THE SECRET OF ATLANTIS

A GREAT MYTH

Popular stories make it difficult to get Atlantis out of our minds. That is the stuff of a good myth. Common understanding thinks that myth just means untrue. Not at all. A “true myth”, a story that tells itself, and is not consciously made up, tells truth too deep for literal presentation. Like a parable, a true myth tells truth about human nature, personality development, psychological growth in metaphorical context. Not “true” in fact, but eminently true in depth.

Now, the great myth of Atlantis, how did it come about, and why am I sure it is not a literal, historically factual story.

Plato is justifiably highly respected, a fountain of deep truth. Therefore the story he was told by Solon, continuing the hearsay line begun by Egyptian priests, deserves attention and close analysis.

The story of Atlantis is captivating, as all good myths are. It is captivating because something about it captures our imagination. We see human nature laid out in ways we can see today in our world — brilliance, stupidity, great accomplishment, greed, and down fall (before the waters rose), great technology, over reaching self-esteem, etc., etc.

As is our inclination, we “materialize” things. We think for the story to have meaning, we ought to find the remnants of Atlantis somewhere, anywhere from the Bahamas, to Spain, to some as yet undiscovered sunken land mass in the Atlantic, to most anywhere we think we can overlay the patina of mystery.