Imagining Atlantis by Richard Ellis Search Amazon for other books by or about Richard Ellis. Rating: Reviewed by: David Smillie

"Just sit right back, and you'll hear a tale .."

About 2500 years ago, a guy named Plato wrote down a little story. It was set in the distant past, and concerned a lost continent called Atlantis. Atlantis was a marvelous place, filled with soldiers and scholars, easily dominating its neighbours and standing as a beacon of enlightenment. Alas, the citizens angered the gods, and their continent disappeared beneath the waves.

Fast-forward to today, where the bookshelves still groan with tomes about Atlantis. (A quick search of Amazon.com reveals more than 350 titles... and those are just the ones in print.) Atlantis is seen as everything from an archaeological site to evidence for aliens, to a source of previous lives that are recovered under hypnosis. So why, given the fact that we have a surfeit of Atlantis books, should we care about one more? Why, when we're all sinking beneath the waves of Atlantean literature should we grab onto this example?

Well, for starters, it's a heck of a good read. And it comes at the story from a viewpoint that, if not completely original, is at least more useful than most. Ellis' concern isn't so much for the veracity of the myth, or where the ruins might be found. He's concerned with why this one little tale has inspired so much interest over the years. After all, aside from Plato, there are no ancient sources that speak of Atlantis. None of the historians of the time mention it, and even the Egyptians don't bother. So if you agree with Ellis (that Atlantis is just a story, created by Plato) the only real question is ... why do we still care?

To explain that, Ellis shows us how Atlantis has been portrayed over the years. It's a fascinating tale, particularly in the section where he shows how "reputable" archaeologists have feuded over the possible locations of the "true" Atlantis. It's been placed everywhere from the Atlantic to the Pacific, from the Mediterranean to the North Sea. And every writer who claims that Atlantis is where he or she says it is, takes great lengths to diminish every other claim.

So because Ellis is presenting an overview of the literature, he can let the proponents of a real Atlantis demolish each others' theories. Not unlike kids in a sandbox, each setting out to destroy the others' work, the end result is a lot of ruined sandcastles. It's an extremely entertaining sequence, filled with fascinating characters ranging from vulcanologists to psychics to a former U. S. Congressman.

Ellis does a remarkable job of synthesizing hundreds of years worth of evidence and conjecture, allowing each to stand or fall on its own merits (with a little help from the competing views, of course). Ultimately, as I've said, he views Atlantis as a story, invented by Plato to serve as a parable. Yet for some reason it grew and appealed to a huge variety of people (and has been stretched and cut to fit into various Procrustean beds) over the years. Why is that? The idea of a ruined civilization, particularly one that sinks beneath the waves occurs in many, many cultures. So the Atlantis ideal certainly has resonance. Does this mean it's a shared memory of something that really happened, long in our forgotten past? Not at all. It just happens to be an idea (a meme, if you will) that works well in the human brain. The idea of a virgin birth crops up again and again in world religions and cosmogonies, but that doesn't make the process real.

Atlantis, as a symbol, can be anything we want it to be. Proof of the ultimate power of the gods (or nature), of our helplessness, a shining symbol of what once was (and can perhaps be again) or evidence of alien contact (if that's the way your mind runs...). But we should never lose sight of the fact that it was just a story. Told by Plato to some of the boys. And searching for it is about a fruitless as endlessly searching for Willy Wonka's chocolate factory. Ellis' book is a wonderful reminder of that, and a welcome respite from the usual Atlantis writing. Not only in content, but in reasoned, well-written style. It may be the best book ever written about Atlantis ... and it's certainly the one book everyone should read about the topic.