Err, just practicing. Turns out that apparently Ireland was just that locale's secret identity:
DUBLIN (Reuters) - Atlantis, the legendary island nation over whose existence controversy has raged for thousands of years, was actually Ireland, according to a new theory by a Swedish scientist.(snip of paragraph: everybody here bloody well knows what Atlantis was, thanks)
Geographer Ulf Erlingsson, whose book explaining his theory will be published next month, says the measurements, geography, and landscape of Atlantis as described by Plato match Ireland almost exactly.
"I am amazed no one has come up with this before, it's incredible," he told Reuters.
Indeed. In fact, one would say that it's almost as incredible as the notion that the ancient Greeks and pre-Celts had access to surveying equipment that would allow them to accurately map out an island out past the back end of beyond... but fie on the doubters! Fie, fie, I say! Obviously this Erlingsson fellow is correct, which means that I am Atlantean myself (15/16th Irish descent, you understand), which means that soon, soon my Admantine Sky Legions will spread out to bring the surface world under the benevolent and enlightened rule of the Crystalline Throne! My Crystalline Throne! MY DESTINY AWAITS! MWHAHH-BAH-HAHH-AH-HAHHHH-HAH!!!!!
And to think that I thought that I'd have to wait on world conquest until my girlfriend got around to building me a proper robot army.
Moe
PS: Reuters and I have our little disagreements, but I have to say: this
Previous theories about Atlantis have suggested it may have been around the Azores islands 900 miles west of the Portuguese coast, or in the Aegean sea. Others locate it solely in the long-decayed brain of Plato.
- was pretty good.
Curiously enough, I was reading The Bull of Minos yesterday (Leonard Cottrell, 1953) and he makes a pretty good case for the myth of Atlantis being really a folk-memory of the civilisation on Crete.
Posted by: Jesurgislac | August 07, 2004 at 08:32 AM
I lean towards the Thera explosion theory myself, although I must admit that I love the really, really baroque theories. Hence the post, I guess. :)
Posted by: Moe Lane | August 07, 2004 at 08:36 AM
The baroque theories are fun, but ancient Cretan civilisation really is interesting in itself. (I am geek enough even to be fascinated by their plumbing...) I read Mary Renault at an impressionable age. (Ever read The King Must Die? Good stuff.)
Posted by: Jesurgislac | August 07, 2004 at 08:48 AM
"The baroque theories are fun, but ancient Cretan civilisation really is interesting in itself."
Indeed: I'll probably get around to going through it more when my girlfriend picks up more texts about it. Which she probably will, given that the legend is of interest to her; she gets the serious stuff, I grab the fiction and the silly/freakazoid materials. Every so often, we raid each other's libraries*. It seems to work out.
Moe
*God only knows how we're going to move them when we get a house. I must be somewhere around 3000 by now, and she's got about 5-6 hundred herself...
Posted by: Moe Lane | August 07, 2004 at 09:03 AM
God only knows how we're going to move them when we get a house. I must be somewhere around 3000 by now, and she's got about 5-6 hundred herself...
Liquor boxes. The sort that hold 12 bottles. They're sturdy, they hold a shelf's worth of books, and they're not heavy enough when filled that you put your back out lifting them. (Speaking as someone with 3000 books who has moved a lot in the past five years. With the books.)
Then you offer all your friends and acquaintances free beer, wine, and pizzas if they'll help you move. (Or hire a moving firm. That's what I did the last two times: I figured I'd run out of friends otherwise.)
Posted by: Jesurgislac | August 07, 2004 at 09:21 AM
I second Jes's suggestion. That's how the fiancee and I moved our books and a bunch of DVDs as well, those liquor boxes are the perfect size and they're free.
I lean towards the Thera explosion theory myself, although I must admit that I love the really, really baroque theories.
You won't hear any argument from me. Like I always say, if the theory's not baroque, don't fisk it. :>
Posted by: Catsy | August 07, 2004 at 09:35 AM
i agree with the Thira explosion too, but this new theory makes me an Atlantian which sounds way cool. And really shouldn't Atlantis be near the Atlantic Ocean :)
And Jes, i agree Mary Renault rocks (and i read the Persian Boy at an impressionable age!).
Posted by: wilfred | August 07, 2004 at 09:58 AM
"You won't hear any argument from me. Like I always say, if the theory's not baroque, don't fisk it. :>"
God may forgive you for that pun, someday. Maybe. If you are profoundly lucky. ;)
Moe
PS: The liquor boxes and rampant bribes worked last time; we'll have to (in the future) come up with better bribes, or get a new set of friends, or both.
Posted by: Moe Lane | August 07, 2004 at 10:07 AM
God may forgive you for that pun, someday. Maybe. If you are profoundly lucky.
I'd like to blame it on Spider Robinson, but I was punny before I'd even heard of the man. I therefore accept full responsibility for my sins. :>
Posted by: Catsy | August 07, 2004 at 10:15 AM
Not to rain on anyone's parade but last time I checked Ireland was still floating merrily above the waves. If we're going to accept Plato's Critias (that and his Timaeus are the sole references to Atlantis in antiquity) as a source of literal truth, Atlantis was destroyed. No sale.
My interpretation: Athenian Greeks of the 5th century BCE were no more immune to spinning the occasional whopper than the modern Irish or Americans.
Posted by: Dave Schuler | August 07, 2004 at 10:49 AM
And FWIW despite the Swiss surname I'm roughly half Irish. Although it's pretty hard to believe anything my Irish ancestors had to say.
Posted by: Dave Schuler | August 07, 2004 at 10:51 AM
I too follow the Minoan theory, partly because it makes sense, partly because Linear B is just too cool. Although I should note that...
In fact, one would say that it's almost as incredible as the notion that the ancient Greeks and pre-Celts had access to surveying equipment that would allow them to accurately map out an island out past the back end of beyond...
...well, it's not completely inconceivable, given that Hanno and the other Phoenicians were said to have circumnavigated both Africa and, insofar as it's possible, Europe by about 500 BC.
OK, yeah, it's pretty damn near impossible. But at least my version is more plausible than that damn Disney Atlantis movie :)
PS: The liquor boxes and rampant bribes worked last time; we'll have to (in the future) come up with better bribes, or get a new set of friends, or both.
I understand that bloggers (and blog commenters) are both cheap and none-too-bright...
Posted by: Anarch | August 07, 2004 at 01:12 PM
I heard that Atlantis blasted off into outspace, where the population intermingled with the good folks of Triton.
Posted by: praktike | August 07, 2004 at 02:05 PM
Family Guy had you all scooped.
In the episode "Husband, Father... Brother?" Peter takes Chris to the Irish Heritage museum, where it is revealed that Ireland was an advanced civilization with flying cars until Whiskey was invented.
Posted by: sidereal | August 08, 2004 at 08:48 PM
Guys, what the hypohtesis says is that Plato based the geographic description of Atlantis on Ireland (and the empire on the megalith culture). Nobody can deny that the megalith culture was more advanced than other contemporary stone age cultures. But it is obvious that Plato waas describing a utopia. I suspect he might even have made the name up...
Posted by: Ulf Erlingsson | September 21, 2004 at 11:16 PM