Plato's Lost Dialogue

Location is a key part of any story.  Just think about Harry Potter; by the time you’ve finished the first book you feel like you’ve had a guided tour around Hogwarts and slept in the Gryffindor common room (or your House of choice).  If Hogwarts was set in a modern building in the centre of a bustling city the whole story would take on a completely different feel (and perhaps wouldn’t be the phenomenon it is). Tales of Atlantis: The Dawning of a New Age is set on (spoiler alert) Atlantis.  When it comes to thinking about where Atlantis should be located in the story (bearing in mind that it is set in modern times on Earth) it creates a number of problems.  Atlantis has to feel real - like Hogwarts or Narnia – and that means staying true to Plato’s original description (otherwise it’s just another fantasy world masquerading as the famous lost island).  But where on Earth do you stick it?     The concept of Atlantis was first introduced in Plato’s dialogues Timaeus and Critias.

Buried beneath the rubble of Mount Othrys, the Titans met their Waterloo.  After ten years of warfare the Olympians had victory; a victory made possible thanks to superior weaponry and a determined leader.  But as Zeus hauled his foe from the rubble, he had a problem: what to do with an immortal enemy.  First he found Atlas stumbling around dazed and confused, a large bump on his head after cracking a few too many rocks on his head.  Thanks to his pivotal role in the war, Atlas was given a special punishment of holding up the sky on his shoulders.  There was little chance of escape or rest (just try sitting in a squat for a minute); if he moved, everyone would know about it.  Zeus sent the rest of the Titans who fought against him to Tartarus and appointed the Hecatonchires (his hundred armed uncles who had bombarded the Titans with rocks to earn victory for the Olympians) to guard them.  You could argue that being appointed as prison guards for eternity is not much of a reward for