The Trojan War and the War with Atlantis: a few points of comparison

The idea that Plato's account of a Greek war with Atlantis is a misunderstood retelling of the story of the Trojan War might go back as far as Dio Chrysostum.   More recently, Eberhard Zangger has worked on the topic.  You can read his 1993 paper, "Plato's Atlantis Account -- A Distorted Recollection of the Trojan War" at Research Gate. He also has a book, The Flood from Heaven: Deciphering the Atlantis Legend, which appeared in 1992. 

There are, of course, lots of problems in talking about Atlantis. The tale is inconsistent about times and places. It includes elements that are implausible. The sentences describing Atlantis' location are so imprecise that there are dozens of theories about its location.  I will be emphasizing just a few reasons to suspect that the tale is about the Trojan war.  I do not claim to have solved all of the problems involved in giving a satisfactory interpretation of the Atlantis tale.  

The story of Atlantis is told in two parts in two different works by Plato, Timaeus and Critias. The second of these is an incomplete work that breaks off midsentence.  It is wholly dedicated to the Atlantis tale and runs perhaps 8 pages.  The other work, Timaeus, is a complete work on many topics in which the discussion of Atlantis fills around 3-4 pages.  That is all there is to know about Atlantis.  There are no other sources.  The war with Atlantis is mentioned in Critias, but not described.  The city of Atlantis is mentioned in Timaeus but not described.  One has to go to the proper work to read about the war or the city.  And that goes for most of the information in the two treatments, there is almost no repetition. What is said in one work is not said in the other.  Timaeus is the earlier work.  It tells the story of the war and its aftermath.  Critias describes both the city of Athens and the city of Atlantis along with their customs and political structures. 

According to Plato, the story was told to Solon, a famous poet, philosopher and statesman, one of the seven sages of Greece, and one of the fathers of democratization in the west.  Plato, a rejecter of democracy living over 200 years later, is related to Solon, and so is Critias, the character speaking in both treatments of the tale.  Critias claims to have Solon's writings about Atlantis and to have studied them.  The story is told to Solon by a priest who says that the story of Atlantis was recorded on columns.  

The first reason to suspect that the Atlantis tale is about the Trojan war is that it is about a Greek war that was famous enough that the Egyptians would know about it and record it on their columns.  There can't be many of those.  The most famous Greek war is the Trojan war.  Are there any similarities between the war with Atlantis and the Trojan war other than the fact that they are famous Greek wars?  Yes.  The enemy coalitions are similar.  The coalition supporting Atlantis includes the coast of Asia Minor, the Libyan coast and the areas north of Greece (they control "Libya as far as Egypt", and "Europe as far as Tyrhennia", we are told) as shown in the diagram below.  Plato writes that the coalition was as big as Libya and Asia added together, but I am reading that as saying that it consisted of Libya and Asia, and I am reading Asia as meaning Assuwa/Assiawa -- the coast of Anatolia.  In the word "Libya" I am reading merely the coast west of Egypt.  A naval blockade running between the Libyan and Anatolian coasts would cut off Greek trade with Egypt and the Levant. 

The red coastlines and the areas north of Greece are a hostile faction. I have drawn the upper line along the Danube valley, then cut across northern Italy fairly arbitrarily to take in Tyrhennia.  There are other ways to construct this.  I did not have to put the line in the Danube valley.  It could have run much further south, along the Thracian coast.  Meanwhile, Homer's Trojan coalition looks like the diagram below.   

At the bottom-right of this map is a line representing Memnon of Ethiopia, which lies south of Egypt. In the upper-right is a line at Colchis. The line through Thrace reaches over to Paeonia.  Of course,  there were peoples inland from the Turkish coast who sided with the Trojans, so I could color a lot of western Anatolia red.  Later writers add other characters to the mix, including Eurypolus and the Ceteians (=Ketians=Xetians=Hattians, i.e. Hittites), as well as the King of Persia.  Memnon is said to have troops from India. So, one could color almost all of Anatolia red and continue perhaps all the way to Susa (the city of Memnon) in Persia.  But I think my point is made with this much: the Trojan and Atlantian coalitions described by Homer and Plato are similar.  

The second reason to suspect that the Atlantis story is about the Trojan War is that in both stories the Greeks win the war but are destroyed afterwards.  In Homer, the post-Troy Greeks are decimated by civil war at home.  In the Atlantis tale, the Greeks and Atlantis are destroyed after the war by natural causes (earthquakes and floods).  In archeology, Greek citadels are abandoned at the end of the bronze age, but we know not why.  

The third reason to suspect that the Atlantis tale is about the Trojan war has to do with Greek literacy.  According to Timaeus, the Greeks wrote before their encounter with Atlantis, but not afterwards.  History and archeology show us that there was in fact Greek writing prior to the bronze age collapse, but not afterwards for around 500 years, until a version of the Phoenician alphabet was used to write Greek.  This loss of Greek writing as described in the Atlantis tale strongly suggests the end of the bronze age as the time in which the war with Atlantis occurred.  

The fourth reason to suspect that the Atlantis story is about the Trojan war has to do with the dates given in the story.  Plato mentions both 8000 years and 9000 years ago as dates for the story to have taken place.  Plato says the story comes from Solon who visited Egypt sometime around 560 bce.  Needless to say, there were no Greeks and no Egyptians in the 9500's bce, nor in the 8500s.  There would be no Egyptian records from those times, but the priest in the story claims to possess a record that was made roughly contemporaneously with the events they describe.  For that to be true, Egypt and Egyptian writing have to exist at the time of Atlantis.  In addition, Atlantis is described as having laws written on metal steles.  For that to be true, Atlantis itself has to exist in the era of writing, which did not come about until around 3000 bce.  If the story is set in the 9500's or 8500's bce, then it is false, because there was no writing, no Egyptian records, and no Greek war to record in those times.  

So, the story of Atlantis is either false or the dates are wrong.  

Now it is a simple matter of fact that "9000 years" is an ambiguous term in a society that uses both lunar and solar calendars, as Egypt did.  Their lunar calendars were used in religious life, and the party speaking to Solon is a priest.  Perhaps the priest was speaking about lunar rather than solar years.  If so, then 9000 lunar years means 9000 moons.  There are approximately 12.3 moons per solar year. 

9000 divided by 12.3 = 731

8000 divided by 12.3 = 650

If the story is from 560 bce, then the priest is talking about events that took place either around 1291 or around 1210 bce, but of course, he is ball-parking the figure. 1000 moons take around 81 years. Saying "eight or nine thousand moons ago" names a narrower range than saying "six or seven hundred years ago" by nineteen years. 100 moons take just over 8 years. So, if the priest is off by a couple hundred moons, it comes out to less than two decades. That is tolerable accuracy in this sort of work.  

The simple method of reading the years in the story as lunar years places the war with Atlantis in the final century of the bronze age, which is the time in which the Trojan war is supposed to have taken place.  

The fifth reason to suspect that the Atlantis tale is about the Trojan war is that it is about a city with writing, metals, spearmen and war chariots.  The material culture described matches the bronze age, and no other.  So, the Atlantis tale is about a Greek war against a bronze age city that was famous enough to have appeared on Egyptian columns.  There might be only one of those.  

The sixth reason to suspect that the Atlantis tale is about the Trojan war has to do with the priest's descriptions of the events and their context.  

For there was a time, Solon, before the great deluge of all, when the city which now is Athens was first in war and in every way the best governed of all cities, is said to have performed the noblest deeds and to have had the fairest constitution of any of which tradition tells, under the face of heaven.  (Timaeus)  

The event that wiped out Atlantis and the Greeks is referred to here as "the great deluge of all".  Other remarks from the priest: 

There have been, and will be again, many destructions of mankind arising out of many causes; the greatest have been brought about by the agencies of fire and water, and other lesser ones by innumerable other causes. (Timaeus) 

The greatest deluge of all is one of those periodic "destructions of mankind" that the priest discusses.  

There is a story, which even you have preserved, that once upon a time Paethon, the son of Helios, having yoked the steeds in his father's chariot, because he was not able to drive them in the path of his father, burnt up all that was upon the earth, and was himself destroyed by a thunderbolt. Now this has the form of a myth, but really signifies a declination of the bodies moving in the heavens around the earth, and a great conflagration of things upon the earth, which recurs after long intervals; at such times those who live upon the mountains and in dry and lofty places are more liable to destruction than those who dwell by rivers or on the seashore. And from this calamity the Nile, who is our never-failing saviour, delivers and preserves us. When, on the other hand, the gods purge the earth with a deluge of water, the survivors in your country are herdsmen and shepherds who dwell on the mountains, but those who, like you, live in cities are carried by the rivers into the sea. Whereas in this land, neither then nor at any other time, does the water come down from above on the fields, having always a tendency to come up from below; for which reason the traditions preserved here are the most ancient. (Timaeus)

The priest believes that a myth about a world wide conflagration was in fact a recollection of a natural catastrophe caused by a "declination of the bodies moving in the heavens around the earth."  A falling body that causes a fire sounds like a meteor to me.  These declining movements "recur after long intervals", and so do the floods.  When the earth burns, those in lofty and dry places suffer most, and those in low lying, wet areas are safest. The Nile saves Egypt from scorching.  Also the waters rarely come down from above in Egypt, but rather rise up from below.  When the floods come from above, those in high places are safest, and those in the cities (which are on the rivers) are swept into the sea.  Egypt rarely sees flooding from above, and hence her records are the oldest.  

And whatever happened either in your country or in ours, or in any other region of which we are informed -- if there were any actions noble or great or in any other way remarkable, they have all been written down by us of old, and are preserved in our temples. Whereas just when you and other nations are beginning to be provided with letters and the other requisites of civilized life, after the usual interval, the stream from heaven, like a pestilence, comes pouring down, and leaves only those of you who are destitute of letters and education; and so you have to begin all over again like children, and know nothing of what happened in ancient times, either among us or among yourselves. (Timaeus)

Just when Greeks and other societies get going with writing, the floods come and wipe out the cities, leaving behind only those who do not know how to write.  The priest sees this as a regular occurrence.  

So, the priest is saying that Greece and Atlantis were destroyed in the greatest deluge of all.  The deluges are one type of human destruction event.  The greatest "deluge" would be either the greatest flood from above that Egypt recorded, or the greatest human destruction event they recorded, depending on how broadly the term is meant.   Their records surely included no greater destruction event than the bronze age collapse, which is when Greek writing was lost.  

The war with Atlantis corresponds with one of the greatest destruction events Egypt ever recorded, and also with the loss of Greek writing.  No other Greek war fits that context but the Trojan war.    

There are other similarities between Troy and Atlantis. Dr Zangger has done a lot of good work on many, many points.  I have concentrated merely on the war and its context here.  

On my reading, the Atlantis story feels like an addition to our paltry literature describing events in and around the bronze age collapse.   It should be valued for that reason alone.  The priest's mention of "the great deluge of all" may be an attempt to name the bronze age collapse.  It might be the first attempt to name it and talk about it in world literature.  

UPDATE: It turns out that the Amazons are not from the Colchis area as I had thought when I made the maps above.  They are from northern Anatolia.