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Greece and Rome · Plato, Critias 109b–121c

Atlantis: gods who divided the earth

EvidenceDocumentedThe text exists and is quoted from a published translation. What it describes is a separate question.What this means
ReferencePlato, Critias 109b–121c
Writtenc. 360 BCE
Set9,000 years before Solon
But when the divine portion began to fade away, and became diluted too often and too much with the mortal admixture, and the human nature got the upper hand, they then, being unable to bear their fortune, behaved unseemly.

Translation: Jowett, 1871 · About the translator

Read it literally

The gods split the earth by lot, Poseidon fathers kings with a mortal woman, and the bloodline weakens with each generation until the island is destroyed. The Watcher story told in Greek.

What scholars say

Most scholars read Atlantis as Plato's invented parable.

Giants and hybrids Council of gods Strange time
People and places herePlato

Quick answers about Plato, Critias 109b–121c

Where is Plato, Critias 109b–121c found?

Plato, Critias 109b–121c (Greece and Rome). Translation quoted: Benjamin Jowett, The Dialogues of Plato (1871).

When was Plato, Critias 109b–121c written?

c. 360 BCE.

What do scholars say about Plato, Critias 109b–121c?

Most scholars read Atlantis as Plato's invented parable.

Rabbit holes in this passage

PlaceAtlantisPlato says a great island empire sank in a single day and night, and then his unfinished dialogue stops mid-sentence just as Zeus starts to speak. No Greek writer before him mentions Atlantis. So was it a warning parable, a memory of a real disaster, or something else? The sources point several ways.

Sources

  1. Benjamin Jowett, The Dialogues of Plato (1871)Primary text
  2. Plato, Timaeus 20d–25d, trans. Benjamin Jowett (1871)Primary text

Scholarly dates are rounded. The wording follows the named public-domain translation.

Updated