SKEPTIC REVISITS THE LEGEND OF ATLANTIS.

Byline: Scott Holleran Special to the Daily News

``Imagining Atlantis''

by Richard Ellis 

(322 pages, including 46 illustrations, five maps, appendix, Knopf; $27.50)

Our rating: Three stars

Atlantis, according to Plato, (circa 428-427 B.C.), existed over 11,000 years ago on an island continent in the middle of the sea. While the rest of mankind was still hunting, gathering and living in caves, the great Atlanteans, Plato wrote, lived in a land rich with hot springs, herbs and fruits. They built canals, bridges, tunnels and a racetrack. Their roofs were made of ivory, their palaces were covered with silver and their statues were made of gold. Atlantis was a peaceful kingdom of heroes.

Atlantis thrived, Plato wrote, until it was lost in a cataclysmic convulsion of earthquakes, fires and floods and was submerged into the sea.

Author and marine artist Richard Ellis doubts the truth of the legend in his impressive book, ``Imagining Atlantis.'' Ellis begins with an extensive account of Plato's dialogues, the sole reference to Atlantis in ancient literature. As he establishes the roots of the legend, he remains objective. Ellis notes that recent discoveries suggest Paleolithic man traveled beyond the Aegean Sea, as Plato's story implies. Recent examinations of cave paintings and bone engravings, Ellis writes, appear to demonstrate that man had domesticated the horse and produced a harness or bridle during what could have been Atlantis' era, which makes the notion of Atlantean horse-racing seem plausible. But Ellis also writes with a properly healthy skepticism and earns the reader's trust.

Ignatius Donnelly, (1831-1901), whom Ellis calls the most important Atlantean scholar of all time, is the chief architect of Atlantis mythmaking. Ellis reveals that the idealistic Donnelly, whose ``Atlantis: The Antediluvian World,'' (1882), was hugely popular, rarely relied on scientific data to support his claims.

Donnelly asserted without a shread of evidence that Atlantis was where ``early mankind dwelt for ages in peace and happiness.'' ``In Atlantis,'' Ellis writes, ``Donnelly had found the cause of almost everything.'' And it wasn't his only cause; Donnelly also believed that Francis Bacon had written Shakespeare's plays. Each major theorist, including Bacon himself who was first to propose that Atlantis was America, is carefully chronicled. From early theorists to Donnelly admirer Lewis Spence, (1874-1955), mystic Edgar Cayce, (1877-1945), and Charles Berlitz, (author of the 1976 best seller ``The Bermuda Triangle''), Ellis largely debunks the Atlantis theories, (including an amusing notion that Atlantis was a community nestled high in the slopes of Mount Shasta). Citing renowned historians and experts in archaeology, geology and seismology, Ellis refutes each theory with a heap of evidence.

While acknowledging circumstantial evidence that Atlantis was part of ancient Minoan civilization, which is also shrouded in mystery, he points out that archeological evidence is ultimately inconclusive. Therein lies the problem with ``Imagining Atlantis''; while each theory is often partly true, virtually every piece of scientific evidence, and theory, is inconclusive. ``In fact, Ellis' approach is refreshingly scientific, not based on conjecture. But Ellis' presentation of history, theories, and geology - including chapters on tsunamis and volcanoes - is often a thread of unrelated or redundant facts that leaves the reader searching for his theme.

CAPTION(S):

Photo

Photo: no caption (IMAGINING ATLANTIS)