This volume is based on an earlier work that appeared in the Bristol Classical Series in 1980. The original work contained a text and commentary and was intended for an intermediate Greek student. The present work expands and updates the latter and adds an English translation. It also includes a substantial introduction (pp. 1–48), which addresses some of the major issues surrounding the Atlantis story. These include in particular its historicity, its role in Plato's political philosophy and, if in fact the story has no historical basis, its role in Plato's philosophy generally as one of his many myths.
G. lends his support to what is certainly the majority view among scholars, namely, that the Atlantis story is not based on real events, and that Plato himself knew this to be the case. Since Plato's Timaeus/Critias is our only source for the story, its presumed mythical origin and its many odd features afford ample opportunity for speculation on what its intended purpose is. In this regard, one may compare the important figure of the priestess Diotima of Mantinea in Symposium, who is nowhere else mentioned in extant Greek literature.
Among the many controversial issues carefully laid out by G. is whether in his later works, including by most accounts the Timaeus/Critias, Plato has abandoned or modified his political claims made in Republic, especially as to the centrality of the philosopher-king. Although nothing in the Atlantis story indicates that Plato changed his mind on this issue, the complete absence of this central figure has led some to suggest that Plato at least came to distinguish more sharply than he once had between a philosopher and a statesman. G. thinks that variations among works do not indicate that Plato has changed his mind, but rather that different works are intended to carry out different projects. This seems to me a not altogether helpful approach since tying a philosophical position to a particular dialogue leaves us with the problem of how any dialogue can be used to help us understand any other.
The Atlantis story first appears in outline form in Timaeus (17A–27B) and then in a fuller version in the entirety of Critias, although as we know, it breaks off literally in mid-sentence. G.’s basic interpretative stance on the point of the story is that it is ‘quasi-dialectical’, intended by Plato to explore the moral and political differences between the hypothetical Atlantis and an idealised Athens in the distant past. The message of the Atlantis story, according to most scholars, is that fourth-century Athens should not repeat the political and military mistakes of fifth-century Athens; rather, it should return to an idealised past when Athens was not a maritime power and not tempted by imperial conquest. G. argues instead that the story is not primarily about Athens, but rather takes a more nuanced and even-handed approach in which features of both ancient Atlantis and Athens should be considered as relevant to present-day political reform.
G. argues that Plato uses myth not, as many think, to go beyond the scope of rational argument, but as an alternative means of advancing philosophical speculation. I am not sure I grasp the subtle difference between these two views, though G. directs us to other works of his where we do get a somewhat sharper version of the distinction.
The introduction ends with a useful appendix carefully debunking the hypothesis held by J.V. Luce and others that Atlantis should be identified with a city in Minoan Crete. G. presents a battery of arguments against this identification and, much as one may be intrigued by such a historical connection, there probably is none. The introduction ends with a full bibliography on the Atlantis story.
G. provides first a translation of the two relevant passages from Timaeus/Critias and then the OCT text lemmatised with concise grammatical and historical commentaries. There is a vocabulary list of some 30 pages at the end. This list will be a great boon to students, saving them considerable time looking up words in LSJ.
The translation is quite literal as befits a school text. It is not as fluid as that of D. Clay in J.M. Cooper's edition of the dialogues (1997). G. is conservative in preserving the sequence of clauses in a Greek sentence when translating into English. This usually makes for some awkwardness, though nothing that should impede the careful student reader.
Although I would not myself have thought of the texts on the Atlantis story as the best choice either for an intermediate Greek prose course or for a Plato course in Greek, I presume that this new edition indicates a felt need. For any English-speaking Classics student fascinated by the myth of Atlantis, this is surely the place to go.
