The Book That Defined the Modern Perception of Atlantis

The legend of Atlantis dates back at least 2,400 years, to when Plato first wrote about it. Numerous historians later referred to this lost mythical island. However, one modern-era book has had such a profound impact that it has largely shaped the public’s perception of Atlantis. What is this book, and how significant was its influence?

The book Atlantis: The Antediluvian World (1882)

The modern book that has most strongly shaped our perception of Atlantis is Atlantis: The Antediluvian World, written by Ignatius L. Donnelly in 1882. Ever since its publication, people around the world have been captivated by the ideas it promoted.

To put it simply, Donnelly took Plato’s account to be essentially accurate. He believed that Atlantis was a real, massive island in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean that predated all other known civilizations.

Plato claimed that Atlantis existed some 9,000 years before the time of the Greek lawmaker Solon. This would place this legendary civilization at around the year 9600 BC. While many modern researchers have argued that Plato’s figures were distorted or greatly exaggerated, Donnelly accepted these numbers at face value.

Furthermore, he accepted that Plato’s geographical descriptions of Atlantis were largely correct as well and agreed with the common idea that Plato placed Atlantis outside the Mediterranean. This was based on the interpretation of the “Pillars of Heracles” in Plato’s account as the Strait of Gibraltar.

Atlantis’ role in world history

To Ignatius L. Donnelly, the existence of Atlantis was not a mere curiosity; it represented a fundamental part of world history. Given that Atlantis was supposedly an island in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, Donnelly believed this location made it ideally situated to be the source of myths and customs on both sides of the Atlantic.

He argued that the first advanced civilization originated on Atlantis and that nations spread out from this central point. Although, according to Donnelly, advanced civilization first developed on Atlantis, he did not argue that all nations were directly descended from the Atlanteans themselves. Rather, he wrote the following:

“Atlantis was the original seat of the Aryan or Indo-European family of nations, as well as of the Semitic peoples, and possibly also of the Turanian races.”

Because of this, modern commentators generally condemn the book for promoting ideas of racial superiority. However, regardless of his comments about the ethnicities supposedly descended from the Atlanteans, Donnelly believed it was the Egyptians who most closely preserved the original religious traditions of Atlantis.

Donnelly’s evidence

A major aspect of the book Atlantis: The Antediluvian World is that Ignatius L. Donnelly argued for a concept known as hyperdiffusionism—the idea that all major cultural concepts around the world originated from a single central source. The apparent evidence for hyperdiffusionism was a key part of Donnelly’s argument.

One simple example of the type of evidence Donnelly used is the widespread presence of ancient flood myths. Cultures from all over the world have stories about a great flood in the distant past. The Greeks, for example, had the myth of Deucalion’s Flood. In his book, Donnelly argues that this phenomenon resulted from survivors of the destruction of Atlantis fleeing to both sides of the Atlantic.

Another example is the prevalence of sun worship on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean. The Egyptians worshiped the sun—their chief deity was a sun god—and the same applies to the Incas in Peru on the other side of the Atlantic, whose chief deity was Inti, also a sun god.

Aside from hyperdiffusion, Donnelly pointed to other types of supposedly more direct evidence. For example, he claimed that the Azores Islands were remnants of what was once a large landmass in the Atlantic Ocean.

Problems with the Atlantis manuscript

This book has greatly influenced the way the modern public thinks about Atlantis. Even among scholars, Donnelly helped establish a trend of viewing Plato’s account of Atlantis as a historical narrative rather than an allegory, which profoundly changed the course of research on the subject.

With the passing of time, the academic viewpoint toward this book has grown increasingly negative. It is widely dismissed today as pseudo-historical and pseudoscientific, and numerous criticisms have been leveled against Donnelly’s arguments.

For instance, the entire concept of hyperdiffusionism has come under fire. Scholars now argue that separate cultures often developed similar traditions and myths independently. It is certainly true that at least some of the connections mentioned by Donnelly are rather generic—sun worship being one such example.

In addition, many of Donnelly’s claims are now known to be categorically inaccurate. For example, modern studies have shown that the land around the Azores drops to a plateau of about one thousand meters below sea level. Furthermore, there are raised beaches on the Azores, indicating that they were once lower—not higher—relative to sea level.

Based on these and many other criticisms, Donnelly’s book on Atlantis is no longer respected. Nevertheless, it remains popular among certain circles.