Atlas
From ArticleWorld
Atlas is a collection of maps, which traditionally bound into book form. These are also found in multimedia formats. As well as geographic features and political boundaries, many often feature geopolitical, racial, social, religious, population, and economic statistics.
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Misconception
The origin of the term atlas is a common source of misconception. This may be due to two different mythical figures named 'Atlas' that are commonly associated with cartography.
King Atlas
King Atlas, a mythical King of Mauretania, was, according to legend, a wise philosopher, mathematician, and astronomer who made the first celestial globe. It was King Atlas that Mercator was referring to. When he first used the name 'Atlas', he was using the King’s name and he included a depiction of the King on the title-page.
Atlas of the Greek
The Atlas of the Greek Mythology is more known. He was the son of the Titan Iapetus and Clymene, he was also the brother of Prometheus. Zeus had punished Atlas and subjected him to bear the weight of the heavens and earth on his back. Homer refers to this Atlas in his epic, The Odyssey, as "one who knows the depths of the whole sea, and keeps the tall pillars who hold heaven and earth asunder".
In works of art, this Atlas is represented as carrying the heavens or the terrestrial globe on his shoulders. The earliest of this depiction is the Farnese Atlas, which is now housed at the Museo Archeologico Nazionale Napoli in Naples, Italy. This particular figure is frequently found on the cover or title-pages of atlases.
This is particularly true of atlases published by Dutch publishers during the seventeenth century. The image became associated with Dutch merchants, and a statue of this figure adorns the front of the World Trade Center in Amsterdam.
Outlook
With the name Atlas used for so many years, it has developed itself as the name for these books of maps and will not change as the term is used in most countries and throughout the world.