Earth symbol

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).

Before the recognition of the spherical shape of the Earth in the Hellenistic period, the main attribute of the Earth was its being flat. The Egyptian hieroglyph for "earth, land" depicts a stretch of flat alluvial land with grains of sand (Gardiner N16: 𓇾). Similarly, the Sumerian cuneiform sign for "earth" KI (𒆠) originates as a picture of a "threshing floor".

In Chinese mysticism, the classical element "Earth" is represented by the trigram of three broken lines in the I Ching (☷). The Wu Xing system represents the element Earth as 土 (tǔ) (see 土 at Wiktionary).

The Western (early modern) alchemical symbol for earth is a downward-pointing triangle bisected by a horizontal line (🜃). Other symbols for the earth in alchemy or mysticism include the square and the serpent.[3]

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.

12th-century T-and-O representation of the world.

Byzantine Emperor Alexander, holding the akakia in his left hand (on the righthand side of the image). Mosaic from the Hagia Sophia.

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.

Unicode has introduced a 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 🌐

• Planet symbols – Graphical symbols used in astrology and astronomy
• Solar symbol – Symbol representing the Sun
• Earth in culture – Cultural perspectives about Earth
• Radical 32 – Kangxi radical meaning 'earth'
• Terra (mythology) – Roman deity: Mother Earth
• Atlas (mythology) – Deity in Greek mythology who held up the heavens or sky
• 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 – Twelve 30° sectors of the ecliptic, as defined by Western astrology