Today’s post is a day late because I wanted to coincide with something exciting—the title reveal of ‘Book 2’ in the Scarlet Cherie: Vampire Series…
SCALDING WATERS!
Now, today we will be looking at the etymology of a slightly obscure word: atlas.
Why, Ayshen, are we looking at this particular word, you might be asking? Well, that’s because the word “Atlas” plays an important part in Scalding Waters. Without giving too much away, we are introduced to a new venue called Atlas, and this particular name plays an important role in the life of one of the main characters. If you’re wondering who, well, you’re just going to have to wait and see…
I did worry that the word didn’t have a lot of history to it, and might be boring, but actually, it’s a very interesting topic with a rich history.
So, like most of these blogs, it seems, it all started in Ancient times. Greece, to be specific. We’ve delved a lot into Ancient Rome on this blog, so I think it will be nice to look into some more of Greek mythology. Especially considering one of the leading roles in the Scarlet Cherie: Vampire Series is Nikolaos Midas, a vampire from Ancient Greece.
🎶 "I've got a plan; I've got an atlas in my hands. " 🎶
In Greek Mythology, Atlas was a Titan who, after the Titanomachy, was condemned to hold up the heavens for eternity. Atlas also comes into play in two major stories of Greek mythological heroes: Heracles, and Perseus. Atlas was the son of the Titan Iapetus and the Oceanid (nymph) Asia.
According to the Ancient Greek poet Hesiod, Atlas stood at the ends of the earth in the extreme west—where lived the Hesperides, or the nymphs of the evening and sunsets. Nymphs also play a very important role in The Fire Within My Heart—or one nymph in particular, Scarlet Cherie herself. The Hesperides are also known as the Atlantides, as, depending on what story you read, some myths claim Atlas to be their father.
Atlas also become associated with the Atlas Mountains in northwest Africa and was said to be the first King of Mauretania. Atlas was also credited with inventing the first celestial sphere, and some claim him to have invented astrology itself. The “Atlantic Ocean” is derived from “Sea of Atlas”. As well as this, the name of Atlantis comes from “Atlantis nesos” which translates to “Atlas’s Island.”
The Theatre of the World
Abraham Ortelius and Gerardus Mercator are the grandfathers of the modern atlases as we know them—including the name coming to have the modern meaning of a book of maps or charts.
Ortelius, born in the Netherlands in 1527, was a Brabantian cartographer, geographer, and cosmographer. Now, some of you might know what all of those words mean, but I didn’t, so, before we look further at the life and work of Ortelius, I’m going to put a definition of each of them.
Brabantian:
“The Duchy of Brabant was a State of the Holy Roman Empire established in 1183. It developed from the Landgraviate of Brabant and formed the heart of the historic Low Countries, part of the Burgundian Netherlands from 1430 and of the Habsburg Netherlands from 1482, until it was partitioned after the Dutch revolt.” (Wikipedia)
Cartographer:
“One that makes maps. Examples: A cartographer was brought in to create new graphical representations of the shoreline that had been reshaped by erosion." (Merriam Webster)
Cosmography:
“1. The mapping of the universe as a whole system.
“2. A general description or depiction of the world or universe.” (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language)
Now, back to good ol’ Ortelius. Ortelius is generally recognised as the creator of the modern atlas. In 1570, he published the Theatrum Orbis Terrarum (Theatre of the World), which came to be known as the first-ever modern atlas. Theatrum Orbis Terrarum wasn’t the first map he published, nor the last, but it might be the most famous and significant to the name and face of atlases across the world.
Ortelius is also considered one of the founders of the Netherlandish School of Cartography, and was one of their most notable figures during the school’s “golden age”—around 1570–1670. The publication of Theatrum Orbis Terrarum is now considered the official start of the golden age of Netherlandish cartography. It is also thought that Ortelius was one of the first people to imagine that the continents were all joined as one before departing to their current positions in the world.
Born in Rupelmonde, County of Flanders (modern-day Belgium) in the year 1512, Gerardus Mercator is the other prominent name in the history of maps and atlases. It was Mercator who first coined the term atlas for a collection of maps. Similarly to Ortelius, Mercator was a cartographer, geographer, and cosmographer considered a huge name during the golden age of the Netherlandish School of Cartography. In his day, he was famous for making globes as well as scientific instruments and was a revered name in his respective field. However, Mercator also had a keen interest in theology, philosophy, history, mathematics and geomagnetism, as well as having a finesse for engraving and calligraphy.
Throughout his life, Mercator made many great pieces of work, from books, to maps, to globes. But, in 1595, he released a particular piece of work called Atlas Sive Cosmographicae Meditationes de Fabrica Mundi et Fabricati Figura (Atlas or cosmographical meditations upon the creation of the universe, and the universe as created). You might not think a title as long and clunky as this would catch on, but it definitely did.
This was the first time that a collection of maps had “atlas” in the title, as well as a title page with an image of King Atlas holding up a globe. Thus starting a new tradition in the world of cartography. Less than half of the pages in the atlas were maps. To name a few, the title page, as I said before, showed King Atlas, a portrait of Mercator, a dedication to the Dukes of Cleves, two epitaphs, and an ode to King Atlas (who Mercator deemed the first great geographer), as well as Mercator’s genealogy of Atlas in which he described his future plans for the rest of the book—a description of the creation of events, followed by all that was created in the heavens, and finally a description of the Earth and its geography, all of which aligned with his many personal interests. Of this, Mercator only managed to complete a description of the creation of events and the geography of the Earth.
The first part of the book, named De mundi creatione ac fabrica liber (The creation of the world and the structure of the book) consisted of 27 pages of text and theology of creation, in addition to the events of creation, the elements created (such as animals, plants, sun, moon, stars, man), the Fall of Man and, finally, the salvation of creation through Christ.
Unfortunately, this atlas was published posthumously, which meant that Mercator never got to see the magnitude of his influence over the world of maps.
So, this concludes the brief history of atlases—but that does bring us to the present. Some of you might know Dewi Hargreaves from following his work and social media, or from our blog together a few weeks ago (Writing: Lore and Worldbuilding (With Guest Author Dewi Hargreaves)). He takes commissions to make maps for fantasy and fictional lands, bringing the wonderful worlds of us authors to life. If you haven’t checked his stuff out, I would really recommend taking a look.
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