Realms of Fantasy and Myth: Week 50 - Atlantis

Jan 17, 201334 min read

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Published: Jan 17, 2013

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Realms of Fantasy and Myth: Week 50 - Atlantis

Welcome to the 50th issue of my fantasy features!
These are now part of a collection in a group created specifically for this project. If you like this feature, you can find more gorgeous artwork at the group, including some never featured in these articles before.

I hope you enjoy it, and please, show the featured artists some love and recognition through pageviews,

's and

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This is a special feature, as it marks the 50th feature collection I've run. This is a project that is very special to me, as I really enjoy sharing stories of fantastic tales and cultural myths. I hope I can go on for another 50 more! ^_^
So for this special issue, I'm trying something different. The feature for this collection is:

The Lost City of Atlantis

From Wikipedia en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atlantis :

Atlantis is a legendary island first mentioned in Plato's dialogues Timaeus and Critias, written about 360 BC. According to Plato, Atlantis was a naval power lying "in front of the Pillars of Hercules" that conquered many parts of Western Europe and Africa 9,000 years before the time of Solon, or approximately 9600 BC. After a failed attempt to invade Athens, Atlantis sank into the ocean "in a single day and night of misfortune".

Scholars dispute whether and how much Plato's story or account was inspired by older traditions. In Critias, Plato claims that his accounts of ancient Athens and Atlantis stem from a visit to Egypt by the legendary Athenian lawgiver Solon who met a priest of Sais, who translated the history of ancient Athens and Atlantis into Greek.

According to Critias, Poseidon was bequeathed the island of Atlantis. The island was larger than Ancient Libya and Asia Minor combined.
In Plato's myth, Poseidon fell in love with Cleito, who bore him five pairs of male twins. The eldest of these, Atlas, was made rightful king of the entire island and the ocean (called the Atlantic Ocean in his honor).
Poseidon carved the mountain where his love dwelt into a palace and enclosed it with three circular moats of increasing width, separated by rings of land proportional in size. The Atlanteans then built bridges northward from the mountain, making a route to the rest of the island. They dug a great canal to the sea, and alongside the bridges carved tunnels into the rings of rock so that ships could pass into the city around the mountain. Every passage to the city was guarded by gates and towers, and a wall surrounded each of the city's rings.
Also according to Critias, 9,000 years before his lifetime a war took place between those outside the Pillars of Hercules at the Strait of Gibraltar and those who dwelt within them.

"But at a later time there occurred portentous earthquakes and floods, and one grievous day and night befell them, when the whole body of warriors was swallowed up by the earth, and the island of Atlantis in like manner was swallowed up by the sea and vanished; wherefore also the ocean at that spot has now become impassable and unsearchable, being blocked up by the shoal mud which the island created as it settled down."

There have been dozens of locations proposed for Atlantis, to the point where the name has become a generic concept, divorced from the specifics of Plato's account. Few today are scholarly or archaeological hypotheses, while others have been made by psychic or other pseudoscientific means. Many of the proposed sites share some of the characteristics of the Atlantis story (water, catastrophic end, relevant time period), but none has been demonstrated to be a true historical Atlantis.

Now, for the features! Works are featured from various categories, in no particular order:

The Forgotten Atlantis by firedudewraith

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Atlantis Project Artwork 3 by kevinenhart

AtlantisI close my eyes and let my mind leave my body and
Float beneath the waves, down to the ancient place.
I let the smell of salt and the currents of the sea
Surround and cocoon me as I reach the old walls.
Drifting down the streets I look around in
Wonder at what I see in the dark deeps.
I see fish swim in and out of the many houses
That once where home to the people of this lost place.
I see squid dance and sway in magnificent theaters
That once was graced with the most talented of actors.
I see dolphins play and race in the great coliseums
That once held the strongest of gladiators.
I see coral and seaweed that grows unbound in gardens
That once held such beautiful flowers one has never seen.
I see sharks that prowl through the majestic palaces
That once was home to the kings of Atlantis.
Atlantis a city created by human genius and creativity.
Then destroyed by human greed and arrogance.
Atlantis is a city now held by the sea and home to its citizens for ever more. :thumb144964967:

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Drunken city of Atlantis by sarriathmoonghost

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Atlantis, Forsaken City by ReinaldoRomero

The Discovery of Atlantis by JordyLakiere

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Atlantean Charm Costume Piece by LeviathanSteamworks

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Matte - Lost among the ruins by MartaNael

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Atlantian Arena Environment by CatalanoMedia

Blue dream of forgotten city by DavinArfel

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Atlantis Found no. 115 by sojourncuriosities

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Thank you so much for viewing, and come back next time for a different inhabitant of the Realms of Fantasy and Myth!