Hey, hi there - another red on site.

Just curious, any idea where the legend of Atlantis stems from? Where it started, how it come to be a part of the mythology we still consider today?

The Lost City of Atlantis is thought to actually be Minoan Crete and VERY real:

Ariadne — Ruled by priestess-queens for two millennia, it was in Crete, for the last time in recorded history [that] a spirit of harmony between men and women as joyful, equal participants in life [pervades], says Eisler. Minoan culture was a Goddess-worshipping inheritance from Egypt, later passed on to Mycenaean Greece and Philistine Canaan. Ariadne, the High Fruitful Mother, is a lunar fertility Goddess whose athletic prowess evolved into huntress Diana and many-breasted Ephesian Artemis. Serpents, symbolic of rebirth, were ritually handled by her oracle-giving priestesses, whose bare-breasted costume suggest the sacred role of sexuality in the culture. Trances and ecstatic dance celebrated the annual rebirth of Ariadne’s son-lover Dionysos (Deo Knossos). The sudden end of Crete’s peaceful matrilineal Golden age through flood and earthquake gave rise to the Atlantis legend.

Actually, one of the possible sites is Santorini.
I have lived there as a tour guide, and the island suffered a huge volcanic eruption in 1500BCE
This caused a tidal wave so high that it engulfed Crete (a couple of hundred miles away) wiping out the Minoans.

The tidal wave continued south east and hit Egypt .. and when the water ebbed away, the backwash could have been around time of the alleged escape from Egypt by Moses and his band of merry men (women and children)

Two thirds of the island just dropped into the sea and the resultant effect created two or three islands, one of which is a smoking volcano, another is the island of Fira. (Greek for Santorini)

Most of the stunning pictures you see of Greece, where there is a white building in the foreground and a deep blue sea in the background are of Fira, and specifically a small town called Oia.

It is built into the side of the 300m (1000ft) sheer cliffs, and it produces the "BEST" sunset in the whole wide world (he says with only a small amount of over exaggeration")

I dont remember enough of the rest of the legends to put it in here at this point, and as soon as I locate the author, I will add him in here for anyone interested in reading it.

The Authors name is Stephen Lawhead, and the series is "the pendragon cycle" or something similar.

Google "taliesin, Merlin Artur Pendragon" will bring it up.

Mirror doesn't believe that Crete had an Egalitarian society and were Goddess worshiping and matrifocal, even though there is quite a bit of archeological evidence to support that theory.

Perhaps the only society that was nearly, almost matriarchal was Minoan Crete. From what we know, Minoan Crete was a highly advanced society with public works consisting of, vast multi storied palaces, villas, farmsteads, well-organized cities, great works of art including sculptures, vases and carvings. The religion of Minoan Crete served to enforce its surprisingly egalitarian social order. The religion placed all emphasis on the Goddess Nature, the source of all creation and harmony. All aspects of life and even death in Minoan Crete centered on worship of the Goddess. This practice along with its egalitarian consequences is said to have also enforced a social understanding in which fear of death was almost eliminated by the joy of living.

While Minoan Crete is one of the clearest examples anthropologists point to in their musings about the correlation of religious nuances with social order, it is far from the only example. Nearly every society which has placed religious emphasis on the worship of a Goddess have been surprisingly peaceful, egalitarian, and in most cases prosperous. Contrast this with societies who place a male deity as the center of their worship and we see a stark contrast. The early Jews, with their adoption of Yahweh are a clear example of the stark contrast of male deity worship and female deity worship.

Aside from the obvious explanations of males being more prone to violence, and females towards cooperation and understanding, what can these civilizations tell us? Any correlations with our present culture?

I don't think I exactly said that I didn't believe Crete had an egalitarian society.Their society was basically Greek, and it is true that Greek society had a lot of egalitarianism but Im not sure its the same kind of egalitarianism that we have in this society.Just look at their sexual customs and their cultural definition of true love.Women had remarkable freedoms but they certainly were not considered equals to men.For one, the Greeks believed that only men could experience true love (with each other)and women existed primarily for procreation.Females in the ancient world had status but it wasn't the same kind of status that men had.They could own property in the name of their male relatives but they couldn't vote in any government proceedings as far as anyone can tell. Paying tribute to female deities isn't the same as practicing egalitarianism is basically my point.I don't have a problem with the idea of egalitarianism (in ancient societies), but Im just pointing out that many thousands of years ago, peoples values were different from ours, and their concept of equality is not the same as our conceptualization of it.

Well for one thing, I woud disagree with your assertion that Minoan Crete was "basically Greek". Thats like saying, well the US is basically like Brazil. It doesnt fly.

Its true that our modern Western society is indeed NOT egalitarian and the argument that is being made is that this may in no small part be due directly to the influence of a monotheistic religious indoctrination in this country, namely Christianity.

So we can address the ancient Greeks if you like (on another thread perhaps) but Minoan Crete is something all together different.Not to mention that there is an indication that ancient Greece held a considerably different outlook towards their female deities and it was much later that they made a shift towards a male dominated pantheon.

As far as the Minoans are concerned, conspicuous in their absence are the usual signs of a male-dominated society common to the Eastern Mediterranean in the second millennium BCE: no walled citadels, no fortifications, no temples to the gods, no large public sculpture, no clear evidence of a hierarchically structured society ruled by kings and priests, no boastful inscriptions.

There is no way to know one way or another what these people actually worshiped because we have a very limited understanding of their written language however when you find layer after layer of Goddess statues and motifs, of all description, well, I just dont think that you can brush that off as being insignificant.

Conspicuously absent is the typical male dominated depiction of weaponry, fortification and warfare. There appeared to be no interest in such matters.