I
Collection of maps or charts, usually bound together.
The name derives from a custom
initiated by
of using the figure of the Titan Atlas , holding the globe on his shoulders, as a frontispiece for books of maps. Abraham Ortelius's Epitome of the Theater of the World (1570) is generally thought to be the first modern atlas. Atlases often contain pictures, tabular data, facts about areas, and indexes of place-names keyed to coordinates of latitude and longitude or to a locational grid with numbers and letters along the sides of maps.
II
Male figure used as a column to support an entablature , balcony, or other projection, originating in Classical architecture.
Such figures are posed as if supporting great weights, like Atlas bearing the world. The related telamon of Roman architecture, the male counterpart of the caryatid , is also a weight-bearing figure but does not usually appear in an atlas pose.
III
[c mediumvioletred] (as used in expressions)
Atlas Mountains
Atlas rocket
{{link=Atlas Charles">Atlas Charles