The Wrath of Poseidon Bethany Hughes 2010 TV programme on Atlantis was screened tonight. Curious, because I had been talking about the legend that afternoon. Getting a nice freeby from the BBC for her stay in Santorini (Thera) was doubtless pleasant, but there is no way that Bethanys conclusion of it being the location of Atlantis is correct. I see she used the Loeb translation rather than the Penguin version, but in both cases Plato clearly says that the city was outside the Mediterranean, and to get there he said one has to pass Cadiz (Hades in Latin, Gadeira in Greek) after passing through the Pillars of Heracles (The Straits of Gibraltar). Her second lack of scholarship was her ignorance of the fact that in ancient Greek the word for island and peninsula are synonymous. Peninsula is a Latin word: to the Greeks the word for island is the same as the word for peninsula, hence the Peloponnese (Island of Pelops) is actually a peninsula and Chersonnese (Island of Cherson) is also a peninsula. Plato was clearly describing the Lusitanian Algarvian peninsula north of Cadiz, and at Faro in its centre one can still see the concentric rings of water and land as described by Plato and their offlying mud flats just as he also describes, the result of an ancient tsunami. The steep red yellow and black cliffs he describes are prominent all along that south-facing coast, being the reason for needing a citadel with a strong lighthouse (Faro is Greek for lighthouse) on that long lee shore. This lighthouse was powered by the alternate semicircular sea walls of copper and zinc as described by Plato, because the salt water between them, also used to harbour the trading quinqueremes from Egypt, helped create a battery of huge energetic proportion to power the entire city with DC current, including the lighthouse. Behind Faro in the hills are the worlds largest and oldest copper and zinc mines. Her third lack of scholarship was that she omits to say that this story, specifically said by Plato to be true and no myth, was handed down to him by his famous ancestor Solon, the lawmaker, who learned it from the Egyptian priests. Solon passed the story down to his own family descendants, and eventually to Plato. Plato doesnt call the city Atlantis, actually. He says he doesnt know what the city was called, but that a Greek might read it as Atlantis. All along that Algarve coast are found stone engraved glyphs of an undeciphered language (they look a bit like runes ) and the letters A T L N and S are are clearly seen very often among these symbols. There are many examples of these glyphs on engraved stones in the Museums locally. Of course the glyphs may not be writing the name of the city, but have some other meaning entirely. There is a lot more I could tell you about this legend. But these are the chief corrections to Bethanys version. (I should maybe add in all modesty that I was an Open Scholar in Classics at Cambridge University, as well as a having a Masters in Environmental Management from the University of Wales, and so have read the original Greek texts of the two dialogues of Plato in which the story is spelled out (the sole source of this story), together with its dire message of the risks to mankind from claiming superiority over the forces of nature). Global warming (the infra red problem) and ozone depletion (the ultraviolet problem) are the two most serious environmental problems confronting mankind today, with nuclear power not far behind. All these electromagnetic waves and frequencies would have been under the aegis of Poseidon, god of all kinds of waves from earthquakes to tsunamis, who founded the city and taught its people how to make electricity. (Poseidon means shaker of the Earth in Greek). There is a fine Roman mosaic of the head of Poseidon in the museum at Faro, clearly connecting the city to that deity. I have to say in conclusion that there is presently an imminent risk of tsunami in the North Western Atlantic as a result of the twin problems above, but I suggest you check out that part of the topic out by Googling NASAs recent report and others from Los Alamos and several British Universities..
Posted on: Fri, 22 Nov 2013 01:04:28 +0000
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