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Foothills of Mount Taygetos - Lacedaemon

The ancient city of Lacedaemon – is it the legendary Atlantis? Part Two

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(Read Part One) Turning to the second “point of agreement” about the location of Atlantis is the highly disputed location of the ‘Pillars of Hercules’. Many scholars identified the Pillars with the Straits of Gibraltar and mistook the Platonic Atlantic Pelagos (large and extensive area) for the Atlantic Ocean. Plato however has used his own interpretation about Atlantis and the Atlantic Pelagos. His terms derived from Atlas, the first son of Poseidon and Kleito, the divine couple and the first inhabitants of the famous island.

Atlas - Son of Poseidon

Atlas was said to be the first king of Atlantis and was the son of Poseidon. Photo source.

I have identified the Pillars of Hercules with the Columns, which were erected on the Mount Thornax, some 2 kilometres from the Lagoon of Lacedaemon, very close to the Eurotas River. The slope of the mount facing the river was meticulously cut and transformed to a platform to house and to support the columns. These columns were a unique archaeological mystery in Antiquity; in fact they were the two obelisks, of 15-16 metres in height, which were erected later in the sanctuary (temenos) of Apollo Pythaeus in front of the city of Sparta, near the Eurotas (Pausanias III, 10,8).

Sometime thereafter, one of them was removed to the famous sanctuary of Apollo at Amyclae, and was enclosed in the monument made by the sculptor and architect Bathycles of Magnesia before the middle of the 6 th century BC.  Herodotos mentions the statue (“το νυν της Λακωνικής εν Θόρνακι ίδρυται” Ι,69), and Pausanias, in the second century AD, gave a description of the columns, which were gilded with the gold that King Kroisos of Lycia donated to the Spartans. The columns were crowned by a curious figure of the God Apollo and the one at the Amyclaion was placed upon the cenotaph of Hyacinthos, the Dorian deified hero, the most revered cultic figure of their Minyan forefathers, the Atlantes of Lacedaemon.

The columns, or Pillars of Hercules, were placed in the narrowest point of the street, which led to the islands of Lacedaemon and therefore they acquired the name “Agyieis”, from the Doric word agyia (αγυιά), which means a narrow street or passage.  The column Agyieus became the holy heirloom of the Dorian cities throughout the ancient world, from Sicily to Egypt, and in Rome itself, and was taken for the symbol of the Golden Age, the Aetas  Aurea, the Arcadian Utopia (see my book LACEDAEMON, vol.II, p. 447).       

Atlantis was not the only island in the Pelagos of Lacedaemon, it was one of several islands, the main island among the groups of small islands, which form the model, the prototype, of the 500 tiny islands of Venice, which are also supported on wooden trunks. Some of these islands in the Pontos of Lacedaemon were referred to in the Greek epic poetry (see Odyssey book 15, 405 ff). The Lexicographer Stefanos Byzantios states that there is an island known as Tyros in the Lakoniki, and the so-called Tyrian Odyssey refers to some other islands, originally situated in the Pontos of Lacedaemon, like Scheria, Ogygia, Aia and so on (LACEDAEMON vol.II,462-3). Plato added ‘Asia’ and ‘Libya’.

The miraculous island Atlantis with the huge temple of Poseidon, whose ceiling was made of ivory, variegated with gold and silver, was enclosed in three rings of sea and land. The most external of the rings, near the outflow of Eurotas, close to the bountiful spring of Vivari, the main tributary of Eurotas, is preserved to some extent and is still visible today. According to the Periegetes, (travellers) of the 19 th century (Leake, Bursian, Ross, Fraser and Loring) it measured 200 metres, was made in masonry and crossed the river Eurotas. It is identified with the “Characoma”, (the Entrenchment), a monumental construction mentioned by Pausanias (III, 21,2). It is situated in the right place to be convincingly identified with the external ring of the island of Atlantis, referred to in Plato’s Critias, 117 E.

Illustration of Atlantis

An illustration of Atlantis with three rings of sea and the Temple of Poseidon in the centre. Image source.

Atlantis and the entire island group was destroyed, and disappeared beneath a layer of mud.  Plato refers to exceptional earthquakes and to cataclysmic rains, which lasted one day and one night. It was a natural disaster, which was probably synchronised with the volcanic eruption in Thera (Santorini). The tsunami  from Thera affected not only the island of Crete, it devastated the Minyan Palatial establishments in the Aegean and the East Mediterranean, on Kea, Avaris (Tell el’ Daba) in Egypt, Tell Kabri in Galilee, Dabna in Syria and the remote city of Mari on the Euphrates. In all these places, the destruction layers were accompanied with pumice from the Thera Volcano, but before they fell to ruins, they had been decorated with fresco paintings, similar to those unearthed at Akrotiri in Santorini.  Some of the representations in these palaces are echoed in references in the Greek epic (see my book LACEDAEMON, vol. II, p. 357 ff).

The destruction of Atlantis

The destruction of Atlantis. Image source.

Featured image: Two pillars on Seville's city hall. The Pillars encourage one to ignore the ancient warning, to take risks and go further beyond. It indicates the desire to see the Pillars as an entrance to the rest of the world rather than as a gate to the Mediterranean Sea. Source: Wikipedia

(Part 1)

By Dr Theodore Spyropoulos

 

Comments

LOUIS MILLETTE's picture

so,no Atlantis was not in peleponese.

and no poseidon did not live in  in the center of the 3 ring

in fact poseidon was living in the mountain beside the third ring

he was living with his 2 brothers on the mountain

on the center island was living his wife

then he decide to add 3 ring to protect the island

one of the son that his wife give birth was named atlas and he was the first king of the city

the ocean near the city was call atlantis because of king atlas

and this is not a myths but a real story

it is also true that the city was destruct, but again it was not a tsunami.

 

I think we should consider that what we know of "Atlantis" is but a remnant of a much more ancient civilization that was destroyed in a cataclysm. The survivors may have regrouped and congregated and tried to preserve what they could of the lost continent culture they originated from. Then after a time, the colony of survivors may have also been destroyed. We shouldn't assume that what Plato was talking about by way of Solon was the real deal.

The alternative of ignoring the beliefs of our ancestors is an historical disaster as it leads to much of the misunderstanding of the past (ancient origins). I give the example of Alice in Wonderland. If one reads the book one comes to the instant conclusion that Lewis Carroll was either nuts or on drugs. He wasn’t nuts but he did partake of a hallucinogen. If one studies the effect of the particular drugs and there are many naturally occurring drugs, producing similar effects.

With the key, hallucinogen, Alice in Wonderland becomes instantly under the lens and one can fully grasp the meaning of the story and eventually it becomes crystal clear when one understands that the hallucinogen was the Fly Agaric.

Even though for most of us even the mention of the word produces sighs and often disgust at such a childish and pseudo science, we cannot and should not ignore the fact that to civilizations behind ours did study the movement of the planets and stars in the sky.

Further they found or believed that these movements or maps at any given moment or point in time portended future and current events.

I shall at this point give an example:
Currently Pluto is in the constellation of Capricorn. Plutonium is named not with coincidence but with forethought.
Pluto produces or rules implosions and subsequent explosions. Pluto also rules the seed underground as it bursts up and above ground into a plant. Further it rules the uncovering of hidden truths which have been suppressed. One can easily see the connection between implosions, explosions, seeds and truths being uncovered.

Capricorn is that which is termed Cardinal Earth and represents the earth itself. When Pluto moved into Capricorn in 2008 volcanoes erupted with some regularity, Sink holes became the order of the day,
the past hidden and current hidden doings of the Roman Catholic Church became common knowledge,
earthquakes and more to come.

Much of the myths of the past are alluding to Astrology and we must take this into account when studying the past historical events, whether we understand or have an antagonistic paradigm towards it.
We can keep our beliefs but we must embrace the beliefs of past civilisations to understand them.

δαίμων (daemon) is incorrectly translated into God it actually means Ruler (as in Queen or King) and Poseidon is called Jupiter today and rules liquids such as the sea and oil.

Atlantis did not exist physically and will never be found no matter what unless seen through the lens of Astrology.

Pillars of Hercules. Hercules is an Astrological story of the tasks set to Hercules as he passes through the 12 houses or constellations. Each story is a reference to the workings of the 12 constellations and how they affect events.

The Iliad is an Astrological account.

Odysseus, the Argonaut. Astrological

Apollo = the Sun

spyropoulos's picture

Theodore Spyropoulos

Theodore Spyropoulos (Greek: Θεόδωρος Σπυρόπουλος) is a Greek archaeologist, regional official of Greece's Central Archaeological Council, and author of the three-volume book titled ‘Lacedaemon’.

You can view Dr Spyropoulos' profile here.

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