I am a Rock, I am Atlantis

"I am a Rock, I am Atlantis" Timeline.

The truth about "I am a Rock, I am Atlantis":

Before you pooh-pooh the universal translator plot device, try writing a time travel/history story without it. My best advice is to just come to terms with it now and we can all get on with our lives.


Now that we've got that out of the way, this was a bit more low key as far as episodes have gone so far. More of a look into Dennis and Hailey's personalities and their relationship with eachother. It was the first episode where they actually stayed together the whole trip, and it gave them the opportunity to discuss the things they've been thinking about since day one.


What went wrong:

The Culprit

It's impossible to know if Atlantis ever existed so I did the best I could. The Santorini (AKA Thera, AKA Minoan) eruption is a real historical event. Dating has been attempted via dendrochronology (tree-ring dating), Egyptian written accounts and various other methods but there hasn't been a conclusion as to when exactly it took place. Some believe the event brought on a volcanic winter, the effects of which were felt as far away as China. It's quite likely that such a cataclysmic event would be remembered through oral tradition and would be an inspiration for Plato's famous tale of Atlantis. It is a leading theory in the real-life Atlantis debate but of course it is impossible to know for sure. It doesn't match up with the figures Plato mentioned for size (bigger than Asia Minor and Lybia combined), year of destruction (about 9600BC) or even location; he said it was past the Pillars of Hercules, or the Straight of Gibraltar, which Santorini isn't. Some have suggested that the Americas were the inspiration for the "Lost Continent." There have been about as many theories as there are landmasses to which to pin them.


Plato wrote about Atlantis in two of his dialogues: Timaeus and Critias. He started to go in greater detail in Critias but the project seems to have been abandoned. There was no mention of Atlantis in Greek literature before Plato. He claimed that it was kept in his family and originally told to them by Solon, the famous Athenian statesman, who heard it  on a trip to Egypt.

Ignatius L. Donnelly

Ignatius Donnelly is quite an interesting historical figure. His theories about Atlantis were explained in the story, but if you want to see for yourself you can read his book Atlantis: The Antediluvian World here. He lays out his point quite clearly at the start.

You can also read a translation of Plato's Timaeus here.

Sources:


Donnelly, Ignatius. Atlantis, the antediluvian world. London: S. Low, Marston, Searle and Rivington, 1882.


Plato. "Timaeus" and "Critias."

Watts, Edward. "Creating the Academy: Historical Discourse and the Shape of Community in the Old Academy." The Journal of Hellenic Studies , Vol. 127, (2007), pp. 106-122


Special thanks to Marta Pavia for help with the Ancient Greek translation.

This story's soundtrack: