Earth symbol

A variety of symbols or iconographic conventions are used to represent Earth, whether in the sense of planet Earth, or the inhabited world, or as a classical element. A circle representing the round world, with the rivers of Garden of Eden separating the four corners of the world, or rotated 45ยฐ to suggest the four continents, remains a common pictographic convention to express the notion of "worldwide". The current astronomical symbol for the planet is a circle with an intersecting cross, An equilateral cross enclosed in a circle.[1] Although the International Astronomical Union (IAU) now discourages the use of planetary symbols, this is an exception, being used in abbreviations such as M๐Ÿœจ for Earth mass.[2]

๐Ÿœจ โ™
โ˜ท ๐Ÿœƒ
Earth symbol
In Unicode
U+1F728 ๐Ÿœจ ALCHEMICAL SYMBOL FOR VERDIGRIS
U+2641 โ™ EARTH (Globus cruciger)
U+2637 โ˜ท TRIGRAM FOR EARTH
U+1F703 ๐Ÿœƒ ALCHEMICAL SYMBOL FOR EARTH
Different from
Different fromU+23DA โš EARTH GROUND
Electrical earth (ground)

History

The earliest type of symbols are allegories, personifications or deifications, mostly in the form of an Earth goddess (in the case of Egyptian mythology a god, Geb).[3]

Before the recognition of the spherical shape of the Earth in the Hellenistic period, the main attribute of the Earth was its being flat.[4][5] The Egyptian hieroglyph for "earth, land" depicts a stretch of flat alluvial land with grains of sand (Gardiner N16: ๐“‡พ). The Sumerian cuneiform sign for "earth, place" KI (๐’† ) originates as a picture of a "threshing floor", and the Chinese character (ๅœŸ) originated as a lump of clay on a potting wheel.

Earth, the classical element

In Chinese mysticism, the classical element "Earth" is represented by the trigram of three broken lines in the I Ching (โ˜ท).[6]

The Western (early modern) alchemical symbol for earth is a downward-pointing triangle bisected by a horizontal line (๐Ÿœƒ).[7] Other symbols for the earth in alchemy or mysticism include the square and the serpent.[8]

The planet

In the Roman period, the globe, a representation of the spherical Earth, became the main symbol representing the concept. The globe depicted the "universe" (pictured as the celestial sphere) as well as the Earth.[9]

12th-century T-and-O representation of the world.
Byzantine Solidus coin with a Byzantine Emperor holding a globus cruciger in his right hand.

The globus cruciger (โ™) is the globe surmounted by a Christian cross, held by Byzantine Emperors on the one hand to represent the Christian ecumene, on the other hand the akakia represented the mortal nature of all men.

In the medieval period, the known world was also represented by the T-and-O figure, representing an extremely simplified world map of the three classical continents of the Old World, viz. Asia, Europe and Africa (in various orientations: ๐Ÿœ–, ๐Ÿœ—, โฆบ, ).

Unicode encodes four characters representing the globe in the Miscellaneous Symbols and Pictographs block:

  • EARTH GLOBE EUROPE-AFRICA U+1F30D ๐ŸŒ
  • EARTH GLOBE AMERICAS U+1F30E ๐ŸŒŽ
  • EARTH GLOBE ASIA-AUSTRALIA U+1F30F ๐ŸŒ
  • GLOBE WITH MERIDIANS U+1F310 ๐ŸŒ

See also

References
  1. "Solar System Symbols". NASA. 18 March 2019. Retrieved 8 December 2019.
  2. The IAU Style Manual (PDF). 1989. p. 27.
  3. Tobin, Vincent Arieh (1988). "Mytho-Theology in Ancient Egypt". Journal of the American Research Center in Egypt. 25: 169โ€“183. doi:10.2307/40000877. ISSN 0065-9991.
  4. Dicks, D. R. (1970). Early Greek astronomy to Aristotle. Internet Archive. Ithaca, N.Y. : Cornell University Press. pp. 72โ€“198. ISBN 978-0-8014-0561-7.
  5. Numbers, Ronald L.; Kampourakis, Kostas (2015-11-04). Newton's Apple and Other Myths about Science. Harvard University Press. ISBN 978-0-674-91547-3.
  6. Knechtges, David Richard; Chang, Tai ping (2010). Ancient and early medieval Chinese literature: a reference guide. Handbook of oriental studies. Leiden: Brill. ISBN 978-90-04-18016-1.
  7. "Alchemical Symbols: Symbols for Aristotelian elements". unicode.org. Retrieved 2023-09-27.
  8. Jacobi, Jolande (2013). Complex/Archetype/Symbol in The Psychology Of C G Jung. Routledge. pp. 146โ€“169. ISBN 9780415209397.
  9. "The Sphere of the World: The Unchanging Celestial Region". www.loc.gov. September 27, 2023. Retrieved 2023-09-27.
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