1198 Atlantis

This minor planet is named after a fictional (not mythical, not hypothetical, not real) island, created by Plato in his works Timaeus and Critias. In these works, the island is discussed by the Athenian-politician-turned-fictional-character Critias. It is described as a perfect society (a Utopia of sorts) that threatened the civilization of Athens in ancient times.

The character Critias describes this land, an island several hundred kilometers wide and lying just beyond the Pillars of Hercules, as being apportioned to Poseidon. It was ruled by a son of Poseidon named Atlas (not Atlas the Titan, apparently.) When the Atlantians were waging war on the Athenians, earthquakes and floods caused their island to sink into the ocean.

Ever since Plato conceived of this island, dummies have been misinterpreting it to have been a historical account. The concept of the sunken city or continent of Atlantis has pervaded Western culture, and even today there are people who think it may have been a real place.

The symbol for this minor planet is a capital letter Alpha, the letter Plato penned for the name of his invention, under a wave, representing the mytheme of the sunken land.

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