[Aztlan] Reason & Origin for name "Atlantean" Columns

[Mary K. Andrews]

This may be a stretch, since it is mostly mythical, and only two of many possible explanations of the so-called "Pillars of Hercules" and the location of Atlantis, though it might be relevant to the discussion about Atlantean columns.  

 

In the ancient world the Pillars of Hercules were widely believed to be the portal to the Atlantic Ocean, with one pillar being the Rock of Gibraltar, and the other a peak near the coast of northernmost  Morocco or on the island of Ceuta.  Such a peak could be part of a spur of the Atlas Mountains.



Another variation on this theme, from an account by Plato, would have the location of Atlantis "beyond the Pillars of Hercules."  There are different translations and interpretations of this account.  It has been interpreted by some to mean that the pillars may have been between two mountainous islands in the Aegean Sea (possibly Ios and Sikinos?) -- that may have been located between the Greek mainland and a Minoan Atlantis.   Arguments have been made by archaeologists and historians in modern times that Atlantis may have been Thera (or Santorini), Crete, or some other island in the Aegean with remains of the Minoan culture.

 

Either way, the imagined mythical pillars or columns - or atlantes - framed a portal to an Atlantean world.



Tony Andrews