杏吧原创

AS a rule, books proclaiming the solution of a mystery deal with something that isn鈥檛 mysterious (Thor Heyerdahl鈥檚 Easter Island comes to mind) or fail to deliver. The Sunken Kingdom falls into both categories: Plato鈥檚 Atlantis is a mystery only to those who care; and the 鈥渟olution鈥� offered in a readable and well-argued fashion, is not conclusive. Peter James distinguishes between 鈥渂elievers鈥�, chasing the real Atlantis, and 鈥渟ceptics鈥� who are hostile to the very idea; but I fear he is omitting a far larger category 鈥� those who find this a waste of time.

He assesses the traditional ideas about the site of Atlantis 鈥� the Atlantic Ocean, and the supposed link with the volcanic Aegean island of Thera. James then adds an interesting account of Plato鈥檚 life and work, sometimes heavy-handed in his idolisation of Plato and denigration of Aristotle.

So far so good. Previous ideas about Atlantis are shown to be unsatisfactory, because they all begin by taking some of Plato鈥檚 statements as gospel, but then discard one or another of them to make a theory work. Aristotle dismissed Atlantis as a fabrication 鈥� after all, he should know, being a pupil of Plato 鈥� so you might expect James to agree and write it off as an elaborate allegory. But he cannot resist building up his case for sticking another pin in an overcrowded map.

James puts forward the view that everything in Plato鈥檚 account of the civilisation鈥檚 destruction is distorted 鈥� the early date (9600 BC), the tale鈥檚 source in Egypt, the western location of Atlantis and its size 鈥� and mixed with wishful thinking. His theory is that the story is based on a Bronze Age kingdom located in western Anatolia. The case is skilfully built up using mythology, geography, topography and toponyms, but it also relies on a whole series of assumptions that involve misunderstandings, misconceptions and confusions by early writers. His quest requires the double feat of trying to pinpoint the location of Atlantis as well as that of the ancient Anatolian city Tantalis 鈥� both well-trodden paths. I lost interest long before the end, having accepted immediately the possibility that the mythological characters Atlas and Tantalus might be connected, and that Atlantis could well be an anagram of Tantalis.

James admits others have made this connection, but he is determined to identify Atlantis with a specific Bronze Age kingdom destroyed by an earthquake and submerged by a lake. I think it more straightforward to accept that Plato did fabricate the story 鈥� he would have drawn on many sources, which may well include material from Anatolia reviewed here.