September 12, 2025 • 30 mins
For centuries, the legend of Atlantis has captured our imagination — a powerful civilization said to have vanished beneath the sea. Was it a cautionary tale, a historical reality, or something else entirely?
In this episode of State of the Unknown: Out of State, Robert Barber dives into the origins of the Atlantis myth — from Plato’s first writings to modern theories that place it everywhere from the Mediterranean to the Caribbean. Explore the blend of fact, folklore, and mystery that continues to make Atlantis one of humanity’s most enduring legends.
🎧 Ancient myths. Lost worlds. Enduring mysteries.
How Hacks HappenHacks, scams, cyber crimes, and other shenanigans explored and explained. Presented...
Listen on: Apple Podcasts Spotify
State of the Unknown is a documentary-style podcast tracing the haunted highways, forgotten folklore, and unexplained phenomena across America’s 50 states.
👁️🗨️ New episodes every Tuesday — with full-length stories every other week, and shorter mini tales in between.
📬 Reach out: contact@stateoftheunknown.com
📣 Follow the strange: @stateoftheunknownpodcast on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, & Threads
🔍 Want more? Visit stateoftheunknown.com to explore show notes and submit your own story.
Join the Conversation
Join the conversation! Head to our Facebook group at State of the Unknown Listeners to connect with other listeners, suggest topics, and get behind-the-scenes updates.
Share Your Take
Have a theory about this episode? Message me anytime on Instagram @stateoftheunknownpodcast - I read every DM.
Some stories don’t stay buried.
We go looking anyway.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
The sea is calm, then the ground shakes, walls crack,
towers topple and in the spaceof a single night, an empire
sinks beneath the waves.
That's the story, anyway, thelegend of Atlantis.
Some say it was a city ofunimaginable wealth, streets
(00:23):
lined with gold, temples thatglittered in the sun, a kingdom
where kings ruled with theblessing of the gods.
Others say it was nothing morethan a fable, a kind of ancient
cautionary tale about pride,greed and the danger of flying
too close to the sun.
But here's the thing Forthousands of years people
(00:45):
haven't been able to let it go.
Historians, explorers, eventreasure hunters, they've all
gone looking for Atlantis.
Maps have been drawn,expeditions launched, entire
theories spun from just a fewlines written down in ancient
Greece.
So what was Atlantis?
A real place swallowed by thesea, a warning carved into story
(01:11):
, or something stranger thatstill lingers just out of reach?
Today we're diving deep intothe mystery.
(01:34):
I'm Robert Barber and this isOut of State, a companion series
to State of the Unknown.
Short journeys into legendsbeyond America's borders,
stories of folklore, hauntingsand shadows from the other side
of the Unknown.
Short journeys into legendsbeyond America's borders,
stories of folklore, hauntingsand shadows from the other side
of the map.
Let's get into today's story.
Usually Out of State is short.
(02:01):
A quick look at strange storiesfrom beyond the US.
But Atlantis is different.
It's not just a ghost tale or ahaunting.
It's philosophy, history,conspiracy and myth all tangled
together.
So today we're going longer.
This isn't a short journey.
This is a deep dive into one ofthe most enduring mysteries of
(02:25):
all time.
What follows blends historicalaccounts, folklore and modern
speculation.
Some of it can't be verified,some of it may never be, but it
all lives in the shadow of astory that refuses to disappear,
to disappear.
When we talk about Atlantis, wehave to start with Plato.
(02:48):
Not the cartoons, not theconspiracy theories, not the
History Channel marathons, butPlato.
He's writing in Athens around360 BC.
That's more than 2,000 yearsago, and this is a guy who
wasn't exactly a lightweight.
He's the student of Socrates,he's the teacher of Aristotle,
(03:13):
he's one of the most influentialthinkers in Western philosophy
period.
When Plato speaks, the ancientworld listens.
The ancient world listens andone day, in two of his dialogues
, timaeus and Critias, hedecides to drop the story of a
(03:34):
lost civilization.
Now, these dialogues aren'thistory books.
They're not meant to be takenas fact the way we'd think of it
today.
Plato used dialogue as a way toexplore ideas.
He'd put words into the mouthsof different speakers,
philosophers, politicians,sometimes mythical figures, and
through them he worked outquestions about justice, the
(03:55):
soul and the ideal society.
And in the middle of all that,atlantis here's the way he tells
it.
Of all that, atlantis, here'sthe way he tells it.
9,000 years before his own time, there was a powerful island
empire, beyond the pillars ofHercules, what we now call the
Strait of Gibraltar.
So picture this Past, the edgeof the known Mediterranean world
(04:19):
, out into the Atlantic, that'swhere Atlantis sat.
It wasn't just a fishing villageor a little outpost.
Plato described it as huge, anaval power, rich in resources,
gold, silver or a calcum, whichmight have been some kind of
legendary metal.
They had elephants roaming theland.
(04:41):
They had fertile plains,mountains, forests, and, at the
center of it all, a capital citythat was practically a marvel.
Plato gives us this incredibledetail about concentric rings of
land and water, a design thatsounds almost futuristic.
Imagine a series of circlesalternating between earth and
(05:04):
canal leading inward to theroyal palace.
At the center, the walls weredecorated in brass and tin and
the inner citadel gleamed withred orichalcum Temples rose up,
especially one to Poseidon, thegod of the sea.
This wasn't just a city, it wasa statement, a declaration of
(05:26):
wealth, power and divine favor.
Atlantis had it all and theyused it.
According to Plato, theAtlanteans built a naval empire.
They conquered territoriesacross Africa and Europe.
They were wealthy, advanced andfeared Africa and Europe.
(05:49):
They were wealthy, advanced andfeared, but and this is key
they also became corrupt.
At first, plato says theirkings ruled wisely.
They had a touch of divinity inthem, descended from Poseidon
himself.
But over time that spark faded.
They grew greedy.
But over time that spark faded.
They grew greedy, they losttheir virtue, they hungered for
power and expansion at any costand eventually they made the
(06:13):
mistake of going up againstAthens.
Now this is where we shouldpause for a second.
Remember Plato is an Athenian.
He's not just writing aboutsome lost island, he's also
giving a little love letter tohis own city.
In the story, the Atlanteanstry to conquer Athens, but
they're defeated.
(06:33):
The noble Athenians stand firmagainst corruption and imperial
greed and they win.
That's not exactly subtle,right?
This is classic Plato.
He's making a point Atlantisfalls, athens triumphs.
It's a lesson about morality,discipline and the dangers of
(06:53):
excess.
And then comes the parteveryone remembers In a single
day and night of misfortune,atlantis is swallowed by the sea
Earthquakes, floods,devastation.
The island sinks beneath thewaves, never to be seen again.
(07:17):
That's the story.
Now, here's what makes this sofascinating.
Plato doesn't present it like amyth.
He doesn't say once upon a timeit like a myth.
He doesn't say once upon a time.
He frames it as history.
He claims the tale was passeddown to him through the
statesman Solon, who supposedlyheard it from an Egyptian priest
during his travels.
Solon tells it to an Athenian,who tells it to Plato's
(07:39):
characters, who then tell it tous.
And he gives details years,dynasties, geography,
architecture.
He paints a picture so vividthat people for centuries have
asked why so much detail if it'sjust an allegory?
Most historians will tell youit was allegory.
(08:01):
Plato wasn't trying to give usan ancient travel blog.
He was writing a moral fable.
Atlantis is the cautionary tale,a civilization that had
everything, lost its virtue andfell to ruin.
But here's the problem.
Plato leaves us hanging InCritias, one of the two
(08:25):
dialogues.
The story just cuts offMid-sentence, the manuscript
breaks and we never get the fullconclusion.
Was it lost?
Did Plato never finish it.
We don't know.
What we do know is that what heleft us was enough to spark
2,000 years of speculation.
(08:45):
Because once you tell peoplethere was a great empire that
sank beneath the ocean and youdescribe it like it was a real
place, people are going to golooking for it.
And that's exactly whathappened.
From the Renaissance onward,explorers and dreamers have been
chasing the idea of Atlantis.
(09:05):
Maybe it was in theMediterranean, maybe it was in
the Caribbean, maybe Antarctica,maybe it was just a story all
along.
But it all starts here, withPlato sitting in Athens 360 BC,
telling the tale of a city thathad it all and then vanished
(09:28):
beneath the waves.
So here's the thing If Platomeant Atlantis as a moral fable,
fine end of story.
Lesson learned Don't get toopowerful, don't get too greedy
or you'll sink.
But people don't like end ofstory.
People want to believe there'ssomething more.
(09:49):
And once Plato's work startedcirculating again in the
Renaissance after beingpreserved for centuries, the
hunt began.
Explorers, scholars, mystics,they all looked at those details
.
He gave the timelines, thegeography, and thought what if
he wasn't just making it up?
What if there really was apowerful empire that vanished?
(10:13):
And maybe, just maybe the ruinsare still out there.
Let's start with Plato'sbiggest geographic clue.
(11:03):
He says Atlantis was beyond thepillars of Hercules.
That's what the Greeks calledthe Strait of Gibraltar, the
narrow opening between Spain andMorocco where the Mediterranean
spills into the Atlantic.
So, if we take them literally,atlantis wasn't in Greece,
wasn't in Italy.
It was out past that point, inthe open ocean, a whole world of
(11:27):
possibilities.
And from there theoriesmultiply.
One of the most popular theoriespoint not to the Atlantic but
back into the Mediterranean initself, specifically the island
of Santorini, which in ancienttimes was called Thera.
Around 1600 BC, long beforePlato's time, thera erupted in
(11:54):
one of the most violent volcanicexplosions in recorded history.
We're talking about an event socatastrophic.
It ripped the island apart,sent tsunamis across the Aegean
and probably contributed to thecollapse of the Minoan
civilization on nearby Crete.
On nearby Crete, whenarchaeologists uncovered
(12:19):
Akrotiri, a buried city onSantorini, they found advanced
architecture, art, plumbing, athriving culture wiped out in an
instant.
Sound, familiar, advancedcivilization, sudden destruction
, lost to the sea.
A lot of people thought so.
Some argue Plato was drawing onvague memories of the Thera
(12:39):
eruption passed down through anoral tradition.
But here's the catch Thera isinside the Pillars of Hercules,
not beyond, and it's way closerin time than the 9,000 years
before that Plato gives.
So maybe it inspired parts ofthe story, but probably not the
(13:00):
whole thing.
Another strong candidatesouthern Spain, near the city of
Cadiz.
This is where the ancientTartesian culture thrived.
They were wealthy, tradingmetals, and they live right on
the Atlantic coast.
Some researchers think that theflood plains of Dunana National
(13:21):
Park, which are now marshes,might have once been a city that
matched Plato's description.
Satellite images have evenshown circular patterns in the
ground, concentric rings thatsome people claim look a lot
like the capital of Atlantis.
Is it proof?
Not really, but the idea thatAtlantis could have been a real
(13:44):
Iberian culture swallowed by thesea, that's enough to keep
people digging, literally.
Then we get into the wildertheories.
Some say the Azores, thoselittle islands out in the
Atlantic that belong to Portugal, are the mountaintops of
Atlantis, just the peak stillvisible after the rest sank.
(14:08):
Others have pointed to theCaribbean, cuba, the Bahamas,
especially the so-called BiminiRoad, a set of submerged stones
off the coast of Bimini thatsome insist are man-made.
Scientists call it naturallimestone, believers call it
evidence.
And then there's Antarctica yes, antarctica.
(14:32):
The idea goes that Atlantiswasn't destroyed, it just
shifted, sliding into its icygrave after a massive Earth
crust displacement.
It's fringe science at best,but it's out there and it's
surprisingly popular inconspiracy circles.
(14:53):
Here's the consistent problem,though circles.
Here's the consistent problem,though.
For all the digging, all thescanning, all the expeditions,
no one has ever found definitiveevidence of Atlantis no
inscriptions, no ruins thatclearly match Plato's
description, no archaeologicalsmoking gun.
(15:13):
Every theory relies on bendingsome part of Plato's account.
Maybe the 9,000 years was amistranslation, maybe it was
only 900.
Maybe beyond the pillars ofHercules was a symbolic phrase,
not literal geography.
Maybe Plato just mashedtogether bits and pieces of
(15:35):
stories he'd heard and turnedthem into one big moral tale.
And yet people keep looking.
That's the thing about Atlantis.
It taps into this very humanimpulse, the need to believe
there was once something bigger,greater, more advanced than us,
a golden age we've lost.
(15:56):
Think about it.
The world is full of ruinsMayan temples swallowed by the
jungle, egyptian pyramids risingfrom the desert, stonehenge,
gobekli Tepe, angkor Wat Everyone of them whispers.
What else might be out therewaiting to be found?
So when Plato says there was agreat empire that fell beneath
(16:20):
the sea, well, people can'tresist, even when the evidence
isn't there.
Maybe, especially when theevidence isn't there, because
that means the mystery lives on.
And that's where the hunt forAtlantis shifts From explorers
and scholars to mystics anddreamers, from a question of
(16:43):
history to a question of faith,imagination and sometimes pure
invention.
Which brings us to the 1800sand the people who turned
Atlantis into not just a lostcity but a whole lost
civilization.
By the 1800s, atlantis hadalready been a curiosity for
(17:06):
centuries.
Scholars argued over it,explorers chased it, but it was
still mostly treated as a puzzleof geography.
That's when mystics and occultthinkers stepped in and changed
the legend forever.
The first big revival came fromHelena Blavatsky, a Russian
(17:32):
mystic who co-founded theTheosophical Society in the late
19th century.
Blavatsky wasn't interested inAtlantis as a lost city on a map
.
She saw it as a lostcivilization, an entire chapter
of human history that had beenerased.
In her writings she describedAtlantis as one of humanity's
root races.
According to her, theAtlanteans were highly advanced,
but also deeply flawed.
(17:54):
They had incredible knowledgeand power, psychic abilities,
technologies we can barelyimagine, but their corruption
led to their destruction.
Sound familiar?
That part, at least.
She borrowed from Plato, butBlavatsky added her own spin.
For her, atlantis wasn't just ahistory.
(18:17):
It was a spiritual lesson.
Humanity had passed throughcycles and Atlantis was a
warning about what happens whenknowledge outpaces morality.
Her ideas caught on Suddenly.
Atlantis wasn't just a citythat might have sunk.
It was an entire civilizationthat had shaped the destiny of
(18:38):
the world.
Then came Edgar Cayce, theAmerican mystic of the early
20th century.
Sometimes called the sleepingprophet, Cayce would go into
trances and deliver readings oneverything from health to
reincarnation, to the fate ofnations and Atlantis.
Cayce claimed that theAtlanteans had mastered crystal
(19:03):
technology, devices that couldharness energy in ways that
modern science still can't.
He said they used thesecrystals for power, for healing,
even for communication, buttheir misuse of this technology
led to the catastrophe.
In his visions, cayce predictedthat Atlantis would rise again,
(19:26):
literally.
He claimed parts of it wouldreemerge in the 1960s off the
coast of the Bahamas Spoiler.
That didn't happen, but forbelievers, cayce's words were
gospel.
And here's the wild part Peopleare still using Cayce's
prophecies today.
If you search online forAtlantis Rising, you'll find
(19:50):
folks quoting his predictionslike they were yesterday's news.
By the early 20th century,thanks to Blavatsky and Cayce,
atlantis had transformed.
It wasn't just a story fromPlato anymore.
It was a whole mythology.
It became the mother of lostcivilizations, the origin of
(20:11):
advanced knowledge, a mysteriousgolden age that we somehow let
slip away.
Writers picked it up, sciencefiction authors used it as a
template for lost worlds,occultists folded it into their
teachings.
Even Nazis got involved,chasing after myths of Aryan
(20:31):
origins tied to Atlantis.
In other words, atlantis wentfrom philosophy to pseudoscience
, to pop culture.
And maybe that's not surprising, because there's something
seductive about the idea.
If Atlantis was real, then itmeans we're not the first
advanced civilization.
(20:52):
It means we're not the pinnacleof human achievement.
There was something before us,maybe smarter, maybe more
powerful, maybe more in tunewith forces we don't understand,
maybe more powerful, maybe morein tune with forces we don't
understand, and if it wasdestroyed, it means we could be
destroyed too.
That's a powerful lesson,whether you take it spiritually,
(21:15):
historically or just as a goodstory.
Of course, scholars rolled theireyes at all of this.
To them, blavatsky was writingmystical allegory.
Cayce was making up things intrances and none of it held
water, but the legend hadalready outgrown the skeptics by
(21:37):
the time Cayce's followers werewaiting for Atlantis to rise
from the sea.
The story had left the realm ofphilosophy and archaeology, it
had become something bigger, acanvas.
You could project anything ontomysticism, prophecy, even
science fiction, and once astory reaches that stage, it
(22:00):
never dies.
So now we've got two Atlanteantraditions running in parallel.
On one side, the scholars andarchaeologists poking at the
ruins and coastlines, arguingabout whether Plato was
describing Santorini or Spain,or nowhere at all, and on the
other, the mystics and dreamersinsisting Atlantis was a lost
(22:24):
golden age of psychic powers,crystal energy and cosmic
warnings Together.
They kept the fire burning,which is why, by the mid-20th
century, atlantis was everywhereIn books, in movies, in pop
culture, even in courtroomswhere people tried to claim
(22:45):
Atlantean knowledge.
It was no longer just a legend,it was an idea that anyone
could use, and they did.
By the time the 20th centuryrolled around, atlantis wasn't
just a legend from Plato or aprophecy from mystics.
It was mainstream, a part ofthe cultural fabric.
(23:08):
Think about it.
How many lost city stories haveyou heard that don't in some
way trace back to Atlantis?
The second you say the wordssunken empire or vanished
civilization.
People know exactly what you'regetting at.
Writers loved it.
Jules Verne hinted at it in20,000 Leagues Under the Sea.
(23:29):
Science fiction pulps of theearly 1900s churned out stories
about Atlantean survivors orsecret societies guarding his
technology.
Then came comic books, dc'sAquaman.
He literally is the king ofAtlantis.
Marvel has Namor the Submariner.
(23:50):
Same deal An Atlantean.
Atlantis became a ready-madeorigin story Powerful,
mysterious, lurking beneath thewaves.
Even Disney jumped in In 2001,.
They released Atlantis the LostEmpire, an animated film full
of crystals and advancedtechnology straight out of the
(24:11):
Blavatsky and Casey playbook.
Atlantis gave creators an easyhook a world we lost but might
rediscover.
But it wasn't justentertainment.
Atlantis found its way intofringe theories too.
Some New Age groups treat it asliteral history, a lost golden
(24:31):
age when humans had powers wecan barely imagine.
Now.
Others weave it into alienconspiracies.
Atlantis is an outpost ofextraterrestrials, their
technology misunderstood byancient people.
And then there's thepseudoscience.
Every time someone finds oddruins or unusual geology under
(24:57):
the ocean, you can bet Atlantisgets mentioned.
The Bimini Road in the BahamasTo most geologists it's natural
limestone formations.
Archaeologists it's naturallimestone formations.
To believers it's the streetsof Atlantis.
Atlantis becomes the answer toeverything.
Strange artifact Must beAtlantean Lost knowledge.
Atlanteans had it Mysterysolved, and maybe that's the
(25:21):
real reason it's lasted so long.
Even if you don't buy intocrystals or aliens, atlantis
works as a symbol.
It's the ultimate metaphor fora lost golden age, a reminder
that even the greatestcivilizations can collapse.
When people in the 1800sworried about industrialization,
(25:45):
atlantis was a warning.
When the Cold War ramped up andthe world seemed on the brink
of self-destruction, atlantiswas a mirror.
Today, with rising seas andclimate change, the story hits
even harder, because Atlantisisn't just about what might be
under the ocean.
It might be under the ocean.
It's about us right now.
(26:06):
That's why Atlantis shows upeverywhere Video games, movies,
even memes.
It's easy to recognize,instantly mysterious and
endlessly flexible.
It can be hopeful, a place ofadvanced knowledge waiting to be
rediscovered.
A place of advanced knowledgewaiting to be rediscovered, or
terrifying Proof thatcivilizations, no matter how
(26:29):
great, can vanish in a singlenight.
And that's the magic.
Atlantis is whatever we need itto be A story that adapts to the
times, shapeshifting acrosscenturies, without ever losing
its grip on our imagination.
So by the late 20th century,atlantis wasn't just a story
(26:50):
from Plato anymore.
It was the lost city, theblueprint for every tale of
sunken ruins and forgottenempires.
And that brings us to the lastpiece of the puzzle why?
Why does Atlantis endure whenso many other myths have faded
into footnotes?
So why this story?
(27:14):
Why has Atlantis lasted formore than 2,000 years while so
many other myths and allegorieshave faded?
I think it comes down to thisAtlantis is flexible.
On one level, it's a moralitytale, the story of a
civilization that had it allwealth, power, knowledge and
(27:36):
destroyed itself through greed.
That's timeless.
You can apply it to Athens,rome.
You can apply it to Athens,rome, the British Empire,
america.
Pick a civilization, and thewarning still fits.
On another level, it's aboutloss, a golden age swallowed by
the sea.
We're wired to long for thepast To imagine there was once a
(28:00):
perfect world just out of reach.
Atlantis scratches that itch.
It tells us you're right, therewas something greater before
you and you'll never get it back.
And then there's the mystery,because Plato gave just enough
detail to make it sound real Aplace, a time, even a layout for
(28:23):
the city.
He dangled it like bait, andhumans don't like mysteries
without answers.
So the hunt continues.
Atlantis lives in this sweetspot between history and legend,
between philosophy and fantasy.
Too vivid to dismiss, tooslippery to prove, and that is
(28:48):
why it endures.
Atlantis may never have beenreal.
It may have been nothing morethan Plato's way of holding up a
mirror to human pride, butsometimes stories have power,
whether or not they're true.
Sometimes stories have power,whether or not they're true.
They live on because we needthem to.
In Atlantis, it's become morethan a city.
(29:11):
It's an idea, a symbol of whatwe fear losing, a reminder that
even the greatest empires canfall and maybe, just maybe, a
whisper that somewhere beneaththe waves there's still more
waiting to be found.
This has been State of theUnknown.
(29:32):
If you've been enjoying theshow, follow rate and share it
with someone who can't resist astory that lingers Until next
time.
If you hear the ocean whisperof a drowned empire, remember
some ruins are built not ofstone but of longing.
The sea is calm, then the ground shakes, walls crack,
towers topple and in the spaceof a single night, an empire
sinks beneath the waves.
That's the story, anyway, thelegend of Atlantis.
Some say it was a city ofunimaginable wealth, streets
(00:23):
lined with gold, temples thatglittered in the sun, a kingdom
where kings ruled with theblessing of the gods.
Others say it was nothing morethan a fable, a kind of ancient
cautionary tale about pride,greed and the danger of flying
too close to the sun.
But here's the thing Forthousands of years people
(00:45):
haven't been able to let it go.
Historians, explorers, eventreasure hunters, they've all
gone looking for Atlantis.
Maps have been drawn,expeditions launched, entire
theories spun from just a fewlines written down in ancient
Greece.
So what was Atlantis?
A real place swallowed by thesea, a warning carved into story
(01:11):
, or something stranger thatstill lingers just out of reach?
Today we're diving deep intothe mystery.
(01:34):
I'm Robert Barber and this isOut of State, a companion series
to State of the Unknown.
Short journeys into legendsbeyond America's borders,
stories of folklore, hauntingsand shadows from the other side
of the Unknown.
Short journeys into legendsbeyond America's borders,
stories of folklore, hauntingsand shadows from the other side
of the map.
Let's get into today's story.
Usually Out of State is short.
(02:01):
A quick look at strange storiesfrom beyond the US.
But Atlantis is different.
It's not just a ghost tale or ahaunting.
It's philosophy, history,conspiracy and myth all tangled
together.
So today we're going longer.
This isn't a short journey.
This is a deep dive into one ofthe most enduring mysteries of
(02:25):
all time.
What follows blends historicalaccounts, folklore and modern
speculation.
Some of it can't be verified,some of it may never be, but it
all lives in the shadow of astory that refuses to disappear,
to disappear.
When we talk about Atlantis, wehave to start with Plato.
(02:48):
Not the cartoons, not theconspiracy theories, not the
History Channel marathons, butPlato.
He's writing in Athens around360 BC.
That's more than 2,000 yearsago, and this is a guy who
wasn't exactly a lightweight.
He's the student of Socrates,he's the teacher of Aristotle,
(03:13):
he's one of the most influentialthinkers in Western philosophy
period.
When Plato speaks, the ancientworld listens.
The ancient world listens andone day, in two of his dialogues
, timaeus and Critias, hedecides to drop the story of a
(03:34):
lost civilization.
Now, these dialogues aren'thistory books.
They're not meant to be takenas fact the way we'd think of it
today.
Plato used dialogue as a way toexplore ideas.
He'd put words into the mouthsof different speakers,
philosophers, politicians,sometimes mythical figures, and
through them he worked outquestions about justice, the
(03:55):
soul and the ideal society.
And in the middle of all that,atlantis here's the way he tells
it.
Of all that, atlantis, here'sthe way he tells it.
9,000 years before his own time, there was a powerful island
empire, beyond the pillars ofHercules, what we now call the
Strait of Gibraltar.
So picture this Past, the edgeof the known Mediterranean world
(04:19):
, out into the Atlantic, that'swhere Atlantis sat.
It wasn't just a fishing villageor a little outpost.
Plato described it as huge, anaval power, rich in resources,
gold, silver or a calcum, whichmight have been some kind of
legendary metal.
They had elephants roaming theland.
(04:41):
They had fertile plains,mountains, forests, and, at the
center of it all, a capital citythat was practically a marvel.
Plato gives us this incredibledetail about concentric rings of
land and water, a design thatsounds almost futuristic.
Imagine a series of circlesalternating between earth and
(05:04):
canal leading inward to theroyal palace.
At the center, the walls weredecorated in brass and tin and
the inner citadel gleamed withred orichalcum Temples rose up,
especially one to Poseidon, thegod of the sea.
This wasn't just a city, it wasa statement, a declaration of
(05:26):
wealth, power and divine favor.
Atlantis had it all and theyused it.
According to Plato, theAtlanteans built a naval empire.
They conquered territoriesacross Africa and Europe.
They were wealthy, advanced andfeared Africa and Europe.
(05:49):
They were wealthy, advanced andfeared, but and this is key
they also became corrupt.
At first, plato says theirkings ruled wisely.
They had a touch of divinity inthem, descended from Poseidon
himself.
But over time that spark faded.
They grew greedy.
But over time that spark faded.
They grew greedy, they losttheir virtue, they hungered for
power and expansion at any costand eventually they made the
(06:13):
mistake of going up againstAthens.
Now this is where we shouldpause for a second.
Remember Plato is an Athenian.
He's not just writing aboutsome lost island, he's also
giving a little love letter tohis own city.
In the story, the Atlanteanstry to conquer Athens, but
they're defeated.
(06:33):
The noble Athenians stand firmagainst corruption and imperial
greed and they win.
That's not exactly subtle,right?
This is classic Plato.
He's making a point Atlantisfalls, athens triumphs.
It's a lesson about morality,discipline and the dangers of
(06:53):
excess.
And then comes the parteveryone remembers In a single
day and night of misfortune,atlantis is swallowed by the sea
Earthquakes, floods,devastation.
The island sinks beneath thewaves, never to be seen again.
(07:17):
That's the story.
Now, here's what makes this sofascinating.
Plato doesn't present it like amyth.
He doesn't say once upon a timeit like a myth.
He doesn't say once upon a time.
He frames it as history.
He claims the tale was passeddown to him through the
statesman Solon, who supposedlyheard it from an Egyptian priest
during his travels.
Solon tells it to an Athenian,who tells it to Plato's
(07:39):
characters, who then tell it tous.
And he gives details years,dynasties, geography,
architecture.
He paints a picture so vividthat people for centuries have
asked why so much detail if it'sjust an allegory?
Most historians will tell youit was allegory.
(08:01):
Plato wasn't trying to give usan ancient travel blog.
He was writing a moral fable.
Atlantis is the cautionary tale,a civilization that had
everything, lost its virtue andfell to ruin.
But here's the problem.
Plato leaves us hanging InCritias, one of the two
(08:25):
dialogues.
The story just cuts offMid-sentence, the manuscript
breaks and we never get the fullconclusion.
Was it lost?
Did Plato never finish it.
We don't know.
What we do know is that what heleft us was enough to spark
2,000 years of speculation.
(08:45):
Because once you tell peoplethere was a great empire that
sank beneath the ocean and youdescribe it like it was a real
place, people are going to golooking for it.
And that's exactly whathappened.
From the Renaissance onward,explorers and dreamers have been
chasing the idea of Atlantis.
(09:05):
Maybe it was in theMediterranean, maybe it was in
the Caribbean, maybe Antarctica,maybe it was just a story all
along.
But it all starts here, withPlato sitting in Athens 360 BC,
telling the tale of a city thathad it all and then vanished
(09:28):
beneath the waves.
So here's the thing If Platomeant Atlantis as a moral fable,
fine end of story.
Lesson learned Don't get toopowerful, don't get too greedy
or you'll sink.
But people don't like end ofstory.
People want to believe there'ssomething more.
(09:49):
And once Plato's work startedcirculating again in the
Renaissance after beingpreserved for centuries, the
hunt began.
Explorers, scholars, mystics,they all looked at those details
.
He gave the timelines, thegeography, and thought what if
he wasn't just making it up?
What if there really was apowerful empire that vanished?
(10:13):
And maybe, just maybe the ruinsare still out there.
Let's start with Plato'sbiggest geographic clue.
(11:03):
He says Atlantis was beyond thepillars of Hercules.
That's what the Greeks calledthe Strait of Gibraltar, the
narrow opening between Spain andMorocco where the Mediterranean
spills into the Atlantic.
So, if we take them literally,atlantis wasn't in Greece,
wasn't in Italy.
It was out past that point, inthe open ocean, a whole world of
(11:27):
possibilities.
And from there theoriesmultiply.
One of the most popular theoriespoint not to the Atlantic but
back into the Mediterranean initself, specifically the island
of Santorini, which in ancienttimes was called Thera.
Around 1600 BC, long beforePlato's time, thera erupted in
(11:54):
one of the most violent volcanicexplosions in recorded history.
We're talking about an event socatastrophic.
It ripped the island apart,sent tsunamis across the Aegean
and probably contributed to thecollapse of the Minoan
civilization on nearby Crete.
On nearby Crete, whenarchaeologists uncovered
(12:19):
Akrotiri, a buried city onSantorini, they found advanced
architecture, art, plumbing, athriving culture wiped out in an
instant.
Sound, familiar, advancedcivilization, sudden destruction
, lost to the sea.
A lot of people thought so.
Some argue Plato was drawing onvague memories of the Thera
(12:39):
eruption passed down through anoral tradition.
But here's the catch Thera isinside the Pillars of Hercules,
not beyond, and it's way closerin time than the 9,000 years
before that Plato gives.
So maybe it inspired parts ofthe story, but probably not the
(13:00):
whole thing.
Another strong candidatesouthern Spain, near the city of
Cadiz.
This is where the ancientTartesian culture thrived.
They were wealthy, tradingmetals, and they live right on
the Atlantic coast.
Some researchers think that theflood plains of Dunana National
(13:21):
Park, which are now marshes,might have once been a city that
matched Plato's description.
Satellite images have evenshown circular patterns in the
ground, concentric rings thatsome people claim look a lot
like the capital of Atlantis.
Is it proof?
Not really, but the idea thatAtlantis could have been a real
(13:44):
Iberian culture swallowed by thesea, that's enough to keep
people digging, literally.
Then we get into the wildertheories.
Some say the Azores, thoselittle islands out in the
Atlantic that belong to Portugal, are the mountaintops of
Atlantis, just the peak stillvisible after the rest sank.
(14:08):
Others have pointed to theCaribbean, cuba, the Bahamas,
especially the so-called BiminiRoad, a set of submerged stones
off the coast of Bimini thatsome insist are man-made.
Scientists call it naturallimestone, believers call it
evidence.
And then there's Antarctica yes, antarctica.
(14:32):
The idea goes that Atlantiswasn't destroyed, it just
shifted, sliding into its icygrave after a massive Earth
crust displacement.
It's fringe science at best,but it's out there and it's
surprisingly popular inconspiracy circles.
(14:53):
Here's the consistent problem,though circles.
Here's the consistent problem,though.
For all the digging, all thescanning, all the expeditions,
no one has ever found definitiveevidence of Atlantis no
inscriptions, no ruins thatclearly match Plato's
description, no archaeologicalsmoking gun.
(15:13):
Every theory relies on bendingsome part of Plato's account.
Maybe the 9,000 years was amistranslation, maybe it was
only 900.
Maybe beyond the pillars ofHercules was a symbolic phrase,
not literal geography.
Maybe Plato just mashedtogether bits and pieces of
(15:35):
stories he'd heard and turnedthem into one big moral tale.
And yet people keep looking.
That's the thing about Atlantis.
It taps into this very humanimpulse, the need to believe
there was once something bigger,greater, more advanced than us,
a golden age we've lost.
(15:56):
Think about it.
The world is full of ruinsMayan temples swallowed by the
jungle, egyptian pyramids risingfrom the desert, stonehenge,
gobekli Tepe, angkor Wat Everyone of them whispers.
What else might be out therewaiting to be found?
So when Plato says there was agreat empire that fell beneath
(16:20):
the sea, well, people can'tresist, even when the evidence
isn't there.
Maybe, especially when theevidence isn't there, because
that means the mystery lives on.
And that's where the hunt forAtlantis shifts From explorers
and scholars to mystics anddreamers, from a question of
(16:43):
history to a question of faith,imagination and sometimes pure
invention.
Which brings us to the 1800sand the people who turned
Atlantis into not just a lostcity but a whole lost
civilization.
By the 1800s, atlantis hadalready been a curiosity for
(17:06):
centuries.
Scholars argued over it,explorers chased it, but it was
still mostly treated as a puzzleof geography.
That's when mystics and occultthinkers stepped in and changed
the legend forever.
The first big revival came fromHelena Blavatsky, a Russian
(17:32):
mystic who co-founded theTheosophical Society in the late
19th century.
Blavatsky wasn't interested inAtlantis as a lost city on a map
.
She saw it as a lostcivilization, an entire chapter
of human history that had beenerased.
In her writings she describedAtlantis as one of humanity's
root races.
According to her, theAtlanteans were highly advanced,
but also deeply flawed.
(17:54):
They had incredible knowledgeand power, psychic abilities,
technologies we can barelyimagine, but their corruption
led to their destruction.
Sound familiar?
That part, at least.
She borrowed from Plato, butBlavatsky added her own spin.
For her, atlantis wasn't just ahistory.
(18:17):
It was a spiritual lesson.
Humanity had passed throughcycles and Atlantis was a
warning about what happens whenknowledge outpaces morality.
Her ideas caught on Suddenly.
Atlantis wasn't just a citythat might have sunk.
It was an entire civilizationthat had shaped the destiny of
(18:38):
the world.
Then came Edgar Cayce, theAmerican mystic of the early
20th century.
Sometimes called the sleepingprophet, Cayce would go into
trances and deliver readings oneverything from health to
reincarnation, to the fate ofnations and Atlantis.
Cayce claimed that theAtlanteans had mastered crystal
(19:03):
technology, devices that couldharness energy in ways that
modern science still can't.
He said they used thesecrystals for power, for healing,
even for communication, buttheir misuse of this technology
led to the catastrophe.
In his visions, cayce predictedthat Atlantis would rise again,
(19:26):
literally.
He claimed parts of it wouldreemerge in the 1960s off the
coast of the Bahamas Spoiler.
That didn't happen, but forbelievers, cayce's words were
gospel.
And here's the wild part Peopleare still using Cayce's
prophecies today.
If you search online forAtlantis Rising, you'll find
(19:50):
folks quoting his predictionslike they were yesterday's news.
By the early 20th century,thanks to Blavatsky and Cayce,
atlantis had transformed.
It wasn't just a story fromPlato anymore.
It was a whole mythology.
It became the mother of lostcivilizations, the origin of
(20:11):
advanced knowledge, a mysteriousgolden age that we somehow let
slip away.
Writers picked it up, sciencefiction authors used it as a
template for lost worlds,occultists folded it into their
teachings.
Even Nazis got involved,chasing after myths of Aryan
(20:31):
origins tied to Atlantis.
In other words, atlantis wentfrom philosophy to pseudoscience
, to pop culture.
And maybe that's not surprising, because there's something
seductive about the idea.
If Atlantis was real, then itmeans we're not the first
advanced civilization.
(20:52):
It means we're not the pinnacleof human achievement.
There was something before us,maybe smarter, maybe more
powerful, maybe more in tunewith forces we don't understand,
maybe more powerful, maybe morein tune with forces we don't
understand, and if it wasdestroyed, it means we could be
destroyed too.
That's a powerful lesson,whether you take it spiritually,
(21:15):
historically or just as a goodstory.
Of course, scholars rolled theireyes at all of this.
To them, blavatsky was writingmystical allegory.
Cayce was making up things intrances and none of it held
water, but the legend hadalready outgrown the skeptics by
(21:37):
the time Cayce's followers werewaiting for Atlantis to rise
from the sea.
The story had left the realm ofphilosophy and archaeology, it
had become something bigger, acanvas.
You could project anything ontomysticism, prophecy, even
science fiction, and once astory reaches that stage, it
(22:00):
never dies.
So now we've got two Atlanteantraditions running in parallel.
On one side, the scholars andarchaeologists poking at the
ruins and coastlines, arguingabout whether Plato was
describing Santorini or Spain,or nowhere at all, and on the
other, the mystics and dreamersinsisting Atlantis was a lost
(22:24):
golden age of psychic powers,crystal energy and cosmic
warnings Together.
They kept the fire burning,which is why, by the mid-20th
century, atlantis was everywhereIn books, in movies, in pop
culture, even in courtroomswhere people tried to claim
(22:45):
Atlantean knowledge.
It was no longer just a legend,it was an idea that anyone
could use, and they did.
By the time the 20th centuryrolled around, atlantis wasn't
just a legend from Plato or aprophecy from mystics.
It was mainstream, a part ofthe cultural fabric.
(23:08):
Think about it.
How many lost city stories haveyou heard that don't in some
way trace back to Atlantis?
The second you say the wordssunken empire or vanished
civilization.
People know exactly what you'regetting at.
Writers loved it.
Jules Verne hinted at it in20,000 Leagues Under the Sea.
(23:29):
Science fiction pulps of theearly 1900s churned out stories
about Atlantean survivors orsecret societies guarding his
technology.
Then came comic books, dc'sAquaman.
He literally is the king ofAtlantis.
Marvel has Namor the Submariner.
(23:50):
Same deal An Atlantean.
Atlantis became a ready-madeorigin story Powerful,
mysterious, lurking beneath thewaves.
Even Disney jumped in In 2001,.
They released Atlantis the LostEmpire, an animated film full
of crystals and advancedtechnology straight out of the
(24:11):
Blavatsky and Casey playbook.
Atlantis gave creators an easyhook a world we lost but might
rediscover.
But it wasn't justentertainment.
Atlantis found its way intofringe theories too.
Some New Age groups treat it asliteral history, a lost golden
(24:31):
age when humans had powers wecan barely imagine.
Now.
Others weave it into alienconspiracies.
Atlantis is an outpost ofextraterrestrials, their
technology misunderstood byancient people.
And then there's thepseudoscience.
Every time someone finds oddruins or unusual geology under
(24:57):
the ocean, you can bet Atlantisgets mentioned.
The Bimini Road in the BahamasTo most geologists it's natural
limestone formations.
Archaeologists it's naturallimestone formations.
To believers it's the streetsof Atlantis.
Atlantis becomes the answer toeverything.
Strange artifact Must beAtlantean Lost knowledge.
Atlanteans had it Mysterysolved, and maybe that's the
(25:21):
real reason it's lasted so long.
Even if you don't buy intocrystals or aliens, atlantis
works as a symbol.
It's the ultimate metaphor fora lost golden age, a reminder
that even the greatestcivilizations can collapse.
When people in the 1800sworried about industrialization,
(25:45):
atlantis was a warning.
When the Cold War ramped up andthe world seemed on the brink
of self-destruction, atlantiswas a mirror.
Today, with rising seas andclimate change, the story hits
even harder, because Atlantisisn't just about what might be
under the ocean.
It might be under the ocean.
It's about us right now.
(26:06):
That's why Atlantis shows upeverywhere Video games, movies,
even memes.
It's easy to recognize,instantly mysterious and
endlessly flexible.
It can be hopeful, a place ofadvanced knowledge waiting to be
rediscovered.
A place of advanced knowledgewaiting to be rediscovered, or
terrifying Proof thatcivilizations, no matter how
(26:29):
great, can vanish in a singlenight.
And that's the magic.
Atlantis is whatever we need itto be A story that adapts to the
times, shapeshifting acrosscenturies, without ever losing
its grip on our imagination.
So by the late 20th century,atlantis wasn't just a story
(26:50):
from Plato anymore.
It was the lost city, theblueprint for every tale of
sunken ruins and forgottenempires.
And that brings us to the lastpiece of the puzzle why?
Why does Atlantis endure whenso many other myths have faded
into footnotes?
So why this story?
(27:14):
Why has Atlantis lasted formore than 2,000 years while so
many other myths and allegorieshave faded?
I think it comes down to thisAtlantis is flexible.
On one level, it's a moralitytale, the story of a
civilization that had it allwealth, power, knowledge and
(27:36):
destroyed itself through greed.
That's timeless.
You can apply it to Athens,rome.
You can apply it to Athens,rome, the British Empire,
america.
Pick a civilization, and thewarning still fits.
On another level, it's aboutloss, a golden age swallowed by
the sea.
We're wired to long for thepast To imagine there was once a
(28:00):
perfect world just out of reach.
Atlantis scratches that itch.
It tells us you're right, therewas something greater before
you and you'll never get it back.
And then there's the mystery,because Plato gave just enough
detail to make it sound real Aplace, a time, even a layout for
(28:23):
the city.
He dangled it like bait, andhumans don't like mysteries
without answers.
So the hunt continues.
Atlantis lives in this sweetspot between history and legend,
between philosophy and fantasy.
Too vivid to dismiss, tooslippery to prove, and that is
(28:48):
why it endures.
Atlantis may never have beenreal.
It may have been nothing morethan Plato's way of holding up a
mirror to human pride, butsometimes stories have power,
whether or not they're true.
Sometimes stories have power,whether or not they're true.
They live on because we needthem to.
In Atlantis, it's become morethan a city.
(29:11):
It's an idea, a symbol of whatwe fear losing, a reminder that
even the greatest empires canfall and maybe, just maybe, a
whisper that somewhere beneaththe waves there's still more
waiting to be found.
This has been State of theUnknown.
(29:32):
If you've been enjoying theshow, follow rate and share it
with someone who can't resist astory that lingers Until next
time.
If you hear the ocean whisperof a drowned empire, remember
some ruins are built not ofstone but of longing.
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
Betrayal: Weekly
Betrayal Weekly is back for a brand new season. Every Thursday, Betrayal Weekly shares first-hand accounts of broken trust, shocking deceptions, and the trail of destruction they leave behind. Hosted by Andrea Gunning, this weekly ongoing series digs into real-life stories of betrayal and the aftermath. From stories of double lives to dark discoveries, these are cautionary tales and accounts of resilience against all odds. From the producers of the critically acclaimed Betrayal series, Betrayal Weekly drops new episodes every Thursday. Please join our Substack for additional exclusive content, curated book recommendations and community discussions. Sign up FREE by clicking this link Beyond Betrayal Substack. Join our community dedicated to truth, resilience and healing. Your voice matters! Be a part of our Betrayal journey on Substack. And make sure to check out Seasons 1-4 of Betrayal, along with Betrayal Weekly Season 1.