreihalk za koju se ne zna što bi bila, pretpostavlja se da ju je Platon izmislio. Atlantiđani su je koristili za gradnju mnogih stvari.
Druga pojava je biološke prirode. Slonovi. Jedine životinje koje Platon spominje kao članice biotopa Atlantide su slonovi.
Topos miješanja bogova i ljudi kao načina stvaranja vladara i u Atlantidi i u Ateni je vrlo dejvidajkovski. Također, navedeni topos je izrazito unverzalne prirode te time ne bi trebao biti način ostvarivanja profita sjedokosog nogometaša.
Slonovi u Atlantidi su mi zanimljivi jer mi bacaju na topos Lemurije. No, jasno je definirana Atlantida kao zemlja s one strane Heraklovih stupova čime nikako ne bi mogla biti u Indijskom oceanu. Ako ćemo biti toliko History Channel onda možemo reći da su kolumbijski mamuti doživjeli dolazak prvih ljudi u Sjevernu Ameriku... No, ja se pretvram u Pavlovića, a srao sam protiv njega na početku osvrta.
Koji sam ja serator.
Kritija baca da mu je legendu o Atlandtidi bacilo egipatsko svećeništvo posredno preko Solona čije spise ima netko u njegovoj obitelji. Kritija bi bio neki Solonov potomak.
Ovaj dijalog je u sadržajnom smislu puno buke nizašto. Nije jezično na nekoj književnoumjetničkoj razini niti je sadržajno zapravo zanimljiv.
Može se smatrati svojevrsnim začetkom utopije. I načinom ostvarivanja profita Davida Ickea.
¡Hasta luego!
Beograd, 1983.
"Prevod sa grčkog i predgovor:" Ksenija Maricki Gađanski
Branko Pavlović je autor konkretnog predgovora dijaloga "Kritija" (izdanje posjeduje unutar istih korica još druga dva dijaloga, Koja? Ha, posudite knjigu pa vidite!).
Pavlovićev predgovor je lame, na vrlo plitki način pristupa ovom dijalogu. Pokušava geografski odrediti Atlandtidu da bi još površnije zaključio da je Atlantida metafora društva kakvo bi trebalo postojati.
Sama Ksenija Maricki Gađanski ima u druga dva predgovora također uskogrudne materijalističke pristupe Platonu. Bljak!
Dijalog je poseban prije svega jer glavnu spiku vodi Kritija, a ne Sokrat. Time je Kritija glas Platona u ovom dijalogu. Pavlović u tom smislu dobro zaključuje kako je "Kritija" vjerojatno dio "Timaja", a ne zaseban dijalog, jer zašto bi "Kritija" bio toliko poseban dijalog da tu Sokrat nije DJ?
Kako je "Kritija" nedovršen dijalog nikad nećemo moći sa sigurnošću reći koliko se može uistinu smatrati zasebnim dijalogom.
U vez plitkih materijalističkih stvari kul su dvije pojave u dijalogu.
Legura oreihalk za koju se ne zna što bi bila, pretpostavlja se da ju je Platon izmislio. Atlantiđani su je koristili za gradnju mnogih stvari.
Druga pojava je biološke prirode. Slonovi. Jedine životinje koje Platon spominje kao članice biotopa Atlantide su slonovi.
Topos miješanja bogova i ljudi kao načina stvaranja vladara i u Atlantidi i u Ateni je vrlo dejvidajkovski. Također, navedeni topos je izrazito unverzalne prirode te time ne bi trebao biti način ostvarivanja profita sjedokosog nogometaša.
Slonovi u Atlantidi su mi zanimljivi jer mi bacaju na topos Lemurije. No, jasno je definirana Atlantida kao zemlja s one strane Heraklovih stupova čime nikako ne bi mogla biti u Indijskom oceanu. Ako ćemo biti toliko History Channel onda možemo reći da su kolumbijski mamuti doživjeli dolazak prvih ljudi u Sjevernu Ameriku... No, ja se pretvram u Pavlovića, a srao sam protiv njega na početku osvrta.
Koji sam ja serator.
Kritija baca da mu je legendu o Atlandtidi bacilo egipatsko svećeništvo posredno preko Solona čije spise ima netko u njegovoj obitelji. Kritija bi bio neki Solonov potomak.
Ovaj dijalog je u sadržajnom smislu puno buke nizašto. Nije jezično na nekoj književnoumjetničkoj razini niti je sadržajno zapravo zanimljiv.
Može se smatrati svojevrsnim začetkom utopije. I načinom ostvarivanja profita Davida Ickea.
¡Hasta luego!
April 20, 2024
In this Platonic dialogue, Critias explains the origins of both Athens and Atlantis and elaborates on the structure, beauty, and harmony of the latter. Beautiful passages abound in this dialogue, like the copper "glittering like darting fire," buildings built with different colored stones, "variegating the colors to bring out their natural charm," and trees "of extraordinary beauty and height." It was a land brimming with mountains, springs, and fountains, where elephants traversed.
By drawing on Atlantis, Critias provides evidence that their ideal city is very much plausible: for example, the warriors lived separately from the rest of the citizens, just like their guardians would: "On the heights the class of warriors lived in isolation, as if they belonged to a single household, around the sanctuary of Athena and Hephaestos, which they had enclosed by a single garden wall."
The people of Atlantis were special in that they originally did not care for gold or silver; in fact they shared their possessions. They were prudent, friendly, and virtuous, living lives of moderation. "They could see distinctly that their wealth increased with their amity and its companion, virtue." Nevertheless, this lifestyle did not last. They lost focus of their divine treasures and became disordered: "inwardly, they were filled with an unjust lust for possessions and power."
The conclusion is intriguing, since it ends mid quote; perhaps, he ended it this way to suggest that any ideal city or any noble soul will meet their early end too if they give themselves over to their baser nature.
By drawing on Atlantis, Critias provides evidence that their ideal city is very much plausible: for example, the warriors lived separately from the rest of the citizens, just like their guardians would: "On the heights the class of warriors lived in isolation, as if they belonged to a single household, around the sanctuary of Athena and Hephaestos, which they had enclosed by a single garden wall."
The people of Atlantis were special in that they originally did not care for gold or silver; in fact they shared their possessions. They were prudent, friendly, and virtuous, living lives of moderation. "They could see distinctly that their wealth increased with their amity and its companion, virtue." Nevertheless, this lifestyle did not last. They lost focus of their divine treasures and became disordered: "inwardly, they were filled with an unjust lust for possessions and power."
The conclusion is intriguing, since it ends mid quote; perhaps, he ended it this way to suggest that any ideal city or any noble soul will meet their early end too if they give themselves over to their baser nature.
January 30, 2025
Source: just trust me bro. It’s hard to rate an unfinished work such as this one. It literally stops mid sentence: “And when the gods had assembled, [Zeus] said:…” Talk about a cliffhanger. Critias is the second work in a trilogy, following Timaeus of dialogues by Plato which remains incomplete. While the first work is finished and is worthy of analysis, Critias is incomplete and the third dialogue was never even written. Critias tells the story of the rise and fall of Atlantis. Yes, the legendary Atlantis, the city buried under the ocean. In fact, not only does he tell this story, but he is the only source for this story. Literally no one else had come up with this before him. Of course, Atlantis is just another variation on the theme of the flood myth, but it’s still interesting to note how much influence this one incomplete dialogue by Plato had on modern culture. So yeah, if any person around you tries to talk about the many conspiracy theories regarding Atlantis, ask them if they read Critias. If they haven’t (which is likely given conspiracy theorists have a hard time being literate or intelligent in any way), you might as well ignore them. I mean, in the end, the story of Atlantis is just a plot device invented by Plato to talk about the descent into degeneracy of his fellow Athenians. In a sense, it is almost a proto-fascist story. Regardless, I have to give credit to Plato for coming up with a whole ass place and a whole ass backstory, just to leave this dialogue unfinished and leave people wondering about Atlantis for millennia. What a guy! 3/5
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