Table of Contents
Charles Kos tells viewers that Atlantis is the wrong name for the island. In his account the Greek form is the feminine genitive of Atlas, so the phrase means an island of Atlas, and Plato has Solon report that Egyptian priests were already translating whatever the older people said. The nearest Egyptian figure, for him, is Atum, linked to a primal mound surrounded by water and, more loosely, to Adam. He takes the root to be water. A rise in sea level after the time he puts near ten thousand years ago is offered as the physical match for the drowning. Figures who hold up the sky, including an Egyptian goddess stretched from one horizon to the other, are brought in as cousins of Atlas, and he notes that one support in that image leaves a second support still to find. Entries for sea, ocean, and pillar are then read as the reason Greek listeners could hear Atlas in an Egyptian water word. He presents this chain as his own reading, not as a settled etymology.
Key points
- He says Plato’s Atlantis is a Greek grammatical form of Atlas, not the island’s original name.
- The name, in his telling, passed through Solon and Egyptian priests who translated it.
- He links Atlas to Atum and to a mound ringed by water.
- Rising seas are his match for the era he gives the story.
- Sky bearers and dictionary words for water and pillars complete the comparison.
Short quotes
words Plato is saying that Solon was saying that the atlantans were saying that they named their island of Atlas or
Charles Kos, Atlas in Egyptian sources
He traces the island’s name through Plato, Solon, and the people of the island. Watch at 2:49
them but it's possibly atum and atum had a primordial Mound surrounded by water he's possibly in the Bible as Adam
Charles Kos, Atlas in Egyptian sources
Atum, a creator on a watery mound, is his closest Egyptian cousin for Atlas. Watch at 5:40
Egyptians because why do they call the ocean the Sea of Atlas possibly independently of Plato's story
Charles Kos, Atlas in Egyptian sources
He asks whether the ocean’s name shows a shared myth, not only Plato’s dialogue. Watch at 10:26
days in the greatest of all the calamities that have befallen the world are recorded in our sacred books and the
Charles Kos, Atlas in Egyptian sources
He reads the priests as claiming that the greatest disasters were written down. Watch at 13:01
she's holding up the sky from one end to another yet there's only one pillar so
Charles Kos, Atlas in Egyptian sources
A sky goddess with a single support leaves him looking for a second one. Watch at 17:49
Video by Charles Kos. Watch on YouTube.