Includes index

"Why have the various attempts to 'find' Atlantis been unsuccessful? For the good reason that Plato made the island up Plato's Atlantis - the imperialist island state that disappeared in a cataclysm, leaving Athens to survive it - is just a myth." "Rather than focus on man's futile attempts to discover the island, Pierre Vidal-Naquet's brief history of Atlantis examines the diverse uses made of the myth through the ages in different contexts of the myth through the ages in different contexts and periods. Written in a clear and interesting style, the depth of the author's knowledge is apparent in his deft use of primary references and the originality of his ideas is enhanced by carefully chosen illustrative material." "He shows how Plato's myth was reinterpreted in the medieval period and after, through conflation with the search for the lost tribes of Israel; how it became involved with the debate about whether Europe should look back to its origins in the Classical or Biblical worlds; how the myth was reinterpreted with a more geographical emphasis following Columbus discovery of America; and how it was used in the Enlightenment to add colour to nationalist attempts to claim antiquity by finding unrecognised origins."--Jacket