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　　文章：Adapted from: the publications of ParaScope, Inc.

　　题目：made by Harvey

　　A continent the size of Europe, boasting beautiful cities, advanced technology and utopian government... subjected to a great cataclysm and reduced to rubble that sank beneath the sea, lost forever. The legend of Atlantis has been around for thousands of years, and whatever its factual validity may be, it can truthfully claim a noble heritage: its earliest proponent was Plato.

　　The Greek philosopher wrote of Atlantis in two of his dialogues, Timaeus and Critias, around 370 B.C. Plato explained that this story, which he claimed to be true, came from then-200-year-old records of the Greek ruler Solon, who heard of Atlantis from an Egyptian priest. Plato said that the continent lay in the Atlantic Ocean near the Straits of Gibraltar until its destruction 10,000 years previous.

　　In Timaeus, Plato described Atlantis as a prosperous nation out to expand its domain: Now in this island of Atlantis there was a great and wonderful empire which had rule over the whole island and several others, and over parts of the continent, he wrote, and, furthermore, the men of Atlantis had subjected the parts of Libya within the columns of Heracles as far as Egypt, and of Europe as far as Tyrrhenia.

　　Plato goes on to tell how the Atlanteans made a grave mistake by seeking to conquer Greece. They could not withstand the Greeks military might, and following their defeat, a natural disaster sealed their fate. Timaeus continues: But afterwards there occurred violent earthquakes and floods; and in a single day and night of misfortune all your warlike men in a body sank into the earth, and the island of Atlantis in like manner disappeared in the depths of the sea.

　　Interestingly, Plato tells a more metaphysical version of the Atlantis story in Critias. There he describes the lost continent as the kingdom of Poseidon, the god of the sea. This Atlantis was a noble, sophisticated society that reigned in peace for centuries, until its people became complacent and greedy. Angered by their fall from grace, Zeus chose to punish them by destroying Atlantis.

　　Although Plato was the first to use the term Atlantis, there are antecedents to the legend. There is an Egyptian legend which Solon probably heard while traveling in Egypt, and was passed down to Plato years later. The island nation of Keftiu, home of one of the four pillars that held up the sky, was said to be a glorious advanced civilization which was destroyed and sank beneath the ocean.