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Atlantis: Lost Lands, Ancient Wisdom
This book is essential reading for anyone interested in the historical roots of a legendary place.
Atlantis, the island continent that vanished under the sea, is one of the most haunting themes of legend. It has preoccupied thinkers for more than two thousand years, from Plato to Rudolf Steiner. Prehistorians have seen Atlantis as the fountainhead of all civilization; mystics have had revelations about it; archaeologists have claimed to locate it – sometimes in surprising places.
In lost lands, ancient wisdom, highly-respected historian Geoffrey Ashe explores the myth of Atlantis, carefully considering the meanings attributed to it and the persistence of these through art, allegory and symbolism. This is a fascinating and scholarly book, ideal for anyone interested in mythology, ancient history, art and philosophy.
Born in London in 1923, Geoffrey Ashe is a distinguished British medievalist and cultural historian. Educated at the University of British Columbia, Vancouver, and at Cambridge, he has written numerous books, many focused on the Arthurian legend. In 1963 he became a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, and he was awarded an MBE in 2012.
Atlantis, the island continent that vanished under the sea, is one of the most haunting themes of legend. It has preoccupied thinkers for more than two thousand years, from Plato to Rudolf Steiner. Prehistorians have seen Atlantis as the fountainhead of all civilization; mystics have had revelations about it; archaeologists have claimed to locate it – sometimes in surprising places.
In lost lands, ancient wisdom, highly-respected historian Geoffrey Ashe explores the myth of Atlantis, carefully considering the meanings attributed to it and the persistence of these through art, allegory and symbolism. This is a fascinating and scholarly book, ideal for anyone interested in mythology, ancient history, art and philosophy.
Born in London in 1923, Geoffrey Ashe is a distinguished British medievalist and cultural historian. Educated at the University of British Columbia, Vancouver, and at Cambridge, he has written numerous books, many focused on the Arthurian legend. In 1963 he became a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, and he was awarded an MBE in 2012.
85 pages, Kindle Edition
Published December 15, 2021
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About the author
Geoffrey Ashe
99 books42 followersGeoffrey Thomas Leslie Ashe is a British cultural historian, a writer of non-fiction books and novels.
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August 25, 2023
The book is quite informative if you want to research the topic more on your own, so it gives you a good starting point for other works on the same topic which definitely are a lot more interesting and exciting than this one. This is the only positive I can find in this book.
I give it just one star because the author assumes that Plato's intentions were just to invent a moral fable when writing about Atlantis as if that was actually known to us (it's not and it wasn't known to the ancients as well). Then he starts to make a lot of weird assertions based on this assumption claiming that Ignatius Donnelly reinvented a totally different myth from that of Plato because he misunderstood Plato's intentions. He is totally dismissive of anything that takes the story of Atlantis seriously, which is the standard academic opinion, but it's definitely not justified and it forces a certain type of interpretation on Plato's texts which doesn't seem to fit with what he actually wrote (that the story is real).
I give it just one star because the author assumes that Plato's intentions were just to invent a moral fable when writing about Atlantis as if that was actually known to us (it's not and it wasn't known to the ancients as well). Then he starts to make a lot of weird assertions based on this assumption claiming that Ignatius Donnelly reinvented a totally different myth from that of Plato because he misunderstood Plato's intentions. He is totally dismissive of anything that takes the story of Atlantis seriously, which is the standard academic opinion, but it's definitely not justified and it forces a certain type of interpretation on Plato's texts which doesn't seem to fit with what he actually wrote (that the story is real).
Displaying 1 of 1 review