The islands of the Aegean Sea, including Crete, have been particularly associated with the traditions of the lost Atlantis.
Plato, of course, who specifically dealt with the books of "Timaeus" and "Critia" with the "Atlantic Logos", places Atlantis "West, beyond Hercules' Columns", ie in the Atlantic Ocean.
But quite a few, modern analysts of Plato, of the 20th and 21st century, place Atlantis in the Aegean, specifically in Santorini (Angel Galanopoulos), or in Crete (J.V. LUCE).
The theory of Angelos Galanopoulos and Sp. Marinatos
Angelos Galanopoulos' theory of Aegeis is related to the traditions of the lost Atlantis, as Fokion Negris announced in 1927 at the Academy of Athens.θεωρία του Άγγελου Γαλανόπουλου για την Αιγηίδα συσχετίζεται με τις παραδόσεις για τη χαμένη Ατλαντίδα, όπως ανακοίνωσε ο Φωκίων Νέγρης το 1927 στην Ακαδημία Αθηνών.
Aegeis was a compact mass of land stretching
from the Ionian to the Asia Minor and to the
southern coasts of Crete (from the History
of the Greek Nation, Athens Publishing House)
|
The form of Greece 400,000 years ago. The sea level
was 200 meters below the current level. Many islands
were still united (from the History of the
Greek Nation, Athens Publishing House)
|
According to this theory, Aegeis or Aegeida was a land from Crete to Sounio of Attica and Euboea. Later, it collapsed, from volcanoes and earthquakes, and the mediumst parts of the land sank into the chaos of the earth, and their area captured the waters that came from the Atlantic Ocean and from the Ethiopian Sea, or the "Tritonida" lake of the Sahara (Herodotus, Eratosthenes and other ancient writers write that the Sahara desert was once a lake and called it "Tritonida" or "Tritonid").
But if there are geological data for all of this, the shaping of the Aegean has to be hundreds of millennia ago. It can not be related, therefore, to the great eruption of the Santorini volcano, which had previously been identified in the 1450s of the old timing. At that time, he was backed by Spyros Marinatos and others, Knossos and the Minoan civilization of Crete were destroyed. Because, apart from the strong tidal wave that was raised by the eruption, there followed successive earthquakes that shook the Aegean Sea and brought about the destruction.
Sp. Marinatos could not prove from the findings of the excavations in Thira that Atlantis was in the part that was submerged in the Aegean Sea. Thus, Marinatos in his writings refers to "Enigma", or to "Atlantis Problem".
Several other theories about the Aegean region
The priests of Sais, the ancient religious capital of Egypt, told Solon, who translated the evidence for Plato's "Atlantic speech", that the Aegean islands and Crete were conquered by the Atlanteans who came from the west of the Great Ocean. The powerful nation of Atlanteans, written on the plaques read by the priests, conquered almost all the coasts of the Mediterranean countries, from the north and south, and reached the Persian Gulf. The Atlanteans did not succeed in conquering Attica because their troops were defeated by the Athenians ... (ie, the inhabitants of Attica, at that time, who seemed to have some prosperity).
Most of the ancient Greek and Latino writers, such as Homer, Hesiod, Eumelos, Aeschylus, Pindarus, Herodotus, Elanikos and after Plato, Krantoras, Eratosthenes, Apollonius Rhodios, Aristarchos, Apollodoros, Posidonios, Plutarch, Ovid, Pliny, Strabo, Pausanias, Proklus, were agreed with Plato on the subject of Atlantis, indirectly or directly.
Most of the younger Atlanteans, from the Renaissance to the present day, headed by Ignatius Donellly, accept this last view, that the Aegean islands and Crete have been conquered in the ancient years by the Atlanteans. This view has many props, if we admit that Atlantis was once there, and then was lost by natural causes, of course, and not by "wrath of Zeus", as the priests of Saida translated the hieroglyphics in Solon.
The elements of the above theories refer to ancient times of the old timescale, before the great cataclysm that coincided, as many admit, with the collapse of Atlantis.
How did the name "Aegean" come
The researchers of the "Atlantis and Aegean" themes studied mainly the elements of Crete and Santorini. Corresponding elements and traditions exist in almost all the Aegean islands. Even the name "Aegean" is attributed to heroes and chieftains associated with the Titans-Atlanteans.
Aigaion was, according to Greek mythology, a giant (a Hecatoncheir), son of Heaven and Gaia. He was ancestor of the Titans. He dwelt in the depths of the Ocean. He was considered a marine god, but also an inventor of the ships. Of some, he is identified with Poseidon who was the ruler of the Aegean Sea, and he was called "Aegaeus" and "Aegi-oohos", because he was lounched the surging waves. These were called "Αίγες-Aiges=waves" (see the "Souda" dictionary), while "epaigizo" means "blowing very hard". The name Aegean, they conclude, is due to the wilderness of the waves.
Another version is that it comes from the seaside towns, named Aigai *, in Euboea and Achaea, where Poseidon was worshiped.
It is finally said that the Aegean Sea took its name from "Aegeus", the King of Athens, who fell into the sea, waiting for his son Theseus to return from Crete.
* The location of the ancient city Aigai has been found and excavated northwest of modern Aigeira in Achaea of Peloponnese.
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