The World · Atlas

spoken of as

4 expressions

The Great City“the World”3 mentions

Barlaam and Josaphat (Greek) · De Cultu Feminarum (Latin) · Meditations (Greek)

Understand, then, by the city this vain and deceitful world;

The worlds1 mention

Within them is utter variety — upward, downward, and across — [namely] the worlds and their parts, and whatever cognition of pleasure and pain there is.

the fifteen verses on awareness whole poem ¶

World1 mention

Hymn 20 To Hephaestus (Greek)

With bright-eyed Athena he taught men glorious crafts throughout the world, —men who before used to dwell in caves in the mountains like wild beasts.

hymn 20 to hephaestus ¶

cosmopolis“the great city”1 mention

Meditations (Greek)

Man, you have been a citizen in this great city;

book twelve ¶

in the texts

BodhapañcadaśikāAncient · Sanskrit

The manifold worlds and their parts, described as containing utter variety in all directions along with experiences of pleasure and pain.

Within them is utter variety — upward, downward, and across — [namely] the worlds and their parts, and whatever cognition of pleasure and pain there is.

the fifteen verses on awareness whole poem ¶

Hymn 20 To HephaestusClassical · Greek

The broad spatial extent across which Hephaestus and Athena teach crafts to humans.

With bright-eyed Athena he taught men glorious crafts throughout the world, —men who before used to dwell in caves in the mountains like wild beasts.

hymn 20 to hephaestus ¶

Barlaam and JosaphatMedieval · Greek

The great city of Barlaam's parable, whose custom of crowning and exiling strangers is interpreted as an allegory of the world.

Understand, then, by the city this vain and deceitful world;

chapter 14 ¶

I have learned of a certain great city whose citizens had from of old this custom:

chapter 14 ¶

De Rerum NaturaHellenistic · Latin

The cosmos as a single mortal organism, born by chance combination of seeds, growing to a peak, and now declining toward eventual collapse through failure of nourishment.

From earthy body;

chapter 2 ¶

Beat out new fire;

chapter 2 ¶

nor is that food enough

chapter 2 ¶

MeditationsImperial · Greek

The Stoic image of the universe as a city in which each person is a citizen bound by common law.

Man, you have been a citizen in this great city;

book twelve ¶

Ad MartyrasLate Antiquity · Latin

The secular world outside, portrayed as a greater and darker prison than the literal one.

The world, in short, holds the more numerous prisoners, namely the whole human race.

ad martyras ¶

Adversus ValentinianosLate Antiquity · Latin

The created material cosmos, founded by the Demiurge outside the Pleroma

The Demiurge, then, set outside the limits of the Pleroma, in the ignominious waste of an eternal exile, founded a new province, this world, the confusion of that double substance, disclosed, being cleansed and its diversity distinguished, of the animal and the material.

adversus valentinianos ¶

De Cultu FeminarumLate Antiquity · Latin

A symbolic city (Apocalyptic imagery of Babylon/Rome) described as a harlot dressed in purple, scarlet, gold, and precious stones

That mighty city, which presides over the seven mountains and the many waters, deserved from the Lord the appellation of a harlot.

de cultu feminarum ¶