Note 1436 — BOOK VII.835 MAN, HIS BIRTH, HIS ORGANIZATION, AND THE INVENTION OF THE ARTS. (continued 2)

It is very difficult, perhaps impossible, to separate the actual history of Atlas from the mythological and fabulous tales mixed up with it. We may, however, conclude that he was a king of Libya, or of some part of the north of Africa; that he was an observer of the heavenly bodies, and one of the first who gave any connected account of them. Under the term “astrology,” Pliny probably intended to comprehend both the supposed science, now designated by that name, and likewise astronomy, or the physical laws of the heavenly bodies.—B.