Archive 3424

11500 years ago…

R. Vieni

 

I.1

Time and time again the vessel shattered

against the fury of the “wandering stones”, and

for as many times men stubbornly restarted

weaving the thread of their everlasting wander.

Obscure Penelopes of the knowledge, stimulated

by an unequalled curiosity, they wanted

to tear open the veil that divides the cave from

the light, breaking the archaic code of prohibitions,

whilst placing themselves as the sole

part of becoming.

Not by chance, the great Florentine Poet put

on Odysseus’s lips, the hero per excellence set

against the son of Peleus whose sole feature

was strength, the immortal lines “fatti non

foste a viver come bruti, ma per seguir virtute

e canoscenza…”.(1)

On one side strength, on the other the longing

for knowledge. On one side the old world of

Atlantis and of Dorian conquerors, on the

other the innovation introduced by the fullness

and dignity of the symbolic universe of Hellenics.

So there are the Pillars of Hercules… and

there is Odysseus.

There is taboo… and there is the ancient

dream of man.

For us, today, the outermost frontier is represented

by the cosmos… our ancestors found

such frontier on the dark wave next to the farthest

barrier of that which was in those times

their sensible universe: at that time, an inviolate

and inexplicable sea.

For the Greeks the first geographic and cultural

barrier is the Bosphorus. Jason and the

Argonauts succeed in violating this limit.

Then, here is Sicily and the odyssey of the first

lone navigators (2).

It is not by chance that the poet Homer (Od.,

XII, 61) talks about  



And these words, this epithet, remind us

promptly of another, more recent expression:


 


 

–


. Same etymon, same meaning .

Finally the outermost part of Mediterranean

Sea, to the west .

I.2

At the end of the Wurmian Ice Age the eastern

part of Mediterranean was separated from the

western one.

Two huge basins whose level, compared with

today, was much different: approximately

150/200 meters lower.

The emerged lands were actually nearer to

each other, more so than today.

Moreover the eastern basin’s level (presentday

Ionian Sea) was lower than the western

one.

A proof can be found in the bigger depth of

this sea together with the configuration of the

underwater ridge: tides and currents caused the

water to fall from the western basin to the

eastern one.

Such phenomenon in the middle part of Mediterranean

Sea, together with the one which

some people describe as plate sliding, but

which we prefer to ascribe to the gradual expansion

of our planet (4), brought the coasts of

Sicily and Calabria much closer, but also

caused the appearance of a wide platform in

the southern part of Sicily, exactly between it

and Tunisia.

Ancient Mediterranean

This phenomenon ended with the melting of

the ice at the end of the Wurmian Age, and it

further redesigned the outline of the mainland.

This did not only happen here, but also in Aegean

Sea (cfr. myth of Deucalion and Pyrrha)

and even in the Black Sea (as proven by the

latest researches carried out).

All that happened approximately 11500 years

ago.

The fact that the Mediterranean area was usually

subjected to such phenomena is proved by

the recent discovery of the skeleton of a prehistoric

whale in the area between Egypt and

the Sudan.

I.3

As stated above, in early times the Pillars of

Hercules were probably to be identified with



 
,
the “dark Symplegades”

as Euripides called them at the beginning

of his Medea. Known also as “Cianee Islands”,

they once were at the entrance of

Pontus and it was easy to crash against them.

As you can see, it is a cyclic image of that

widening horizon that from time to time redefines

itself toward larger and larger spaces.

With regard to the Canal of Sicily and the

whole area to the north and to the south of our

biggest Island, we must remember that if

northwards there are underwater volcanoes,

the biggest of which is Marsili, also southwards

there are important hotbeds of the god

Hephaestus: among them, the Island Giulia or

Ferdinandea or Graham that from time to time

makes the Canal boil, still showing a certain

vitality after that fateful 1831, between March

and August, when it almost caused an unprecedented

diplomatic case.

All that in an area going from the Aegadian

Islands to Mt. Etna, to the Aeolian Islands, to

the underwater Marsili hotbeds all the way to

Mt. Vesuvius and the area of Flegrea. It is not

by chance that here, in the vicinity of Lake

Averno, our ancestors had placed one of the

entrances to Hades.

But even in the ancient times this area was not

free from tremors (5).

In this regard, and in relation to the devastations

of nature in this geographical area, we

must add another element; a reference to lake

Pergusa whose birth, due to a tectonic collapse,

was certainly observed by the native

people of ancient Sicily.

This phenomenon happened in our geological

era, but at such a distant time that no documented

trace remains, only a myth (6).

Over centuries or millennia, the currents in the

Canal of Sicily have accumulated sandbanks

dragged by these very currents and by the

western waters whirlpool caused by the greater

depression of the Ionian basin.

The result was thus a pincers-shaped cost outline

with two almost symmetrical entrances

and a natural port inside , as Plato

says.(7). A big port.

Picture 1; variation of that reported by Vittorio Castellani

(8)

I started dealing with this phenomenon, even if

“en passant”, at the time of my university

studies in Messina; 45 years ago. And, in my

graduation thesis, I briefly described the phenomenon

in the Aegean Sea.

Aegean Sea

I am glad that I found a confirmation to this

hypothesis also in the central part of the Mediterranean

.

I.4

Now I do not pretend to state that Atlantis is

“here” or “there”.

On the contrary I am sure that in the absence

of converging historical – geological – archaeological

data and above all in the absence

of findings, no one can reasonably state to be

able to solve this mystery.

But I am also certain that the information

given by Plato reveals very important details

In this particular case, geological and historical-

linguistic data, as we will see, agree.

Nor can it be a legend, as someone surmises,

considering the testimonies supporting the

data included in the two Platonic Dialogues.

It would seem that Plato drew from reliable

and competent source the news about the

legendary Atlantis.(9)

In fact you can read in Diogenes Laertius:

“Some people say, among them also Satirus,

that Plato wrote to Dion in Sicily asking him

to buy for one hundred minas the three Pythagorean

books by Philolaus. They said in

fact that he was well-off because he received

more than eighty talents from Dyonysius”.

Other people say that Plato would have received

these books because he managed to obtain

from the Tyrant of Syracuse the liberation

of one young follower of Philolaus (Lives of

Philosophers, VIII, 85, op.cit.).

There is also the testimony of Aulo Gellio

(Noctes Atticae, III, 17, 1-2) in which one can

read:

“Memoriae mandatum est Platonem philosophum

tenui admodum pecunia familiari fuisse

atque eum tamen tris Philolai Pythagorici libros

decem milibus denarium mercatum. Id ei

pretium donasse quidam scripserunt amicum

eius Dionem Syracosium.”

Well, the poor Plato (10) received the three

sacred books from the just as poor Pythagorean

Filolao (who apparently sold them because

he was in need) thanks to the generosity

of his friend Dion.

And in any case, with these 3 letters the silence

on the Pythagorean school ends (11).

It is from these three books, that did not reach

us, that he probably drew many of the news

regarding Atlantis.

In any case, the testimony is trustworthy and

refers us to that elitist and fine culture group

the philosopher of Samos had in Croton.

It concerns the general discourse on the news

regarding the mythical island of Atlantis.

Concerning the placing of the Pillars of Hercules

in the Canal of Sicily we find a comforting

rapid passage in Strabo (Geogr., III). In fact he

says:

“The Gaditans remember that an oracle

prophesised to the Tirii, that they should establish

a colony beyond the Pillars of Hercules”.

If we consider the hypothesis that the legend

was originally born within the Mediterranean,

Phoenician area, we can also suppose that it

alludes to the bigger among Phoenician colonies,

i.e. Carthage, whose foundation, on the

basis of the official chronology, would date to

the eighth century b.C., but that, maybe,

should be backdated (12).

We know very well that the Phoenician penetration

to the West preceded the Greek one, if

we accept what Thucydides says about Greeks

in Sicily (VI, 2, 6); when they appeared, the

Phoenicians would have left most of the island

taking refuge in the north-western part (and

Thucydides alludes to a – be careful – precolonial

phase).

In short, the colony of Carthage, near presentday

Tunis, could be “beyond the Pillars of

Hercules” only if we place them there where

we show: i.e. between Sicily and Tunisia.

II.1

All the above comments came as an afterthought.

At the beginning of my research my

attention was turned to a careful rereading of

the two Platonic dialogues; the one of Timaeus

and the one of Critias.

I dedicated the little time that various commitments,

from family to politics to literature,

left to me from October 1999 to January 2000,

to the linguistic analysis of the text. However I

am not an archaeologist and my only competence

– if I have any – is the historicallinguistic

one.

The rest followed.

Only at a subsequent moment, in fact, and

with the support of what Plato says, I went

into that above mentioned small geological

and geographical analysis.

II.2

The great Greek philosopher (Timaeus 24e-

25abcd, Critias, 108e-109a), first in a quick

and concise way and then in a more detailed

one (in Critias), relates about Atlantis the information

that reached him from tradition and

sources.

The story seems vacuous, as the ghost of

something that does not exist anymore, but

only apparently so; taking a closer look, there

are some elements that certainly can help us

say something more and new about this vexata

quaestio.

Our attention, in rereading Plato, focused on

some particular glosses:



–





–

 

–





!

–

“#

Although we did non have at our disposal a

critical edition, the analysis of such terms provided

us with important information.

Over the centuries, annotators assumed that

beyond the Pillars of Hercules actually meant

beyond the Straits of Gibraltar. We, after

having carefully reread Plato, are certain that

things are different; and we are going to explain

the reasons why.

Let’s start from Critias.

Reference is made to an era more than 9000

year before the one of the Author, and he says:

“…island of Atlantis, which, as we said, was

at that time greater in extent than Libya and

Asia, while now, sunk by earthquakes, is an

insurmountable barrier of mud that stands in

the way of those who sail from here to reach

the open sea, therefore the journey does not go

further” .(13)

Here is the first linguistic datum on which to

ponder.

Plato says:

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And in Timaeus:





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/
? does not mean “larger”, but

simply “more powerful, more important”. On

the other side you have only to interpret Plato

with Plato; regarding the size of the island, he

tells us that its size is 3000 stadia by 2000 stadia.

That’s all.

And not only this. In Timaeus he states that

“that power (

invaded the whole of

Europe and Asia”. Practically he repeats mirror

like, with another, more circumscribed

term, the same idea: the fact that the island of

Atlantis was more powerful, more equipped,

more important of all the reigns of that time.

The meaning is made clearer by that

 

(
 

#
) and by that

 

(
 



/),
) refer to

the strength and the valour of Athens.

On the other hand, the Greek word 
must

be reverted to the Sanskrit root MAG/M$G

from which also .-
meaning “to fight”,

derives and this in turn, in an agglutinated

way, must be reverted to 

+ # ? which

makes it clear, had it been necessary, that

fighting is a typical and honourable activity of

man. Alexander himself was called “Great”

not for his height, obviously, but for his great

achievements. Therefore the image of an island,

which seemed huge to everybody and

which, thought time, gave birth to the most

fantastic hypothesis, should be scaled down.

(14)

Moreover there is a rather interesting datum:

“while now, sunk by earthquakes, is an insurmountable

mud…”. Already in Plato’s time, it

was still possible to notice some traces of what

happened and of what remained of that island.

This is important, and the language of the philosopher

reflects faithfully, reconstruct, testify,

describes with precision if not the exact location,

contained in ancient texts, that we lazy

modern readers refer to, at least its location in

Mediterranean, in that big quagmire where so

many people, just like frogs, look on. And he

then adds: “that stands in the way of those

who sail from here to reach the open sea

(/

)
 )”. It would be better to

express )
with “in each direction”.

Here we must stress that, when talking about

the sea in the mentioned passages, Plato uses

three terms only apparently similar: one, generic,

; then  
to show the

open sea; finally 
to indicate a bound

sea suitable for coastal navigation. And it is

not by chance that the first, primitive term, is

feminine and indicative of the maternal and

uterine mood; the last one, masculine, corresponding

to the behaviour of Hellene and non-

Hellene sailors, who dared defy the waters and

the uncertainties of new journeys; the second

term is neuter because it is and represents the

sign of the divinity and of the unfathomable

mystery beyond the visible horizon. Now,

when in the passage in question Plato talks

about open sea, it means that he wants to

compare the inland sea, for example the Aegean

or another inland sea, where coastal

navigation made it possible to reach every island

and any nearby land, with another, wider

and open, sea, without immediate and visible

references, which some people today ingenuously

call “ocean”.

Translating the Platonic text everybody says

“coming forth out of the Atlantic Ocean

( 
)…”. Obviously they are wrong.

Plato never used the term “Ocean”.

It is necessary to state, in order to avoid any

misunderstanding, that the term “ocean” is our

own, and it would be wrong to read the past

according to our present cognitive and symbolic

parameters.

Let us continue with the analysis of the Platonic

text.

So, coming forth out of the Atlantic “sea” Atlantis

invaded the whole Europe and Asia. In

those days that sea was navigable (an indication

that in Plato’s time – or at the time of the

writer who told the event – it was no more),

and in front of that entrance… Here it is, finally!

Just in front of that entrance (the presumed

Pillars of Hercules) there was the island

of Atlantis. And from it, it was possible

to reach the other islands… and from

the islands to the entire opposite continent

that surrounded that true sea

(

/
/)

).

Here the first distinguishing report. It is an

inland sea, but because of its depth and dangerousness

the philosopher, and the people of

those times, view it as a real sea.

And here was Atlantis. It is the first sufficiently

detailed information.

But does in front of that entrance mean “on

this side” or “on the other side” of such entrance?

The only possibility we have, following the

indication of the philosopher, is that the Pillar

of Hercules were noting more than the narrow

sea passage between the south-eastern cost of

Sicily and the coast of Tunisia. As we anticipated.

Hardly twenty kilometres or so; maybe

less.

Picture 2; variation of that reported by Vittorio Castellani

(8)

Spiridon Marinatos liked to believe that Atlantis

was Santorini. But this is not borne by

Plato’s testimony, since he tells us that the

kings of the island “ruled the regions of Libya

that are on this side of the Straits as far as

Egypt, and Europe as far as Tyrrhenia ”. It

means that such Straits should be close to

Libya, in its central part; and after all, it would

have been extremely strange that people living

in an area close to Hellas would fight against

the people of Hellas.

This is the most important passage of the

whole description. But we will come back to

it.

“In fact – it goes on – everything is included

in the limit of the entrance I talked about and

appears like a port characterised by a narrow

entrance”. This detail too is noteworthy: it is

not a simple “passage”, a strait, or, as everybody

would like, the present Strait of Gibraltar,

since in it “appears like a port ()

characterised by a narrow entrance”. Then it

goes on: “the other sea, on the contrary, you

can really call it sea and that land that completely

surrounds it can really and correctly

call it continent.”

Here it starts appearing the real location, if not

of Atlantis, at least of the Strait in question

and of the surrounding lands. The hint is clear:

we refer to the area, shown in maps 1 and 2,

situated between Sicily and Tunisia. We have

a Strait and we have a natural port; so a sea

that, even if inland, is a true sea and a land

completely surrounding it and that can be

called continent. Even better, the Pillars of

Hercules are not the closest point between

Sicily and Tunisia, but a narrow alley that

should have been at the level of the island of

Malta and that encompasses the natural port

mentioned by the philosopher.

But he does not stop here.

“In this Island of Atlantis… royal dynasty

dominating the whole island and many other

islands and parts of the continent: moreover

they ruled the regions of Libya that are on this

side of the Strait as far as Egypt, and Europe

as far as Tyrrhenia…

(


#
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.
3)”

It ensues that, from the physical point of view

of a Greek living in the heart of Hellas, it

exists a “strait” beyond which lies Atlantis

and that the latter “dominated… the regions of

Libya that are on this side” of said strait. So

ancient Libya, and Northern Africa, extended

both sides of such strait. It is obvious that if

by Pillar of Hercules we mean present-day

Gibraltar, saying “the regions of Libya that are

on this side etc” would be tautological, excessive,

overabundant, unnecessary and superfluous;

because they are really located on this

side of Gibraltar; neither can we affirm that

Plato would allude to that part of present-day

Morocco beyond Gibraltar, since the description

is geographically well limitated: “on this

side of the Strait as far as Egypt.” So it is as if

he would have said: “in the central part as far

as Egypt”. Moreover if Atlantis was as powerful

as the philosopher rightly says and since is

was located beyond the Pillars of Hercules,

why should it have extended its rule only on

this side and not also “on the other side”?

The fact is that he want to point out the quadrants

where such rules extended upon: from

Tunisia to Egypt, and from Phoenician Europe

till Tyrrhenian; that is Atlantis had its own

sphere of influence on the present eastern

Maghre’b (obviously in order to rule the

commercial trade that in that area was very

flourishing) and then on the easternmost part

of Mediterranean Sea, and then till the areas of

Asia Minor that had not yet been colonised by

the Hellenes. They were relegated north of

Crete, in Aegean Sea, and from here till Hellespont.

But let’s come back to Critias.

Here (108e) you read: “… it was 9000 years

ago, when, as it is told, the war started among

the people living beyond the Pillars of Hercules

and those who lived on this side; now we

must describe perfectly this war”

We must stress, here, the passage “those who

lived on this side ()
/
) )”. Here

the Author want to point out first of all the fact

that there had been an enormous coalition of

all the people living in the eastern Mediterranean

area, above all the Hellenes, to oppose

those, who led by Atlantids, wanted to conquer

even that part of the world that was “visible”

in those times.

As to the “people living beyond the Pillars of

Hercules” it absurd to think, believe, assume

that Plato wanted to hint to other people. To

whom? Maybe to Amerindians? Why does he

not limit himself to saying “the Atlantids”, but

on the contrary he says “all the people etc,

etc.”; should such coalition against the Hellenes,

led by the inhabitants of Atlantis, include

“Americans”, Cubans, the inhabitants of

Who Knows Where, and so on? Certainly no!

This thing seems to be much too obvious to

spend more time on it.

Going further we find the description of the

island (113c fol.). We can read that the central

part of the island of Atlantis, where there was

the town of the greater of the 10 kings, first of

all had a diameter of 5 stadia, that is little less

than 1000 m (since one stadium is about

177,60 m); that around this town there were 5

defensive walls, 3 water and 2 earthwork

walls; that beyond the walls there was a plain

extending for 3000 stadia on the two sides and

200 stadia from the last wall to the sea; that

there was plenty of wildlife, and even the elephant

could be found among the animals. An

important notation, this one regarding the elephant,

since we know well that this animal (a

variant species, “dwarf” elephant) had its habitat

exactly in that latitude: in Sicily.

Then there is another geographical reference:

the most important part faced the (open) sea,

while on the other side it faced the the region

of Gades.

We must go on carefully.

Most people mean, to bolster the hypothesis

Pillar of Hercules = Gibraltar, “near Cadiz”.

The fact is that Plato simply says “the twin

(scil. of Atlas) who born after him, and obtained

as his lot the extremity of the Island towards

the Pillars of Hercules, 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 langauge is Eumelus (“#),

while in the language of the country which is

named after him, Gadeirus.”

In fact he does not say “near” nor “in the vicinity”;

he only says “towards”; it only means

it faced that region, that, for some reason,

must have been well known; but it leaves

aside, obviously, the notion of vicinity.

The Greek name of Gadeirus, “#., is interesting.

It (cfr. -
but in Hom.


789

 “couleur de coing”) (15)

shows us how Hellenes called Atlas’ brother;

moreover if we analyse the etymon of the

name that apparently is not Greek, as Plato

said, that is Gadeirus (!) therefore the

name of the region of Gades, we note that it

reverts to a Greek etymon; in fact we have

)
(land) and  / 

(sscr. drsat)

(neck, rock, yoke, chain, necklace).

The first term is clearly Doric, and it disclose

the antiquity of the term (somewhere else we

showed as the first Dorian invasion must be

set around the 16th century b.C. (16); the second

recalls the probable configuration of the

area ruled by Gadeirus: “A strip of land” or “a

string of islands”. This might be a valid hypothesis

in order to fix the exact location of

Atlantis.

Certainly not of Cadiz.

Then, it could be possible, in the analogy with

the Greek name Eumelus, that Gadeirus would

also mean “with earth-coloured back”. It is not

the first time in fact that the a term has a dual,

ambivalent etymon; that it contains the whole

strange magic of the word.

“A string of islands”? The fact is interesting,

even if it does not offer any another starting

points for a probable surmise. The fact is that

in the central eastern Mediterranean there are

“strings” of Islands galore; from the Dodecanese

to the Aeolians, since they are not

only “a series of Islands”, but also because

they are volcanic and

Finally, everything concurs to point to the

above-mentioned area as the only one possible

in which to identify the location of the ancient

Atlantis. That fact that men’s and writers’

imagination made this land a mysterious place

of spirit and the ultimate haven for dreams,

well, this lies obviously outside of the research

and analysis of the text.

Plato’s words are enough for us. This is not

bad.

Notes:

(1) It is the canto of Dantean Ulysses, Inferno XXVI.

(2) The Greeks call Italy “Esperia” because they closed

there their representation of the world and therefore at

that longitude, more or less, they should have fixed the

extreme limit for their range of action and for their vision

of the world.

(3) In the short passage of sea separating the Island of

Lipari from the Island of Volcano, you might recognise

the two reefs, the two “planktai petrai ”. At this regard

a further specification. The expression does not mean

“wandering stones” (which we also used at the beginning

of this short essay), but simply “stones to crash

against”. Finally, the reefs do not move (in fact they

could not); it is the poetical superimposition of two

meaningful images: the one of the strong motion of the

waves and the one of the vessels crashing against such

rocks.

(4) cf. S. Warren Carey, La terra in espansione, ed.

Laterza, Bari, 1986. Analysed here from a geological

point of view, we deduced the phenomenon from a particular

physical and astronomic analysis.

(5) Diodoro Siculo in the III book of his Stories (but

Matone before him) tells us about the disappearance of

the lake Tritonis invaded by the sea water of an earthquake

that destroyed the shores.

(6) Memento kept in Kore-Persephone myth, which was

kidnapped by Ades while she was picking up flowers

around Enna and who taken to ktonio reign – deaths’

reign – through a deep and dreadful chasm. This myth,

told on a number of occasions by many Greek and Latin

authors among which Callimacus, Strabo, Ovidius, Diodorus

Siculo, Cicero and above all Claudianus with its

“De Raptu Proserpinae“, in the ancient times made the

richness of the city of Enna, raising it to the standing of

sheer holy city , place of pilgrimages and of flourishing

trades and of travels of illustrious representatives of

Hellenic-Roman koine.

These activities, more than being described by various

ancient authors, and above all by Cicero in his Verrine,

are testified by the very interesting remains that in these

last years, starting from post-war period with the first

surface reconnaissance led by the renowned scholar

Luigi Bernabò Brea and by the archeophyle from Enna,

baron Potenza, are coming to light in the pergusina rise

of Cozzo Matrice, from where you enjoy one of the

most beautiful sight of the whole basin and in which

people found out a small natural cavity which was used

by local people as substitute of the Plutonic entrance.

The ancient name, Pergo, calls us back to a Greek-

Anatolian origin of the term. It is testified by Gr.

 

and in Attic popular   
(Stef.Biz.),

from which, later, German burg / berg. It is interesting

the fact that we find it testified as  
3, so

the way of the term could be: Crete (not testified yet),

Troy, Greece, and then Sicily.

(7) The Odyssey draft certainly follows closely such

scheme, from time to time adjusting the story to the expansion

of the Greeks towards more and more distant

goals. In fact Odysseus (op.cit., XII) went through, on

advice of Circe, near the eoliane cliffs turns towards

Sicily: :
’
/
) 
+2 
(see 127; cf.

also 429). But is it really Sicily? We have some doubts,

since it would be happened after the passage between

Scilla and Cariddi. If Scilla and Cariddi would really

represent the edge of the Calabrian and Messinisan

coast, Homer would not express himself like that: in this

case Odysseus would have already reached Sicily. On

the other side 
could not be there, in the place

which many people identify like the natural port of

Messina (a sickle, from which the ancient name of Zancle).

And then there were not even that big river,

“  

/



+?),



# .’
1

–

)”

(v.305) that the Poet talks to.

(8) V. Castellani, Quando il mare sommerse l’Europa,

ed. Ananke, Torino, 1999.

(9) My friend Prof. Emilio Spedicato kindly informed

me at this regard.

(10) Here “poor” literally, if we want to believe Isocrates

who says about the intellectuals lived in great

poverty in the democratic Athens that was very lavish

towards athletes. Just like today. Nothing seems to be

changed in the habits of politicians.

(11) Fr. 14 A 17 DK (Giamblico, Vita pitagorica, 199).

See also Diogene Laerzio, VIII, 84-85 (cf. I Presocratici,

Laterza, Bari, 19904, page. 130).

(12) It is maybe a simple surmise, born from the great

love for the Latin poet Virgil, who makes Carthage

build during Enea’s wandering (another aetiographic

myth) after Troy’s fall.

(13) Plato, Timaeus and Critias, edited by Enrico V.

Maltese, Newton C. ed., Roma, 1997.

(14) But there is another linguistic datum that supports

such reading. The term Atlantis comes from Greek, obviously,

and in detail from Ö
-

of /
which

means “to fight, to compete”; therefore the term Atlantis

identifies a nation of warriors and / or of people able to

perform impressive exploits. And, I presume, not only

war, considering the description of the city Atlantis

made by Plato.

(15) P. Chantraine, La formation des noms en grec ancien

(p. 258).

(16) R. Vieni, La lingua dei Micenei, Cz, 1990.

Essential bibliography:

Among the ancient sources: Homer, Hesiod, Euripides,

Teopompo, Diodoro Siculo, Plutarch, Strabo, Pliny,

Dionigi from Mitilene, Pomponio Mela, Marcellus,

Arnobius, Macrobius, Elianus, Claudiano.

Arecchi, A. (2001). Atlantis. Un mondo scomparso:

un’ipotesi per ritrovarlo, Ed. Liutprand, Pavia.

Benoit, P. (1919). Atlantis.

Castellani, V. (1999). Quando il mare sommerse

l’Europa.

Cook, Melvin (1993). Sulla formazione dell’Oceano

Atlantico in Scientific Prehistory.

D’Amato, G. (1990). Platone e l’Atlantis.

Ellis, R. (ed.Tea, Milano) (1998). Atlantis.

Homer, Odissea. Edited by Privitera, G. Aurelio (Mondatori)

(1981). – Fondaz. Valla,

Jordan, P. (2001). La sindrome di Atlantis, Newton &

Compton, Roma,

Luce, J.V. (1976). La fine di Atlantis,

B.Martinis, Atlantis: mito o realtà, 1989.

Much, O.T. (1979). I segreti di Atlantis.

Perrone, G. (1928). Atlantis, leggenda e testimonianze,

Pinotti, R. Continenti perduti, Mondadori Oscar.

Vinci, Felice (2003). Homer nel Baltico, Palombi ed.,

Roma.

Wilson, C. (1996). From Atlantis to the Sphinx, Virgin

Books, Londra.