Joseph DeMartino
Senior HTF Member
No, in his made-up story Plato says that he got the account from Solon, who got it from the Egyptians. (He also claims that Solon was one of his ancestors, which may or may not be true.) No other source or tradition mentions any such thing about Solon, nor are there any Egyptian myths, legends or texts that contain anything resembling the Atlantis story that Plato tells.
The Solon thing is basically a framing story that Plato uses to make what follows seem more plausible. Edgar Rice Burroughs did much the same in his introductions to A Princess of Mars and Tarzan of the Apes where he creates an elaborate provenance for the "true" story that he's about to pass on to the reader. But both Tarzan and John Carter of Mars are still recognized as fictional characters, not "legends" who may be based in fact.
That is very different from a figure like Arthur who precisely is the subject of typical legends - contradictory tales of uncertain chronology that arise in different times and places and gradually coallesced, contradictions and all, around a single person. (The Robin Hood legends likewise probably began being told about a number of different local heroes, all of whom were subsumed under one name over time.)
The essence of genuine legends is that the don't appear all at once at a particular place. It is hard to trace their origins precisely because they are incohate folk tales being passed by word of mouth. The legends that underlay The Illiad and The Odyssey were ancient and existed in many various forms before Homer wrote them down. But of Atlantis there is no mention, no alternate source, no trace before Plato put pen to paper. Because Atlantis is a literary invention, like Sherlock Holmes, not a genuine legend or bit of folklore given concrete form like the Arthur of Cretien de Troyes or Mallory.
Regards,
Joe
