Alternative-Job-2481
Alternative-Job-2481 t1_ivpbx4j wrote
Reply to comment by sennbat in TIL that the "Lost City of Atlantis" was invented by the philosopher Plato, as a fake enemy for Athens that lost favour of the gods and was sunk in to the sea. by PDRugby
Saying it's a work of fiction is stating Plato's intent in creating the story. It's possible it's a work of fiction, or a severe exaggeration, but we're still discovering ancient cities, for example the major northern trading port of Heracleion which sank underwater most likely due to soil liquefaction. Saying Atlantis is a work of fiction is imo a bit bold of a statement.
Alternative-Job-2481 t1_ivli91f wrote
Reply to TIL that the "Lost City of Atlantis" was invented by the philosopher Plato, as a fake enemy for Athens that lost favour of the gods and was sunk in to the sea. by PDRugby
When reading a wikipedia article it's important to remember that nearly anyone with enough patience can contribute. Long enough for you or I to read the article and be misinformed.
(I recently found some wildly racist information under the topic of some non-human hominid that said that people from Indonesia had the most genes from that non-human species and even had a picture of some Indonesian children. Some Homo Sapien children. This particular hominid existed over a million years ago, which is ancient in human evolutionary terms - far too old to be relevant to the modern day.)
Alternative-Job-2481 t1_ivpli65 wrote
Reply to comment by sennbat in TIL that the "Lost City of Atlantis" was invented by the philosopher Plato, as a fake enemy for Athens that lost favour of the gods and was sunk in to the sea. by PDRugby
>it is first found in an explicit work of fiction
I'm not saying it did or didn't exist, but real, fictional, and somewhere in between places are frequently referenced in works of fiction.
I hate to bring up so obvious an example (but we're reaching the limit of my education) - Homer (or "Homer") frequently narrated obviously fictional stories set in real places. The story being a work of fiction does not mean that Plato didn't base the places in it on real places or places he thought were real.
Anyway I do see your point, we can agree to disagree. I would argue this is far from resolved, and you're clearly skeptical of something kind of far fetched found in an story that had no real requirement for being anything other than entertainment :).