An author-led research project · 46 writings in one connected argument

Atlantis, the Amazons,
and the Birth of Athene

This research project proposes that Atlantis may be understood through western Anatolia, through Bronze Age catastrophe, through mythic memory, and through later sacred geography. It reads Plato’s narrative in its second-millennium context, alongside Egyptian records and Hittite tablets.

The research framework presented here is an argument, not settled historical consensus. Every original writing is preserved unabridged, with its own sources linked for you to judge.

“Solon actually visited the land of Atlas on his way back from Egypt!”
Read the case

New here? Follow Begin with these readings — a short guided route through the whole argument.

Hittite stone relief panels from Sakçagözü showing paired figures beneath a broad winged solar disk
Widely interpreted as a winged sun disc is this in fact a Hittite depiction of a comet and resultant airburst or impacting bolide?
Hittite orthostats from Sakçagözü, southern Turkey. Photo: Ingeborg Simon, CC BY-SA 3.0

About the author

Nicholas Costa

Nicholas Costa is the author of Atlantis, the Amazons, and the Birth of Athene, an in-depth study of Plato’s Atlantis and second-millennium BC records, and Adam to Apophis: Asteroids, Millenarianism and Climate Change.

His published books explore ancient and medieval history, cultural history, and the history of technology.

Published books at D’Aleman

The Case · editorial orientation

Four propositions introduce four arguments

A concise orientation to the author’s four-argument framework. The four propositions below lead into the four argument paths.

A schematic, not a map

Proposed world of the argument

This panel arranges a few named points the way the project connects them. It is deliberately schematic — proportions and placements are editorial, not geographically exact.

Schematic diagram of the project’s proposed relations: Ephesus (also called Apasa) and western Anatolia (Arzawa) in the east; Olympia and Corcyra to the west; St. Paul’s missionary journeys, the Sibylline Oracles, and the Book of Revelation as later witnesses preserving the memory. Marks for 1327 BC and 1284 BC indicate proposed horizons.

Reading sequence

Four arguments, one connected case

The writings are gathered into four major arguments. Each opens with a starting writing and continues in the order the author builds it — you can read straight through or dive where you like.

Storm-god stela carved on a basalt orthostat from Arslantepe, dated 1200–700 BC, showing a bearded deity with horned headdress holding weapons
Storm-god stela from Arslantepe, an orthostat relief preserving a Late Bronze Age visual record. Source: original writing ↗

Argument I · 1327 BC

I. The Location: Atlantis in Anatolia

Plato’s account read against Egyptian and Hittite evidence. From a dated destruction horizon to Ephesus, Libya, Ethiopia and the Amazons — the author’s proposed locating of Atlantis in western Anatolia.

Hellenistic marble relief of Zeus, bare-chested and attacking the giant Porphyrion, from the Pergamon Altar Gigantomachy frieze
Zeus attacks Porphyrion in the Gigantomachy frieze from the Great Altar of Pergamon, second century BC. Source: original writing ↗

Argument II · 1284 BC

II. The Catastrophes: 1327 BC and 1284 BC

Two proposed catastrophe horizons read through Tantalus, Pelops, and the sanctuary at Olympia. Follow the second impact horizon, its remembered victims, and the myths of Leda and Helen that preserved the sky.

Carchemish basalt relief showing several armed, helmeted figures in procession, a Neo-Hittite-style carving
Carchemish warriors, a Neo-Hittite basalt relief showing several armed figures in procession. Source: original writing ↗

Argument III · c. 50 AD / mythic memory

III. Witnesses, Cult and Sacred Geography

Tracing Paul’s route as a palimpsest of older sacred geography: Aphrodite, Athene and Plato at Iconium, and the apocalyptic memory of Atlantis in Revelation — the project’s proposed witnesses in cult and text.

Mosaic of the giant Orion being transformed into a constellation, with wings and hair set alight.
Metamorphosis in progress: a mosaic of the giant Orion being turned into a constellation. Source: original writing ↗

Argument IV · 1404 — 1198 BC

IV. The Sky Remembered in Myth

Cometary returns as historical clock. From Akhenaten and the Aten to Sisyphus, Tityus, Phrixus, Ixion and the Argonauts — the author’s reading of myth as remembered witness to the sky.

The complete case

Each argument, in reading order

Argument I · 1327 BC

I. The Location: Atlantis in Anatolia

  1. Atlantis was destroyed c1327 BC
  2. Journey to Atlantis - Ephesus, the Birth of Artemis, Part Two
  3. Plato’s ‘Libya’ was in Asia Minor
  4. Ethiopia - an ancient joke
  5. Finding the true identity of the Amazons (part one)
  6. Finding the true identity of the Amazons (part two)
  7. Atlantis and the Sibylline Oracles (part two - Eridanus)
  8. Asia Minor: Atlantis, Asteroids, and the Birth of Athene
  9. Ephesus, the Birth of Artemis, and the Book of Revelations. Part One
  10. Part Two: Mythical Allusions to the Airburst over Ephesus c1327 BC
  11. Cercopes and Heracles - Victims of the Airburst above Ephesus c1327 BC
  12. Atlantis in the Sibylline Oracles (part one)
  13. Atlantis in the Sybilline Oracles-(part three - Corcyra)
  14. The True Location of the Pillars of Heracles. Part One
  15. Where was Cerne?
  16. Where was Gadeira? The original locations of Gadeira, Erythia, and Cotinousa
  17. Plato, Isocrates, and the true location of Atlantis
  18. Myrina’s Journey to Atlantis
  19. Who was Sekhmet?
  20. Who was the Egyptian God Seth?

Argument II · 1284 BC

II. The Catastrophes: 1327 BC and 1284 BC

Argument III · c. 50 AD / mythic memory

III. Witnesses, Cult and Sacred Geography

Argument IV · 1404 — 1198 BC

IV. The Sky Remembered in Myth

For first-time readers

Begin with these readings

Eight original writings, in the order a new reader can best follow the case. Each opens the unabridged source text in this project’s reader.

  1. Where the case begins: a proposed, dated destruction horizon

    Atlantis was destroyed c1327 BC
  2. How the project re-reads Plato’s geography against Asia Minor

    Plato, Isocrates, and the true location of Atlantis
  3. The coastal argument at Ephesus, followed on the ground

    Journey to Atlantis - Ephesus, the Birth of Artemis, Part Two
  4. A second city and a second horizon: Tantalis or Atlantis?

    Who was Tantalus? Part One: Tantalis or Atlantis?
  5. The proposed 1284 BC airburst at the sanctuary of Zeus

    Olympia - the Airburst above Olympia c1284 BC
  6. Sacred geography: Atlantis remembered in a late text

    Atlantis in the Book of Revelation

Supporting your reading

Research guide & tools

Use these companions to follow the argument, its proposed dates, and its terminology. Original texts remain unabridged — what you read in each writing is the full source wording.

Further writings

Writings not yet placed inside one of the four arguments remain fully accessible here and in the complete index below.

The complete reference index

All writings Find a writing

This is the complete reference index of the project, not the homepage’s purpose: every original writing, unabridged. Search filters the index and every result links to the full text in the reader.

Argument

46 writings in the index

  1. 1198 BC · Helen of Troy: Celestial Memory, Myth, and the Late Bronze Age Sky

    Read
  2. Leda and the Celestial Catastrophe of c. 1284 BC

    Read
  3. 1266 BC Halley’s Comet and the Golden Lamb

    Read
  4. Halley’s Comet 1266 BC, Argo Navis, and the Argonaut Myth: A Celestial Hypothesis

    Read
  5. Halley’s Comet 1266 BC - Ixion and the Centaurs

    Read
  6. Atlantis in the Sibylline Oracles (part one)

    Read
  7. 1266 BC Halley’s Comet: Ixion, the Golden Lamb, and the Voyage of the Argonauts

    Read
  8. Atlantis in the Sybilline Oracles-(part three - Corcyra)

    Read
  9. Halley’s Comet 1334 BC – the myth of Phrixus

    Read
  10. Part Three: Airburst over Olympia - the Victims.

    Read
  11. Airburst Over Olympia, c1284 BC Part Two

    Read
  12. Olympia - the Airburst above Olympia c1284 BC

    Read
  13. Who was Pelops? c1284 BC

    Read
  14. Who was Tantalus?

    Read
  15. Who was Tantalus? Part One: Tantalis or Atlantis?

    Read
  16. Why Akhenaten began worshiping the Sun. The Precursor to the Destruction of Atlantis. Halley’s Comet and the 1:6 resonance with Jupiter. What happened in Egypt c1352 BC?

    Read
  17. Ephesus, the Birth of Artemis, and the Book of Revelations. Part One

    Read
  18. The True Location of the Pillars of Heracles. Part One

    Read
  19. Tityus unmasked - the reason for Akhenaten’s worship of the Aten?

    Read
  20. Part Two: Mythical Allusions to the Airburst over Ephesus c1327 BC

    Read
  21. Who was Sisyphus? A Metaphor for Halley’s Comet 1404 BC?

    Read
  22. Where was Gadeira? The original locations of Gadeira, Erythia, and Cotinousa

    Read
  23. Where was Cerne?

    Read
  24. Plato, Isocrates, and the true location of Atlantis

    Read
  25. Perseus and Pegasus: Mythical Metaphors: Airbursts c1383 -c1285 BC

    Read
  26. Cercopes and Heracles - Victims of the Airburst above Ephesus c1327 BC

    Read
  27. Pliny, Atlantis, and Tantalus

    Read
  28. Journey to Atlantis - Ephesus, the Birth of Artemis, Part Two

    Read
  29. Journey to Atlantis - Iconium, the Birth of Athene, Plato and the Whirling Dervishes. Part Two

    Read
  30. 1795 BC · Journey to Atlantis - Iconium, the Birth of Athene, and Plato. Part One

    Read
  31. Journey to Atlantis, Part Two: The Birth of Aphrodite - a new analysis of a historical event

    Read
  32. 2345 BC · St Paul’s Journey to Atlantis - Part One: In search of Aphrodite

    Read
  33. Atlantis in the Book of Revelation

    Read
  34. Finding the true identity of the Amazons (part two)

    Read
  35. Finding the true identity of the Amazons (part one)

    Read
  36. Atlantis and the Sibylline Oracles (part two - Eridanus)

    Read
  37. Atlantis was destroyed c1327 BC

    Read
  38. Plato’s ‘Libya’ was in Asia Minor

    Read
  39. Ethiopia - an ancient joke

    Read
  40. Contact

    Read
  41. Myrina’s Journey to Atlantis

    Read
  42. Who was Sekhmet?

    Read
  43. Who was the Egyptian God Seth?

    Read
  44. 2345 BC · Ancient Markers of Traumatic Events: The Era of Menophres, Sothis, Osiris, and Noah.

    Read
  45. Asia Minor: Atlantis, Asteroids, and the Birth of Athene

    Read
  46. Common sense approach

    Read

Status labels and argument groupings organize the index and do not certify or independently verify historical claims. Dates and interpretive connections are the author’s research framework, not independently verified consensus.