Plato From the Original Reader's Point of View

Plato's original readers evidently knew nothing of Atlantis, aside from what he wrote. Obviously then, they knew nothing of later claims involving interpretations, conjectures, embellishments, theories, or prophesies, which are commonly argued online today. Such materials were non-existent and are therefore quite irrelevant from this original-reader's point of view.

First off, concerning dates, Solon visited Egypt sometime around 570 BC, so 9000 years before Solon was about 9570 BC. Plato's readers first learned of the 9570 BC date when Plato wrote concerning Athena founding the cities of Athens and Sais. In Timaeus 23E the Egyptian priest spoke of the founding of the two cities when he stated:

"Yours first by the space of a thousand years, when she [Athena] had received the seed of you from Ge and Hephaestus, and after that ours. And the duration of our civilization as set down in our sacred writings is 8000 years."

Note in the above quote how this is tied to Athena's receiving of the first autochthon, which means a human born from the Earth. This idea is repeated later in Critias 109 b/c when, to introduce how Athena used that first autochthon and started the Athenian race, Critias explained:

"At one time, the gods were taking over by allotment the whole earth according to its regions . . . Hephaestus and Athena were of a like nature, being born of the same father, and agreeing, moreover, in their love of wisdom and of craftsmanship, they both took for their joint portion this land of ours."

As Plato had indicated in Timaeus 23E (quoted earlier) this creation of the first humans occurred at the 9570 BC point in time.

Then in Critias 113B, after describing the history of Athens, Plato writes concerning how Poseidon started the Atlantean race with the daughter of two autochthon. There it is written:

"Like as we previously stated concerning the allotments of the Gods, that they portioned out the whole earth . . . even so Poseidon took for his allotment the island of Atlantis and settled therein the children whom he had begotten of a mortal woman."

Note that Plato places the founding of both races at the time when the gods divided the Earth into allotments; when these first autochthons were created; when the human race began. According to Timaeus 23E this occurred around 9570 BC. So this indicates that both Athens and Atlantis were founded around that time.

Now, it is true that Plato, in Critias, describes the founding of Athens before he describes the founding of Atlantis. And it is also true that Athens was founded by the first Greek autochthons, whereas Atlantis was founded by Poseidon and a second generation Atlantean; namely Cleito the daughter of two autochthons. However, for our purposes we will assume that Plato does not mean Atlantis was founded later than Athens even though it appears that Atlantis was founded one generation after Athens. At the same time, there is no evidence in Plato that places the founding of Atlantis any earlier than Athens either; that is, any earlier than the first autochthons; the first humans according to Solon's tale.

So Plato's original readers would have logically understood the that founding of both Athens and Atlantis corresponded to the founding of the human race. They would have understood that the founding of both civilizations occurred around 8000 years before Solon.

Thus, Plato's original readers would have understood him to mean that Athens and Atlantis were both founded about at the time when the gods divided up the earth, and created mankind; somewhere around 11,570 years ago according to Plato.