The Fiction of Atlantis

In preparation for an article and map I will be submitting to Threshold fan magazine, detailing the city of Alphatia modeled on Atlantis, I have been reading Plato's dialogues of Timaeus and Critias. There are many Atlantis proponents who have this notion that Atlantis was a real place and that we can find evidence of it through archeology or other means. They fail to grasp the methods by which Plato wrote and supported his ideas. In the dialogue of Timaeus itself he literally tells us that it is fiction by telling us it is fact:

Critias: And now, Socrates, to make an end my preface, I am ready to tell you the whole tale. I will give you not only the general heads, but the particulars, as they were told to me. The city and citizens, which you yesterday described to us in fiction, we will now transfer to the world of reality. It shall be the ancient city of Athens, and we will suppose that the citizens whom you imagined, were our veritable ancestors, of whom the priest spoke; they will perfectly harmonise, and there will be no inconsistency in saying that the citizens of your republic are these ancient Athenians. Let us divide the subject among us, and all endeavour according to our ability gracefully to execute the task which you have imposed upon us. Consider then, Socrates, if this narrative is suited to the purpose, or whether we should seek for some other instead.

Socrates: And what other, Critias, can we find that will be better than this, which is natural and suitable to the festival of the goddess, and has the very great advantage of being a fact and not a fiction? How or where shall we find another if we abandon this? We cannot, and therefore you must tell the tale, and good luck to you; and I in return for my yesterday's discourse will now rest and be a listener.

Here they are referring to an earlier dialogue(The Republic) and stating that the idealized society proposed there actually existed in Athens 9000 years before the days of Solon. using this ancient city of Athens to demonstrate how an ideal republic would function not just as an idea, but in practice. Now did Plato actually think his republic existed in Athens some 9000 in the past? of course not! its a story he created from wholecloth to support his political ideas which he had also created from wholecloth. He most definitely did not base the dialogue in the The Republic on a perfect society that had once actually existed. This entire exercise is a thought experiment and he is attributing the ideal to a past of Athens because he is holding up democratic Athens as a great city, but also criticizing it at the same time saying this is how it should really be.

The story of Atlantis is a complete fiction made up by Plato to prove a point, and anyone who thinks otherwise needs to learn to read.