Poseidon Cult in Atlantis: The Lost Empire - Film Analysis

Introduction

Atlantis: The Lost Empire has been a movie I loved watching ever since I was little due to Milo, the dorky young scientist, who sets out on an adventure to discover the lost city of Atlantis with a questionable crew looking to capitalize on the mysterious power. The hues of blue throughout the movie and the magic of it all had always captured my attention, making me wonder if the lost island was really like how it was depicted… because Atlantis was after all was real, wasn’t it? Unfortunately, after extensive research the answer to this question is unknown, Atlantis has never been found. However, a real-life Atlantis was found and it is a lost Greek city named Helike.

Helike and the idea of Atlantis both share some similarities, such as the fact that the two were rediscovered over time. As well as the similarity in the way that both cities were destroyed, by both an earthquake and tsunami. Many people have argued about the belief of the lost city of Atlantis, always being a large topic for discussion and the inspiration for many stories— much like the movie Atlantis: The Lost Empire for example. Yet if Atlantis was never discovered, where did all the information surrounding the idea of Atlantis come from? Was it simply made up? Details spun together to create a fable? The answer to this question is a little more conclusive, the lost city of Atlantis was in fact very similar to a lost Greek city, Helike. That being said, my analysis will delve more in-depth with the idea that Plato’s Atlantis could've been inspired by Helike’s own real tragedy.

Synopsis of Film

Atlantis: The Lost Empire is set in 1914 and tells a story about a linguist and cartographer named Milo whose life work is finding Atlantis. A millionaire named Whitmore who knew Milo’s grandfather Whitmore has found the Shepherd’s Journal that contains the manuscript on how to find Atlantis. They soon set out on an expedition to Atlantis with a team of specialists for whatever they may need. They set out on a huge submarine, but are soon attacked by the huge underwater robotic creature that guards the entrance to Atlantis. The monster destroys their submarine but the crew is able to escape. They make their way to the cavern which is described as the entrance of Atlantis.

On their way to Atlantis Milo and the group meet Kida who is the Princess of Atlantis. Soon after, Kida finds out the Milo is able to understand the Atlantean language. She enlists in his help and they journey under Atlantis and find underwater murals. Milo is able to decipher the writing and finds out what happened to Atlantis. They were also able to uncover the heart and source of Atlantis which supplies the Atlanteans with power through the crystals that they wear. However, they are surprised to see that the heart is not mentioned in the journal.

Kida and Milo come back to the surface to find out that the military leader, Rourke had the missing page. Rourke and the crew have double-crossed Milo. They plan to take the heart of Atlantis back to sell it. Rourke critically wounds the King of Atlantis and steals the crystal. Soon after, the crystal detects a problem and merges with Kida in self-defense. Rourke and his crew lock Kida in a container and get ready to leave the city. However, they soon realize that if they take the crystal out of the city that Atlantis will crumble.

The King tells Milo that the crystal has built up a consciousness and has combined with Kida as a host. Before the King passes away he gives his crystal to Milo and asks him to save Atlantis and Kida. Milo and his group set out to find Rourke and Kida. They soon find them near lava and they take back Kida and the Crystal, saving Atlantis. After they get back to Atlantis, Milo decides he wants to stay in Atlantis and help Kida rebuild the city. Milos group also promises to keep quiet about the discovery of Atlantis.

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The idea of finding a “lost” city with an advanced technology and society has become such a hot topic for generations. With the rise of pop culture and media, the story of Atlantis still remains a popular topic till this day. The people who search for Atlantis, often spend their entire life doing so only to find out that Atlantis may never have existed. History Network describes Plato’s Atlantis as an island bigger than Libya and Asia Minor set up, situated in the Atlantic just past the Pillars of Hercules. The culture of the Atlanteans was advanced. The island was said to be protected by the god Poseidon and he made his son Atlas king. As they grew more powerful the people of Atlanti's ethics declined. They became more violent and were hungry for more power. It is said that they were punished, the island was hit by earthquakes and tsunamis eventually ending in Atlantis sinking into the sea forever.

The story of Atlantis is one of the most famous to come out of Ancient Greece. However, as time went on a similar ancient city came to light that almost mirrored Atlantis. This was the lost city of Helike which was destroyed in 373 BC by an earthquake and tsunami which had also happened to Atlantis. Plato told the story of Atlantis at around 360 BC. Unlike Atlantis, Helike was located in Achaea, northern Peloponnesos and two kilometers from the Corinthian Gulf. However, according to Tom Gidwitz, Helike was most likely in the center of a Poseidon cult. This is due to the fact that the area in which they found Helike was one of the most active earthquake zones in Europe. Although the two cities weren’t located in the same place there’s still a chance that Plato was talking about Helike when he came up with the story of Atlantis.

In 1988 Dr. Steven Soter and Dr. Dora Katsonpoulou were the archaeologists that searched for Helike. They wrote a research article In Geoarchaeology about their excavation of Helike. Dora grew up learning about Helike and was determined to find it. Dora had a theory that the city was not underwater but buried in an inland lagoon. If that was true that the city that inspired Atlantis might not even be underwater but rather buried. As they studied the geology of the land, earthquake expert, Iain Steward said that a large earthquake could’ve caused an inland lagoon just like what Dora had said. An inland lagoon is when the ground beneath your feed starts to turn into water. Taking that into account, if you take that happening on a larger scale to an entire city it would’ve been sucked down to below sea level. As soon as you add the earthquake to the mix, the large-scale landslides would’ve caused a tsunami as well. Which would then cover the Gulf of Corinth and come racing back to fill in the lagoon.

For the most part, Dora’s theory made sense, but they were unable to find a lagoon in that region today. However, there were some clues as to what might’ve happened. Many years went by the lagoon would’ve silted up and the city would then be beneath solid ground. Dr. Soter used remote-sensing technology to survey the buried terrain to see where the city might be. The surveys helped locate ancient ceramics and evidence of human occupation. Digging around the villages they dug 10 feet deep to find even more remains of the ancient city. In their research, Dr. Soter and Dr. Katsonpoulou concluded that the pavement and walls in their excavation were from the time of Helike’s collapse. The scientists suspected a large earthquake might’ve set off a submarine landslide which would’ve produced the tsunami. With a tsunami that might’ve been over 35 feet tall, it could’ve swept away a majority of the remains. Ancient writers would argue that it was caused by the wrath of Poseidon who also punished Atlantis for their violent nature.

Who are we to judge that these archaeological sites or remains are not of supernatural meaning? Jeb Card, he talks about how we shouldn’t be surprised that archaeologists may participate in occult practices and have occult beliefs. If we think like this and apply some out-of-the-norm thinking, we might be able to see Atlantis as not a myth, but as a real story that wasn’t made up. Maybe there are forces out there that don’t want us to find the lost city. And if it’s anything like the movie Atlantis: The Lost Empire then it might just be good to leave the story as a story. According to the stories of Helike, Poseidon was enraged that the people of Helike refused to give their statue of Poseidon to the Ionian people. Both Helike and Atlantis were centered around Poseidon and their worship of him. So who are we to say that Poseidon didn’t cause the tragedy, because there might be supernatural forces that we aren’t ever going to be able to understand.

Conclusion

Although, I was unable to find concrete evidence that Atlantis and Helike might’ve been the same city that Plato was referring to. I was able to find quite a lot of similarities between the two lost cities. The first being that Atlantis and Helike were both islands that were related to Poseidon. Furthermore, they both experienced horrible tragedies like earthquakes and tsunamis that destroyed their cities. They were also both written to have faced Poseidon's wrath and that’s the cause of their destruction. However, Helike was positioned in one of the most active earthquake sites in Europe that it could also just be a coincidence and unrelated to Poseidon. Unlike Atlantis, Helike was never truly lost and people from many countries came to look for it for years to come. Although Helike was re-discovered, there are still excavations being carried out, and who’s to say we won’t find even more connections to Atlantis as the years go on. Perhaps not within our lifetimes, but as we continue our research and new technological developments become available, who knows what we could discover about these amazing societies of ages past.

References Cited Page

1. Alvarez-Zarikian, Carlos A., Steven Soter, and Dora Katsonopoulou 2008
2. Recurrent Submergence and Uplift in the Area of Ancient Helike, Gulf of Corinth, Greece: Microfaunal and Archaeological Evidence. Journal of Coastal Research 1: 110–125 Card, Jeb J 2018
3. Spooky Archaeology. University of Mexico Press. Dowty 2014
4. Uncovering The Lost City of Helike. Ancient Origins. Ancient Origins. https://www.ancient-origins.net/ancient-places-europe/uncovering-lost-city-helike-002510, accessed February 9, 2020. Drye, Willie 2017
5. Explaining the Legend of Atlantis. Legend | National Geographic. https://www.nationalgeographic.com/history/archaeology/atlantis/, accessed February 9, 2020, Gidwitz, Tom. 2004
6. “City of Poseidon.” Archaeology, vol. 57, no. 1, pp. 40–47. Katsonopoulou, Dora. 2002
7. “Helike and Her Territory in Historical Times.” Pallas, no. 58, 2002, pp. 175–182. Soter, Steven, and Dora Katsonopoulou 2011
8. Submergence and uplift of settlements in the area of Helike, Greece, from the Early Bronze Age to late antiquity. Wiley Online Library. John Wiley & Sons, Ltd, June 14. Wilford, John Noble 2000
9. Ruins May Be Ancient City Swallowed by Sea. The New York Times. The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2000/10/17/science/ruins-may-be-ancient-city-swallowed-by-sea.html, accessed February 11, 2020.
10. 2002 Helike - The Real Atlantis. BBC. BBC, January 10.
11. 2020 Atlantis: The Lost Empire. Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, February 19.