The Atlantis Story A Short History of Plato's Myth

This volume traces the history of Plato's Atlantis story - the imperialist island state that disappeared in a cataclysm, leaving Athens to survive it. Instead of simply focusing on the various attempts to 'find' Atlantis - all of which are futile for the very good reason that Plato made the island up - the author reexamines the very different uses made of the myth in different contexts and periods. He shows how Plato's myth was reinterpreted from the medieval period onward through conflation with the search for the lost tribes of Israel; how it became involved with the debate about whether Europe should look back to its origins in the Classical or Biblical worlds; how the myth was reinterpreted with a more geographical emphasis following Columbus' discovery of America; and how it was used in the Enlightenment to add color to nationalist attempts to claim antiquity by finding unrecognized origins. Written in a clear and interesting way, Pierre Vidal-Naquet's original ideas rest on deep knowledge supported by primary references and illustrations.

Pierre Vidal-Naquet was Director of Graduate Studies at the Ecole des hautes etudes en sciences sociales in Paris until his death in 2006.