From Atlantis to the Sphinx is a work of non-fiction by British author, Colin Wilson

Colin Wilson

Colin Henry Wilson is a prolific English writer who first came to prominence as a philosopher and novelist. Wilson has since written widely on true crime, mysticism and other topics. He prefers calling his philosophy new existentialism or phenomenological existentialism.- Early biography:Born and...

, with the subheading Recovering the Lost Wisdom of the Ancient World.

Using The Sphinx

Great Sphinx of Giza

The Great Sphinx of Giza , commonly referred to as the Sphinx, is a limestone statue of a reclining or couchant sphinx that stands on the Giza Plateau on the west bank of the Nile in Giza, Egypt....

 as his starting point, Wilson explores the ramifications of an alternate time-line for the development of mankind, arguing that an advanced civilisation or civilisations existed in traditionally pre-historic times, in particular, the fabled Atlantis

Atlantis

Atlantis is a legendary island first mentioned in Plato's dialogues Timaeus and Critias, written about 360 BC....

 mentioned by Greek philosopher Plato

Plato

Plato , was a Classical Greek philosopher, mathematician, student of Socrates, writer of philosophical dialogues, and founder of the Academy in Athens, the first institution of higher learning in the Western world. Along with his mentor, Socrates, and his student, Aristotle, Plato helped to lay the...

 in his work Timaeus

Timaeus (dialogue)

Timaeus is one of Plato's dialogues, mostly in the form of a long monologue given by the title character, written circa 360 BC. The work puts forward speculation on the nature of the physical world and human beings. It is followed by the dialogue Critias.Speakers of the dialogue are Socrates,...

.

Overview

The book explores the connection between astronomy and mythology, arguing that ancient man used "Lunar knowledge" (intuition) as opposed to modern man's "Solar knowledge" (logic) to interpret the universe and therefore possessed an entirely different but equally valid mentality from that of modern man. Wilson proposes that the outlook of ancient man was based on "seeing the big picture" rather than logically breaking down the universe into its constituent parts.

Wilson develops this idea of civilisations founded on Lunar Knowledge together with astronomy to explain the monumental and seemingly spontaneous achievements of ancient cultures such as the Pyramid Complex at Giza in Egypt.

Wilson argues that the essential weakness of James Frazer

James Frazer

Sir James George Frazer , was a Scottish social anthropologist influential in the early stages of the modern studies of mythology and comparative religion...

's The Golden Bough

The Golden Bough

The Golden Bough: A Study in Magic and Religion is a wide-ranging, comparative study of mythology and religion, written by Scottish anthropologist Sir James George Frazer . It first was published in two volumes in 1890; the third edition, published 1906–15, comprised twelve volumes...

 is that Frazer attributed the fundamental mythological systems to the beginnings of the arming cultures, specifically to fertility. Agreeing with Giorgio de Santillana

Giorgio de Santillana

Giorgio Diaz de Santillana was an Italian-American philosopher of science and historian of science, and professor at MIT....

's thesis developed in Hamlet's Mill

Hamlet's Mill

Hamlet's Mill by Giorgio de Santillana and Hertha von Dechend Hamlet's Mill (first published by Gambit, Boston, 1969) by Giorgio de Santillana (a professor of the history of science at MIT) and Hertha von Dechend Hamlet's Mill (first published by Gambit, Boston, 1969) by Giorgio de Santillana (a...

, Wilson places the genesis of mythology previous to fertility cultures, linking the fundamental myths to astronomical occurrences such as the Precession of the Equinoxes

Precession of the equinoxes

In astronomy, axial precession is a gravity-induced, slow and continuous change in the orientation of an astronomical body's rotational axis. In particular, it refers to the gradual shift in the orientation of Earth's axis of rotation, which, like a wobbling top, traces out a pair of cones joined...

.

The main observations drawn by Wilson are that our ancient pre-homo sapiens ancestors possessed intelligence equal to that of modern man, their apparent lack of technological achievement being explained by the needlessness of it based on their completely different, intuitive and all-embracing mentality. Over time, a more logical and dissecting mentality evolved leading to the traits which mark modern civilisations.

Contents

1 Egyptian Mysteries

2 The New Race

3 Inside the Pyramid

4 The Forbidden Word

5 The Realm of the White Gods

6 The Antiquity of Man

7 Forbidden Archaeology

8 More Forbidden Archaeology

9 Of Stars and Gods

10 The Third Force