Ἄτλας

Forms

Ἄτλᾱς (Átlās) m (genitive Ἄτλαντος); third declension^[1]

Etymology

Beekes considers the name Pre-Greek: an ancient Titan can hardly be expected to bear an Indo-European name, and Pre-Greek words often end in -ant-.^[2][3] He thinks it was first the name of an Arcadian mountain god, later transferred to the mountain range in north-western Africa.^[2][4]

The older explanation, given by Frisk, LSJ and the DGE, makes it a formation from the prefix ἀ- (a-) and the stem of ἔτλην (étlēn, “to endure, dare”), from Proto-Indo-European *telh₂- (“to lift, bear”), later remodelled as a stem in -ντ-, so that the name would mean “the bearer”.^[4][5][6][7] Frisk points to the compound Ἀτλαγενής (Atlagenḗs, “born of Atlas”) in Hesiod, which still shows the plain stem.^[4][2] The name of the African range has also been compared with a Berber word for “mountain”, and Brandenstein thought the Greek form a folk-etymological reshaping of it, which Beekes finds plausible.^[2][4][7]

Earliest recorded meaning

The name first appears in the Odyssey, where Atlas is the father of Calypso and the one who holds the tall pillars that keep earth and sky apart.^[8][2][5]

Semantic evolution

From Hesiod and Aeschylus on, Atlas is one of the Titans, who carries the sky on his shoulders.^[5][9] Herodotus and later historians and geographers give the name to a mountain in north-western Africa, regarded as the pillar of heaven, and Dionysius Periegetes uses it for the Atlantic Ocean.^[5][9][10] Plato makes Atlas the first king of Atlantis, and Menander uses him as the type of a strong man.^[9]

The figure of a bearer gave the word technical senses: in the plural, colossal statues that support an entablature in architecture, and in anatomy the topmost vertebra of the neck, which carries the head.^[5] Hesychius explains it as the axis of the earth.^[5]

The derivatives Ἀτλαντίς (Atlantís) and Ἀτλαντικός (Atlantikós) go back to the same name.^[4] The English word atlas for a book of maps comes from Mercator's Atlas (1585), whose title page showed the Titan holding up the world, and Modern Greek άτλας (átlas) has the same sense.^[7][11]

Timeline

• Homer – The Odyssey names Atlas as the father of Calypso and the keeper of the pillars of heaven.^[8][5]
• Before the 6th century BC – Hesiod's Theogony counts him among the Titans.^[5][12]
• 6th to 5th century BC – Aeschylus' Prometheus Bound has him bearing the sky.^[5][9]
• 5th century BC – Herodotus gives the name to a mountain in north-western Africa.^[5][9][10]
• 5th to 4th century BC – Plato makes Atlas the first king of Atlantis.^[9]
• 1st century BC – Vitruvius uses the plural for statues that support an entablature.^[5]
• 2nd century AD – Pollux uses it for the topmost vertebra of the neck.^[5]
• 1580s – The English word atlas is first recorded as the Titan's name, and in 1636 it is first used of a book of maps.^[7]

Meanings

Proper noun

1. Atlas, a god who holds up the sky, later one of the Titans, son of Iapetus.^[5][9]
2. Mount Atlas, the mountain range in north-western Africa, seen as a pillar of heaven.^[5][9]
3. The Atlantic Ocean.^[5]
4. The first king of Atlantis.^[9]
5. The axis of the earth.^[5][13]
6. (in the plural, architecture) Colossal statues used as supports for an entablature.^[5]
7. (anatomy) The topmost vertebra of the neck, which supports the head.^[5]

Word family

• Ἀτλαντίς (Atlantís)
• Ἀτλαντικός (Atlantikós)

Related words

• ἔτλην (étlēn)
• English atlas
• English Atlantic

Usage notes

The Suda records the proverb “Atlas the heaven” (with “you lifted up” understood), said of people who take on great tasks and meet with misfortune.^[14][15]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Beekes, Robert S. P. (2010), Etymological Dictionary of Greek, with the assistance of Lucien van Beek, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 10, Leiden; Boston: Brill
3. ^ Beekes, Robert S. P. (2014), Pre-Greek: Phonology, Morphology, Lexicon, ed. Stefan Norbruis, Leiden; Boston: Brill
4. ^ a b c d e Frisk, Hjalmar (1960–1972), Griechisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3 vols, Heidelberg: Carl Winter
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge
7. ^ a b c d Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
8. ^ a b Cunliffe, Richard John (1924), A Lexicon of the Homeric Dialect, London: Blackie and Son
9. ^ a b c d e f g h i Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
10. ^ a b Cancik, Hubert; Schneider, Helmuth, eds. (2002–2010), Brill's New Pauly: Encyclopaedia of the Ancient World, Leiden: Brill
11. ^ Babiniotis, Georgios (2010), Ετυμολογικό λεξικό της νέας ελληνικής γλώσσας [Etymological Dictionary of Modern Greek], Athens: Κέντρο Λεξικολογίας
12. ^ Keersmaekers, Alek (2021–2025), GLAUx: The Greek Language Automated corpus, https://github.com/alekkeersmaekers/glaux
13. ^ Hesychius of Alexandria, Lexicon, ed. Kurt Latte (Α–Ο, Copenhagen 1953–1966) and Moritz Schmidt (Π–Ω, Jena 1858–1868)
14. ^ Adler, Ada, ed. (1928–1938), Suidae Lexicon, 5 vols, Leipzig: Teubner
15. ^ Suda On Line: Byzantine Lexicography, ed. David Whitehead et al., Stoa Consortium, https://www.cs.uky.edu/~raphael/sol/