* In the Lost Dialogue, Hermocrates says that Critias mistranslated Egyptian into Greek and gave a tenfold error when citing the distance of Atlantis from Greece and the era in which it existed. Socrates then comments that the actual numbers must be a tenfold fewer, since a tenfold greater is ridiculously over the top. So why do Indy and all the other characters refer to it as "Plato's tenfold numbering error"? The error is Critias's. Plato simply wrote about it in his dialogues. For that matter, how silly is it that Hermocrates knows Egyptian numbering well enough to realize that Critias was wrong by a factor of ten, but not know whether it's a multiplication of ten or a division of ten? He basically says, "I know you're wrong Critias, but I don't know HOW you're wrong."
** It could either be because it is Plato's book, or because Plato does not bother to correct Critias, so Plato is also wrong.
** The nature of written ancient Greek philosophical dialogues should be noted here. They were not transcripts of conversations that actually happened, but a literary device for the writer to explore philosophical issues and promote their views. Ultimately what is said in the dialogue should be attributed to Plato, regardless of who is credited as saying it within the dialogue.
** The portrayal of Atlantis in this game is inspired by the "Minoan Hypothesis," which is where the idea that Atlantis was actually in the Mediterranean Sea comes from. One way to explain this is the tenfold error, which is a real theory that some Atlantis scholars started to endorse in the 1960s. Since the context of the game makes Plato's dialogues completely factual, in order for Indy to find Atlantis in the Mediterranean between Thera and Crete the tenfold error in Critias had to be corrected as part of Hermocrates. It doesn't really make sense whether you interpret the dialogues as a literary device (why would Plato write one dialogue with errors only to be corrected in another one?) or as an actual transcript (why does Hermocrates know Critias is wrong by a factor of ten, but not by a greater factor or a lesser factor?), but the game designers needed a way to introduce the actual tenfold error theory, especially since the game takes place 20-30 years before the theory was first published.
* What is Plato's lost dialogue doing laying around a college somewhere, much less an American college?
** It was in a collection of historical documents that were left to the college, probably in somebody's will. Nobody had gone through it and catalogued them all yet. That's not at all uncommon. It's slow work that can only be done by an expert. Do a Google search for "lost manuscript found" - things are turning up all the time as universities and libraries slowly work through their stuff.
* So if the numbers should all be a tenfold fewer, why on ''earth'' do they multiply the number of orichalcum beads by ten in the last scene? Once they've established that the tenfold-fewer value doesn't work, wouldn't trying the actual value listed in the dialogue be next?
** Thing is, the one bead ''is'' the correct number, Plato's tenfold error is correct. The machine is only good for producing mutants, the energy beings are clearly an overload effect, with all the nasty consequences. It doesn't matter if it is 10, 20 or 100 beads. Übermann expecting that it has to be a higher number is simply his arrogance speaking, unwilling to accept that the machine doesn't work as imagined.
* How was the octopus in the canal (supposedly placed there as a guardian) still alive after all those years?
** The canal probably has some connection to the outside that allows fish and other creatures through for the octopus to feed on. It could be a family line of octopuses living in the canal keeping a guardian all the time. Or it's just another Atlantean monstrosity.
*** Or a Kraken, like the one who showed up at the Istanbul ruins in ''VideoGame/IndianaJonesAndTheEmperorsTomb''?
* Why was a valuable statue being kept in a locker in the furnace room?
** According to Indy, the building is called Caswell Hall, and it's where the college stores its junk. And by "junk," it's implied that he means "fakes." No one at Barnett College actually thought the statue was valuable, so it could be in the locker for any number of reasons. A custodian might have found it and wanted to keep it. It could have been misplaced, and whoever retrieved it put it in the locker temporarily until they figured out where it was meant to be kept.
** It being stored away as a fake leads to some FridgeBrilliance: If it came to the college's possession with the claim attached it was from Atlantis, ''of course'' it would be dismissed as a hoax.
* How did the Nazis lock Sophia up in that dungeon if it was on the other side of the blocked door with the water?
* How come everyone seems to know all about Plato's lost Dialogue? Obviously, one person gives an explanation (he translated it), but how come Trottier seems to know all about it? Was he in contact with some people searching for Atlantean artifacts?
** [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hermocrates_(dialogue) Because it was a well-known concept.]] Anyone who seriously pursued interest in Atlantis would know about it in a theoretical sense.
** Practically every character in the game is interested in Atlantean artifacts, so in their studies of Atlantis they must have become aware of the Lost Dialogue. Mr. Costa has heard of Sophia and her necklace, it stands to reason he'd be aware of the Lost Dialogue, even specifically the copy that Sternhart translated. Sophia says in the scene where the paths diverge that she bought her original Sunstone from either Alain Trottier or Omar Al-Jabbar (she can't remember). Depending on what path you're playing, Trottier even posseses a Sunstone. So yes, Trottier, Al-Jabbar, Mr. Costa, they all deal in Atlantean artifacts, so they would probably be aware of the Lost Dialogue. The only character where it seems tenuous, at least to me, is Dr. Heimdall. He speaks about "rumors" of the Lost Dialogue, he has heard of Sternhart and Costa, and he recognizes Atlantean artifacts when he sees them, but it is not suggested that he is in the market for them. He's interested enough in the eel to try to chip it out of the ice, but more for his fascination with what he believes is a connection between Atlantis and aliens.
* Why does Kerner bother to pull a gun on Indy in the intro? Indy keeps claiming it's a fake and presumably would have just let Kerner have it given a high enough asking price. Pulling a gun was never needed, other than because Kerner is a bit of a dick(and a Nazi, but I repeat myself).
** Indy admits immediately after that he was lying about believing it to be a fake, presumably to dissuade Kerner from taking any further interest in it. Kerner presumably picks up on Indy's lie, realises that Indy isn't just going to hand it over, and decides to make sure he gets it by going for his gun.
* How do the Nazis always reach Atlantis first? It can be handwaved in the Team Path considering Indy guides the submarine there, but in Fists Path Indy walks to Atlantis long before the submarine arrives and when he arrives via Tram in the Wits Path, the submarine isn't there (and presumably hasn't arrived yet). Yet somehow the Nazis have already set up patrols and even put Sofia in jail by the time Indy shows up, implying they've been there for a while.
* How did Sternhart starve to death AND decompose into a skeleton so quickly? It was, what, probably a week or two between the events in Tikal and when Indy finds his remains in the Greater Colony?
** Indy was hazarding a guess and clearly had more important things to consider than discerning his actual cause of death. As for his skeletal state? His corpse was stripped to the bone by vermin - caves are usually full of insects and other creatures.
* If Nur-Ab-Sal had been possessing Sophia since the Jastro Expedition, which took place in 1929, where was he during the events of the Creator/DarkHorseComics storyline ''ComicBook/IndianaJonesThunderInTheOrient''? Sophia met Indy there and she didn't mention Nur-Ab-Sal nor Nur-Ab-Sal showed any indications to be inside her mind.
* When Indy and Sophia are cornered by the Nazis in the Colossus, Ubermann says that he knew that sparing Indiana Jones to enable him to find Nur-Ab-Sal's Colossus would be useful for the Nazis. However, if Kerner told him that he had left Indy for dead inside Crete's Labyrinth, how did Ubermann assume Indy would make it to Atlantis? Although Jones escapes, Ubermann couldn't have become aware of this due to not noticing Indy infiltrating the U-boat.
* As Kerner, Ubermann and/or Nur-Ab-Sal mutated themselves and die because of them using the Colossus, why those two Nazi soldiers accompanying Kerner and Ubermann don't show any type of emotion nor react to any of this? They look without surprise how Kerner mutates and kills himself, don't try to threaten Indy into following Ubermann's orders, don't show any concern for when Ubermann gets killed and don't even try to escape as the Colossuss starts coming down, leading them to be crushed to death.
* What is the place that everyone constantly calls the city of Atlantis? It's way too small to be a city. There are prisons, in real life, that are spacious than that. Except for being divided into three rings, it also doesn't look a thing like what Plato described. Where are the temples, the squares, the houses? Everything that would make up a city? It looks more like a lab, only built to host the machine that turns lava into orichalcum, the god machine, and cells for prisoners to test it on.
** It probably was a whole city back before it sunk and what's seen in-game basically is all that survived the catastrophe that sunk the continent in the first place, with smaller houses utterly demolished by the process. It also makes sense that the God Machine would be placed in the sturdiest and most secure building in Atlantis, considering what it is supposed to do.
* The map room on Crete makes little sense from an in-universe perspective. Two of the three doors you can open(depending on path) don't lead to anything substantial, the exception being [[spoiler:The Tram Car]] while the other two lead to a collapsed entrance (where Kerner ambushes you) and an opening that points you to Thera. Keep in mind that you have to go through a labyrinth, unlocked by two stone discs, and then use all three stone discs to even open one of those doors(and the discs are stated to be important and presumably rare).
** The Fists path is even stranger, because all you get out of opening the door is a marker pointing to the Lesser Colony (Thera). This is important to Indy because he doesn't know where the Lesser Colony is(though it doesn't matter and is never visited in the Team Path) but someone living on the Greater Colony likely already knows where the Lesser Colony is(especially since it's the closest island to Crete). If it had pointed to Atlantis it would have made more sense(since Atlantis is the Mother city to Crete) but Thera just happens to be where Indy finds the next plot beat and little else.
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