Atlantis

Apparently the earliest records of Atlantis are in the dialogues of Plato 'Timaeus' and 'Critias'.

The story of Atlantis was told to Plato by Critias, who received it from his grandfather Critias, who learned it from his father Dropides, who learned it from Solon.

Solon was a traveler, who in the city of Sais in Egypt learned of the ancient Athenians' victory in the war between Athens, the city of Athena, and Atlantis, the city of Poseidon, nine thousand years before their time. Atlantis was described as an island "in front of" the Pillars of Hercules larger than Libya and Asia put together.

A little mytho-history:

Poseidon gave birth to ten children (five sets of twins) by Cleito. He divided the island into ten parts and divided it among the children. The first-born child, named Atlas, was the first king of Atlantis, prince of the best and largest portion, and both the ocean and the island were named after him. The others were Eumelus/Gadeirus, Ampheres and Evaemon, Mneseus and Autochthon, Elasippus and Mestor, Azaes and Diaprepes, and they were princes of the other nine portions.

Atlantis grew to be an amazingly rich city with, among other things, orichalcum deposits (orichalcum said to be second only in value to gold in those days) and elephants.

Atlantis sank into the sea after one day of violent earthquakes and floods, leaving a large shoal of mud that left the ocean unnavigable.

The names in the story are unabashedly Hellenic: Critias says this is because the Egyptian story had translated the names into that language, and Solon was able to retranslate them into Greek. (Sure.)

And that's all I know about that.

Atlantis, fabled city of antiquity, lies in peaceful waters. The major districts of the city-the Aqua Plain, the Domed Palace and the Bridged Bazaar-murmur with activity while vital generators whirl. Three defense posts guard the skies over the metropolis.

An ominous sound penetrates the sea surrounding the city. The Gorgon Fleet, fierce warriors intent on demolishing Atlantis, attack in force. How long can the city withstand the assault?

Atlantis was just about the best game that Imagic ever made. You command several Laser turrets. Defending the underwater city of Atlantis. The graphics are very colorful and rely on a lot of color cycling effects. Color cycling effects can make it seem as if the console supports more on screen colors than it actually does. The arcade version of Robotron 2084 used this to good effect, as did Atlantis.

The concept is similar to Missile Command in that you fire shots from several distinct locations that can be killed by enemy fire in an attempt to defend a complex of several cities. Unlike Missile Command, your enemies are spaceships that fly horizontally over your city and drop bombs. This style of gameplay was much more suited to the joystick, and I feel that this title is superior to the Atari 2600 version of Missile Command.

Imagic sponsored a large contest for high scores with this game. (The "Defend Atlantis" contest). The top scorers received a copy of the ultra-rare Atlantis II and went to Bermuda for a chance at $10,000.

The box to this game was the standard "shiny" Imagic box, and it had an awesome picture of several space fighters attacking a floating city. The ships in the picture seem to have been heavily influenced by Star Wars and The Empire Strikes Back.

Atlantis is worth between $1 and $30 depending on the label. There were 5 different labels. Each valued differently. Games with boxes and manuals are worth more.

ed note: In 2006, NASA anounced plans to retire Atlantis and use her for spare parts for Discovery and Endeavour.

Ατλαντις

In two of his Dialogues Plato tells that Solon, in the course of his travels in Egypt, questioned the priests and that one of them, who lived at Saïs in the Nile delta, told him of very ancient traditions which related to a war waged in the distant past by Athens against the people of Atlantis. This story which starts in the Timaeus is resumed and elaborated in the fragment we possess of the Critias. The people of Atlantis, according to the priest, used to live on an island which lay beyond the pillars of Heracles, where the Mediterranean ended and Ocean began. When the gods were sharing out the earth, Athens fell to Athena and Hephaestus, but Atlantis became the kingdom of Poseidon. In Atlantis lived Clito, a girl who had lost both her parents, Evenor and Leucippe. Poseidon fell in love with her. Clito lived on a mountain in the middle of the island and around her dwelling Poseidon raised a barrier consisting of walls and moats full of water, and there he lived with her for a long time. They had five pairs of twin sons, the eldest son of all being called Atlas, to whom Poseidon gave supremacy. He divided the whole island into ten areas. Atlas reigned on the mountain in the centre and it was from there that we weilded his power.

The island of Atlantis was extremely rich both in vegetaion and mineral wealth. There were not only many deposits of gold, copper, iron and other metals but also orichalc, a metal which blazed like fire. The kings of Atlantis built magnificent cities with great numbers of vaults, bridges, canals and tortuous passages, for ease of both defence and trade. In each of the ten districts there reigned the descendants of the ten original kings, the sons of Poseidon and Clito, all ruled over by the descendant of Atlas. Each year they all met in the capital for a special ceremony, during which they gave themselves over to a ritual bull-hunt and joined together in drinking the blood of the bull which they had slaughtered. Then they all passed judgement on each other, clad in flowering gowns of dark blue in the middle of the night seated among the enbers still hot from the sacrifice, after which all the lamps were put out. At this point the Dialogue ends.

These men of Atlantis had tried to conquer the world, but they were defeated by the Athenians nine thousand years before the time of Plato. According to a considerably different tradition, recorded by Diodorus Siculus, the men of Atlantis were neighbours of the Libyans and had been attacked by the Amazons (see Myrina), but in Plato's belief, the men of Atlantis and their island had disappeared for ever, submerged by a disastrous flood.

{E2 DICTIONARY OF CLASSICAL MYTHOLOGY}

Table of Sources:
- Plato, Timaeus 21a ff.; Critias 108e ff.
- Proclus, Comm. in Tim. 21a ff.
- Strabo 2, 3, 6, p. 102
- Hdt. 4, 184
- Diod. Sic. 3, 54ff.