ATLANTIS ACCORDING TO PLATO
- Sienna Eve Benton
- Sep 20
- 19 min read
In this blog we explore some of the most common and intriguing questions about Atlantis by going straight to the source Plato’s original texts Timaeus and Critias. Using respected translations from renowned scholars we delve into what Plato himself wrote around 360 BCE cutting through centuries of speculation and myth to better understand the origins geography and story of Atlantis. By examining direct excerpts and closely analyzing the philosopher’s account we aim to provide clear text based answers that illuminate this enduring legend. Whether you are curious about Atlantis’s location its rulers or its connection to the Greek god Poseidon this blog will guide you through the evidence Plato left behind.
Is the Story of Atlantis a Poem?
No. Plato’s story of Atlantis is not written as a poem, but as a philosophical dialogue in prose form.
What Texts Tell the Story of Atlantis?
Who Translated Plato's Timaeus and Critias Texts?
In Timaeus the passages are translated by Benjamin Jowett 1871in the Dialogues of Plato Vol 1. Loeb Classical Library.
Also R. G. Bury translated the text in1929 for the English Translations of Plato's Atlantis dialogues.
In Critias the passages are also translated by Benjamin Jowett and are available via Project Gutenberg.
How Did Plato Learn About Atlantis?
The story was told to him by his grandfather Critias, who says he heard it from his grandfather named Dropides), who heard it from Solon, who was also a relative/friend and a famous Athenian lawmaker. Solon is said to have learned the story in Egypt, from priests who had access to ancient records.
"Then listen, Socrates, to a tale which, though strange, is certainly true, having been attested by Solon, who was the wisest of the seven sages. (20e) He was a relative and a dear friend of my great-grandfather, Dropides, as he himself says in many passages of his poems; and he told the story to Critias, my grandfather, who remembered and repeated it to us."
In Plato Critias 113a-113b Plato quotes:
"But before I begin my account, there is still a small point which I ought to explain, lest you should be surprised at frequently hearing Greek names given to barbarians. The reason of this you shall now learn. Since Solon was planning to make use of the story for his own poetry, he had found, on investigating the meaning of the names, that those Egyptians who had first written them down had translated them into their own tongue. So he himself in turn recovered the original sense of each name and, rendering it into our tongue, wrote it down so. And these very writings were in the possession of my grandfather and are actually now in mine, and when I was a child I learnt them all by heart."
"Thereupon one of the priests, who was of a very great age, said: O Solon, Solon, you Hellenes are never anything but children, and there is not an old man among you."
"And whatever happened either in your country or in ours, or in any other region of which we are informed-if there were any actions noble or great or in any other way remarkable, they have all been written down by us of old, and are preserved in our temples."
*NOTE: This means the legend of Atlantis has more documentation to offer in what would have been Egypt. Plato quotes that "The these very writings were in the possession of my grandfather and are now mine." This suggests these ancients texts were under the protection and guardianship of the Egyptian priests in sacred temples. Solon most likely copied the texts from the temples, and later passed the copies down to Plato's great grandfather Dropides, who then passed them down to Critias.
Was Plato Alive During Atlantis?
No. Atlantis existed 9,000 years before Plato's time. Plato wrote the texts around 360 BCE, So according to Plato’s account, Atlantis would have existed roughly around 9,360 BCE, which is over 11,000 years ago from today. Placing the Atlantean civilization around the same time as archeological sites like Göbekli Tepe in modern-day Turkey (built around 9600 BCE) .
In Plato Critias 113a : Plato quotes:
"Since Solon was planning to make use of the story for his own poetry, he had found, on investigating the meaning of the names, that those Egyptians who had first written them down had translated them into their own tongue."
In Timaeus 21e‑22a, Plato describes Solon visiting Sais in Egypt:
"In the Egyptian Delta, at the head of which the river Nile divides, there is a certain district which is called the district of Sais, and the great city of the district is also called Sais, and is the city from which King Amasis came. The citizens have a deity for their foundress; she is called in the Egyptian tongue Neith, and is asserted by them to be the same whom the Hellenes call Athene; they are great lovers of the Athenians, and say that they are in some way related to them. To this city came Solon, and was received there with great honour."
*NOTE 1: Sites like Göbekli Tepe can help frame the kind of human activity that was possible when Plato’s Atlantis was supposedly said to exist.
*NOTE 2: The Atlantean records these Egyptians kept are from Sais, (or modern day Sa El Hagar, Egypt) were already considered "ancient." This confirms Plato, his grandfathers, Solon and the Egyptian priests were not alive during the time of Atlantis.
*Note 3: This also confirms that the legend of Atlantis was first written by the Egyptians but that is was also translated into Egyptian. This implies either the original story was told in an entirely different language, or was originally told in Ancient Greek. Solon translated it from Egyptian to ancient Greek, and from there it has been passed down through multiple layers of translation, eventually arriving in the modern English versions we read today.
Is Atlantis Part of Greek Mythology?
Yes. Poseidon the Greek God of god of the sea, earthquakes, storms, and horses is directly mentioned along with one of his wives Cleito, and five pairs of twin sons, making his children a total of 10. He also mentions the Greek God Hephaestus and the goddess Neith, also known as Athene (in modern days Athena). The Egyptians, Greeks, and Romans shared the same gods, but gave them different names. He also mentions how the Island was divided among his 10 sons. He mentions Zeus in Critias as well.
In Critias, 113a-113e Plato quotes:
"Poseidon took for his allotment the island of Atlantis and settled therein the children whom he had begotten of a mortal woman in a region of the island of the following description. Bordering on the sea and extending through the center of the whole island there was a plain, which is said to have been the fairest of all plains and highly fertile; and, moreover, near the plain, over against its center, at a distance of about 50 stades, there stood a mountain that was low on all sides. Thereon dwelt one of the natives originally sprung from the earth, Evenor by name, with his wife Leucippe; and they had for offspring an only-begotten daughter, Cleito. And when this damsel was now come to marriageable age, her mother died and also her father; and Poseidon, being smitten with desire for her, wedded her; and to make the hill whereon she dwelt impregnable he broke it off all round about; and he made circular belts of sea and land enclosing one another alternately, some greater, some smaller, two being of land and three of sea, which he carved as it were out of the midst of the island; and these belts were at even distances on all sides, so as to be impassable for man; for at that time neither ships nor sailing were as yet in existence. And Poseidon himself set in order with ease, as a god would, the central island, bringing up from beneath the earth two springs of waters, the one flowing warm from its source, the other cold, and producing out of the earth all kinds of food in plenty. And he begat five pairs of twin sons and reared them up; and when he had divided all the island of Atlantis into ten portions, he assigned to the first-born of the eldest sons."
In Timaeus, Section 21e Plato quotes:
"The citizens have a deity for their foundress; she is called in the Egyptian tongue Neith, and is asserted by them to be the same whom the Hellenes call Athene; they are great lovers of the Athenians, and say that they are in some way related to them."
In Timaeus, Section 23d-23e Plato quotes:
"You are welcome to hear about them, Solon, said the priest, both for your own sake and for that of your city, and above all, for the sake of the goddess who is the common patron and parent and educator of both our cities. She founded your city a thousand years before ours, (23e) receiving from the Earth and Hephaestus the seed of your race, and afterwards she founded ours, of which the constitution is recorded in our sacred registers to be eight thousand years old. As touching your citizens of nine thousand years ago, I will briefly inform you of their laws and of their most famous action."
In Critias 121c Plato Quotes:
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 (Critias text is officially cut off at this point, never to be finished).
How Was Atlantis Divided Among Poseidon's Sons?
Atlas, the first-born son of Poseidon and Cleito, was given the central part of Atlantis, which included his mother's home. This region was described as the largest and most important portion of the island, making Atlas the primary ruler over the rest of his brothers. His twin brother, named Gadeirus in the local language and Eumelus in Greek, received the portion of the island located at the far western edge, near the area facing the Pillars of Heracles, which is generally believed to be near modern-day Cádiz in southern Spain. The remaining eight sons, Ampheres, Evaemon, Mneseus, Autochthon, Elasippus, Mestor, Azaes, and Diaprepes, each received one of the other eight parts of the island.
In Critias 114-114d Plato Quotes:
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. To his twin brother, who was born after him, and obtained as his lot the extremity of the island towards the pillars of Heracles, facing the country which is now called the region of Gades in that part of the world, he gave the name which in the Hellenic language is Eumelus, in the language of the country which is named after him, Gadeirus. Of the second pair of twins he called one Ampheres, and the other Evaemon. To the elder of the third pair of twins he gave the name Mneseus, and Autochthon to the one who followed him. Of the fourth pair of twins he called the elder Elasippus, and the younger Mestor. And of the fifth pair he gave to the elder the name of Azaes, and to the younger that of Diaprepes. All these and their descendants for many generations were the inhabitants and rulers of divers islands in the open sea; and also, as has been already said, they held sway in our direction over the country within the pillars as far as Egypt and Tyrrhenia.
What Geographic Location Is Atlantis Described to Occupy in Plato’s Texts?
In Plato’s texts, Atlantis is described as a vast island located beyond the Pillars of Heracles, which are known today as the Strait of Gibraltar separating southern Spain and northern Morocco. In Timaeus, Plato explains that the island lay in front of the straits and was larger than Libya and Asia combined. It served as a gateway to other islands and to a massive continent surrounding the true ocean, contrasting with the Mediterranean, which he calls merely a harbor.
In Timaeus, Section 24e-25b Plato quotes:
"This power came forth out of the Atlantic Ocean, for in those days the Atlantic was navigable; and there was an island situated in front of the straits which are by you called the Pillars of Heracles; the island was larger than Libya and Asia put together, and was the way to other islands, and from these you might pass to the whole of the opposite continent which surrounded the true ocean; for this sea which is within the Straits of Heracles is only a harbour, having a narrow entrance, but that other is a real sea, and the surrounding land may be most truly called a boundless continent.
Now in this island of Atlantis there was a great and wonderful empire which had rule over the whole island and several others, and over parts of the continent, and, furthermore, the men of Atlantis had subjected the parts of Libya within the columns of Heracles as far as Egypt, and of Europe as far as Tyrrhenia."
*NOTE: The Pillars of Heracles (also called the Pillars of Hercules) are the ancient name for what we know today as the Strait of Gibraltar. The Strait of Gibraltar lies between Southern Spain (Europe) and Northern Morocco (Africa). This narrow passage connects the Mediterranean Sea to the Atlantic Ocean.
In Critias 118a Plato Quotes:
"There were bulls who had the range of the temple of Poseidon; and the ten kings, being left alone in the temple, after they had offered prayers to the god that they might capture the victim which was acceptable to him, hunted the bulls, without weapons, but with staves and nooses; and the bull which they caught they led up to the pillar and cut its throat over the top of it so that the blood fell upon the sacred inscription."
*NOTE: This strongly suggests the Greek Islands like Crete and Santorini are remaining surviving pieces of Atlantis where the Temple of Zeus and Minoan Temple can be visited today.
What Did Atlantis Look Like?
Archaeologists should look for a large palace on an island about five stadia wide. The island should be surrounded by several rings of land and water with bridges connecting them. There should be wide canals leading from the sea to a harbor inside these rings. Stone walls with towers and gates should surround the area. The stones used might be different colors like white, black, and red. They should look for signs of metal coatings on walls, especially brass, tin, and a rare metal called orichalcum. In the center, there should be a big temple dedicated to Poseidon, decorated with gold, silver, and ivory. Large statues of gods and kings might be nearby. Overall, the site would show a wealthy and carefully built ancient city.
Archaeologists should also look for evidence of sophisticated water management systems including both hot and cold fountains and baths separated for kings, private individuals, women, horses, and cattle. They might find remains of cisterns, aqueducts, and channels designed to carry water to groves, gardens, and different zones of the city. There could be traces of large groves or parks with tall trees near temples dedicated to gods. Archaeologists should also search for structures related to public spaces such as racecourses for horses and exercise grounds. Defensive structures like guardhouses around the citadel and smaller zones should be expected. Evidence of large harbors filled with docks, ships, and naval stores could be uncovered. The surrounding landscape should show a level plain enclosed by mountains, with extensive canals and ditches designed to irrigate the land and transport goods like timber and crops to the city. These waterways might include huge rectangular ditches and straight canals with branches connecting them, demonstrating advanced hydraulic engineering.
In Critias Plato Quotes:
First of all they bridged over the zones of sea which surrounded the ancient metropolis, making a road to and from the royal palace. And at the very beginning they built the palace in the habitation of the god and of their ancestors, which they continued to ornament in successive generations, every king surpassing the one who went before him to the utmost of his power, until they made the building a marvel to behold for size and for beauty. And beginning from the sea they bored a canal of three hundred feet in width and one hundred feet in depth and fifty stadia in length, which they carried through to the outermost zone, making a passage from the sea up to this, which became a harbour, and leaving an opening sufficient to enable the largest vessels to find ingress. Moreover, they divided at the bridges the zones of land which parted the zones of sea, leaving room for a single trireme to pass out of one zone into another, and they covered over the channels so as to leave a way underneath for the ships; for the banks were raised considerably above the water. Now the largest of the zones into which a passage was cut from the sea was three stadia in breadth, and the zone of land which came next of equal breadth; but the next two zones, the one of water, the other of land, were two stadia, and the one which surrounded the central island was a stadium only in width. The island in which the palace was situated had a diameter of five stadia. All this including the zones and the bridge, which was the sixth part of a stadium in width, they surrounded by a stone wall on every side, placing towers and gates on the bridges where the sea passed in. The stone which was used in the work they quarried from underneath the centre island, and from underneath the zones, on the outer as well as the inner side. One kind was white, another black, and a third red, and as they quarried, they at the same time hollowed out double docks, having roofs formed out of the native rock. Some of their buildings were simple, but in others they put together different stones, varying the colour to please the eye, and to be a natural source of delight. The entire circuit of the wall, which went round the outermost zone, they covered with a coating of brass, and the circuit of the next wall they coated with tin, and the third, which encompassed the citadel, flashed with the red light of orichalcum.
The palaces in the interior of the citadel were constructed on this wise: In the centre was a holy temple dedicated to Cleito and Poseidon, which remained inaccessible, and was surrounded by an enclosure of gold; this was the spot where the family of the ten princes first saw the light, and thither the people annually brought the fruits of the earth in their season from all the ten portions, to be an offering to each of the ten. Here was Poseidon's own temple which was a stadium in length, and half a stadium in width, and of a proportionate height, having a strange barbaric appearance. All the outside of the temple, with the exception of the pinnacles, they covered with silver, and the pinnacles with gold. In the interior of the temple the roof was of ivory, curiously wrought everywhere with gold and silver and orichalcum; and all the other parts, the walls and pillars and floor, they coated with orichalcum. In the temple they placed statues of gold: there was the god himself standing in a chariot, the charioteer of six winged horses, and of such a size that he touched the roof of the building with his head; around him there were a hundred Nereids riding on dolphins, for such was thought to be the number of them by the men of those days. There were also in the interior of the temple other images which had been dedicated by private persons. And around the temple on the outside were placed statues of gold of all the descendants of the ten kings and of their wives, and there were many other great offerings of kings and of private persons, coming both from the city itself and from the foreign cities over which they held sway. There was an altar too, which in size and workmanship corresponded to this magnificence, and the palaces, in like manner, answered to the greatness of the kingdom and the glory of the temple."
In the next place, they had fountains, one of cold and another of hot water, in gracious plenty flowing; and they were wonderfully adapted for use by reason of the pleasantness and excellence of their waters. They constructed buildings about them and planted suitable trees, also they made cisterns, some open to the heaven, others roofed over, to be used in winter as warm baths; there were the kings' baths, and the baths of private persons, which were kept apart; and there were separate baths for women, and for horses and cattle, and to each of them they gave as much adornment as was suitable. 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, some for men, and others for horses in both of the two islands formed by the zones; and in the centre of the larger of the two there was set apart a race-course of a stadium in width, and in length allowed to extend all round the island, for horses to race in. Also there were guard-houses at intervals for the guards, the more trusted of whom were appointed to keep watch in the lesser zone, which was nearer the Acropolis; while the most trusted of all had houses given them within the citadel, near the persons of the kings. The docks were full of triremes and naval stores, and all things were quite ready for use. Enough of the plan of the royal palace.
Leaving the palace and passing out across the three harbours, you came to a wall which began at the sea and went all round: this was everywhere distant fifty stadia from the largest zone or harbour, and enclosed the whole, the ends meeting at the mouth of the channel which led to the sea. The entire area was densely crowded with habitations; and the canal and the largest of the harbours were full of vessels and merchants coming from all parts, who, from their numbers, kept up a multitudinous sound of human voices, and din and clatter of all sorts night and day.
I have described the city and the environs of the ancient palace nearly in the words of Solon, and now I must endeavour to represent to you the nature and arrangement of the rest of the land. The whole country was said by him to be very lofty and precipitous on the side of the sea, but the country immediately about and surrounding the city was a level plain, itself surrounded by mountains which descended towards the sea; it was smooth and even, and of an oblong shape, extending in one direction three thousand stadia, but across the centre inland it was two thousand stadia. 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, having in them also many wealthy villages of country folk, and rivers, and lakes, and meadows supplying food enough for every animal, wild or tame, and much wood of various sorts, abundant for each and every kind of work.
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.
Were the Atlanteans Greedy?
Their leaders were. It is written the Atlantean confederation of kings became so greedy they tried to conquer and enslave the whole of Europe and Asia.
In Timaeus, Section 24e Plato quotes:
"For these histories tell of a mighty power which unprovoked made an expedition against the whole of Europe and Asia, and to which your city put an end."
In Timaeus, Section 25a-25c Plato quotes:
"The men of Atlantis had subjected the parts of Libya within the columns of Heracles as far as Egypt, and of Europe as far as Tyrrhenia.
This vast power, gathered into one, endeavoured to subdue at a blow our country and yours and the whole of the region within the straits; and then, Solon, your country shone forth, in the excellence of her virtue and strength, among all mankind. She was pre-eminent in courage and military skill, and was the leader of the Hellenes. And when the rest fell off from her, being compelled to stand alone, after having undergone the very extremity of danger, she defeated and triumphed over the invaders, and preserved from slavery those who were not yet subjugated, and generously liberated all the rest of us who dwell within the pillars."
In Critias Plato Quotes:
"Each of the ten kings in his own division and in his own city had the absolute control of the citizens, and, in most cases, of the laws, punishing and slaying whomsoever he would."
How and Why Did Atlantis Fall?
Plato describes Atlantis’s fall as a sudden disaster where earthquakes and floods caused the island to sink in a single day and night. The sea became blocked by mud from the sinking. Zeus gathers the gods to punish Atlantis for its moral decline, but the text ends before revealing the outcome.
"But afterwards there occurred violent earthquakes and floods; and in a single day and night of misfortune all your warlike men in a body sank into the earth, and the island of Atlantis in like manner disappeared in the depths of the sea. For which reason the sea in those parts is impassable and impenetrable, because there is a shoal of mud in the way; and this was caused by the subsidence of the island."
In Critias 121c Plato Quotes:
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 (Critias text is officially cut off at this point, never to be finished).
