In the Shadow of Atlas: Why the Atlantic Ocean and Atlantis Share a Name

TL;DR

• The Atlantic Ocean and the mythical island Atlantis both derive their names from the Greek Titan Atlas, reflecting a shared etymology ^{1 2}.
• Atlas in Greek mythology was condemned to hold up the sky; his name (“the Bearer”) became attached to the Atlas Mountains in North Africa and, by extension, to the ocean west of them ³.
• Ancient Greeks referred to the Atlantic as the “Sea of Atlas” (Atlantikôi pelágei) as early as the 6th century BC ⁴. Later, Plato’s dialogues Timaeus and Critias named the island Atlantis (“island of Atlas”) and the surrounding ocean after Atlas’s first king ^{2 5}.
• While Plato intended Atlantis as an allegory of hubris and collapse, the tale inspired centuries of speculation. Renaissance scholars like Athanasius Kircher even mapped Atlantis in the Atlantic, and Enlightenment writers to modern occultists wove it into esoteric lore ^{6 7}.
• Western mysticism often views Atlantis as a lost cradle of civilization or ancient wisdom. The story’s enduring allure – a great power sunk beneath the waves – serves as both a cautionary tale and a symbol of forgotten knowledge in literature, philosophy, and occult traditions ^{6 8}.

Atlas and the Sea of Atlas#

Atlas, the Titan who held the heavens, lends his name to both ocean and island. The ancient Greeks personified the Atlantic Ocean as the realm of Atlas – hence its name. In Greek, Atlantic (Greek Atlantikós) means “of Atlas” ³. The term originally referred to the sea off the coast of Mauretania (Northwest Africa), near the Atlas Mountains named after the Titan Atlas ³. In myth, Atlas was punished to eternally bear the sky on his shoulders, and his name is traditionally interpreted as “the Bearer [of the heavens]” ⁹. Fittingly, Greek poets around the 6th century BC already spoke of the western ocean as Atlantikôi pelágei, the “Sea of Atlas” ⁴ – a vast, mysterious expanse beyond the pillars of Hercules (the Strait of Gibraltar).

By the time of Herodotus and other classical writers, the designation “Atlantic” had come to mean the ocean beyond the Mediterranean. Plato, writing in 360 BC, drew on this nomenclature in crafting his allegory of Atlantis. In the Critias dialogue, he describes how the sea and the great island within it were named after Atlas, the first king of Atlantis: “the eldest, who was the first king, he named Atlas, and after him the whole island and the ocean were called Atlantic” ². In Plato’s myth, Atlas is not the Titan but a son of the sea-god Poseidon, yet the echo of the Titan’s name is unmistakable. Thus the Atlantic Ocean and Atlantis the island share a linguistic root – a tribute to Atlas – literally connecting the world of geography with the world of myth ⁵.

Etymology of Atlantic and Atlantis#

The kinship of these names is evident in their etymology. The adjective Atlanticus in Latin (from Greek Atlantikós) means “pertaining to Atlas” ³. It entered English by the 14th–15th centuries to describe the ocean west of Europe and Africa. Meanwhile, Atlantis comes from Greek Atlantís nēsos, “island of Atlas” ¹⁰. Notably, the -is ending in Greek can denote a patronymic or belonging, effectively meaning “of Atlas” – hence one translation of Atlantis is “daughter of Atlas” ¹ (as the island was figuratively begotten by Atlas). Both words invoke Atlas’s name in a possessive sense.

Ancient sources beyond Plato also linked Atlas to this ocean. The Greek historian Herodotus in the 5th century BC mentions Atlantes as a people near the Atlas range and refers to the “sea of Atlantis.” Later, the geographer Strabo used “Atlantic” for the outer ocean. By the Age of Exploration, “Atlantic Ocean” became standard on maps, permanently enshrining the Titan’s name on our world map. The Atlas figure himself became iconic – Renaissance cartographers put his image on title pages of map collections (hence the term “atlas” for map collections). In essence, Atlas shoulders not only the sky but our very conception of the world’s waters and lost lands.

Atlantis: Legend, Allegory, and Esoteric Revival#

The story of Atlantis comes to us from Plato, who used it as a philosophical allegory of a mighty empire undone by its arrogance ^{10 11}. In Timaeus and Critias, Atlantis is described as a powerful island nation “beyond the Pillars of Heracles” (Gibraltar) in the true ocean (the Atlantic), larger than Libya (North Africa) and Asia Minor combined ^{12 13}. The Atlanteans of Plato’s tale grew rich and technologically advanced but also morally corrupt. When they attempted to conquer Athens and the Eastern Mediterranean, the gods punished their hubris – Atlantis was swallowed by the sea in a single day of cataclysms ^{14 15}. Plato notes that ever since, the Atlantic in that area was unnavigable, clogged by shoals of mud from the sunken island ¹⁶. Whether Plato believed any of this history is doubtful; ancient opinion was divided. Some early commentators like Crantor accepted Atlantis as fact, but skeptics abounded – Aristotle reportedly quipped that Plato “conjured [Atlantis] out of thin air, only to destroy it”^{17 18}.

The enduring myth: A 17th-century map of Atlantis in the Atlantic. After antiquity, Atlantis lay largely dormant in the European imagination until the Renaissance. The age of discovery, which revealed new worlds across the ocean, rekindled interest in Plato’s fable. Thinkers speculated that Atlantis might have been a real place, perhaps an ancient advanced civilization that predated Egypt and Greece. In 1665 the Jesuit scholar Athanasius Kircher published a famous map of Atlantis in the Atlantic (oriented with south at the top), labeling it insula Atlantis and captioning it as “the location of Atlantis, an island long ago submerged into the ocean, according to Egyptian tradition and Plato’s description” ¹⁹. Kircher placed Atlantis between Europe/Africa and the Americas, roughly where the mid-Atlantic ridge is – a clue to later generations who would search the ocean floor for remnants. Similarly, English statesman Francis Bacon’s utopian novel New Atlantis (1627) imagined a wise society on a remote island – reflecting how the Atlantean ideal of a lost enlightened civilization had become a cultural meme in early modern Europe.

It was in the 19th century that Atlantis truly resurged into popular consciousness. Minnesota politician Ignatius L. Donnelly ignited this revival with his 1882 book Atlantis: The Antediluvian World, which boldly argued that Plato’s Atlantis was real and was the mother-civilization that spread technology and culture across ancient Egypt, Mesopotamia, the Americas, etc. ²⁰. Donnelly’s work, though rife with speculative leaps, captured the Victorian era’s imagination and influenced a raft of occult and pseudo-scientific writings. Shortly after, Helena P. Blavatsky, founder of the Theosophical Society, wove Atlantis into her esoteric cosmology. In The Secret Doctrine (1888) Blavatsky claimed the Atlanteans were a spiritually gifted “root race” who flourished a million years ago but were destroyed by misuse of psychic powers ²¹. Such notions, though utterly unorthodox, spread widely in occult circles. The Theosophists and their successors treated Atlantis as a lost cradle of mystical wisdom – an ancient Golden Age or even the source of later civilizations (a stark contrast to Plato’s cautionary tale of decadence) ^{22 23}.

Twentieth-century mystics and fringe theorists continued to look westward for Atlantis. Edgar Cayce, the “Sleeping Prophet” of the 1930s, famously claimed in trance readings that Atlantis would rise again and that ruins lay near Bimini in the Bahamas. Others linked Atlantis to everything from the legend of an advanced prehistoric global culture to theories about extraterrestrial influence. While mainstream science finds no evidence of a sunken continent in the Atlantic, the legend refuses to die. It lives on in novels, films, and New Age philosophy as a byword for any lost enlightened land.

Mystical Symbolism and Lasting Allure#

Beyond literal searches, Atlantis endures as a symbol – especially in Western mysticism and literature. To esoteric thinkers, the tale echoes older flood myths and the idea of cyclical ages of humanity. Plato’s Egyptian priest in Timaeus spoke of multiple destructions of mankind and ancient high cultures lost to time ^{24 25}. In this light, Atlantis becomes a poetic metaphor for a forgotten epoch of human history, perhaps reflecting real memories of post-Ice Age sea level rise or simply our collective nostalgia for a paradise lost. Occult traditions often cast Atlantis as an idealized Atlantean Age, representing human possibilities (and pitfalls) on a grand scale.

Crucially, Atlantis also serves as a moral lesson across the ages: pride comes before a fall. The name of Atlantis has been evoked during times of turmoil – for instance, some early 20th-century writers drew parallels between Atlantis and the drowned land of Lemuria, or warned that modern civilizations might face their own Atlantean fate through nuclear war or environmental collapse. Even today, with climate change threatening to submerge islands and coasts, Plato’s once “fictional” catastrophe feels eerily relevant ²⁶. In occult and New Age thought, Atlantis’s downfall is sometimes interpreted as karma or a transition to a new spiritual cycle, reinforcing the theme of destruction and rebirth.

From Plato’s academy to medieval Arab geographers, from Renaissance humanists to contemporary dreamers, the Atlantic Ocean’s name has never just been a geographic term. It is a quiet reminder of the Atlas mythos – a Titan bearing heaven’s weight – and of Atlantis, the spectacular idea of a world that rose and fell before our own. The Atlantic, rolling its immense tides, hides no known lost empires beneath its waves, yet its very name keeps alive the enigmatic legacy of Atlantis. In that sense, every map of the Atlantic is also a map of an idea: that somewhere, beyond the horizon of history, an age-old mystery still lies sleeping beneath the sea.

FAQ#

Q1. Why do the Atlantic Ocean and Atlantis have such similar names?
A. Because both names come from the same source in Greek myth – the Titan Atlas. The ancient Greeks named the western ocean Atlantic (“of Atlas”) ³, and Plato in turn named the fabled island Atlantis (“island of Atlas”) after its first king Atlas ².

Q2. Who was Atlas in mythology, and what is his connection to Atlantis?
A. Atlas was a Titan condemned to hold up the sky in Greek mythology, symbolizing endurance. He gave his name to the Atlas Mountains in Africa and thus to the adjacent Atlantic Ocean ³. In Plato’s story, a king named Atlas (a son of Poseidon) ruled the island of Atlantis, which was named in his honor ².

Q3. Did Plato intend Atlantis to be a real place or a legend?
A. Plato presented Atlantis as a moral allegory rather than a concrete history ^{10 11}. The tale illustrates the downfall of a proud empire, likely to convey philosophical ideas (e.g. the triumph of an idealized Athens). Ancient readers already debated its reality, with Aristotle joking that Plato invented Atlantis only to destroy it ¹⁸.

Q4. How did Atlantis evolve into an occult and New Age legend?
A. After remaining dormant for centuries, the Atlantis myth was revived in the 1800s by works like Ignatius Donnelly’s Atlantis: The Antediluvian World (1882) ⁸. This inspired Theosophical writers such as Madame Blavatsky to portray Atlantis as a lost cradle of mystical civilization ²¹. Twentieth-century New Age thinkers continued this trend, treating Atlantis as a source of ancient wisdom and psychic power – far beyond Plato’s original narrative.

Q5. Is there any evidence that Atlantis really existed?
A. No scientific evidence has ever confirmed the existence of Atlantis as a historical civilization. Scholars regard Atlantis as a legend invented (or at least embellished) by Plato ^{10 11}. Various locations (from Santorini to the Atlantic seafloor) have been proposed for Atlantis by enthusiasts, but none have yielded proof. The enduring fascination with Atlantis speaks more to its symbolic power than to factual history.

FAQ#

Q 1. Why do the Atlantic Ocean and Atlantis have such similar names?
A. Both derive from the Greek Titan Atlas, with the Atlantic being called the “Sea of Atlas” (Atlantikôi pelágei) by ancient Greeks, and Plato naming his fictional island “Atlantis” (island of Atlas) in his dialogues.

Q 2. Did Plato intend Atlantis to be a real place?
A. Most scholars believe Plato intended Atlantis as a philosophical allegory about hubris and the ideal state, not as a historical account, though the story’s vivid details have inspired centuries of speculation about its possible reality.

Q 3. How did Renaissance scholars interpret the Atlantis legend?
A. Renaissance thinkers like Athanasius Kircher mapped Atlantis in the Atlantic Ocean, while Francis Bacon used it as inspiration for his “New Atlantis” utopia, linking the legend to the newly discovered Americas.

Q 4. What role does Atlantis play in modern occult and mystical traditions?
A. Western mystics often view Atlantis as a lost cradle of ancient wisdom or advanced civilization, with theosophists like Helena Blavatsky incorporating it into theories about root races and spiritual evolution.

Q 5. Is there any archaeological evidence for Atlantis?
A. No credible archaeological evidence has ever been found for Plato’s Atlantis as described, though some theories attempt to link it to real ancient sites like Santorini or other Mediterranean locations.

Footnotes#

Sources#

1. Plato. Timaeus and Critias (360 BCE). In Benjamin Jowett, trans., Dialogues of Plato. Oxford University Press, 1892. http://classics.mit.edu/Plato/critias.html (accessed July 2025).
2. Harper, Douglas (ed.). “Atlantic (adj.)” and “Atlantis.” Online Etymology Dictionary. Accessed July 13, 2025. https://www.etymonline.com/word/Atlantic, https://www.etymonline.com/word/Atlantis
3. History.com Editors. “Atlantis.” History.com – Mysteries & Folklore, updated May 28, 2025. https://history.com/articles/atlantis
4. Smoley, Richard. “Atlantis Then and Now.” Quest 107.4 (Fall 2019): 22–26. Theosophical Society in America. https://www.theosophical.org/publications/quest-magazine/atlantis-then-and-now
5. Donnelly, Ignatius. Atlantis: The Antediluvian World. New York: Harper & Brothers, 1882. https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/4032
6. Montemurro, Megan. “Where Did Our Ocean Names Come From?” Ocean Conservancy (blog), January 13, 2022. https://oceanconservancy.org/blog/2022/01/13/ocean-names/
7. Blavatsky, H. P. The Secret Doctrine, Vol. II. London: Theosophical Publishing, 1888. (Occult history of Atlantis as a lost fourth root race.)
8. Kircher, Athanasius. Mundus Subterraneus. Amsterdam: Janssonius, 1665. (Includes a speculative map of Atlantis in the Atlantic Ocean based on Plato’s account.)