Atlantis in art, literature and popular culture

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Having become a "permanent member" of popular culture, Atlantis is frequently featured in many books, television shows, movies and other creative works. Below is a partial listing of works where Atlantis is featured as a major part of the storyline.

Professor Aronnax and Captain Nemo visit the remains of Atlantis in 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea
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Professor Aronnax and Captain Nemo visit the remains of Atlantis in 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea

Contents

[edit] Literature

  • The novel The Amulet of Samarkand mentions Atlantis as a former Greek colony on the island of Santorini in the Mediterranean
  • Edgar Rice Burroughs's Tarzan series features a lost city known as Opar, said to be a colony of Atlantis.
  • The book Romance of Atlantis by Taylor Caldwell.
  • The book Atlantis Found by Clive Cussler, inspired by the non-fiction, When the Sky Fell by Rand & Rose Flem-Ath.
  • Kara Dalkey's Water Trilogy is a blend of Atlantis and Arthurian legends.
  • Arthur Conan Doyle's science fiction novel The Maracot Deep describes the discovery of the sunken remains of Atlantis by a deep-sea diving expedition, who find that it is still inhabited by a high-technology society which has adapted to life underwater.
  • Diane Duane's young adult fantasy novel Deep Wizardry describes how the downfall of Atlantis was triggered by the failure of an ancient wizardry meant to preserve the balance of the earth and sea.
  • David Gemmell's fantasy novels make use of story of Atlantis in the Jon Shannow series (Wolf of Shadow, The Last Guardian and Bloodstone) and the Stones of Power series (Ghost King and Last Sword of Power).
  • The book Atlantis by David Gibbins.
  • In Traci Harding's The Ancient Future Trilogy (Book 2 - An Echo in Time: Atlantis), Tory Alexander travels back in time to visit the lost city paradise of Atlantis, and its superior civilization, where she is taught of the mind sciences and expands her psychic capabilities, and is inspired of a city plan which features in later books.
  • In the short stories of Robert E. Howard, the character Kull was an Atlantean, and eventually became King of Valusia. His more famous character Conan the Cimmerian was descended from Kull's Atlanteans.
  • In Stephen King's Hearts in Atlantis, the fallen civilization of Atlantis is used as a metaphor for the ideals and aspirations of popular culture in the 1960s.
  • In the Pendragon Cycle of Stephen R. Lawhead survivors of Atlantis settle in Britain.
  • In Doris Lessing's Shikasta, it is briefly mentioned in the Canopean reports that due to natural disasters certain advanced cultures have suddenly been exterminated including the culture of "Adalanterland".
  • In C.S. Lewis's The Magician's Nephew, Digory Kirke's uncle Andrew received a box from his dying godmother that contained dust from Atlantis that he used to make the magic rings that sent Digory and his friend Polly Plummer to the worlds of Charn and Narnia.
  • Michael Moorcock's Melniboné is clearly inspired by Atlantis in that it is an ancient once-powerful island kingdom with a strained relationship with the gods and in a period of decline and decay. Both Melniboné and Atlantis are also described as having invincible navies.
  • Edith Nesbit's The Story of the Amulet contains a chapter describing the fall of Atlantis.
  • Stel Pavlou places Atlantis two miles under the ice in Antarctica in the adventure novel Decipher (2001). He also suggests orichalcum was pure C60.
  • Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged has a place named Atlantis where John Galt and his friends reside.
  • J. R. R. Tolkien's The Silmarillion includes the Akallabêth of Atalantë (The Downfallen), the history of his version of Atlantis, known as the Island of Númenor or Westernesse, where the Númenóreans lived. (Aragorn of The Lord of the Rings is descended from this people).
  • Jacint Verdaguer's 1877 classic catalan poem L'Atlàntida.
  • Jules Verne's classic 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea includes a visit to sunken Atlantis aboard Captain Nemo's submarine Nautilus.
  • In Robert Shea and Robert Anton Wilson's The Illuminatus! Trilogy Hagbard Celine and crew travel to sites in submerged Atlantis. A portion of Atlantean history is also included in the book and it is suggested that the island of Fernando Poo (part of Equatorial Guinea) is the last surviving remnant of the continent. Shea and Wilson's story suggests that the Illuminati has its origins in Atlantis.
  • The novella in the December 2005 issue of Analog titled "Adubon in Atlantis" by Harry Turtledove. In this story, which is an alternate history tale, Atlantis is not mythical at all, but is the result of the eastern seaboard breaking off of North America sometime during the formation of the continents.
  • Theosophy by authors such as Blavatsky know of Atlantis as a lost continent which was sunk by the use of black magic in such works as the Secret Doctrine.
  • Alexander Beliaev, famous Russian sci-fi writer, has depicted the last days of Atlantis in his novel "The Last Man From Atlantis" , the highlight of the book being love story of princess Sel and sculptor Adishirna.
  • In "The Towers of February", the Dutch writer Tonke Dragt describes Atlantis as a country in the parallel world IMFEA (Inter Menses Februarium Et Aprilem).
  • In "Pastwatch: The Redemption of Christopher Columbus" by Orson Scott Card Atlantis is given passing mention; it is revealed through a machine that can look into the past that Atlantis was a 'raft city' on the banks of the Red Sea, and was completely submerged when the water from the Mediterranean and Indian Oceans came over the natural dams.
  • In Neal Stephenson's far-future novel "The Diamond Age" Atlantis is an Anglo-Saxon Great Phyle, mainly based on artificial islands but with enclaves elsewhere.
  • A powerful slave-owning city that sinks and rises in an ocean very much like the Mediterranean is one of the main plot points in Duncan Thornton's book, Captain Jenny and the Sea of Wonders.
  • KA Applegate's series of novels Animorphs featured one incident in which the small group pursue their alien enemies, the Yeerks, and inadvertently find a hostile civilization in a city at the bottom of the ocean. The civilisation, known as the Nartec, tell their own tale as to how they came to be under the sea, but although Marco jokingly suggests that the group have discovered Atlantis, the name never appears. After the Animorphs make their escape, the Nartec do not appear or are even mentioned in later novels, leaving their fate undetermined.
  • Fredric Brown's short story Letter to a Phoenix, mentions Atlantis as the most recent civilization of six that an immortal has lived in.
  • In Eoin Colfer's Artemis Fowl series, Atlantis is a Lower Elements city populated by Atlanteans.
  • Pierre Benoit's classic L'Atlantide (1919) was a superb variation on a theme introduced by H. Rider Haggard in She, and told the story of two French Officers who find the last city of Atlantis in the midst of the Sahara, and fall in love with its beautiful queen, Antinea. It was filmed several times.
  • Christia Sylf’s Markosamo le Sage (1973) takes place during the Atlantean age.
  • In book three of Bruce Coville's Alien Adventures series, The Search For Snout, Rod Albright's Father is eventually revealed as an Atlantean starfarer, from 35,000 years ago.
  • Stories in Larry Niven's The Magic Goes Away series often mention Atlantis or feature Atlantean characters. The Burning City (2000), a novel by Niven and Jerry Pournelle set in that same fictional universe, features an Atlantean wizard. Within the novel the wizard briefly tells the story of how waste and misuse of mana, the scarce "magic energy" resource, had caused the sinking of Atlantis.

[edit] Movies

Atlantis: The Lost Empire movie poster. A fictional Atlantean symbol rises above a raging ocean, where Atlantis is thought to be.
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Atlantis: The Lost Empire movie poster. A fictional Atlantean symbol rises above a raging ocean, where Atlantis is thought to be.

[edit] Television

  • Man from Atlantis was a made-for-TV movie and a short-lived (1977-1978) series on the NBC Network. It starred Patrick Duffy as Mark Harris, survivor of the lost continent of Atlantis, who could breathe underwater and endure the high pressures of the ocean depths.
  • The SciFi series Stargate Atlantis in which Atlantis is a city created by the 'Ancients' - a race of human like beings who are much more technologically and evolutionarily advanced than us (humans). Several million years ago, Atlantis was moved from Earth to its final resting place in the Pegasus Galaxy, only to be submerged under a great ocean to protect it from the Ancients' enemies in Pegasus. Eventually the inhabitants were evacuated back to Earth through Atlantis' Stargate, and their stories gave rise to the legends of Atlantis. 10,000 years later, a team of human explorers lead by the civilian, Dr. Elizabeth Weir, travel to Atlantis via Earth's Stargate with a team of scientists and military personnel from all over the world to discover the secrets of the Ancients. (See Stargate Universe)
  • The science-fiction series seaQuest DSV episode "Lostland" deals with Commander Ford discovering a golden helmet and sword with carvings in it claiming it came from the lost continent of Atlantis. When Captain Bridger and Ortiz try the helmet on, they are consumed by an ancient curse held within the helmet.
  • The British science-fiction series Doctor Who is renowned for presenting three different versions of Atlantis' ultimate fate. In the Patrick Troughton story The Underwater Menace (1967), the second Doctor, Ben, Polly and Jamie discover on contemporary Earth that Atlantis still exists, near the Azores, and a reclusive scientist intends to raise it above the waves again. The Jon Pertwee serial The Time Monster (1972) concerns the plans of renegade Time Lord the Master to control Kronos, an ancient and powerful being worshipped by the Ancient Greek-style Atlanteans, while the third Doctor and Jo endeavour to stop him. Atlantis had also been also mentioned in the Jon Pertwee serial The Dæmons (1971), with the godlike being Azal citing its destruction as a warning of an experiment gone wrong. Some have argued that The Underwater Menace and The Time Monster depict the flooding and collapse, respectively, of different parts of Atlantis, not the destruction of the whole, so that all three accounts may fit into one coherent narrative. Alternatively, and since the geographical and temporal locations seem to be at odds, the name 'Atlantis' may be taken as a translation convention – a Time Lord gift always translating local languages for the Doctor and his companions – referring to different lost prehistoric civilisations.)
  • In The Fairly OddParents, Cosmo has been known to sink the Lost City of Atlantis nine times and was known as "The Accursed One". When Timmy Turner, as a merperson with the powers of Wet Willie (an Aquaman parody superhero whose movie stunk), Cosmo, and Wanda explore underwater, they come upon Atlantis where it's people are now merpeople and when Cosmo is spotted, their leader King Greg plans to sentence Cosmo to be eaten by one of the Kraken that Atlantis owns. After showing King Greg the reasons they should be happy underwater (the Wet Willie movie persuaded him), Cosmo is no longer "The Accursed One". Unfortunately, a giant squid that Timmy tried to call to prove to the Atlanteans it existed had appeared and demolished Atlantis causing the Atlanteans to target Timmy ("The New Accursed One") now and the group escapes with some fish to "Clevelandlantis".
  • In an episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation entitled "Family", there is a terraforming project to create a new continent - called Atlantis - in the Atlantic Ocean, close to the Canadian coastline. The mythical Atlantis has also been mentioned twice elsewhere, both times as a comparison when the protagonists have discovered a utopian civilisation.
  • In an episode of Xiaolin Showdown, Dojo has been the cause of the Atlantis sinking he last time he has been released from his cage .
  • In an episode of Hercules: The Legendary Journeys entitled "Atlantis", Hercules finds himself washed ashore on that fabled land and has to contend with various crystal powered devices as well as Cassandra (Claudia Black) who has visions of impending doom for the island.
  • In an episode of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, the turtles stumble upon an ancient underwater empire who later reveal themselves to be the long-lost Atlanteans.
  • The GouGou Sentai Boukenger character Morio Makino is obsessed with finding Atlantis.
  • Atlantis is parodied in an episode of Futurama that takes place in a lost, under-sea version of Atlanta.
  • In a second season episode of The Transformers entitled "Atlantis, Arise!", modern-day inhabitants of long-submerged Atlantis forge an alliance with Megatron and attempt to conquer Washington, DC.
  • Atlantika - Atlantika is a Philippine fantasy-drama series produced by GMA Network about the fictional undersea kingdom of Atlantika. Atlantika opens with the tale of three lovers: Haring Agat (Gardo Versoza), Reyna Celebes (Jean Garcia) and Barracud (Ariel Rivera). Their love triangle sparks a war that divides the underwater domain and pushes Barracud to the dark side. Aquano the Senturyon (Dingdong Dantes) must fulfill his duty of saving Atlantika by searching for the two lost princesses of the kingdom. One of them will be the woman destined for him (Ruana) while the other must be defeated before she destroys Atlantika itself (Amaya). With four princess-possible candidates to choose from; Cielo (Iza Calzado), Alona (Isabel Oli), Helena (Katrina Halili) and Elisa (Valerie Concepcion), Aquano asks the help of the most skillful Senturyon in Atlantika, Camaro (Rudy Fernandez), to train him for the fight of his life.
  • In the DuckTales episode "Aqua Ducks", Scrooge, Launchpad, Gyro and Doofus go looking for Scrooge's fortune underwater and discover The Lost City of Atlantis. They bring it to the surface with an invention of a gaseous solution by Gyro. Then in the next episode "Working for Scales" they hook helium balloons to it and make it fly in the sky. Huey, Dewey, and Louie discover The Lost Treasure of Atlantis inside it as well.

[edit] Theatre

  • Atlantis is a musical by Cambridgeshire-based performing arts charity Peppercorns Performing Arts. In this musical, seven modern-day teenagers are transported to the land of Atlantis where Greek demi-gods wait to test them. They must conquer the seven deadly sins to stop armageddon.

[edit] Music

The song "Voyage to Atlantis" by The Isley Brothers

[edit] Manga & Anime

  • In 1989-1990, Gainax of the NHK group of Animation producers in Japan based an Atlantis story on Jules Vernes science fiction novel Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea called Nadia: The Secret of Blue Water. It has been speculated that many ideas from the Disney film came from the Japanese anime TV series. The main character Nadia is a descendant of the Atlanteans and the series main villains, the Neo-Atlantean empire, pretend to recover the lost Blue Water stones of Atlantis and use them to rule the world.
  • Dartz, the main antagonist in the Yu-Gi-Oh! "Waking the Dragons" story arc is apparently from an Atlantis that was destroyed when all its inhabitants became their "True" evil selves after being exposed to a miracle substance known as "orichalcos".
  • In Mysterious Cities of Gold, Atlantis goes to war with the Empire of Mu, over a trivial misunderstanding, and using powerful superweapons manage to destroy one another. Both become sunken continents.
  • Transformers: Cybertron, an animated series based on a popular toyline, featured the lost continent of Atlantis as an ancient Cybertronian starship which, instead of floating in the water, floated in the atmosphere close to the ground. The location of Atlantis and an ancient Cybertronian artifact, the Omega Lock, was a major focus of the series' initial thirteen episode arc.
  • In the Anime TV series The Vision of Escaflowne one of the main characters, Van, is said to have descended from the people of Atlantis. The people of Atlantis, also referred to as the Dragon People (ryū-jin), were responsible for creating the mystical world of Gaea using the power of wishes, and the story of Escaflowne revolves largely around the leader of the empire Zaibach, Lord Dornkirk, attempting to regain that power. Note that the movie version of Escaflowne does not involve Atlantis in any way.

[edit] Comics

  • In DC Comics, several characters, including Aquaman and Lori Lemaris - among others - are said to have come from a sunken Atlantis. Due to magic, they somehow survive with the ability to breathe water. Their capital, Poseidonis, was recently destroyed.
  • In Marvel Comics, Atlantis was an ancient landmass which was home to a technoligically advanced civilization, but was sunk by the Celestials for hubris. Somehow, the Atlanteans also survived, and thrive under their king, Namor the Sub-Mariner
  • In the Ultimate Marvel comics, Atlantis did exist and was home to an Ancient Egyptian culture. It was destroyed 9000 years ago under unknown circumstances.
  • In The Sandman: Brief Lives, by writer Neil Gaiman, a chapter called "The People Who Remember Atlantis" speaks of "echo-Atlantises" and (many) other equatable prehistoric civilisations, and explores the theme of the bulk of human history and knowledge being lost to the modern world.
  • In the webcomic Wigu, the Tinkle family as well as the head of the Illuminati are of Atlantian heritage. The second black and white comic book is to be called The Case of Atlantis.
  • In Amalgam Comics continuity, Atlantis was said to have been attacked, and a young Aqua Mariner was sent to live on the surface world despite his later quest to return home. Atlantis is also the homeworld of metamutants, who are the subject of racist attacks by "normal" humans.
  • Dark Horse Comics produced a four comic book series based on the story of the Indiana Jones And The Fate Of Atlantis LucasArts classic PC game
  • In Asterix and Obelix All at Sea, Asterix, Obelix and Getafix go to Atlantis to seek the secret of age reversal as Obelix was accidentally reverted to childhood. At Atlantis, except for the high priest, everyone is in a state of childhood.

[edit] Video games

  • A LucasArts classic Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis recounts the fictional quest of Indiana Jones to the Lost World. (Supposedly, one of the possible titles for the fourth Indiana Jones film is Indiana Jones and the Lost Continent).
  • Tomb Raider features a series of levels based in Atlantis.
  • The Atlanteans, though not actually present in the games, played a large role in the first two Ecco the Dolphin games (Ecco the Dolphin and Ecco: The Tides of Time) as the creators of the time machine and the Glyphs. They also created the teleport rings present in Ecco: The Tides of Time.
  • In Age of Mythology the first few levels of the campaign are set in Atlantis. Arkantos, the main character throughout the campaign, is Atlantean, and the civilsation worships Poseidon as its main god.
  • In Age of Mythology: The Titans, the Atlanteans are one of the playable cultures. Unlike the other civilizations in the game, which were designed with a combination of mythology and history, the Atlanteans were not designed with any actual history in mind, because there wasn't any to have in mind. As result, what came out was a fantasy-like culture including Orichalkum walls and weapons, flamethrowing weapons and ships, and many other oddities. The hero of the story, Arkantos, is Atlantean. Atlantis is featured at the beginning and ending of the story line.
  • In the expansion pack Poseidon to Master of Olympus - Zeus, Atlanteans become a new playable civilzation in a serious of campaigns based loosely on the original material. It also tackles many of the more dubious claims about Atlantis (e.g. Atlanteans being involved with the building of the pyramids of both Egypt and Mesoamerica), albeit all with a rather humorous take.
  • The games Atlantis: The Lost Tales, Beyond Atlantis and Beyond Atlantis II involve the legend. Atlantis takes place on the actual fabled city whereas the other two games are based on discovering things related to Atlantis. All three games were made by Cryo Interactive.
  • In The Journeyman Project 3: The Legacy of Time, aliens destroyed the entire city to prevent another alien race from obtaining a secret artifact. Gage Blackwood then time travels to Atlantis one day before its destruction and travels around the city in order to locate the artifact.
  • In Tales of Phantasia, there is an ancient, submerged world called Thor, which is likely an allusion to Atlantis.
  • In Chrono Trigger, the world of magic at Dark Ages (a lost advanced civilization) could be considered an allusion to Atlantis.
  • In Crash Bandicoot: Warped, Crash must swim through a sunken city somewhere south of Australia. This city is assumed to be Atlantis.
  • The Nintendo video game, G.I. Joe: The Atlantis Factor, takes place in Atlantis, which has resurfaced.
  • In the 1995 Game Boy game Donkey Kong Land, the second world is known as Kremlantis. It has temples, underwater ruins, and coral reefs.
  • In the 2000 Nintendo 64 game Banjo-Tooie, there is a level called Jolly Roger's Lagoon. Most of the level takes place underwater, where you can see Atlantis. It has ancient submerged temples.

[edit] Role-playing games

An Atlantis game board
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An Atlantis game board

For a while Atlantis has been used in a variety of role playing games.

  • In White Wolf Studio's Mage: The Awakening, Atlantis is depicted as the land where people initially come from, only to be trapped in the earthly realm due to the machinations of the Exarchs.
  • In C.J. Carella's Witchcraft and Armageddon, Atlantis is one of the Elder Kingdoms destroyed by the Angels through a giant Flood, and the original home of the Immortals.
  • In the d20 Modern Menace Manual, Atlantis was referenced as a large island in the Aegean Sea which used to be a permanent base for a race called the Fraal (another name for greys), in which Fraal and human society coexisted, but they retreated to the outer edges of the solar system when "some sort of accident" (sic) destroyed it, along with all trace of its inhabitants.
  • In Rifts, Atlantis is a large continent in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean that was tied to the magical energies of earth. As the magical energies of earth dissipated, the island disappeared into a dimensional limbo until the "Coming of the Rifts" caused a resurgence of magical energies on the planet. In the current Rifts timeline, the continent of Atlantis is ruled by extra-dimensional slave traders known as the Splugorth. The original human residents of Atlantis, known as True Atlanteans, are masters of Stone and Tatoo magic, and have spread across the Megaverse.
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