The two most mysterious continents of our planet - the Arctic and Antarctic - continue to bring surprises to scientists and researchers. From paleontological remains to traces of meteorites in the distant past. But what does the name of Antarctica mean and where did it come from, not everyone knows.
A bit of mythology
What does the name of Antarctica mean, a brief answer will not work. The name is mythologized by the ancient Greek sailors. The myth tells how the main god of ancient Greek mythology fell in love with the nymph Callisto. Other gods, envious of their love, turned the nymph into a bear. But before that, she gave birth to a son - Arcade. The son grew up and on a hunt took aim at the bear, which was his mother. Zeus saved both of them, turning them into constellations - Ursa Major and Ursa Minor. It is these constellations that are today the main guiding points for travelers.
A bit of philology
Literally, the word is translated from ancient Greek as "opposite the bear." Ancient Greek cartographers named the icy northern mainland “arktikos” in honor of the constellation Ursa Major, which was the main landmark in sea voyages. The mainland opposite to the north received the prefix "ant" - "opposite." Thus, what the name of Antarctica means, becomes clear to everyone.
A bit of history
As early as 350 BC, in his work Meteorology, the ancient Greek naturalist and philosopher Aristotle mentioned the existence of an “Antarctic region”. And the geographer and cartographer of Ancient Greece of the 2nd century AD Martin of Tire has already designated this region on the maps. The writers of Ancient Greece of the 1st-2nd centuries AD Gaius Julius Giginus and Apuleius introduced the mythological name of the South Pole Pólus antarcticus, in the sense of the opposite of the North. This designation of the southern continent became the basis of the modern name pôle antarctique, recorded in Old French documents of 1270 and transferred to the treatises of the Englishman Jeffrey Chaucer in 1391.
Antarctic variations
“Across the North” for a long time called the most diverse regions. So, in the XVI century in Brazil, the French colony was called Antarctic France. Under the lands, which meant the name of the continent of Antarctica, understood all the island territories of the extreme south. The term "Antarctica" was used in cartography of the Middle Ages and denoted the southern part of the planet.
How Antarctica was called Antarctica
Officially it is believed that the name was assigned to the mainland thanks to the cartographer from Scotland, John George Bartholomew. It was he in the 90s of the XIX century. so called the lands of the south of the planet, which were designated as Antarctica.
By the way, its discoverers F. F. Bellingshausen and M. P. Lazarev in 1820 called open lands "the ice continent." And Charles Wilks, the navigator and leader of many expeditions of the naval forces of America, in 1840 called these lands the Antarctic continent.
But no matter how we call the southernmost continent of the planet and no matter how explain what the name "Antarctica" means, its puzzles do not end there. New research methods, satellite imagery and radiation typing lead us to new clues to the secrets of the amazing ice continent.