Wednesday 3 October 2012

The Location Of Atlantis

This question remains unstraightforward. The cryptic dialogue and reflections in Poul Anderson's The Dancer From Atlantis (London, 1977), Chapters Five and Six, might bear further rereading. I had taken them to mean that the island which Erissa calls Keft and which Duncan Reid calls Crete is described as "the Land of the Pillar" which, in Keftiu, is "Kharia-te-yeh" and, in Achaean, is "Gaia Atlantis."

However, in Chapter Ten, Erissa agrees with Reid that her Atlantis is "'...a volcanic island about sixty miles north of Crete...' " (p. 83), adding that:

the smoke rising from the mountain led to the name "Land of the Pillar";
this island is the seat of the spiritual ruler, the Ariadne, whereas the political ruler, the Minos, is on Crete;
" '...Atlantis will sink in fire, ash, storm, and destruction...' " (p. 83)

This fits with the theory referred to by Reid that a volcanic eruption much greater than Krakatoa destroyed not only the island on which it was located but also the nearby Minoan civilization, thus allowing the Achaeans to become dominant in the Mediterranean. Thus, the end of Atlantis and the end of the Minos turn out to be a single story.

The Keftiu people inhabit both Keft/Crete and Atlantis so Erissa is Keftiu and was on Atlantis, not on Crete. I think I have got it straight now.

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