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Let's Talk About Myths, Baby! Greek & Roman Mythology Retold

CLI: Deconstructing Atlantis: What Makes a Myth? Plato’s Allegorical Atlantis (Part 2)

Let's Talk About Myths, Baby! Greek & Roman Mythology Retold

Liv Albert

History, Comedy, Arts

4.85.5K Ratings

🗓️ 18 January 2022

⏱️ 42 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

We've heard the original source for Atlantis, but why is it that Plato's Timaeus and Critias can't be termed "myths"? If it isn't a myth, how do we know that there isn't some history behind it? This episode details what we do know about Plato's Atlantis and what that proves.

CW/TW: far too many Greek myths involve assault. Given it's fiction, and typically involves gods and/or monsters, I'm not as deferential as I would be were I referencing the real thing.

Sources/Further Reading: Plato’s Timaeus and Critias, quotes translated by Benjamin Jowett; A Brief History of Atlantis: Plato’s Ideal State by Stephen P. Kershaw (includes alternate translation of Plato); PDF: Truth, Lies, and History in Plato's Timaeus and Critias by Thomas K Johansen, 1998.

Attributions and licensing information for music used in the podcast can be found here: mythsbaby.com/sources-attributions. Special podcast artwork by Sara Richard.



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Transcript

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0:00.0

Now different gods had their allotments in different places which they set in order.

0:20.2

Hephaestus and Athena, who were brother and sister and sprang from the same father, having

0:25.4

a common nature and being united also in the love of philosophy and art, both obtained

0:31.3

as their common portion, this land, which was naturally adapted for wisdom and virtue,

0:37.1

and there they implanted brave children of the soil and put into their minds the order

0:42.5

of government.

0:44.0

Their names are preserved, but their actions have disappeared by reason of the destruction

0:48.5

of those who received the tradition, and the laps of ages.

0:53.4

For when there were any survivors, as I have already said, they were men who dwelt in

0:57.9

the mountains, and they were ignorant of the art of writing, and had heard only the names

1:02.9

of the chiefs of the land, but very little about their actions.

1:32.8

Oh, hi, hello, welcome.

1:34.6

This is Let's Talk About Myths, baby, and I am your host, Liv.

1:39.6

Back again in this special series of episodes to talk about the concept that is quite

1:43.8

importantly and quite specifically not a myth, and not really a story, either indefinitely

1:48.5

not history, Atlantis.

1:51.4

And yet it is a fascinating thing, not necessarily for the story itself, or its general point,

1:56.8

but for everything surrounding it.

1:59.6

Everything it has become and all the ways it is completely misunderstood.

2:05.1

And that is not to suggest that I am some special person for knowing the truth, far from it.

2:09.8

Like I said last week, like most of you, I was led to believe that Atlantis was at least

2:14.5

in part a myth.

...

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