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Qwez81 t1_ivluu1b wrote

Reply to comment by metaldinner in TIL that the "Lost City of Atlantis" was invented by the philosopher Plato, as a fake enemy for Athens that lost favour of the gods and was sunk in to the sea. by PDRugby

Yea but today I learned should reference facts. Prove he made it up? Prove he didn’t?

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sennbat t1_ivlywyb wrote

There is no "proof" when it comes to history - all we have is the balance of evidence. Every decent piece of evidence we have available points to Atlantis (at least the version that became widely known and survived into the modern day) being a piece of fiction created by Plato as a rhetorical advice.

Evidence:

Atlantis appears in Timaeus and Critias, works by Plato, as an allegory and express fiction.

There is no earlier reference to Atlantis we have ever discovered.

All references to Atlantis we are familiar with from the time period after Plato seem to be referring directly back to his work.

Plato making Atlantis up is about as close to a fact as you can get, historically speaking. It is the most likely situation based on what we know, and there's no evidence to the contrary.

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