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Atlantis "island of Atlas" is a legendary island first mentioned in Plato's dialogues Timaeus and Critias, written about 360 BC.

(Seleucid Empire 323-360 BC)

According to Plato, Atlantis was a naval power lying "in front of the Pillars of Hercules" that conquered many parts of Western Europe and Africa 9,000 years before the time of Solon, or approximately 9600 BC. After a failed attempt to invade Athens, Atlantis sank into the ocean "in a single day and night of misfortune" 9600-360=9240 B.C

how Plato knows 9,240 years!!! before himself!?

(It may be that he has exaggerated history)

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@Andrew If Atlantis existed with persian Sailor trades should be seen!. But there is a problem It possible that the name of island was something else for them. So our goal should be investigated in relation to an island which can be any name! Unfortunately, Alexander, like Genghis Khan Mongols burned the books of the Persians. And finally died of war wounds. I've found a very old stone inscription about persian bussiness with an island near greece That they come to business throught the Persian Gulf. but after a while the circular islands became like Full solvent moon i think this island w – user968 Jun 7 '12 at 9:23
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I am voting to close this because Atlantis isn't real. – Rory Jun 7 '12 at 11:00
@Rory we talking about plato – user968 Jun 7 '12 at 14:37
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It's a writing technique where you create a plausible world to build your story around. Today we have Hogwarts and Forks, Washington, Plato had Atlantis. – jfrankcarr Jun 8 '12 at 4:24

3 Answers

up vote 3 down vote

While you phrased your question as "how did he know" I think your actual question is whether or not this happened, because there is no way to know where Plato got this information from, though I would assume it was verbal or some manuscript that is long since gone.

Now in regards to whether or not this is true, I doubt it due to the fact that Athens is around 3000 years old, and no where near 9000 years old. So I would say that that is in fact a myth.

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up vote 6 down vote

Plato in the Timaeus attempts to give plausibility to the story by attributing it to Critias, who heard it from his grandfather Critias, who heard it from the legislator Solon, who heard it from an aged Egyptian priest during his travels.

Benjamin Jowett's notes on Timaeus comment thus:

Did Plato derive the legend of Atlantis from an Egyptian source? It may be replied that there is no such legend in any writer previous to Plato; neither in Homer, nor in Pindar, nor in Herodotus is there any mention of an Island of Atlantis, nor any reference to it in Aristotle, nor any citation of an earlier writer by a later one in which it is to be found. Nor have any traces been discovered hitherto in Egyptian monuments of a connexion between Greece and Egypt older than the eighth or ninth century B.C.

So basically, the story of Atlantis is founded neither upon history nor mythology, but merely exists as a rhetorical device.

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up vote -1 down vote

It didn't happen. It was a myth and story.

(as evidence for it not happening, no-one has found Atlantis)

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That's evidence, but not proof; Troy wasn't discovered until the 19th century. (I'm not suggesting that Atlantis was real.) – Keith Thompson Jun 9 '12 at 2:10

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