Atlantis is a fictional island mentioned within an allegory on the hubris of nations in Plato's works Timaeus and Critias, where it represents the antagonist naval power that besieges "Ancient Athens", the pseudo-historic embodiment of Plato's ideal state . The allegorical aspect of Atlantis was taken up in utopian works of several Renaissance writers, such as Francis Bacon's New Atlantis and Thomas More's Utopia. On the other hand, 19th-century amateur scholars misinterpreted Plato's account as historical tradition, most notably in Ignatius L. While present-day philologists and historians accept the story's fictional character, there is still debate on what served as its inspiration. For unknown reasons, Plato never completed Critias. For the ocean there was at that time navigable; for in front of the mouth which you Greeks call, as you say, 'the pillars of Heracles,' there lay an island which was larger than Libya and Asia together; and it was possible for the travelers of that time to cross from it to the other islands, and from the islands to the whole of the continent over against them which encompasses that veritable ocean. The Timaeus begins with an introduction, followed by an account of the creations and structure of the universe and ancient civilizations.