Professor Edith Hall

Even more important, most of us know the famous myth of the battle over Athens between Athena and Poseidon. Now, Plato completely rewrites that. He has Attica founded by Athena and Hephaestus. He deletes Poseidon altogether. Poseidon goes off. That's why he goes off and found Atlantis. He's not in the myth. So he says, basically, that we should never have had Poseidon as the other god of Athens.

Even more important, most of us know the famous myth of the battle over Athens between Athena and Poseidon. Now, Plato completely rewrites that. He has Attica founded by Athena and Hephaestus. He deletes Poseidon altogether. Poseidon goes off. That's why he goes off and found Atlantis. He's not in the myth. So he says, basically, that we should never have had Poseidon as the other god of Athens.

Even more important, most of us know the famous myth of the battle over Athens between Athena and Poseidon. Now, Plato completely rewrites that. He has Attica founded by Athena and Hephaestus. He deletes Poseidon altogether. Poseidon goes off. That's why he goes off and found Atlantis. He's not in the myth. So he says, basically, that we should never have had Poseidon as the other god of Athens.

Poseidon is the great god of the navy. There's a wonderful passage in Aristophanes' Nights, which is actually a love song of the Athenian navy. That poem, that play is all about a huge number of passages directly designed for the seamen in the audience. And we have this extraordinary hymn almost implying that Poseidon's more important than Athena at Athens as god of sea power. Oh, no.

Poseidon is the great god of the navy. There's a wonderful passage in Aristophanes' Nights, which is actually a love song of the Athenian navy. That poem, that play is all about a huge number of passages directly designed for the seamen in the audience. And we have this extraordinary hymn almost implying that Poseidon's more important than Athena at Athens as god of sea power. Oh, no.

Poseidon is the great god of the navy. There's a wonderful passage in Aristophanes' Nights, which is actually a love song of the Athenian navy. That poem, that play is all about a huge number of passages directly designed for the seamen in the audience. And we have this extraordinary hymn almost implying that Poseidon's more important than Athena at Athens as god of sea power. Oh, no.

The original Athens has nothing to do with Poseidon whatsoever. It's the craft god Hephaestus because he's clever and he's skillful and he's good at making plows and Athena. So the deletion of Poseidon from the history of Athens really says it all. Music

The original Athens has nothing to do with Poseidon whatsoever. It's the craft god Hephaestus because he's clever and he's skillful and he's good at making plows and Athena. So the deletion of Poseidon from the history of Athens really says it all. Music

The original Athens has nothing to do with Poseidon whatsoever. It's the craft god Hephaestus because he's clever and he's skillful and he's good at making plows and Athena. So the deletion of Poseidon from the history of Athens really says it all. Music

I don't know the answer to that. And I'm one of the greatest sceptics about accounts of Plato in visiting Dionysius, the great tyrant of Syracuse. And we don't know how the dates work in terms of his visits.

I don't know the answer to that. And I'm one of the greatest sceptics about accounts of Plato in visiting Dionysius, the great tyrant of Syracuse. And we don't know how the dates work in terms of his visits.

I don't know the answer to that. And I'm one of the greatest sceptics about accounts of Plato in visiting Dionysius, the great tyrant of Syracuse. And we don't know how the dates work in terms of his visits.

But many scholars do talk about that and say that actually the rather tyrannical and indeed well-equipped with navy power that was Syracuse is yet another ingredient in the portrait of the Atlanteans.

But many scholars do talk about that and say that actually the rather tyrannical and indeed well-equipped with navy power that was Syracuse is yet another ingredient in the portrait of the Atlanteans.

But many scholars do talk about that and say that actually the rather tyrannical and indeed well-equipped with navy power that was Syracuse is yet another ingredient in the portrait of the Atlanteans.

It does start to be referred to by others almost immediately afterwards and captured imagination up to a point of the philosophical schools. But really, it's the Renaissance that seizes on it. It becomes extremely popular as soon as Plato is rediscovered because people like to paint it. We've got an incredible number of visual images 500 years before Disney of how this

It does start to be referred to by others almost immediately afterwards and captured imagination up to a point of the philosophical schools. But really, it's the Renaissance that seizes on it. It becomes extremely popular as soon as Plato is rediscovered because people like to paint it. We've got an incredible number of visual images 500 years before Disney of how this

It does start to be referred to by others almost immediately afterwards and captured imagination up to a point of the philosophical schools. But really, it's the Renaissance that seizes on it. It becomes extremely popular as soon as Plato is rediscovered because people like to paint it. We've got an incredible number of visual images 500 years before Disney of how this

And of course, it got linked in with Christian stories of Judeo-Christian stories of humans being wiped out by floods because of their wickedness. It resonated with the story of Noah and the flood, the Deucalion and Pyrrha story, the other flood. Sodom and Gomorrah a bit maybe as well. Absolutely.

And of course, it got linked in with Christian stories of Judeo-Christian stories of humans being wiped out by floods because of their wickedness. It resonated with the story of Noah and the flood, the Deucalion and Pyrrha story, the other flood. Sodom and Gomorrah a bit maybe as well. Absolutely.