The Atlas of the Earth

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The usage in Virgil's maximum 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). The term Atlas has been used to describe a collection of maps since the 16th century when Flemish geographer Gerardus Mercator published his work in honour of the mythological Titan. One of the Twelve Labours of the hero Heracles was to fetch some of the golden apples that grow in Hera's garden, tended by Atlas's reputed daughters, the Hesperides (which were also called the Atlantides), and guarded by the dragon Ladon. Heracles went to Atlas and offered to hold up the heavens while Atlas got the apples from his daughters. [19] In North America (which includes Central America and the Caribbean), there are 23 sovereign countries, eight inhabited dependent territories, and about a dozen or so other territories, remnants from the colonial period, nicely named overseas departments, overseas collectivities, and constituent countries. And there is Greenland, the largest island in the world is a dependency of the Kingdom of Denmark. In some versions, [20] Heracles instead built the two great Pillars of Hercules to hold the sky away from the earth, liberating Atlas much as he liberated Prometheus.

Dependencies are territorial units that do not have full political independence or sovereignty; they are under the jurisdiction of a sovereign state such as France, the United Kingdom, or the United States, but are not formally annexed. Not included in the IMF list, nor the United Nations list, are some country-like territories, geopolitical units that are de facto autonomous but disputed or otherwise not generally recognized, such as Abkhazia, Northern Cyprus, Saharawi (Western Sahara), Somaliland, and Transnistria, which would add five more countries to the list. 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 Lemprière, J. (1833). Anthon, C. (ed.). A Classical Dictionary. New York: G. & C. & H. Carvill [etc.] LCCN 31001224. OCLC 81170896.For further comment on Mercator's chosen Titanic genealogy see Keuning (1947), Akerman (1994) and Ramachandran (2015), p.42 Atlas was the son of the Titans Iapetus and Clymene, and his siblings were Epimetheus, Menoetius and Prometheus. He also fathered the nymph Calypso and Maia who was one of the Pleiades and mother of the messenger God Hermes. A common misconception today is that Atlas was forced to hold the Earth on his shoulders, not the heavens Abkhazia ■ Artsakh ■ Kosovo ■ Northern Cyprus ■ Palestine ■ Somaliland ■ South Ossetia ■ Taiwan ■ Tatarstan ■ Transnistria ■ Western Sahara The enchanted and sometimes surreal landscapes of Earth View have the ability to elevate our minds from our tiny screens to outer space. Hopefully, this can also move us to care more deeply about our fragile planet.

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 of ancient Phoenician Sanchuniathon, the original sources for which predate the Trojan War (i.e. 13th century BCE). Hyginus, Gaius Julius, Fabulae, in The Myths of Hyginus, edited and translated by Mary A. Grant, Lawrence: University of Kansas Press, 1960. Online version at ToposText. George Doig, "Vergil's Art and the Greek Language" The Classical Journal 64.1 (October 1968, pp. 1-6) p. 2.The " Atlantic Ocean" is derived from "Sea of Atlas". The name of Atlantis mentioned in Plato's Timaeus' dialogue derives from "Atlantis nesos" ( Ancient Greek: Ἀτλαντὶς νῆσος), literally meaning "Atlas's Island". [8] Etymology [ edit ] Atlas and the Hesperides by John Singer Sargent (1925) The heat sources overlay shows points of very high temperature detected by satellite. Detections are updated daily with data from NASA FIRMS. The most famous myth involving Atlas is his role in the Twelve Labours of Hercules. Hercules was commanded by King Eurystheus to steal the golden apples from the fabled gardens of the Hesperides. For example, Taiwan (ROC), the island state off the southeast coast of China, with a functioning multi-party democracy and a population of 23.6 million people, has an uncertain political status. Both the ROC and China (PRC) still officially (constitutionally) claim mainland China and the Taiwan Area as part of their territories. van Egmond, Marco. "The 'Atlas' by Mercator and Hondius". Utrecht University . Retrieved 21 September 2023.