Even though Plato, who first wrote down the story of Atlantis, died almost 2,500 years ago, his story has been told and retold ever since. The myth has become part of our general culture and, over the centuries, many have believed that the story was actually based on facts. Some even went on to search the forgotten land. Even though most scientists agree an actual Atlantis never existed, a new discovery might have been at the source of the story.
Most of the people who have worked on the matter will tell you the story of Atlantis must first and foremost be read as a moral one. According to James Romm, professor of classics at Bard College in Annandale, New York, it is a story that captures the imagination and one that Plato used mainly to portray his philosophical ideas. In short, the moral people leaving in the highly utopian Atlantis became greedy and thus sparked the rage of the gods, who punished the civilisation.
“He was dealing with a number of issues, themes that run throughout his work. His ideas about divine versus human nature, ideal societies, the gradual corruption of human society—these ideas are all found in many of his works. Atlantis was a different vehicle to get at some of his favourite themes”, Romm told National Geographic.
Plato is the first known historic source to have mentioned the myth of Atlantis and researchers mostly agree he has almost certainly invented the story. According to the philosopher, however, the events he described took place about 9,000 years before his time and were passed down from generation to generation in the form of oral myths, as is often the case with classic stories.
It is possible that Plato’s Atlantis might have been loosely based on real events. Volcanic eruptions and floods have occurred all throughout history and some of those might have been the source for the myth of Atlantis.
New research now adds another possible source of inspiration for the story. Scientists have been able to explore a seamount known as Mount Los Atlantes that sank off the coast of the modern-day Canary Islands millions of years ago. Consisting of three volcanoes measuring 50 kilometres in diameter and with bases 2 kilometres under the sea surface, they are a rich underwater biotope according to researchers from Spain’s Geological and Mining Institute (CSIC).
“They were islands in the past and they have sunk, they are still sinking, as the legend of Atlantis tells. Some of us have been able to verify that they still maintain their beaches. This could be the origin of the Atlantis legend,” geologist and project coordinator Luis Somoza told Live Science.
Geologists aboard the oceanographic vessel Sarmiento de Gamboa surveyed the area with the help of 5K ultra-resolution cameras, robotic arms for sampling and gas sensors. They were looking for signs of magma and underwater volcanic activity that might threaten the Spanish population in the future, but they were also able to find rich underwater life, including coral gardens, sponges and areas covered with “bacterial tapestries”.
Even though the islands started to sink millions of years ago, some of the beaches currently sit just 60 metres below sea level. This means that during the Last Glacial Period, which ended around 11,700 years ago, when sea levels were much lower than now, some of the area could have been an island again and might have accommodated some kind of life. In the next step of the research, the CSIC-team will try to establish when the islands (re)started to sink in order to get a better idea of the feasibility of this theory.
