The term "atlas" has been used to describe a collection of maps since the 16th century whenFlemish geographerGerardus Mercator published his work in honor of the mythological Titan.
The "Atlantic Ocean" is derived from "Sea of Atlas". The name ofAtlantis mentioned inPlato'sTimaeus' dialogue derives from "Atlantis nesos" (Ancient Greek:Ἀτλαντὶς νῆσος), literally meaning "Atlas's Island".[8]
Atlas and the Hesperides by John Singer Sargent (1925).
Theetymology of the nameAtlas is uncertain.Virgil translated etymologies of Greek names by combining them with adjectives that explained them: for Atlas his adjective isdurus, "hard, enduring",[9] which suggested to George Doig that Virgil was aware of the Greek τλῆναι "to endure"; Doig offers the further possibility that Virgil was aware ofStrabo's remark that the native North African name for this mountain wasDouris.[10] Since the Atlas Mountains rise in the region inhabited byBerbers, it has been suggested that the name might be taken from one of theBerber languages, specifically from the wordádrār "mountain".[11]
Traditionally historical linguists etymologize the Ancient Greek word Ἄτλας (genitive: Ἄτλαντος) as comprised from copulative α- and theProto-Indo-European root*telh₂- 'to uphold, support' (whence also τλῆναι), and which was later reshaped to an nt-stem.[12] However,Robert S. P. Beekes argues that it cannot be expected that this ancient Titan carries an Indo-European name, and he suggests instead that the word is ofPre-Greek origin, as such words often end in-ant.[12]
Atlas and his brotherMenoetius sided with the Titans in their war against theOlympians, theTitanomachy. When the Titans were defeated, many of them (including Menoetius) were confined toTartarus, butZeus condemned Atlas to stand at the western edge of the earth and hold up the sky on his shoulders.[13] Thus, he wasAtlas Telamon, "enduring Atlas", and became a doublet ofCoeus, the embodiment of the celestial axis around which the heavens revolve.[14]
A common misconception today is that Atlas was forced to hold the Earth on his shoulders, but Classical art shows Atlas holding thecelestial spheres, not theterrestrial globe; the solidity of the marble globe borne by theFarnese Atlas may have aided the conflation, reinforced in the 16th century by the developing usage ofatlas to describe a corpus ofterrestrial maps.[citation needed]
The Greek poetPolyidusc. 398 BC[15] tells a tale of Atlas, then a shepherd, encounteringPerseus whoturned him to stone. Ovid later gives a more detailed account of the incident, combining it with the myth of Heracles. In this account Atlas is not a shepherd, but a king.[16] According to Ovid, Perseus arrives in Atlas's Kingdom and asks for shelter, declaring he is a son of Zeus. Atlas, fearful of a prophecy that warned of a son of Zeus stealing his golden apples from his orchard, refuses Perseus hospitality.[17] In this account, Atlas is turned not just into stone by Perseus, but an entire mountain range: Atlas's head the peak, his shoulders ridges and his hair woods. The prophecy did not relate to Perseus stealing the golden apples but toHeracles, another son of Zeus, and Perseus's great-grandson.[18]
One of theTwelve Labours of the heroHeracles was to fetch some of the golden apples that grow inHera's garden, tended by Atlas's reputed daughters, theHesperides (which were also called the Atlantides), and guarded by the dragonLadon. Heracles went to Atlas and offered to hold up the heavens while Atlas got the apples from his daughters.[19]
Upon his return with the apples, however, Atlas attempted to trick Heracles into carrying the sky permanently by offering to deliver the apples himself, as anyone who purposely took the burden must carry it forever, or until someone else took it away. Heracles, suspecting Atlas did not intend to return, pretended to agree to Atlas's offer, asking only that Atlas take the sky again for a few minutes so Heracles could rearrange his cloak as padding on his shoulders. When Atlas set down the apples and took the heavens upon his shoulders again, Heracles took the apples and ran away.[citation needed]
In some versions,[20] Heracles instead built the two greatPillars of Hercules to hold the sky away from the earth, liberating Atlas much as he liberatedPrometheus.
Atlas and Heracles, metope from the temple of Zeus atOlympia.
According toPlato, the first king ofAtlantis was also namedAtlas, but that Atlas was a son ofPoseidon and the mortal woman Cleito.[21] The works ofEusebius[22] andDiodorus[3] also give an Atlantean account of Atlas. In these accounts, Atlas' father wasUranus and his mother wasGaia. His grandfather wasElium "King ofPhoenicia" who lived inByblos with his wifeBeruth. Atlas was raised by his sister,Basilia.[23][24][25]
Atlas was also a legendary king ofMauretania, the land of theMauri in antiquity roughly corresponding with modernMorocco. In the 16th century,Gerardus Mercator put together the first collection of maps to be called an "Atlas" and devoted his book to the "King of Mauretania".[24][26]
Atlas became associated with Northwest Africa over time. He had been connected with theHesperides, or "Nymphs", which guarded thegolden apples, andGorgons both of which were said to live beyond Ocean in the extreme west of the world sinceHesiod'sTheogony.[27]Diodorus andPalaephatus mention that the Gorgons lived in the Gorgades, islands in theAethiopian Sea. The main island was called Cerna, and modern-day arguments have been advanced that these islands may correspond toCape Verde due toPhoenician exploration.[28]
The Northwest Africa region emerged as the canonical home of the King via separate sources. In particular, according to Ovid, after Perseus turns Atlas into a mountain range, he flies overAethiopia, the blood of Medusa's head giving rise to Libyan snakes. By the time of theRoman Empire, the habit of associating Atlas's home to a chain of mountains, theAtlas Mountains, which were nearMauretania andNumidia, was firmly entrenched.[29]
The identifying nameAril is inscribed on two 5th-century BC Etruscan bronze items: a mirror fromVulci and a ring from an unknown site.[30] Both objects depict the encounter with Atlas ofHercle—the EtruscanHeracles—identified by the inscription; they represent rare instances where a figure fromGreek mythology was imported intoEtruscan mythology, but the name was not. The Etruscan nameAril is etymologically independent.[citation needed]
Sources describe Atlas as the father, by different goddesses, of numerous children, mostly daughters. Some of these are assigned conflicting or overlapping identities or parentage in different sources.
Atlas' best-known cultural association is incartography. The first publisher to associate the Titan Atlas with a group of maps was the print-sellerAntonio Lafreri, who included a depiction of the Titan on the engraved titlepage he applied to hisad hoc assemblages of maps,Tavole Moderne di Geografia de la Maggior parte del Mondo di Diversi Autori (1572).[39] However, Lafreri did not use the word "Atlas" in the title of his work; this was an innovation ofGerardus Mercator, who named his workAtlas Sive Cosmographicae Meditationes de Fabrica Mundi et Fabricati (1585–1595),[40] using the wordAtlas as a dedication specifically to honor the Titan Atlas, in his capacity as King ofMauretania, a learned philosopher, mathematician, and astronomer.
Ayn Rand's political dystopian novelAtlas Shrugged (1957) references the popular misconception of Atlas holding up the entire world on his back by comparing the capitalist and intellectual class as being "modern Atlases" who hold the modern world up at great expense to themselves.[citation needed]
Michael J. Anderson explains that the earliest Greek vase paintings and sculptures depict Atlas with a rigid stance, representing his bearing the burden of Zeus's everlasting punishment. The depiction of Atlas as a muscular figure under the weight of a celestial globe or vault visually express the Greek concept of suffering, resulting from arrogance and rebellion. These artistic patterns explore larger Greek art themes that portray Titans as a symbol of divine punishment and cosmic order.
"[Atlas] perfected the science of astrology and was the first to publish to mankind the doctrine of the sphere. and it was for this reason that the idea was held that the entire heavens were supported upon the shoulders of Atlas, the myth darkly hinting in this way at his discovery and description of the sphere."Bibliotheca historica, Book III 60.2
"Atlas was so grateful to Heracles for his kindly deed that he not only gladly gave him such assistance as his Labour called for, but he also instructed him quite freely in the knowledge of astrology. For Atlas had worked out the science of astrology to a degree surpassing others and had ingeniously discovered the spherical nature of the stars, and for that reason was generally believed to be bearing the entire firmament upon his shoulders. Similarly in the case of Heracles, when he had brought to the Greeks the doctrine of the sphere, he gained great fame, as if he had taken over the burden of the firmament which Atlas had borne, since men intimated in this enigmatic way what had actually taken place."Bibliotheca historica, Book IV 27.4–5
^Hesiod,Theogony507. It is possible that the nameAsia became preferred over Hesiod'sClymene to avoid confusion with what must be a differentOceanid namedClymene, who was mother ofPhaethon byHelios in some accounts.
^Homer,Odyssey,1.14,1.50. Calypso is sometimes referred to asAtlantis (Ατλαντίς), which means the daughter of Atlas, see the entryΑτλαντίς inLiddell & Scott, and alsoHesiod,Theogony,938.
^Aeneid iv.247: "Atlantis duri" and other instances; see Robert W. Cruttwell, "Virgil, Aeneid, iv. 247: 'Atlantis Duri'"The Classical Review59.1 (May 1945), p. 11.
^The usage inVirgil'smaximum Atlas axem umero torquet stellis ardentibus aptum (Aeneid, iv.481f, cf vi.796f), combining poetic and parascientific images, is discussed in P. R. Hardie, "Atlas and Axis"The Classical Quarterly N.S.33.1 (1983:220–228).
^a lost passage ofPindar quoted by Strabo (3.5.5) was the earliest reference in this context: "the pillars which Pindar calls the "gates of Gades" when he asserts that they are the farthermost limits reached by Heracles"; the passage in Pindar has not been traced.
^The "testimony of Eusebius" was "drawn from the most ancient historians" according to Mercator. Eusebius'Praeparatio evangelica gives accounts of Atlas that had been translated from the works ofancient PhoenicianSanchuniathon, the original sources for which predate theTrojan War (i.e. 13th century BCE).
^SeeBibliotheca historica, Book III, Eusebius'Praeparatio evangelica references the same mythology as Diodorus stating "These then are the principal heads of the theology held among the Atlanteans".
^Paolo Martini,Il nome etrusco di Atlante, (Rome:Università di Roma) 1987 investigates the etymology ofaril, rejecting a link to the verbal morphemear- ("support") in favor of a Phoenician etymon in an unattested possible form*'arrab(a), signifying "guarantor in a commercial transaction" with the connotation of "mediator", related to the Latin borrowingarillator, "middleman". This section and note depend on Rex Wallace's review of Martini inLanguage65.1 (March 1989:187–188).
^Although usually the daughter of Hyperion and Theia, as inHesiod,Theogony371–374, in theHomeric Hymn to Hermes (4),99–100, Selene is instead made the daughter of Pallas the son of Megamedes.
Akerman, J. R. (1994). "Atlas, la genèse d'un titre". In Watelet, M. (ed.).Gerardi Mercatoris, Atlas Europae. Antwerp: Bibliothèque des Amis du Fonds Mercator. pp. 15–29.
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![Nautilus Cup. This drinking vessel, for court feasts, depicts Atlas holding the shell on his back.[42] The Walters Art Museum](/mt/?noimg=&dark=on&url=http%3a%2f%2fwww.wikipedia.org%2fwiki%2fFile%3aDutch_-_Nautilus_Cup_-_Walters_57989_-_Profile.jpg)
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