Earth symbol

🜨 ♁ ☷ 🜃
Earth symbol
In Unicode	U+1F728 🜨 ALCHEMICAL SYMBOL FOR VERDIGRIS U+2641 ♁ EARTH (Globus cruciger) U+2637 ☷ TRIGRAM FOR EARTH U+1F703 🜃 ALCHEMICAL SYMBOL FOR EARTH
Different from
Different from	U+23DA ⏚ EARTH GROUND Electrical earth (ground)

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 45° to suggest the four continents, remains a common pictographic convention to express the notion of "worldwide". The current astronomical symbols for the planet are a circle with an intersecting cross, ,^[1] and a globus cruciger, . Although the International Astronomical Union (IAU) now discourages the use of planetary symbols, this is an exception, being used in abbreviations such as M_🜨 or M_♁ for Earth mass.^[2]

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: 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 (☷).^[6]

The Western (early modern) alchemical symbol for earth is a downward-pointing triangle bisected by a horizontal line (🜃).^[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 (♁) 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: , , , ).

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

• Planet symbols – Graphical symbols used in astrology and astronomyPages displaying short descriptions of redirect targets
• Solar symbol – Symbol representing the Sun
• Earth in culture – Cultural perspectives about Earth
• Flag of Earth
• Radical 32 – Kangxi radical meaning 'earth'
• Terra (mythology) – The personification of the Earth in ancient Roman religion and mythology
• Atlas (mythology) – Deity in Greek mythology
• Electrical earth – Reference point in an electrical circuit from which voltages are measured
• Sun cross – Circle containing four or more spokes
• T and O map – Type of medieval world map
• Astrological sign#Polarity and the four elements – one of the twelve 30° sectors of the ecliptic, associated to their cultural symbols as defined by occidental astrologyPages displaying wikidata descriptions as a fallback
• Crossed O, Cyrillic letter of similar appearance

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: 169–183. 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. 72–198. 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. 146–169. ISBN 9780415209397.
9. "The Sphere of the World: The Unchanging Celestial Region". www.loc.gov. September 27, 2023. Retrieved 2023-09-27.

External links