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A variety of
symbol A symbol is a mark, sign, or word that indicates, signifies, or is understood as representing an idea, object, or relationship. Symbols allow people to go beyond what is known or seen by creating linkages between otherwise very different conc ...
s or iconographic conventions are used to represent Earth, whether in the sense of planet Earth, or the inhabited world, or as a
classical element Classical elements typically refer to earth, water, air, fire, and (later) aether which were proposed to explain the nature and complexity of all matter in terms of simpler substances. Ancient cultures in Greece, Tibet, and India had simil ...
. A circle representing the round world, with the rivers of
Garden of Eden In Abrahamic religions, the Garden of Eden ( he, גַּן־עֵדֶן, ) or Garden of God (, and גַן־אֱלֹהִים ''gan-Elohim''), also called the Terrestrial Paradise, is the Bible, biblical paradise described in Book of Genesis, Genes ...
separating the four corners of the world, or rotated 45° to suggest the
four continents Europeans in the 16th century divided the world into four continents: Africa, America, Asia, and Europe. Each of the four continents was seen to represent its quadrant of the world—Africa in the south, America in the west, Asia in the east, a ...
, 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, 20px, 🜨, alt=An equilateral cross enclosed in a circle. Although the International Astronomical Union (IAU) now discourages the use of planetary symbols, this is an exception, being used in abbreviations such as ''M''🜨 for
Earth mass An Earth mass (denoted as M_\mathrm or M_\oplus, where ⊕ is the standard astronomical symbol for Earth), is a unit of mass equal to the mass of the planet Earth. The current best estimate for the mass of Earth is , with a relative uncertainty ...
.


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). Before the recognition of the spherical shape of the Earth in the Hellenistic period, the main attribute of the Earth was its being ''flat''. The
Egyptian hieroglyph Egyptian hieroglyphs (, ) were the formal writing system used in Ancient Egypt, used for writing the Egyptian language. Hieroglyphs combined logographic, syllabic and alphabetic elements, with some 1,000 distinct characters.There were about 1,00 ...
for "earth, land" depicts a stretch of flat alluvial land with grains of sand (
Gardiner Gardiner may refer to: Places Settlements ;Canada * Gardiner, Ontario ;United States * Gardiner, Maine * Gardiner, Montana * Gardiner (town), New York ** Gardiner (CDP), New York * Gardiner, Oregon * Gardiner, Washington * West Gardiner, Maine ...
N16: 𓇾). The Sumerian cuneiform sign for "earth, place" KI (𒆠) originates as a picture of a "threshing floor", and the Chinese character (土) 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 The ''I Ching'' or ''Yi Jing'' (, ), usually translated ''Book of Changes'' or ''Classic of Changes'', is an ancient Chinese divination text that is among the oldest of the Chinese classics. Originally a divination manual in the Western Zho ...
(☷). The Western (early modern) alchemical symbol for earth is a downward-pointing triangle bisected by a horizontal line (🜃). Other symbols for the earth in alchemy or mysticism include the square and the
serpent Serpent or The Serpent may refer to: * Snake, a carnivorous reptile of the suborder Serpentes Mythology and religion * Sea serpent, a monstrous ocean creature * Serpent (symbolism), the snake in religious rites and mythological contexts * Serp ...
.


The planet

In the
Roman period The Roman Empire ( la, Imperium Romanum ; grc-gre, Βασιλεία τῶν Ῥωμαίων, Basileía tôn Rhōmaíōn) was the post-Roman Republic, Republican period of ancient Rome. As a polity, it included large territorial holdings aro ...
, 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 In astronomy and navigation, the celestial sphere is an abstract sphere that has an arbitrarily large radius and is concentric to Earth. All objects in the sky can be conceived as being projected upon the inner surface of the celestial sphere, ...
) as well as the Earth. The
globus cruciger The ''globus cruciger'' ( for, , Latin, cross-bearing orb), also known as "the orb and cross", is an orb surmounted by a cross. It has been a Christian symbol of authority since the Middle Ages, used on coins, in iconography, and with a sceptre ...
(♁) is the globe surmounted by a Christian cross, held by Byzantine Emperors on the one hand to represent the
Christian Christians () are people who follow or adhere to Christianity, a monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. The words ''Christ'' and ''Christian'' derive from the Koine Greek title ''Christós'' (Χρι ...
ecumene, on the other hand the
akakia The ''akakia'' (, el, , literally or "not-wickedness". ''a-'' "not" or "against", ''kakia'' "wickedness"), previously known as an ''anexikakia'' ("enduring wickedness", "forgiveness", "forbearance", "patience") was a cylindrical purple silk rol ...
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 The "Old World" is a term for Afro-Eurasia that originated in Europe , after Europeans became aware of the existence of the Americas. It is used to contrast the continents of Africa, Europe, and Asia, which were previously thought of by the ...
, viz. '' Asia, Europe'' and '' Africa'' (in various orientations: 🜖, , , file:T-and-O map symbol.svg). Unicode encodes four characters representing the globe in the Miscellaneous Symbols and Pictographs block: *EARTH GLOBE EUROPE-AFRICA U+1F30D *EARTH GLOBE AMERICAS U+1F30E *EARTH GLOBE ASIA-AUSTRALIA U+1F30F *GLOBE WITH MERIDIANS U+1F310


See also

* * * *
Flag of Earth The flag of Earth is a concept of a possible flag design meant to symbolize the planet Earth, humankind, or a possible world government. Proposed flags Earth Flag In 1969, peace activist John McConnell proposed his design titled the ''Ear ...
* * * * * * * *
Crossed O See also *Cyrillic characters in Unicode *Multiocular O *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 cir ...
, Cyrillic letter of similar appearance


References


External links

{{Earth Alchemical symbols
Symbol A symbol is a mark, sign, or word that indicates, signifies, or is understood as representing an idea, object, or relationship. Symbols allow people to go beyond what is known or seen by creating linkages between otherwise very different conc ...
Astronomical symbols