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Lost Continents: Atlantis Theme in History, Science and Literature
A leading authority examines the facts and fancies behind the Atlantis theme in history, science, and literature. Sources include the classical works from which Plato drew his proposal of the existence of an island continent, Sir Thomas More's Utopia, the Lemurian Continent theory, K. T. Frost's equation of Atlantis with Crete, and many other citations of Atlantis in both famous and lesser-known literature. Related legends are also recounted and refuted, and reports include accounts of actual expeditions searching for the sunken continent and attempts to prove its existence through comparative anatomy and zoology.
381 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 1954
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About the author
L. Sprague de Camp
759 books312 followersLyon Sprague de Camp was an American author of science fiction, fantasy and non-fiction literature. In a career spanning 60 years, he wrote over 100 books, both novels and works of non-fiction, including biographies of other fantasy authors. He was a major figure in science fiction in the 1930s and 1940s.
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Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews
March 4, 2020
A nice survey of, as it says on the tin, the Atlantis theme in history, science and literature, beginning with Plato's original dialogues (where "Atlantis" was mostly something he made up as a sort of allegory) and proceeding to wackadoo 19th & 20th century grifters and charlatans like Madame Blavatsky and Edgar Cayce (with all of their secret masters, super-science and sorcery), plus some of the more rational adherents (for very relative values of "rational") like Ignatius Donnelly and Augustus Le Plongeon (who didn't hold truck with the flying airships &c., but who did try to place Atlantis as the wellspring of civilization and the common link between Egypt and Mesoamerica because, y'know, they both built pyramids (in very different ways and for very different purposes, but still: Pyramids!).
The bulk of the book is a series of chapters looking at, and debunking, the most common claims of the old Atlantis adherents in varying degrees of detail; then there's a section about the use of Atlantis in fiction going back to the 16th or 17th century and progressing to such relatively contemporary writers as Charles John Cutcliffe Wright Hyne (The Lost Continent: The Story of Atlantis), Robert E. Howard (various Kull and Conan stories, amongst other) and Jane Gaskell (the Atlan books).
The tone is … avuncular. Generally polite, a tad on the formal side, occasionally fussily pedantic, but never less than engaging. Some of the science is dated (this is a 1970 revision of a book from the 1950s, so plate tectonics & continental drift theories were only just beginning to come into vogue and be accepted by geologists), but as a survey of the history of Atlantis (and, occasionally, Lemuria or Mu), it still holds up nicely.
The bulk of the book is a series of chapters looking at, and debunking, the most common claims of the old Atlantis adherents in varying degrees of detail; then there's a section about the use of Atlantis in fiction going back to the 16th or 17th century and progressing to such relatively contemporary writers as Charles John Cutcliffe Wright Hyne (The Lost Continent: The Story of Atlantis), Robert E. Howard (various Kull and Conan stories, amongst other) and Jane Gaskell (the Atlan books).
The tone is … avuncular. Generally polite, a tad on the formal side, occasionally fussily pedantic, but never less than engaging. Some of the science is dated (this is a 1970 revision of a book from the 1950s, so plate tectonics & continental drift theories were only just beginning to come into vogue and be accepted by geologists), but as a survey of the history of Atlantis (and, occasionally, Lemuria or Mu), it still holds up nicely.
June 24, 2020
de Camp's extremely reasonable and evidence-based approach is almost a comical contrast to the various lunatic theories he utterly demolishes. A sunken mid-Pacific Atlantis is impossible because there's no evidence of continental material on the ocean floor. Plato could not have been making reference to, say, Britain, in his original writings because the scope of Greek geographical knowledge did not spread that far. Comparative analysis of contemporary cultures in search of a root parent culture is baloney. Theosophists are out of their collective gourds. And so on.
He reserves a dollop of snark for poor scholarship and outright hucksterism, which is to say that the most amusing of these theories--Theosophy--is brushed past immediately.
But in light of the overall thesis of this piece, this makes sense. de Camp proceeds from the demolition phase to discussions of Plato's original source material and inspirations and from there into how it figures into utopian literature and fantastic literature. Make no mistake, though, that between the chapters of Theosophy and fantastic literature--the entire middle--there is some real snooze material where he didn't need to show _all_ his work.
He reserves a dollop of snark for poor scholarship and outright hucksterism, which is to say that the most amusing of these theories--Theosophy--is brushed past immediately.
But in light of the overall thesis of this piece, this makes sense. de Camp proceeds from the demolition phase to discussions of Plato's original source material and inspirations and from there into how it figures into utopian literature and fantastic literature. Make no mistake, though, that between the chapters of Theosophy and fantastic literature--the entire middle--there is some real snooze material where he didn't need to show _all_ his work.
May 18, 2021
I started this book believing that it was going to be more of the pseudo-science garbage that I so love to read about ancient aliens, lost continents, forgotten civilizations, etc. However, as I got past the first few pages, I realized that Mr. de Camp wrote a book here which actually analyzes all of the various "Atlantists" and their theories, hypotheses, and ideas, traces them back to as close to a source as he can find, and then shows how ludicrous, silly, misinformed, cherry-picked, or just plain wrong they are and/or their interpretation is.
It was a delightful read, and I know more about the actual history of Plato's original Atlantis story than I did previously.
It was a delightful read, and I know more about the actual history of Plato's original Atlantis story than I did previously.
January 14, 2016
The most clear eyed approach to Atlantis and lost continents. If you need to do an Atlantis book report start here. I've read his Conan books, so I have no doubt of his interest and sincerity on the subject.
July 22, 2013
Although this book is nothing but a compendium of mostly old legends of lost and mysterious lands like Atlantis, Mu and Lemuria, it is well-written and quite entertaining. I recommend it to anyone who knows little of these matters and wants an introduction to them.
February 21, 2021
The story of Atlantis presented in two of Plato's dialogues, "Timaios" and "Kritias," has proliferated in the centuries that follow, spawning thousands of books, movies, and short stories, and mesmerizing acolytes who've accepted Plato's obvious fiction as real.
In 1954 the science fiction and fantasy author L. Sprague de Camp published his study of "The Atlantis Theme in History, Science and Literature," as the subtitle of "Lost Continents" has it. While he devotes some discussion to the other two famous lost continents of Mu and Lemuria, the lion's share of the book focuses on the first and most famous of them all.
De Camp is an excellent writer, wry, sardonic, clever, and creative; turns of phrase had me laughing out loud, and his skill pulls you along as if you were reading a novel and not what is, in fact, a highly serious and thoroughly researched academic study.
The book falls naturally into several parts, which do not quite cohere in the sense of making a single overarching case. The first chapter deals with Plato's own account, followed by several that trace the subsequent history of "Atlantis-thinking" down to the twentieth century. Here de Camp is at pains to show that taking Atlantis seriously is simply impossible. He reviews the science about continental drift (added for the 1970 Dover edition), vulcanism, tsunamis, and other disasters, to show that they cannot have submerged an entire continent in a matter of hours. In a chapter on Lemuria he reveals how serious nineteenth-century zoologists and geologists posited a bridge between Africa and India to explain the presence of lemurs in both (as well as Madagascar) -- hence the name, Lemuria -- which was then taken up by cranks and transferred to the South Pacific.
These early chapters review the various nutty writings claiming to have proven the actual existence of Atlantis -- J. Lewis Spence's many volumes, Annie Besant and Helena Blavatsky, dueling divas of Theosophy, and James Churchward's three book on Mu, among many others; these volumes remain in print, easily tracked down on Amazon. De Camp demolishes their arguments (such as they are) and never refrains from offering an opinion on the intelligence of the authors and the character of their prose. These are some of the best pages of the book for sheer wicked entertainment.
The latter part of "Lost Continents" veers off in a rather different direction. De Camp asks what might have been the sources of Plato's story, and this leads him into a long exploration of pre-Greek history and the nature of mythology. These chapters I found less compelling; they weren't as funny as taking down a Spence (but then what would be?) and seemed a bit of a diversion from the larger theme of the book. In the end his conclusion is underwhelming: Plato made it all up borrowing bits and pieces of information or tales current in his day. Perhaps this is necessary thorough to refute any notion that Plato was writing a history, but the conclusion seems obvious to any likely reader of de Camp's book.
The last chapter offers brief summaries and assessments of science fiction that has used the Atlantis theme, and here de Camp reverts to his irreverent, sardonic, and extremely satisfying style. If a book's unreadable -- and oh so many are -- he does not hesitate to say so.
Unreadable or not, however, de Camp has read them -- and a mass of other material in English, French, and German. He gives evidence of knowing Greek as well. In fact the range of his reading is truly astounding -- nothing seems to have escaped his eye, no mater how obscure or virtually inaccessible. In this regard it is greatly regrettable that for the 1970 Dover reprint -- which I read and which de Camp revised, making it the definitive text -- he decided to excise the footnotes in the original. He does not say so but I suspect Dover made that a condition of publication. The bibliography lacks probably 60-70% or more of the items de Camp cites, meaning that if you want to track down many publications -- he often only refers to an author by the last name and is inconsistent about giving titles -- you'll either have to get hold of the first edition and do some correlation, or, as I did for some books that interested me, prowl through World Cat. He did leave in, however, two very useful appendices: A gives translations of all Greek and Latin texts mentioning Atlantis and C lists later interpreters, giving their date and where they located the lost continent.
The Atlantis industry has hardly paused since de Camp delivered his final word in 1970. Fifty years on hundreds, maybe thousands, of books continue either to push the continent's reality, against all logic and evidence, or use it as a setting; judging by a search on Goodreads, it seems especially favored by writers of romance novels. So in one sense "Lost Continents" is grossly out of date. But in another that really doesn't matter: the case against the devotees of the lost continent has not changed since his day (even if some of de Camp's science is now outdated) and if you want a deep dive down the rabbit hole with a really smart, really funny, and really engaging guide, you can't do better than to grab on, hold tight, and be willing to be astounding at the unplumbed depths of human gullibility -- from which Sprague de Camp will gladly save you.
In 1954 the science fiction and fantasy author L. Sprague de Camp published his study of "The Atlantis Theme in History, Science and Literature," as the subtitle of "Lost Continents" has it. While he devotes some discussion to the other two famous lost continents of Mu and Lemuria, the lion's share of the book focuses on the first and most famous of them all.
De Camp is an excellent writer, wry, sardonic, clever, and creative; turns of phrase had me laughing out loud, and his skill pulls you along as if you were reading a novel and not what is, in fact, a highly serious and thoroughly researched academic study.
The book falls naturally into several parts, which do not quite cohere in the sense of making a single overarching case. The first chapter deals with Plato's own account, followed by several that trace the subsequent history of "Atlantis-thinking" down to the twentieth century. Here de Camp is at pains to show that taking Atlantis seriously is simply impossible. He reviews the science about continental drift (added for the 1970 Dover edition), vulcanism, tsunamis, and other disasters, to show that they cannot have submerged an entire continent in a matter of hours. In a chapter on Lemuria he reveals how serious nineteenth-century zoologists and geologists posited a bridge between Africa and India to explain the presence of lemurs in both (as well as Madagascar) -- hence the name, Lemuria -- which was then taken up by cranks and transferred to the South Pacific.
These early chapters review the various nutty writings claiming to have proven the actual existence of Atlantis -- J. Lewis Spence's many volumes, Annie Besant and Helena Blavatsky, dueling divas of Theosophy, and James Churchward's three book on Mu, among many others; these volumes remain in print, easily tracked down on Amazon. De Camp demolishes their arguments (such as they are) and never refrains from offering an opinion on the intelligence of the authors and the character of their prose. These are some of the best pages of the book for sheer wicked entertainment.
The latter part of "Lost Continents" veers off in a rather different direction. De Camp asks what might have been the sources of Plato's story, and this leads him into a long exploration of pre-Greek history and the nature of mythology. These chapters I found less compelling; they weren't as funny as taking down a Spence (but then what would be?) and seemed a bit of a diversion from the larger theme of the book. In the end his conclusion is underwhelming: Plato made it all up borrowing bits and pieces of information or tales current in his day. Perhaps this is necessary thorough to refute any notion that Plato was writing a history, but the conclusion seems obvious to any likely reader of de Camp's book.
The last chapter offers brief summaries and assessments of science fiction that has used the Atlantis theme, and here de Camp reverts to his irreverent, sardonic, and extremely satisfying style. If a book's unreadable -- and oh so many are -- he does not hesitate to say so.
Unreadable or not, however, de Camp has read them -- and a mass of other material in English, French, and German. He gives evidence of knowing Greek as well. In fact the range of his reading is truly astounding -- nothing seems to have escaped his eye, no mater how obscure or virtually inaccessible. In this regard it is greatly regrettable that for the 1970 Dover reprint -- which I read and which de Camp revised, making it the definitive text -- he decided to excise the footnotes in the original. He does not say so but I suspect Dover made that a condition of publication. The bibliography lacks probably 60-70% or more of the items de Camp cites, meaning that if you want to track down many publications -- he often only refers to an author by the last name and is inconsistent about giving titles -- you'll either have to get hold of the first edition and do some correlation, or, as I did for some books that interested me, prowl through World Cat. He did leave in, however, two very useful appendices: A gives translations of all Greek and Latin texts mentioning Atlantis and C lists later interpreters, giving their date and where they located the lost continent.
The Atlantis industry has hardly paused since de Camp delivered his final word in 1970. Fifty years on hundreds, maybe thousands, of books continue either to push the continent's reality, against all logic and evidence, or use it as a setting; judging by a search on Goodreads, it seems especially favored by writers of romance novels. So in one sense "Lost Continents" is grossly out of date. But in another that really doesn't matter: the case against the devotees of the lost continent has not changed since his day (even if some of de Camp's science is now outdated) and if you want a deep dive down the rabbit hole with a really smart, really funny, and really engaging guide, you can't do better than to grab on, hold tight, and be willing to be astounding at the unplumbed depths of human gullibility -- from which Sprague de Camp will gladly save you.
June 5, 2008
A useful balm against the pseudo-scientific "crap" that's been written about Plato's Atlantis even more than a half century after its release.
May 25, 2024
AN EXCELLENT SUMMARY/OVERVIEW OF SUCH TRADITIONS
Lyon Sprague de Camp (1907-2000) was an American writer of science fiction, fantasy, non-fiction and biography.
De Camp explains in the Preface, “This book was originally written in 1948. After one publisher who had contracted for it failed, it was published serially in the magazine ‘Other Worlds Science Fiction’ in 1952-3 and then published (with revisions) as a clothbound book … in 1954. For the present edition, I have… interpolated a few new paragraphs to bring the work up to date. The main additions are the discussions of eh … triumph of Wegener’s theory of continental drift.”
He recounts, “to consider the story of Atlantis in its earliest known form: … Plato wrote two Socratic dialogues, Timaios and Kritias, wherein he set forth the basic story of Atlantis.” (Pg. 3) He continues, “Socrates is enthusiastic, especially since the account ‘is no invented fable but genuine history.’” (Pg. 7) He adds, “Note that Plato says nothing about the explosives, searchlights, or airplanes with which some imaginative modern Atlantists have credited the Atlanteans.” (Pg. 9)
He observes, “It is worth noting, however, that there is no mention by any writer before Plato of any sunken island in the Atlantic, and no evidence outside of Plato’s word that Solon’s unfinished epic ever existed. There is nothing either in the rather scanty remains of the Pre-Platonic Greek literature; nothing in any of the surviving records of Egypt, Phoenicia, Babylonia, or Sumeria, which go back many centuries before the beginning of Greek civilization. Of course that does not prove that no such accounts existed. Only a small fraction of the original Greek literature has come down to us, owing to the ravages of time and neglect, and the bigotry of early Christians like Pope Gregory I who destroyed pagan literature wholesale lest it distract the faithful from the contemplation of heaven.” (Pg. 10-12)
He notes, “When Europeans began to explore the New World, persons meeting the American natives for the first time jumped to premature conclusions that they were speaking Welsh and were therefore the descendants of Prince Madoc and his band, who in Welsh legend were supposed to have crossed the Atlantic in 1170; or were practicing Hebrew religious rites and were the Ten Lost Tribes of Israel… despite the fact that science has pretty well established that … the American Indians belong to the Mongoloid or Yellow Race along with the Eskimos, Chinese, and Malays, and that they came from Siberia via Alaska.” (Pg. 31)
He recalls, “The evident fact that the whole thing was a hoax has not stopped Atlantists from quoting the younger Schliemann as an authority, sometimes confusing him with his grandfather. The last and gaudiest blossom on this particular branch is the late James Churchward… [who] expanded upon them by assuming two sunken continents, Atlantis in the Atlantic and Mu (corresponding to the occultists’ Lemuria) in the Central Pacific, where for geological reasons we can be reasonably sure there never has been a continent and never will be one.” (Pg. 46-47)
He points out, “By studying the speed of earthquake vibrations, geologists can get a good idea of what the earth’s crust under the oceans is made of… They have learned in this way that the great deeps are plain sima, while the continental shelves and the rough, moderately deep places are partly sial. The greatest areas of deep sima are in the Central Pacific, the southern Indian, and the Arctic Oceans. These are therefore the ‘permanent’ oceans, where no continents are to be expected, past, present, or future. So much for Mu, Pan, and the Theosophical Lemuria, which Atlantists have located in the Central Pacific---the unlikeliest pace on earth for a continent. The great Pacific sima depression is in fact probably one of the most stable and long-lived features of the earth’s surface.” (Pg. 151-153)
He acknowledges, “By normal movements of the earth’s crust, like that of the Baltic region, or by a long series of terrific earthquakes, it might be possible to submerge a low flat island of good size in 100,000 years or so. That, however, takes us back beyond the last glacial advance, and all the data of history and archaeology tell us that civilization did not arise until seven or eight thousand years ago. Furthermore there is good reason to believe that traditions cannot be handed down by word of mouth for more than a few centuries and still retain enough of their original form to be recognized. Therefore the events of 100,000 years ago have nothing to do with Plato’s Atlantis.” (Pg. 175)
He summarizes, “We have learned a good deal in a negative way---that is, we have eliminated a lot of possibilities as unlikely or impossible. We know now that Plato could not have been describing a real event, in any literal sense, because according to all the geological evidence his Atlantic continent never existed and no continent ever disappeared in the way he described. Furthermore, the arguments of Atlantists to prove the Atlantean origin of all civilization, from cultural similarities between various peoples, are quite useless for that purpose. These arguments, based upon mistaken ideas of archaeology, anthropology, mythology, linguistics, and kindred sciences, are at worst ridiculous and at best can be used with equal ease to support entirely different theories, such as the diffusionist or the continental-drift theories.” (Pg. 206)
He concludes, “I hope I have shown that the arguments of most members of the Atlantist cult are not to be taken very seriously. For the most part they repeat the long-since-refuted assertions of Donnelley, Le Plongeon, and other early Atlantists, and the wilder speculations of eighteenth and nineteenth century historians, anthropologists, and geologists, ignoring the immense progress that has been made in these fields of science during the past half-century. From a few resemblances between places, cultures, and languages in various parts of the world the instantly deduce connections, as do the diffusionists, the Ten Tribists, and those who locate Homer’s Scheria all over the map. Obviously no system or reasoning that gives nine-and-sixty different results when applied to one set of facts can be worth much. To discover true connections among scattered human culture-traits you must do more than consider resemblances: you must take into account all the other possibilities, and also consider differences as well as similarities.” (Pg. 276)
This book will be “must reading” for anyone wanting a general survey of all of these traditions.
Lyon Sprague de Camp (1907-2000) was an American writer of science fiction, fantasy, non-fiction and biography.
De Camp explains in the Preface, “This book was originally written in 1948. After one publisher who had contracted for it failed, it was published serially in the magazine ‘Other Worlds Science Fiction’ in 1952-3 and then published (with revisions) as a clothbound book … in 1954. For the present edition, I have… interpolated a few new paragraphs to bring the work up to date. The main additions are the discussions of eh … triumph of Wegener’s theory of continental drift.”
He recounts, “to consider the story of Atlantis in its earliest known form: … Plato wrote two Socratic dialogues, Timaios and Kritias, wherein he set forth the basic story of Atlantis.” (Pg. 3) He continues, “Socrates is enthusiastic, especially since the account ‘is no invented fable but genuine history.’” (Pg. 7) He adds, “Note that Plato says nothing about the explosives, searchlights, or airplanes with which some imaginative modern Atlantists have credited the Atlanteans.” (Pg. 9)
He observes, “It is worth noting, however, that there is no mention by any writer before Plato of any sunken island in the Atlantic, and no evidence outside of Plato’s word that Solon’s unfinished epic ever existed. There is nothing either in the rather scanty remains of the Pre-Platonic Greek literature; nothing in any of the surviving records of Egypt, Phoenicia, Babylonia, or Sumeria, which go back many centuries before the beginning of Greek civilization. Of course that does not prove that no such accounts existed. Only a small fraction of the original Greek literature has come down to us, owing to the ravages of time and neglect, and the bigotry of early Christians like Pope Gregory I who destroyed pagan literature wholesale lest it distract the faithful from the contemplation of heaven.” (Pg. 10-12)
He notes, “When Europeans began to explore the New World, persons meeting the American natives for the first time jumped to premature conclusions that they were speaking Welsh and were therefore the descendants of Prince Madoc and his band, who in Welsh legend were supposed to have crossed the Atlantic in 1170; or were practicing Hebrew religious rites and were the Ten Lost Tribes of Israel… despite the fact that science has pretty well established that … the American Indians belong to the Mongoloid or Yellow Race along with the Eskimos, Chinese, and Malays, and that they came from Siberia via Alaska.” (Pg. 31)
He recalls, “The evident fact that the whole thing was a hoax has not stopped Atlantists from quoting the younger Schliemann as an authority, sometimes confusing him with his grandfather. The last and gaudiest blossom on this particular branch is the late James Churchward… [who] expanded upon them by assuming two sunken continents, Atlantis in the Atlantic and Mu (corresponding to the occultists’ Lemuria) in the Central Pacific, where for geological reasons we can be reasonably sure there never has been a continent and never will be one.” (Pg. 46-47)
He points out, “By studying the speed of earthquake vibrations, geologists can get a good idea of what the earth’s crust under the oceans is made of… They have learned in this way that the great deeps are plain sima, while the continental shelves and the rough, moderately deep places are partly sial. The greatest areas of deep sima are in the Central Pacific, the southern Indian, and the Arctic Oceans. These are therefore the ‘permanent’ oceans, where no continents are to be expected, past, present, or future. So much for Mu, Pan, and the Theosophical Lemuria, which Atlantists have located in the Central Pacific---the unlikeliest pace on earth for a continent. The great Pacific sima depression is in fact probably one of the most stable and long-lived features of the earth’s surface.” (Pg. 151-153)
He acknowledges, “By normal movements of the earth’s crust, like that of the Baltic region, or by a long series of terrific earthquakes, it might be possible to submerge a low flat island of good size in 100,000 years or so. That, however, takes us back beyond the last glacial advance, and all the data of history and archaeology tell us that civilization did not arise until seven or eight thousand years ago. Furthermore there is good reason to believe that traditions cannot be handed down by word of mouth for more than a few centuries and still retain enough of their original form to be recognized. Therefore the events of 100,000 years ago have nothing to do with Plato’s Atlantis.” (Pg. 175)
He summarizes, “We have learned a good deal in a negative way---that is, we have eliminated a lot of possibilities as unlikely or impossible. We know now that Plato could not have been describing a real event, in any literal sense, because according to all the geological evidence his Atlantic continent never existed and no continent ever disappeared in the way he described. Furthermore, the arguments of Atlantists to prove the Atlantean origin of all civilization, from cultural similarities between various peoples, are quite useless for that purpose. These arguments, based upon mistaken ideas of archaeology, anthropology, mythology, linguistics, and kindred sciences, are at worst ridiculous and at best can be used with equal ease to support entirely different theories, such as the diffusionist or the continental-drift theories.” (Pg. 206)
He concludes, “I hope I have shown that the arguments of most members of the Atlantist cult are not to be taken very seriously. For the most part they repeat the long-since-refuted assertions of Donnelley, Le Plongeon, and other early Atlantists, and the wilder speculations of eighteenth and nineteenth century historians, anthropologists, and geologists, ignoring the immense progress that has been made in these fields of science during the past half-century. From a few resemblances between places, cultures, and languages in various parts of the world the instantly deduce connections, as do the diffusionists, the Ten Tribists, and those who locate Homer’s Scheria all over the map. Obviously no system or reasoning that gives nine-and-sixty different results when applied to one set of facts can be worth much. To discover true connections among scattered human culture-traits you must do more than consider resemblances: you must take into account all the other possibilities, and also consider differences as well as similarities.” (Pg. 276)
This book will be “must reading” for anyone wanting a general survey of all of these traditions.
September 12, 2010
A classic piece about the Atlantis legend and its subsidiaries (Mu, Lemuria, Hollow Earth theories)... Skeptical history at its best, along with good accounts of the personalities behind the mythmaking.
December 17, 2017
Review title: Atlantis euhemerism debunked
That's a new word for me introduced by the extravagantly named L. Sprague de Camp. It means (from Wikipedia)
The myth in question is Plato's account, supposedly from Egyptian sources, of a large island (possibly continental sized) in the Atlantic Ocean west of the Straits of Gibraltar and east of the Americas, populated by a utopian race, arranged in a fantastical city, and governed by Poseidon. This island of Eden met a sudden and sad ending when it sank beneath the ocean waves in one 24-hour period as the result of a massive earthquake, all this flourishing and vanishing taking place before 9000 BC.
Whether or not Plato meant his account for literal history and geography, or for an allegorical tale along the lines of his Republic, from its inception philosophers, scientists, explorers, writers, and religious leaders took it seriously and went looking for evidence of it in the world's oceans, continents, islands, libraries, map rooms, laboratories, churches and mystical places. De Camp sites dozens of sources, but for those with real desire to bury themselves in Atlantis he points readers to a separate published bibliography listing 1700 sources as of 1970! The Atlantis industry was and is alive and well.
From the dark blue oceans and garish green islands on the cover of this edition (best described as lurid) you might think as I did on picking up this edition that this is just another book of self-parodying half-baked psuedo-scientific explanation for Atlantis. In fact, the cover is so distinctive I am sure that I picked up and read this same edition more than 40 years ago in high school.
And reading about de Camp, an early to mid 20th century writer with a wide-ranging list of fiction and nonfiction titles to his credit, might reinforce that first impression, especially when you learn that the majority of his writing was science fiction and adventure of the Edgar Rice Burroughs and Weird Science genres--and yes, that's his real name, despite the common use of pseudonyms in those genres.
But first impressions can be very wrong. In fact de Camp has written a very rational and detailed debunking of the various forms the "real" or "refound" Atlantis searchers and defenders have taken over the centuries. After recapping Plato's claim, and those of theorists for other "lost continents" like the Pacific Ocean's Lemuria or Mu and the Terra Australia supposed by early global explorers to surround Antarctica, he proceeds to use geology, geography, historical accounts, archeology, anthropology, and logic to demonstrate that whatever Plato's purpose there was no Atlantis as he described it.
De Camp does not have an animas toward Atlantis, but rather a desire to find the truth and provide sense to combat the nonsense of most Atlantis theories he describes. He is willing to concede where some theories have plausible explanations for what could have happened, but he logically points out that proving something could have happened is not the same as proving it did happen. Summing up his discussion of one proposed theory de Camp concludes:
After thus debunking the euhemerism of Atlantis, de Camp spends a couple of chapters analyzing Plato's text and writing style on Atlantis and other topics like the Republic. Far from denigrating the Platonic account, de Camp places it in a probable context and continuum of Plato's work and purpose. See for example p.228 and following where he walks through the process of creation of myth from history and oral pre-history.
He then concludes with a chapter reviewing how the Atlantis account has been retold in fiction, a chapter that gives de Camp rein to his obvious delight and sense of humor about novels and stories on genres he himself has attempted. Of course, the 1954 first edition core of Lost Continents is over 60 years old by now, so most of the authors and titles he mentions are no longer known, and indeed much of his science, particularly archeology, is now dated. Readers should certainly use Google (or even their local library--there's a thought!) to find references to the latest on scientific research, exploration and theories on Atlantis, but de Camp has done a masterful job of summarizing the first 2,000 years to give readers a good place to start.
That's a new word for me introduced by the extravagantly named L. Sprague de Camp. It means (from Wikipedia)
Euhemerism is an approach to the interpretation of mythology in which mythological accounts are presumed to have originated from real historical events or personages.
The myth in question is Plato's account, supposedly from Egyptian sources, of a large island (possibly continental sized) in the Atlantic Ocean west of the Straits of Gibraltar and east of the Americas, populated by a utopian race, arranged in a fantastical city, and governed by Poseidon. This island of Eden met a sudden and sad ending when it sank beneath the ocean waves in one 24-hour period as the result of a massive earthquake, all this flourishing and vanishing taking place before 9000 BC.
Whether or not Plato meant his account for literal history and geography, or for an allegorical tale along the lines of his Republic, from its inception philosophers, scientists, explorers, writers, and religious leaders took it seriously and went looking for evidence of it in the world's oceans, continents, islands, libraries, map rooms, laboratories, churches and mystical places. De Camp sites dozens of sources, but for those with real desire to bury themselves in Atlantis he points readers to a separate published bibliography listing 1700 sources as of 1970! The Atlantis industry was and is alive and well.
From the dark blue oceans and garish green islands on the cover of this edition (best described as lurid) you might think as I did on picking up this edition that this is just another book of self-parodying half-baked psuedo-scientific explanation for Atlantis. In fact, the cover is so distinctive I am sure that I picked up and read this same edition more than 40 years ago in high school.
And reading about de Camp, an early to mid 20th century writer with a wide-ranging list of fiction and nonfiction titles to his credit, might reinforce that first impression, especially when you learn that the majority of his writing was science fiction and adventure of the Edgar Rice Burroughs and Weird Science genres--and yes, that's his real name, despite the common use of pseudonyms in those genres.
But first impressions can be very wrong. In fact de Camp has written a very rational and detailed debunking of the various forms the "real" or "refound" Atlantis searchers and defenders have taken over the centuries. After recapping Plato's claim, and those of theorists for other "lost continents" like the Pacific Ocean's Lemuria or Mu and the Terra Australia supposed by early global explorers to surround Antarctica, he proceeds to use geology, geography, historical accounts, archeology, anthropology, and logic to demonstrate that whatever Plato's purpose there was no Atlantis as he described it.
De Camp does not have an animas toward Atlantis, but rather a desire to find the truth and provide sense to combat the nonsense of most Atlantis theories he describes. He is willing to concede where some theories have plausible explanations for what could have happened, but he logically points out that proving something could have happened is not the same as proving it did happen. Summing up his discussion of one proposed theory de Camp concludes:
The Atlantis-in-Thera theory seems to fit the facts better than almost any other. . . . To say that Thera "is" Atlantis, however, involves a semantic confusion. Plato's Atlantis is still a fictional concept, bedight with gods, mythical heroes, and miraculous happenings. . . . Just how Plato got his information, and the relative importance of his various sources, we shall probably never know for sure. (p. 204-205)
After thus debunking the euhemerism of Atlantis, de Camp spends a couple of chapters analyzing Plato's text and writing style on Atlantis and other topics like the Republic. Far from denigrating the Platonic account, de Camp places it in a probable context and continuum of Plato's work and purpose. See for example p.228 and following where he walks through the process of creation of myth from history and oral pre-history.
He then concludes with a chapter reviewing how the Atlantis account has been retold in fiction, a chapter that gives de Camp rein to his obvious delight and sense of humor about novels and stories on genres he himself has attempted. Of course, the 1954 first edition core of Lost Continents is over 60 years old by now, so most of the authors and titles he mentions are no longer known, and indeed much of his science, particularly archeology, is now dated. Readers should certainly use Google (or even their local library--there's a thought!) to find references to the latest on scientific research, exploration and theories on Atlantis, but de Camp has done a masterful job of summarizing the first 2,000 years to give readers a good place to start.
January 17, 2023
A very entertaining book. In the first half de Camp goes back to the source of the myth, categorises the different branches of belief and traces their development through time. Very interesting, and also very funny. It’s not just how bonkers some of these ideas are, but also the comments with which de Camp dismisses them. It’s not a nasty book. These people may be mad or they may be con-artists, but all of them have published. He has nothing to say about people who are taken in by it.
In the second half it’s down to business and he has a whole host of arguments to undermine the belief. He obviously a very knowledgable man. Strange to see such a breadth of subjects marshalled in the pursuit of one point. Very well, and fairly, argued. This book would be of real use if you had to deal with someone who believed in Atlantis.
The book is not perfect. I have the 1970 edition, revised from the first book edition in 1954. You can often see where he’s revised. He mentions the moon landing for example. However, one of the apendices has been removed but there is still a reference to it in the text. There is a massive bibliography, but it does not contain all the books mentioned in the text. Not all of his quotations are properly referenced. The notes from 1954 have been removed. I’ve not seen the earlier edition, but if they were these lost references then it’s a sad loss. The biggest problem is that the chapter on geology does not mention the theory of plate tectonics. I understand that the theory had been accepted only a couple of years before. It may be that he simply hadn’t heard of it, or it may be that including it would have necessitated the rewrite of an entire chapter.
An excellent book, but could perhaps do with a new edition.
In the second half it’s down to business and he has a whole host of arguments to undermine the belief. He obviously a very knowledgable man. Strange to see such a breadth of subjects marshalled in the pursuit of one point. Very well, and fairly, argued. This book would be of real use if you had to deal with someone who believed in Atlantis.
The book is not perfect. I have the 1970 edition, revised from the first book edition in 1954. You can often see where he’s revised. He mentions the moon landing for example. However, one of the apendices has been removed but there is still a reference to it in the text. There is a massive bibliography, but it does not contain all the books mentioned in the text. Not all of his quotations are properly referenced. The notes from 1954 have been removed. I’ve not seen the earlier edition, but if they were these lost references then it’s a sad loss. The biggest problem is that the chapter on geology does not mention the theory of plate tectonics. I understand that the theory had been accepted only a couple of years before. It may be that he simply hadn’t heard of it, or it may be that including it would have necessitated the rewrite of an entire chapter.
An excellent book, but could perhaps do with a new edition.
May 25, 2017
I started reading this because I'm an old de Camp fan, but I've never read much non-fiction by him. So this was an adventure, and a pleasure. First of all I was really impressed by the amount of material that has been written about Atlantis- and a few other missing continents- in the last 2,000 years. And by the variety of authors. We have mythologists, shysters, serious scientists, and virtually every other brand of author. And the things they have said about Atlantis. Down in Florida they used to call 'em "Swamp-land salesmen."
Over all, I loved this book for two reasons. First is the complete depth of De Camp's research, and the way he keeps this an interesting read. It would easy to write a wrath of God type of thing here, but Mr. De Camp never looses his sense of humor, or his objectivity.
Over all, I loved this book for two reasons. First is the complete depth of De Camp's research, and the way he keeps this an interesting read. It would easy to write a wrath of God type of thing here, but Mr. De Camp never looses his sense of humor, or his objectivity.
June 29, 2025
It’s like reading the derivative of a book. I loved learning the fun facts but what I really enjoyed was seeing this guy and the context that surrounded him. Imagining this as his pet project, how much he turns to the idea of Atlantis (which really draws from a lot and influences so much apparently) and the willingness he has to research it. Great random Williamsburg find.
Also this wouldn’t have took me so long if I didn’t have to graduate.
Also this wouldn’t have took me so long if I didn’t have to graduate.
July 31, 2024
Overall a good review of various theories of lost continents over the years, their reasoning as well as facts that debunk them. It was very illuminating to also read about some of the details of the people themselves that originated certain theories and personal beliefs and prejudices that would have influenced them.
February 27, 2018
I think on a personal enjoyment level I'd give this 4 stars, but objectively it's more of a 3-star work given the masterpiece of skeptical cataloging that is THE BERMUDA TRIANGLE MYSTERY—SOLVED. De Camp writes well (as you'd expect from a prolific and respected sf author!) and makes a decent case, although the lack of citation is frustrating (plenty of references in the bibliography, though). And he was the victim of an unusual time in science, where terminology had not yet escaped what we might call, ah, "chauvinistic" overtones today. Not his fault, though: he repeatedly takes the Atlantists to task for assuming that "primitive" = "stupid" (or, on the other hand, for buying into Rousseauvian Noble Savagery), for example.
April 6, 2019
A more academic treatment of the various references to Atlantis in historical and literary documents, this also covers the island's appearance in various fictional accounts throughout the ages. I have to be honest -- once I got about halfway, I skimmed from there on out, because I was really only looking for things that were useful to me (as I'm doing research for a new series).
January 23, 2016
Un altro avvincente romanzo misteriosamente scritto in forma di saggio. ;)
April 11, 2016
The most cogent and rational analysis of all the threads of the Atlantis story.
April 21, 2017
I was expecting this to be fanciful and intriguing, and it was, but it was also biting and hilarious.
Favorite quote:
"He died with his findings unpublished, for like sea serpents, psychic phenomena, and Schliemann's owl-headed vase, the Brazilian Atlantis seems to withdraw and vanish at the approach of qualified scientific investigation."
And then the part about rival Atlantis societies tear-gassing each other's meetings due to scholarly disagreement...slow read, but highly enjoyable.
Favorite quote:
"He died with his findings unpublished, for like sea serpents, psychic phenomena, and Schliemann's owl-headed vase, the Brazilian Atlantis seems to withdraw and vanish at the approach of qualified scientific investigation."
And then the part about rival Atlantis societies tear-gassing each other's meetings due to scholarly disagreement...slow read, but highly enjoyable.
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