The Atlas Collection
Travel posters
For places worth remembering. Modern prints inspired by favourite coastlines, towns and landmarks.
New destinations added regularly
Posters from the places you love
Over 320 curated artists
Browse all artists
Curated by Artists
Museum Quality Prints
Crafted to Last
Designed for Interiors
Style It Your Way
Popular prints available framed or on canvas
Timeless Art For Beautifully Designed Homes
Why Choose Us ?
What customers say
Over 5000
Happy Art Lovers
From Our Journal
Odin and the Price of Wisdom
Odin hung for nine nights on the windswept tree, pierced by his own spear and given himself to himself, then took up the runes. The sacrifice on the tree Odin pierced himself with Gungnir and hung from a high bough of Yggdrasil, the windswept tree. He gave himself to Odin, himself to himself. The tree had roots whose paths no one knew. The wind battered him as he swung there for nine long days and nine long nights. No bread refreshed him, and no drink from a horn reached his lips. He allowed no one to ease his suffering. He peered downwards from the tree. Then he saw the runes, seized them, screamed, and fell back from the tree. Odin learnt nine mighty spells from the famous son of Bolthor, Bestla’s father. He also drank the precious mead from Odrerir. After this, he quickened, grew wise, prospered, and expanded his understanding. One word led him to another word, and one deed led him to another deed. He found the runes and their meaningful letters, the great and difficult signs that brought him supernatural knowledge. His spear wound, his hanging, his hunger, and his fall marked the price of what he gained from the tree. The sacrifice gave him the runes and the spells that followed from them. Source note: Primary text: Hávamál. Corpus check: Treasury of Norse Mythology; Price, The Viking Way. The surviving accounts or later readings differ on parts of this story; review the dispute notes in the source packet before approval. The eye and the head Odin lowered the Gjallarhorn into Mímir’s well and drank the water of wisdom. He had travelled through Jotunheim in the guise of a wanderer to seek that drink. Mímir guarded the well, which bubbled up from deep in the ground and fed Yggdrasil, the world-tree. He allowed nobody else to drink from it. Odin claimed kinship with Mímir through Bestla, his mother, but Mímir demanded a greater price. Odin gave one of his eyes for a single drink. The waters preserved the eye in the well, where it saw nothing and everything. Odin then bore the names Blindr, Hoarr, and Baleyg. When the war between the Aesir and the Vanir ended, the two peoples exchanged warriors and chiefs. Odin sent Mímir to Vanaheim as adviser to Hoenir, whom the Vanir accepted as their new chief. Hoenir looked like a king, and Mímir’s advice helped him make wise decisions. When Mímir left his side, Hoenir could not decide what to say or do. The Vanir grew angry. They cut off Mímir’s head and sent it back to Odin. Odin held the severed head in his arms. He rubbed it with herbs that kept it from rotting, then chanted charms over it. Mímir’s head regained the power of speech. From then on, Odin asked it for counsel, and the head gave him wisdom. At Ragnarök, Odin consulted Mímir’s speaking head again. The head remained linked to the wisdom of the well and to the fate of the gods. The eye and the head. Original MythSource illustration created for this story; not a historical artwork. Source note: Primary text: Ynglinga saga; Völuspá. Corpus check: Treasury of Norse Mythology; Teutonic Mythology: Gods and Goddesses of the Northland. The surviving accounts or later readings differ on parts of this story; review the dispute notes in the source packet before approval. The wager of heads Odin asked Frigg for advice because he wanted to visit Vafthrudnir and test his wisdom against the giant. Frigg urged him to stay in the courts of the gods. She knew no giant as powerful as Vafthrudnir. She wished Odin a safe journey and hoped that his mind would serve him well. Odin went against her advice, disguised as a poor wanderer, and entered the hall owned by Im’s father. Odin greeted Vafthrudnir and challenged him to prove whether he was wise or very wise. The giant accepted him as a guest. Odin answered the giant’s questions about the steeds of day and night, the river that marked the boundary between the countries of gods and giants, and the plain Vígríðr. He also answered other questions about ancient matters. Vafthrudnir did not hesitate when he answered Odin’s questions about the world, the giants, the wind, and what he remembered from the earliest times. After Odin had proved his knowledge, Vafthrudnir invited him to sit on the giant’s bench. They wagered their heads on their wisdom and questioned each other in turn. Vafthrudnir answered Odin’s questions, including how the frost giant had fathered children without joining with giantesses, and what the giant remembered from the time before the world was made. Odin continued until he asked what the giant had first said in Baldr’s ear before Baldr was carried to the pyre. Vafthrudnir then understood whom he had faced. No living man knew what Odin had said to his son. The giant admitted defeat, and Odin won the wager of heads. Source note: Primary text: Vafþrúðnismál.
Botticelli's Birth of Venus: Why the Sea Matters
In Sandro Botticelli's picture The Birth of Venus, the ocean is far more than a decorative backdrop. The sea represents both the physical medium of the myth, where divine foam yields the goddess, and a symbolic concept of divine fertilisation adapted by Renaissance humanists in Florence. The Sea and the Mythological Arrival Sandro Botticelli painted The Birth of Venus around 1485 using tempera on canvas. The large painting measures 172.5 centimetres by 278.5 centimetres. Contrary to the title, the artwork does not depict the exact moment of the goddess emerging from the sea waves. Botticelli instead depicts her arrival at Paphos in Cyprus after travelling across the water on a giant gilded scallop shell. The ancient Greek myth behind the scene is violent and gruesome. The god Saturn, also known as Cronus, castrated his father Uranus and threw his severed genitals into the ocean. The ocean waters were fertilised by this act, resulting in the creation of Venus. Botticelli altered the narrative by removing all gory details, presenting a delicate and harmonious scene to his audience. Botticelli rendered the sea surface in a distinct, non-naturalistic style. He painted the water with simple V-shaped marks that transform into swirling patterns of lace-like foam near the shore. A flat blue sky sits behind the figures. Leonardo da Vinci later noted Botticelli's lack of interest in natural landscape painting, observing that Botticelli seemed to create background scenes simply by throwing a sponge soaked with colour against the canvas. Sea Foam and Humanist Philosophy The depiction of sea foam carries specific linguistic connections to the original myth. In Italian, the word schiuma translates to sea foam, but it also functioned as a slang term for semen. Viewers in fifteenth-century Florence understood this connection between the sea foam and the generative act that birthed the goddess from the ocean. Humanist scholars associated with the Medici family provided a refined interpretation of the ocean myth. Marsilio Ficino, a leading philosopher of the Platonic Academy at the Medicean Villa Careggi, argued that the story should be understood symbolically rather than literally. Ficino asserted that the birth of Venus represented the birth of beauty in the human mind when fertilised by divinity. This philosophical reinterpretation transformed the ocean from a site of mythological violence into a symbol of spiritual awakening. Ficino argued that contemplating earthly beauty allows the human soul to move upward toward divine beauty and God. The sea in Botticelli's painting thus fulfils a double purpose, combining pagan narrative elements with accepted Christian ideas. La nascita di Venere (Botticelli). Public domain; source: Wikimedia Commons. Technical Canvas and Decorative Gold Botticelli chose canvas as the painting surface for The Birth of Venus. In fifteenth-century Italy, canvas was a less expensive material than the wooden panels typically used for religious altarpieces and court paintings. Canvas was the preferred material for nonreligious and mythological subjects commissioned to decorate private country villas. The large physical dimensions of the painting made a wooden support impractical. A panel of that size would have been heavy and prone to structural issues. Recent research shows that The Birth of Venus was not painted as a direct counterpart to Botticelli's Primavera. The two paintings differ in size, technique, and structural composition, and they were painted during different phases of the artist's career. Botticelli applied real gold pigment extensively across the canvas to emphasise the divine nature of the subject. He painted gold accents onto the scallop shell, the hair of Venus, and the surrounding trees. Each dark green leaf in the orange grove features a gold spine and outline, while short diagonal gold lines mark the tree trunks. Figures of the Wind and Shore On the left side of the canvas, two winged figures float through the air with entwined limbs. The ruddy male figure is Zephyr, the Greek god of the west wind, who blows vigorously to push Venus toward the shoreline. Entwined with him is Chloris, a nymph who sighs warm breath. Pink roses with golden centres fall through the air around them, echoing the legend that roses first appeared at the birth of Venus. On the right shore, a female attendant stands ready to receive the goddess. This figure represents a nymph or one of the Horae, the Greek goddesses of the seasons who attended Venus. She holds out a pink cloak embroidered with spring flowers, including red and white daisies, yellow primroses, and blue cornflowers. An anemone flower growing near her feet signals the arrival of spring. The attendant wears a myrtle garland, which was the sacred tree of Venus, along with a sash made of pink roses. Behind her lies a grove of flowering orange trees representing the sacred garden of the Hesperides. The small white blossoms are tipped with gold pigment, reinforcing the decorative quality of the background. Compositional Models and Sacred Parallels For the pose of Venus, Botticelli drew upon the classical Venus pudica or modest Venus model found in ancient Roman sculpture. The goddess stands with one hand placed over her breasts and the other covering her groin. Botticelli depicted her as a virginal figure intent on preserving her modesty, using long streams of blonde hair touched with gold to cover her body. The structure of the painting relies on established Christian visual traditions despite its pagan subject. The formal arrangement of the central figure standing near water flanked by attendant figures mirrors traditional depictions of the Baptism of Christ. Additionally, the posture of the nymph reaching out with the cloak closely resembles contemporary paintings of the Annunciation to Mary. A persistent legend claims that Botticelli modelled Venus after Simonetta Vespucci, the wife of Marco Vespucci and mistress of Giuliano de' Medici. Simonetta died before Botticelli created the painting. Botticelli used a similar facial type for both Venus and the Virgin Mary, reflecting Ficino's concept that both figures represent emanations of divine love. Botticelli's Career and Name Alessandro di Mariano di Vanni Filipepi acquired the name Botticelli through his family. His older brother Giovanni, a successful pawnbroker, was nicknamed Il Botticello, meaning the Little Barrel. Because Alessandro lived in his brother's household, locals began referring to him as Sandro del Botticello, which eventually shortened to Botticelli. Under the patronage of Lorenzo de' Medici, Botticelli established himself as a prominent painter in late fifteenth-century Florence. His artistic technique combined decorative Gothic contours with the humanistic emotion and spatial perspective of Florentine painting. His work created an ideal of beauty that reappeared in later compositions such as The Calumny of Apelles. Although later owned by Duke Cosimo I de' Medici, the original patron who commissioned The Birth of Venus remains unknown. The canvas now hangs in the Uffizi Gallery in Florence, where it remains one of the most recognised depictions of classical mythology from the Italian Renaissance.
Zeus and the Flood: Three Greek Myths
Rain and rivers covered the earth until only Parnassus remained above the waves, carrying Deucalion and Pyrrha to safety after nine days and nights. Once the waters withdrew, they cast stones behind them, creating men from Deucalion’s stones and women from Pyrrha’s. The Flood of Deucalion Rain fell over the earth while rivers broke from their courses. Zeus had resolved to destroy humanity because people had become wicked. He called on the god of the sea, and together they covered the land with water from the sky and from the earth. The flood rose over the highest mountains. Parnassus alone remained above the waves, with a small piece of dry ground at its summit. After nine days and nine nights, a vessel carrying Deucalion and Pyrrha came to rest there. Deucalion was the son of Prometheus. Pyrrha was the daughter of Epimetheus and Pandora, and his niece. They were the only human survivors. When the waters withdrew, the sea returned to its shores and the rivers to their channels. In one account, the north wind cleared the clouds at Zeus’s command, while the sea god sent Triton to sound the retreat of the waters. Deucalion and Pyrrha left their vessel and offered a sacrifice to Zeus, the preserver of fugitives. They then went to the shrine of Themis beside the river Cephissus. The shrine was covered with seaweed, and its altar was cold. They prayed for humanity to be renewed. Zeus heard them and sent Hermes to promise that their request would be granted. Themis then instructed them to cover their heads and throw the bones of their mother behind them. Deucalion and Pyrrha understood the words to mean the bones of Mother Earth, the rocks lying beside the river. They cast stones behind them as they walked. The stones thrown by Deucalion became men, while those thrown by Pyrrha became women. In this way, the human race began again. Source note: Primary text: Ovid, Metamorphoses. Corpus check: The Greek Myths; Greek Myths & Tales. Zeus and Lycaon Zeus entered Arcadia in the form of a mortal to see whether reports of human wickedness were true. He reached the palace of Lycaon as twilight darkened the earth. He gave a sign that a god had arrived. The people prayed, but Lycaon mocked their worship. He decided to test the stranger and planned to kill him secretly during the night. Lycaon then placed human flesh before his guest. Zeus recognised the deed and revealed himself. He overturned the table and punished the king by changing him into a wolf. Lycaon’s house was destroyed, either by a thunderbolt or by a flood. His punishment followed his contempt for the gods and his treatment of the divine visitor. One account gives a different explanation for the feast. Lycaon had warned his subjects that Zeus often came to inspect their conduct. When he announced that the god would visit, some of his sons carried out the deed to discover whether the visitor was truly Zeus, since a god would recognise what they had done. In another version, Lycaon himself, angered by Zeus’s seduction of his daughter Callisto, served his grandson Areas to Zeus. Zeus overturned the table and changed Lycaon into a wolf in response. Zeus and Lycaon. Original MythSource illustration created for this story; not a historical artwork. Source note: Primary text: Ovid, Metamorphoses. Corpus check: The Library of Greek Mythology (Oxford World's Classics); The Greek Myths. Zeus and Typhon Typhon rushed towards Olympus, and the gods fled in terror to Egypt. They disguised themselves as animals. Zeus became a ram, Apollo a crow, Dionysus a goat, Hera a white cow, Artemis a cat, Aphrodite a fish, and Ares a boar. Hermes became an ibis. Athene alone stayed behind and taunted Zeus for retreating. Zeus resumed his true form and attacked Typhon with thunderbolts. Typhon was the child of Gaia and Tartarus, born in the Corycian Cave of Cilicia after the destruction of the Giants. He was the largest monster ever born. His legs were coiled serpents, his outstretched arms reached a hundred leagues in either direction, and countless serpent heads formed his hands. His ass-head touched the stars, his wings darkened the sun, fire flashed from his eyes, and flaming rocks came from his mouth. His many voices included the speech of a god, a bull’s bellow, a lion’s roar, a dog’s yelp, and a snake’s hiss. He challenged Zeus’s rule over gods and mortals. In the continuing fight, Typhon overpowered Zeus and removed the sinews from his limbs. He gave Zeus’s thunderbolts to Gaia and went after the source of music played by Cadmus. Cadmus told him that he would enjoy a lyre strung with Zeus’s sinews, then hid the sinews in another cave and continued playing. While Typhon was distracted, Zeus recovered his thunderbolts. When the music stopped, Typhon returned to his cave and found the weapons gone. He unleashed destruction across the world. Animals were devoured, rivers turned to dust, and seas became dry land. Hermes restored the sinews to Zeus in one account. Zeus returned to Olympus on a chariot drawn by winged horses and pursued Typhon with thunderbolts. At Mount Nysa, the Three Fates gave Typhon fruits that seemed to restore his strength but instead doomed him. At Mount Haemus, he hurled whole mountains at Zeus. Zeus struck them with thunderbolts, sending them back against Typhon and wounding him. Typhon fled to Sicily, where Zeus buried him beneath Mount Etna. Fire still belches from its cone. Source note: Primary text: Hesiod, Theogony. Corpus check: War in Greek Mythology; The Greek Myths.