WAS PLATO'S RITUAL CAPTURE OF BULLS AT ATLANTIS A RESULT OF HIS IMAGINATION, A PREHISTORIC MEMORY FROM THE AEGEAN, ANATOLIA, OR FROM AFRICA ?

• St. P. Papamarinopoulos (Laboratory of Geophysics, Section of applied Geology and Geophysics, Department of Geology, University of Patras, 261 10 Patras, Greece)

In a particular passage of Plato's Critias a ritual scene of bulls was described by Plato. The participants kings of Atlantis attempt to capture ritually bulls without metal weapons but with staves and nooses. They further sacrifise the captured bull putting its head on an altar and cut its throat. The very vivid textual scene is compared with what was known to Plato in his century and in the 5th century B.C. in Greece and in its colonies. It is found not fitting with the known archaeological evidence. Then it is compared with scenes from prehistoric Peloponnese and Crete in which bulls are captured in the wild non-ritually. It is found not to fit as well. The famous leaping over the bull of the young acrobats is indeed without weapons but the staves and the nooses are missing both in prehistoric Cretan sites in the Aegean and in Africa The sce-ne further is compared with neolithic and prehistoric rites in Anatolia. Again not any similarity is found. However, taking into account the pyramidical texts an obvious similarity is illustrated with Ramses II. The pictorial evidence shows lassoing Ramses and a prince close by assisting him to perform a ritual capture of the Apis without weapons as Plato describes. The capture of the bull by common people in Egypt is also taken into account. It exhibits no similarity with the scene presented by Plato.The evidence pushes the position of Atlantis away from the Aegean to Africa. Initially in Egypt. The research will show where we go next.