Literary notes about ATLAS (AI summary)
The word atlas in literature carries a rich dual significance. On one hand, it represents a literal collection of maps—a guide for explorers and scholars mapping far-flung lands, as when a character consults one to pinpoint a location or navigate an unknown territory [1][2][3]. On the other hand, the term evokes the mythic Titan condemned to bear the heavens, symbolizing overwhelming responsibility or the monumental burden of fate, as illustrated by literary references to a figure who supports the world [4][5][6]. This blend of concrete cartographic utility with profound mythological metaphor enriches narratives, lending both geographical precision and timeless symbolic weight to descriptions of human endeavor and destiny [7][8].
- Then I got out an atlas and looked at a big map of the British Isles.
— from The Thirty-Nine Steps by John Buchan - " I hastened to the home of my Uncle Sarada and borrowed an atlas.
— from Autobiography of a Yogi by Paramahansa Yogananda - Herbert fetched the atlas, and the map of the Pacific was opened, and the engineer, compass in hand, prepared to determine their position.
— from The Mysterious Island by Jules Verne - We talk about our “fate,” brace up our shoulders, and sigh, “Unfortunate Atlas that I am!”
— from The Dawn of Day by Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche - These thirty leagues of the crust of the earth weighed upon my shoulders like the globe on the shoulders of Atlas.
— from A Journey to the Centre of the Earth by Jules Verne - Atlas good-naturedly threw down the apples and once more resumed his load, upon which Heracles bade him adieu, and departed.
— from Myths and Legends of Ancient Greece and Rome by E. M. Berens - The journey began with lift-off on August 27 from Cape Canaveral atop an Atlas Agena-B launch vehicle.
— from Rockets, Missiles, and Spacecraft of the National Air and Space Museum, Smithsonian Institution - And so Necker, Atlas-like, sustains the burden of the Finances, for five years long?
— from The French Revolution: A History by Thomas Carlyle
