Latest News
NEWS October 2024
OCTOBER 2024 The recent cyber attack on the Internet Archive is deplorable and can be reasonably compared with the repeated burning of the Great Library of Alexandria. I have used the Wayback Machine extensively, but, until the full extent of the permanent damage is clear, I am unable to assess its effect on Atlantipedia. At […]Read More »
Joining The Dots
I have now published my new book, Joining The Dots, which offers a fresh look at the Atlantis mystery. I have addressed the critical questions of when, where and who, using Plato’s own words, tempered with some critical thinking and a modicum of common sense.Read More »
Oxyrhynchus Papyri
Hellanicus of Lesbos
Hellanicus of Mytilene, the main town on Lesbos, was a historian of the late 5th century BC and is credited with writing the first history of Athens. His importance is probably reflected in the frequency with which his work is mentioned. Unfortunately, only about 200 fragments of his work have come down to us as described by Robert L. Fowler[375]. Tantalisingly, one of these fragments was entitled Atlantias. It is quite probable that this was written up to a century before Plato’s account, which would suggest that his story might not be the original invention suggested by many. Timothy Ganz notes[376] one line that is particularly noteworthy, “Poseidon mated with Celaeno, and their son Lycus was settled by his father in the Isles of the Blest and made immortal.”
The earliest suggestion of Hellanicus offering a possible pre-Platonic mention of Atlantis was voiced by J.V. Luce in his contribution to Ramage’s Atlantis: Fact or Fiction[522.72]. Andrew Collins[072] dismisses this reference as irrelevant, whereas Rodney Castleden[225] is inclined to identify some similarities with Plato’s tale and in addition suggests that an even earlier reference in a fragment from the Oxyrhynchus Papyri may have inspired Hellanicus.
>However, P. Rodriguez Cantos offers a more critical interpretation of the brief excerpts available from Hellanicus(c).<
Oxyrhynchos was a mainly Greek-speaking city in ancient Egypt whose rubbish dump was the source of the papyri referred to. Peter Parsons has recently written a book[377] about the city. The final haul from that site amounted to 500,000 papyri fragments which filled 700 boxes. This treasure trove is now being studied and gradually published by the Ancient Lives Project(a) at Oxford University. Since 1898, when the first volume was produced, over seventy-five volumes have been produced and are now arriving at a rate of more than one a year(b).
(a) https://www.ancientlives.org/ (offline from April 2020 until later in the year)
See: https://web.archive.org/web/20200617141331/https://www.papyrology.ox.ac.uk/Ancient_Lives/
(b) https://web.archive.org/web/20171102031930/https://dhblog.maynoothuniversity.ie/skerr/?p=13
(c) Hellanicus of Lesbos’ Atlantis / La Atlántida de Helánico de Lesbos (foroactivo.com) *