Object ID
2013.3.1
Object Name
Map
Object Collection
Date Created
February 6, 2013, 1853
Medium
Ink
Material
Paper; Wood
Object Entities
Mitchell, Samuel (created by)
Koktzoglou, Savvas (owned by)
Koktzoglou, Savvas (is related to)
Mitchell, Samuel (is related to)
Object Description
An S.A. Mitchell Sr's 1853 English map of Greece. Covers from Ioannina and Triehala south to include Euboea and the Peloponnese. It is color coded according to region. There is an inset map in the lower left quadrant detailing Candia or the Island of Crete. Surrounded by a green boarder and in a brown wooden frame. Has the plate number 63. on the bottom right corner. The green boarder surronding the map is common to Mitchell maps from the 1850s.
Origin
The 1853 map of Greece was donated by Savvas Koktzoglou. The map is plate number 63 from the 1853 edition of Samuel Augustus Mitchell's New Universal Atlas. Mitchell was born in Connecticut and worked as a teacher before developing an interest in geography. His inspiration in developing maps came from the lack of reliable resources available to teachers. The green boarder surronding the map is common to Mitchell maps from the 1850s.

Atlas is a term strongly associated with Greek mythology. There are two different mythical figures associated with 'Atlas'.
King Atlas, a mythical King of Mauretania, was according to legend a wise philosopher, mathematician and astronomer who supposedly made the first celestial globe. It was this Atlas to whom Gerardus Mercator was referring when he first used the name "atlas", and he included a depiction of the King on the title-page. --"Mercator, father of the atlas, turns 500". German Embassy's Department for Press, Information and Public Affairs. 6 March 2012. Retrieved 7 March 2012.--
--Mark S. Monmonier (2004). Rhumb Lines and Map Wars: A Social History of the Mercator Projection. University of Chicago Press. ISBN 978-0-226-53431-2.--
However, the more widely known Atlas is a figure from Greek mythology. He is the son of the Titan Iapetus and Clymene (or Asia), and brother of Prometheus. Atlas was punished by Zeus and made to bear the weight of the heavens (the idea of Atlas carrying the Earth is not correct according to the original myth) on his back. One of Heracles's labours was to collect the apples of the Hesperides, guarded by Ladon. Heracles went to Atlas and reasoned with him. Eventually, Atlas agreed to collect the apples, and Heracles was left to carry the weight. Atlas tried to leave Heracles there, but Heracles tricked him and Atlas was left to carry the heavens forever. In his epic Odyssey, Homer refers to this Atlas as "one who knows the depths of the whole sea, and keeps the tall pillars who hold heaven and earth asunder"
Rights and Reproduction
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Citation
Map, February 6, 2013, 1853, Savvas Koktzoglou's Map, National Hellenic Museum, https://collections.nationalhellenicmuseum.org/Detail/objects/9539. Accessed 04/18/24.