Strabo: The Geographer Who Took Atlantis Seriously

Strabo, the Greek geographer of the first century BC, is the classical voice I lean on when a question about Atlantis turns into a question of coasts, rivers and old cities. These are the pages where his Geography comes into my research.

Strabo and Plato’s island

On Ancient sources on Atlantis I note that Strabo wrote in full agreement with Plato that the story of Atlantis was true and not a fiction, and Strabo is one of my favourite witnesses there, with Plutarch and Aelianus. That page also covers how Delambre in 1816 probably misread Casaubon’s 1587 commentary on Strabo, which led to the wide acceptance of Aristotle’s supposed scepticism. The line I keep from his geographical writings in my table on Ancient Greek Sources is one where Strabo praises another writer for citing Plato:

Where Was Atlantis lists Strabo with Proclus, Diodorus, Plutarch, Posidonius and Pliny among those who referred to Atlantis, and Popular History of America 1881 says that Strabo and Pliny both mention a similar mysterious island.

Strabo in Donnelly’s Atlantis

Ignatius Donnelly uses Strabo several times. On The Iberian Colonies of Atlantis he cites him on the Turduli and Turdetani as the most cultivated of the Iberians, with written books of ancient memorials and laws in verse claimed to be six thousand years old. On The Origin of Our Alphabet he cites Strabo, through Jackson, for records in Spain written before the Deluge. On The Gods of the Phœnician also Kings of Atlantis he mentions that the old city of Erythia near Gades was already in ruin in Strabo’s time, and that Strabo estimated the Phoenicians had three hundred cities on the west coast of Africa. In The Phoenicians, Strabo is said to have echoed Herodotus’ view that the Phoenicians came from the region of the Arabian Sea.

Strabo the geographer

On 7 Rivers of the Nile I use Strabo’s Geography, Book XVII, for the seven streams of the Nile Delta. The island of Erytheia was guarded by Orthrus, a two-headed dog, and the cattle were herded by the giant Eurytion notes that he identified Erytheia with the region of Gadeira, modern Cádiz. On Babylon’s connection with Atlantis I note that he describes Babylon as largely in ruins in his time, and on Why Is the Dead Sea Called the Sea of Death? he describes pitch from the rocks, asphalt and sulphur, and a local tradition that Sodom was destroyed by earthquake and flames.

Related pages

• Ancient sources on Atlantis
• Ancient Greek Sources
• Where Was Atlantis
• The Iberian Colonies of Atlantis
• The Gods of the Phœnician also Kings of Atlantis
• 7 Rivers of the Nile
• Babylon’s connection with Atlantis
• Why Is the Dead Sea Called the Sea of Death?
• The Phoenicians

For every page I tagged with Strabo, see the Strabo tag archive.