A brief note on Ayn Rand and Objectivism
Atlas did not carry the world on his shoulders. He carried the sky on his shoulders, while standing on the earth (specifically, just outside the Gardens of the Hesperides).
If he had been carrying the earth on his shoulders, what would he have stood on?
(according to numerous artists from the Classical period to the present day, the answer is apparently "a rather ridiculous-looking little plinth", but this is hardly going to pass any test of rigorous analytical logic, is it? Examine your premises!)
Since the Greeks knew the earth was round, presumably what Atlas was actually doing was keeping the hollow heaven-sphere one Atlas-worth in distance away from the Earthsphere concentrically within it, and any sculptures that weren't see-through would just feature the outside of the heaven-sphere: ie a big marble ball.
ReplyDeleteIf he had been carrying the earth on his shoulders, what would he have stood on?
ReplyDeleteA turtle, duh.
There were actually quite a number of Greeks, and the ones who knew the earth was round all came significantly later than the ones who came up with the story about Atlas having to hold up the sky.
ReplyDeleteSo there was this in-between stage where Greek sculptors believed the Earth was flat but the sky came in ball-shape?
ReplyDeletePresumably he could have stood on Archimedes' "place to stand".
ReplyDeleteIf you look closely, most of the old sculptures are actually of Atlas holding up the heaven-sphere. Seems it may be mostly a modern error to replace that with an earth-sphere instead.
ReplyDeleteCosmas Indiopleustes, ca 550 AD, Greek geographer, Christian theologian, and flat earth theorist: http://www.ccel.org/ccel/pearse/morefathers/files/cosmas_00_1_preface.htm
ReplyDeleteDrawings:
http://www.ccel.org/ccel/pearse/morefathers/files/cosmas13-plate1.gif
Cosmas Indiopleustes, ca 550 AD, Greek geographer, Christian theologian, and flat earth theorist: Text
ReplyDeleteDrawings
"If he had been carrying the earth on his shoulders, what would he have stood on?"
ReplyDeleteHis own superior will and creativity blah blah blah.......... ad Randism
The point, presumably, is that when he shrugs, the sky falls in.
ReplyDelete(I shall now commence six years' hard labour for attempting to make sense of Ayn Rand. ttfn)
On his hands! Duh.
ReplyDeleteAtlas was both extremely tall and extremely flexible; he was standing on, and supporting, the earth, but at different ends.
ReplyDelete