Blog Tour: Guest Post by Carol Oates author of Shades of Atlantis



Welcome to the second stop of Carol Oates book blog tour for her book Shades of Atlantis. The tour will run from April 1st through April 19th. You will have a great chance at winning some great prizes if you follow the rules provided. Today Carol wrote a wonderful guest post for all the readers. So enjoy.





Atlantis.


The most famous reference to the legendary place we know as Atlantis was inPlato’sdialoguesofTimaeus and Critiasand refers back to the society discussed in the Republic. Atlantis was said to be a great city surrounded by three huge circular mounds and water. The location has been a subject of hot debate for many generations.


Plato’s idea was that every person had a role to play in creating in a perfect three tired society and to function, that society required laws. Without structure any man, even a good man may be persuaded to do wrong if there were no repercussions for his actions, if he truly believed he would never be found out. All it would take for perfection to slip away was the inhabitants not playing their designated role.


In Plato’s story, the people of Atlantis extended their reach beyond their own land, overthrowing countries and turning their inhabitants into slaves. Eventually those inhabitantsled by Athenian warriors revolted against them and Atlantis lost power. Atlantis was then swallowed up by the sea in a single night of floods and earthquakes, fitting since, according to Plato, it wascreated by Poseidon, god of the sea.


So was Atlantis a real place or a metaphor for human nature?It is debatable. While some have put forward the idea of Tsunamis, others have said it may have been a tale Plato borrowed from pervious histories. No one has found definitive proof of Atlantis’s existence as yet. Everywhere from Ireland to America, to most recently Spain has laid claim to Atlantis.In 1927 Lewis Spence wrote, “Kircher, Ginguene, Mentelle and others believed that the Atlantic Islands were the remains of the sunken continent and Buffon argued that Ireland, the Azores and America had once been portions of the great isle of Plato.” 


As recently as this year a documentary "Finding Atlantis," a National Geographic Channel special claimed an international team searching for the true site of Atlantis had found evidence of the lost city near Cadiz, Spain. They certainly found something, if it really is Atlantis remains to be seen.


The connection between Ireland and Atlantis goes back hundreds of years in literature. In Ireland the ancient seat of power religiously and politically was at Tara in county Meath, a place made up of circular mounds surounded by trenches. To futher support this theory Ireland was said to have been invaded by a race people from greece. The inhabitans were conqured but much later, around 1,000 BC the conqurers were driven underground by invaders from a settlement in the Iberian peninsula.


Another link between Ireland and Atlantis was through the mysterious sunken island of Hy-Brasil, located off the west coast of Ireland in the Atlantic. This island is visible once every seven years in local folklore. Some believe this could be Atlantisand in1684, an Irish historian spoke about the enchanted island of Hy-Brasil:

"From the Isles of Arran and the west continent often appears visible that enchanted island called O'Brasail and, in Irish, Beg Ara.

Interestingly another tale in folklore mentions this same place as a possible location for the enchanted Isle of Avalon, where King Arthur was taken after being mortally wounded in battle. Is it possible Atlantis and Avalon were the same place? A place that still exists in the rough waters of the Atlantic Ocean after all this time.Was it destroyed?Or did Atlantis ever really exist at all?



Now how did you like that post? I truly love anything about Atlantis. Thank you Carol for taking the time to write it for us. Now for more fun stuff. Carol and Omnific Publishing will be picking some winners at the end of the tour. Here is a list of the items up for grabs.

Prizes:
  1. Signed copy of Shades of Atlantis, a lined spiral notebook with SoA cover, bookmark, keyring, SoA 2011 calendar, and SoA mug.
  2. Signed copy of Shades of Atlantis, a lined spiral notebook with SoA cover, bookmark, keyring, SoA 2011 calendar
  3. eBook copy of SoA
  4. eBook copy of SoA
To Enter:
In order to be chosen as a winner, all participants will need to leave a comment on each blog stop. Then the names will be chosen by random.org and the name chosen will be checked on comments. All giveaways are open internationally. Participants do not need to be followers to be entered. 



26 comments:

  1. VERY cool post! I had not heard the connection with Atlantis to Ireland before!! Thanks Carol!!

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  2. Thanks for another great post!!

    Vivien
    deadtossedwaves at gmail dot com

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  3. I have had this one my TBR list for awhile now. I LOVE that cover too! :0)

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  4. I've always been intrigued by Atlantis. Thanks for the great post.

    bookflamereviews@gmail.com

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  5. I am reading this eBook at the moment and loving it!
    Ke7yca@gmail.com

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  6. I always found the stories about Atlantis interesting. Please enter me in contest. Tore923@aol.com

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  7. Great post! I've always been fascinated with Atlantis.

    amanda(at)lettersinsideout(dot)com

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  8. Always appreciate a history lesson. I minored in history when I was in college. We are only just beginning this tour of reviews and already I am amazed at the reviews of this book. I am seriously thinking about adding this to my must reads. I only have a small list of 50 books I want to read.

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  9. Very Intersting! I love the story of Atlantis!

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  10. Great post and sounds like an even better book! Very fascinating!!

    Shannonjean14(at)gmail(dot)com

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  11. Wow very interesting. I've never read or knew much about Atlantis. Thanks.

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  12. Great post. This book sounds really interesting. I am looking forward to it.

    bacchus76 at myself dot com

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  13. Great post! Book has an amazing story and great cover.

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  14. The book sounds good and the prizes are awesome!

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  15. I've heard of this book, and I recently did a book report on Atlantis so this sounds SO cool!!! <3 can't wait to read it!

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  16. Great giveaway!

    the girl on fire
    thegirlonfire27 at gmail dot com

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  17. Thank you for your insight!!
    marypres@gmail.com

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  18. Very cool! thanks so much!!

    Rachel Leigh
    TheOneRing111 at gmail dot com

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  19. Thanks for the guest post! I can't wait to read this.

    cc932005 at hotmail dot com

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  20. I am all about old mythology and legends, and getting a little bit more about Irish folklore in this book was the icing on the cake!

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  21. I have always found the tale of the lost city of Atlantis to be fascinating, so this is a very interesting post to read! I would love to see how it is incorporated into the book!

    chibipooh(at)gmail(dot)com

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  22. Thanks for the review
    mamabunny13 at gmail dot com

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  23. I'm looking forward to reading this book.
    nicolesender(at)yahoo(dot)com

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  24. I've had my eye on this book since I first saw it on goodreads a few months ago. I would love nothing better than to get my hands on it. Great review

    june111(at)att(dot)net

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  25. Thanks for the post, I can't wait to read the book.

    the imagine tree at aol dot com

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  26. This is an awesome guest post! Lots of neat info here. Thanks Carol!

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