12. Did Atlantis Ever Exist?
Plato’s Atlantis, eventually sunk by the gods as punishment for its people’s hubris and moral decline, was entirely fictional – a plot device to advance some philosophical points. Centuries later, many people began to believe that Atlantis was real, and tried to prove its existence. The legend’s revival in the modern era and its transformation into popular pseudoscience can be traced back to a nineteenth century American amateur historian and congressman, Ignatius Donnelly. He wrote an 1882 book, The Antedeluvian World, in which he added new “facts” that became part of the Atlantis myth. He also theorized that all major human advances originated in Plato’s sunken island. Is there any archaeological evidence, though, that Atlantis ever existed?
