S/P/97. ‘Plato’s Atlantis narrative is essentially a political tract’. How far do you agree?

This paper examines the myth of Atlantis, starting with its first appearance in Plato’s Timaeus and Critias, in which Atlantis is mentioned by Critias in reference to the ideal state in action. The Republic is another of Plato’s works which mentions his ideas about how an ideal state should function. These are very similar to the ideas expressed in Timaeus and Critias. This essay examines whether the Atlantis narrative was invented by Plato to be used as a device in his political tract about an ideal state, or whether it has a foundation in history as truth.