assignment 2 - azpilcueta

7/29/2019 Assignment 2 - Azpilcueta

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Name: Kevin Azpilcueta Vsquez

Instructor: Jacques Morin

Assignment 2

Platos Atlantis Story

The story of Atlantis is conceived by Plato in two dialogues: the Timateus and the

Critias, in both of them Plato explains the history of the city of Atlantis, which at that

time was supposed to be one of the most wonderful, great, and dominant in the

world. As it will be shown in the text, the history of Atlantis has a sense of order

and organization of a land, according to what the Gods order.

The first dialogue, the Timateus, starts with Critias addressing to Socrates, and at

the same time he makes reference about Solon, who was considered the wisest of

the seven sages at that time. What we can conclude from this is that the reason

why Critias refers Solon is because when Critias was in an early age he received

this testimony from his grandfather whose name was also Critias, in this one Solon

referred to the grandiosity of the Athenian City, how much wonderful and powerful

it was at a certain period of time, and the enemies this city possessed to whom he

refers as greater than all the rest. The first element we have to analyse in this

writing of Plato is that he uses Critias as a medium for letting know about the story

of Atlantis, and the other element that should be considered is the oral tradition, in

the sense of transmitting information via oral stories, accounts, etc. The relation

between Solon, Critias and the oral tradition has an aim, and this aim is to give

veracity to the story, to make this one much more reliable. Before Critias concludes

his speech, it is necessary also to notice the last phrase he proclaimed: a hymn

of praise true and worthy of the goddess, on this her day of festival, according to

Kathryn A. Morgan, this is a festival speech, which is told on the day of the

Panathenaea in honour to Athena, and is coloured by the epideictic rhetoric that

characterized many Athenian festival occasions (104). According to this

explanation proposed, we may conclude that because this is a speech, the veracity

of these words cannot be truly contrasted with any kind of sources that supports

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the existence of its content. But of course this is not the only reason why this tale

cannot be considered as a veridical one, it will be explained forward in this essay.

The text follows an order, after it tries to give a reason why the veracity of this tale

should not be questioned by using Solon as the highest example of wisdom,

knowledge and truth. The words of Solon are to be considered as true because as

the story starts by criticizing Greek people and by giving reason why they cannot

talk about History or about the origin of things through comparison with inhabitants

of the Nile, is it there where actually Solon is supposed to have taken or learnt this

story from. The reason why Greek people cannot have a true knowledge about

history is because according to their geographical position they are much more

prone to suffer from any kind of natural disaster than people that live in the border

or close to a river, in this case the Nile. Based in this affirmation, because Greek

people did not have the chance or fortune for conserving their history, they had to

require to the creation of Myths for explaining this origin of their civilization; in

words of Kathryn A. Morgan, Civilization, and any accurate memory of the past, is

destroyed everywhere else [] After each destruction, we infer, the rising of

civilization will have to provide itself with what we might call charter myths (103).

This affirmation makes even more trustable the story of Solon, because he

supposedly took it from the place or city where history can effectively be kept alive.

This was one of the arguments Plato used for giving a sense of truthiness to the

tale, for that period of time in History it would be acceptable to trust in this words,

but nowadays there are some people that still believe in the real existence of this

story, I firmly believe that one of the reasons why people still believe that Atlantis

was in fact a real place might be because of the accurate geographical description

Plato made about it. In this description, Plato mentioned a place which he

named Atlas, after him the whole island and the ocean were called Atlantic. To his

twin brother, who was born after him, and obtained as his lot the extremity of the

island towards the Pillars of Heracles, facing the country which is now called the

region of Gades in that part of the world. According to this geographical

description some people may believe that Atlantis was and should have been

located in an area further than the Mediterranean Sea, probably near to the cost of

Comment [JM1]: truthfulness


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Africa, to a probable extent to the South, closer to the Equator. The reason that

might probably explain both of the previous affirmation can be deduced from thephysical description Plato made of the land, he refers to a place where there were

a great number of elephants in the island; for as there was provision for all other

sorts of animals, both for those which live in lakes and marshes and rivers, and

also for those which live in mountains and plains [] roots, or herbage, or woods,

or essences which distil from fruit and flower, grew and thrived in that land,

according to this its geographical positions allowed it to have such a huge variety

of vegetables, animals, ecosystems, etc. And because of this accurate description

made by Plato, some people can believe that that city really existed. But of course

not all believes of its existence are related with its geographical position, but also

with the way how Plato described it in what concerns its political organization.

As many authors have already explained, the reason why Plato made this

description of Atlantis is because in words of Kathryn A. Morgan he wanted to offer

a paradigm of the ideal state elaborated in the Republicfor the city of Athens(101).

Also in her text, she quoted il ne faut pas chercher lle mystrieuse nulle part

ailleurs que dans lAthnes du Vme et du IVme sicles dont une des faces ests

tourne vers la puissance maritime (L. Brisson qtd. In Morgan 101). A translation

of these words says theres no need to look for this mysterious island in any other

place, but only in Athens of the V and IV th century when one of its faces has

become to the power; these words should be interpreted in the sense that Plato

used Atlantis as an example of the political organization he desired for Athens, in

words of the author as a paradeigma. If we consider that the affirmation of both

authors is accurate, we should have a look at the text itself and how it is structured.

First of all, we can find the element of the divine origin, we can see that the origin

of Atlantis has been made according to Poseidons desire, and in this divine order,

the land of Atlantis has been perfectly designed, it followed a metrical order

according to the its creator. In the case of Athens, as it is explained by Plato;

Hephaestus and Athene, who were brother and sister, and sprang from the same

father, having a common nature, and being united also in the love of philosophy

and art, both obtained as their common portion of land, which was naturally

Comment [JM2]: is turned to sea pow


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adapted for wisdom and virtue. In this description, it was not only a divine origin,

but also Athene transmitted its wisdom, knowledge, and virtue to the people thatwould live in that land. This reference can be considered as an explanation of the

origin, but also as a medium for making all inhabitants in that area feel proud of the

land that the Goddess has given to them; this aspect can be considered as a

medium for legitimacy, according to the beliefve that if everything was created and

ordered by the Gods, it would have a major impact in peoples life. The second

element that should be noticed is the military and political organizations of the

citizens, the text says:

since military pursuits were then common to men and women, the men

of those days in accordance with the custom of the time set up a figure and

image of the goddess in full armour, to be a testimony that all animals which

associate together, male as well as female, practise in common the virtue

which belongs to them without distinction of sex . [] they regarded all that

they had as common property.

We have elements of equality of rightness between men and women, and also one

notable element which is the common property of the land. I must say that these

both elements are the most important in this sense, the continuation of the text

describes how the city should be constructed and organized, but it is less relevant

if we compare with other elements as the political organization, as it we have that it

was a kind of democracy mixed with aristocracy. And in the military sphere,

Athens has endured many great struggles, both on her own behalf and on behalf of

the freedom of others (105). It shows what Plato was actually trying to do while

describing the city of Atlantis, through this story to teach the citizens of Athens how

they should be like. As I made mention previously, it is a reason of trying to find an

example or paradigm of organization or constitution for the city of Athens.


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Grading scheme General Comment

Word count: 1622

A bit longer than required.

Good essay, although you do not concentrate on

the aspects that I was expecting: essentially a

comparison of the history of Athens and that of

Atlantis

Grade

Contents (60%) includes the use of

sources, accuracy of report, proper

paraphrasing, absence of copying and

proper length of the essay.

60

Style and language (30%) includes

also form of essay (introduction, body

of argument and conclusion)

30

References (10%) 10

Penalty (up to 20% if received late) Received on 8 December - 14

Grade B Total 86%Formatted: Font: 24 pt

Formatted: Font: 24 pt

assignment 2 - azpilcueta

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