Atlas (anatomy)

“ The myth of Atlas is an allegory easily understood. Atlas is the old Continents of Lemuria and Atlantis, combined and personified in one symbol. The poets attribute to Atlas, as to Proteus, a superior wisdom and a universal knowledge, and especially a thorough acquaintance with the depths of the ocean; for both Continents bore Races instructed by divine Masters, and both were transferred to the bottom of the seas, where they now slumber until their next reäppearance above the waters. ”

“ The earliest notices we find are extremely vague, and partake of that fabulous character with which the W. extremity of the known earth was invested. On the connection of the name with the mythical personage, nothing requires to be added to what has been said under Atlas in the Dictionary of Mythology and Biography.
As a purely geographical term, the name occurs first in Herodotus, whose Atlas is not a chain of mountains, but an isolated mountain in the line of his imaginary crest of sand, which has been already mentioned, giving name to a people inhabiting one of the oases in that ridge. ”

“ The accuracy, wherever we have attempted to put it to the test, is really astonishing."–Saturday Review.
"The culmination of all attempts to depict the face of the world appears in the Royal Atlas, than which it is impossible to conceive anything more perfect."–Monday Herald.
"This is, beyond question, the most splendid and luxurious, as well as the most useful and complete, of all existing atlases."–Guardian.
"There has not, we believe, been produced for general public use a body of maps equal in beauty and completeness to the Royal Atlas just issued by Mr A. K. Johnston."–Examiner. ”

“ Hyginus says that Atlas assisted the giants in their wars against the gods, for which Jupiter compelled him to bear the heavens on his shoulders. The fable that Atlas supported the heavens on his back, arises from his fondness for astronomy, and his often frequenting elevated places and mountains, whence he might observe the heavenly bodies. ”

“ The celestial globe topping the goblet is given an artistic setting. It is furnished with horizon, meridian, and hour circles. The several constellations represented on the surface of the sphere are, through gilding, given special prominence, their execution, like other parts of the piece, being of the finest workmanship.
The figure of Atlas supporting the globes exhibits skill in its construction. It stands with one foot slightly advanced, with the right hand extended upward as if to catch the ball should it fall from the head of the figure. ”

“ This globe of marble is not so mounted as to permit its revolution, resting as it does upon the shoulders of the mythical Atlas, yet in its representation of the figures of the several constellations, then recognized by astronomers, it differs practically but little from the celestial globes, that is, solid spheres, constructed a millennium and a half later.182 We cannot, however, draw the conclusion from this one example that such globes were generally looked upon as practical instruments for use in astronomical studies, yet there clearly were those who did so regard them. ”

“ The Atlas, which shall be on the left of Night, you shall represent as a Mountain, with the breast, arms, and all the upper part of the body, that of a strong, muscular, bearded man, in the act of supporting the Heavens, which is his usual attitude. Lower down, and opposite to the Vigilance which we have placed beneath Aurora, should be Sleep ”

“ I knew too little of the real heavens to be able to point out every object so as to find it again without losing too much time by consulting the Atlas. But all these troubles were removed when I knew my brother to be at no great distance making observations with his various instruments on double stars, planets, &c., and I could have his assistance immediately when I found a nebula, or cluster of stars, of which I intended to give a catalogue ”

“ This conception is perhaps the first of these guesses through which the Greek mind attempted to explain the apparent fixity of the earth. To ask what supports the earth in space is most natural, but the answer given by Anaximander, like that more familiar Greek solution which transformed the cone, or cylinder, into the giant Atlas, is but another illustration of that substitution of unwarranted inference for scientific induction which we have already so often pointed out as characteristic of the primitive stages of thought. ”

“ Every one has some sort of an atlas, doubtless, but an old atlas is no better than an old directory; countries do not move away, as do people, but they do change and our knowledge of them increases, and this atlas, made in 1897 from new plates, is perfect and up to date and covers every point on
The Great Round World. ”

“ They are given in the natural size, and each whorl is accompanied by its section. The depth at which each object was found among the layers of débris is a matter of such moment (as will be seen from Dr. Schliemann’s work) that the Editor felt bound to undertake the great labour of identifying each with the representation of the same object in the Atlas, where the depth is marked, to which, unfortunately, the drawings gave no reference. The few whorls that remain unmarked with their depth have either escaped this repeated search, or are not represented in the Atlas. ”

“ Again, figures in the form of men supporting mutules or coronae, we term "telamones"—the reasons why or wherefore they are so called are not found in any story—but the Greeks name them ἁτλανες. For Atlas is described in story as holding up the firmament because, through his vigorous intelligence and ingenuity, he was the first to cause men to be taught about the courses of the sun and moon, and the laws governing the revolutions of all the constellations. ”

“ The support is a standing figure of Atlas, which also serves as a stem of the lower half or the lower goblet, just as the celestial sphere 200with its support which tops the piece serves as the stem of the upper half or upper goblet.
The oceans, lakes, and rivers have a silver surface, while the continents, islands, sea monsters, sailing vessels, principal parallels, and meridians are gilded. The continents of Europe, Asia, and Africa, and the “terra australis sive Magallanica” have their outlines drawn in the main as they appear on Mercator’s map of 1569. ”

“ ATLAS, we read in ancient song,
Was so exceeding tall and strong,
He bore the skies upon his back,
Just as the pedlar does his pack;
But, as a pedlar overpress'd,
Unloads upon a stall to rest,
Or, when he can no longer stand,
Desires a friend to lend a hand;
So Atlas, lest the ponderous spheres
Should sink, and fall about his ears,
Got Hercules to bear the pile,
That he might sit and rest a while. ”

“ Four figures of Atlas supporting the world were to serve as the legs of this table, and around the sides of the top were to be carved scenes illustrative of the progress of civilization since the building of Solomon's temple. Upon the four edges of the top were to be inlaid mosaic portraits of the most famous scientists, including Aesculapius, Moses, Galileo, Darwin, Herschel, Mitchell, Huxley, Harvey, Jenner, etc., and the top itself was to represent a cunningly devised map of the world, in which my native town of Biddeford, Maine, was to appear as the central and most conspicuous figure. ”

“ What we now term Atlas is a long ridge. How came the Romans to recognise in this long ridge the isolated conical mountain of Herodotus? May not the reason be found in the optical delusion by which every mountain chain seen in profile, in the prolongation of its direction, has the appearance of a narrow cone? I have often seen in this manner, from the sea, the ends of long chains or ridges, which might be taken for isolated mountains. According to Höst the Atlas is covered near Morocco with perpetual snow, which implies an elevation of above 1800 toises, or 11510 English feet. ”

“ For, during the ten years’ penance in the place not recognised by the Atlas, he had carefully abstained from all manner of washing, and had not so much as breathed the name of soap. Suddenly the watchman removed his eye from the telescope, and cried: “Listen, ye that are within the house. For on the road is a curious geological formation [94] that walks, and a staff is stuck in a projecting portion of one of its upper strata.” ”

“ Mollweide, S. Die Mappierungskunst des Ptolemaus. (In: Zachs Monatliche Korrespondence zur Beförderung der Erd- und Himmelskunde. Weimar. Bd. 11, pp. 322 ff.) ; Nordenskiöld, A. E. Facsimile Atlas. Stockholm, 1889. This last-named work gives consideration to the Atlas of Ptolemy, to the numerous editions of his Geographia, to his geographical errors. The twenty-seven maps printed in the 1490 Rome edition of the Atlas are reproduced. See also the printed lists of the editions of Ptolemy’s Atlas by Eames, W., Winsor, J., Philipps, P. L. ”

“ The globe ball is supported by a bronze figure of Atlas, the whole standing 86 cm. in height. Tycho Brahe is the accredited authority for the representation of the several fixed stars.
Erhard Weigel (1625-1699) 65 has place among the globe makers of the period as one who sought to reform, and, in some measure, to popularize both astronomical and geographical science, particularly the former, applying his own inventive ability to that end in the matter of globe construction. ”

“ The giant buttresses of the Atlas Mountains, red and purple with the glow of the morning and twilight sun, look down upon a tempestuous mountain torrent which has cut its way athwart their core, and grim and crag-eaten rocks, buried deep within their own bowlder masses, wall off with heights of three thousand to five thousand feet the gray and yellow panorama of shifting sands—the warm heart of the southern Sahara. ”

“ Diodorus Siculus attributes the discovery of the use of the globe to Atlas of Libya.
25 Berger. Geschichte, pt. 2, p. 135; Friedrich, R. Materialien zur Begriffsbestimmung des Orbis Terrarum. Leipzig, 1887.
26 A belief in the existence of antipodal peoples, very clearly was accepted by Pythagoras, Eratosthenes, Crates, Posidonius, Aristotle, Strabo, and later by Capella. Numerous others presupposed the earth to be globular in shape. See Kretschmer, K. Die physische Erdkunde im christlichen Mittelalter. Wien, 1889. pp. ”

“ The remark is just: but although the dimensions of such a crust are, in truth, insignificant when compared to the entire globe, yet they are vast, and of magnificent extent in relation to man, and to the organic beings which people our globe. Referring to this standard of magnitude, the geologist may admire the ample limits of his domain, and admit, at the same time, that not only the exterior of the planet, but the entire earth, is but an atom in the midst of the countless worlds surveyed by the astronomer. ”

“ For if we stick the paper discs on the globe, so that no disc overlaps another, the surface of the globe will finally become so full that there is no room for another disc. This simply means that the spherical surface of the globe is finite in relation to the paper discs. Further, the spherical surface is a non-Euclidean continuum of two dimensions, that is to say, the laws of disposition for the rigid figures lying in it do not agree with those of the Euclidean plane. ”

“ By methods, the history and description of which we have not here sufficient space to give, it has been proved that the earth is, in form, a globe, or more strictly an ellipsoid, slightly drawn in at the poles and swollen round the equator. The polar diameter is 7899 miles, and the equatorial diameter 7926 miles, the difference amounting to only 27 miles. Thus, for ordinary purposes, we may regard the earth as being a true sphere. ”

“ The shell thus formed is then cut along the line of the intended equator into two hemispheres, they are then again glued together and made to revolve round an axis the ends of which passed through the poles and entered a metal meridian circle. The sphere is then coated with plaster or whiting, and when it has been smoothed on a lathe and dried, the lines representing meridians and parallels are drawn upon it. Finally the globe is covered with the paper gores upon which the map is drawn. The adaption of these gores to the curvature of the sphere calls for great care. ”

“ Radio-astronomy is about star systems, cosmic physics, dynamics, even about the notion, so often discarded, of the beginning of the universe. The geometry of higher (than three) space dimensions is not about the visible-the surveyed land, building, or ornament-never mind the magical spirits inhabiting it. Such geometries submit theoretical constructs supporting a practice of thinking, explaining, even acting, that is not possible without the generalization of space dimensions. ”

“ But as the construction progresses it becomes more and more patent that the disposition of the discs in the manner indicated, without interruption, is not possible, as it should be possible by Euclidean geometry of the the plane surface. In this way creatures which cannot leave the spherical surface, and cannot even peep out from the spherical surface into three-dimensional space, might discover, merely by experimenting with discs, that their two-dimensional "space" is not Euclidean, but spherical space. ”

“ But these spheres are not to be rigid in the sense of Euclidean geometry; their radius is to increase (in the sense of Euclidean geometry) when they are moved away from S towards infinity, and this increase is to take place in exact accordance with the same law as applies to the increase of the radii of the disc-shadows L' on the plane.
After having gained a vivid mental image of the geometrical behaviour of our L' spheres, let us assume that in our space there are no rigid bodies at all in the sense of Euclidean geometry, but only bodies having the behaviour of our L' spheres. ”