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Hercules

spaceflight.nasa.gov — *****

Who dugg this? Made popular Sep 2, 2008

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217 Comments

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  • inactive, on 09/01/2008, -1/+360Space humor, I like it.
  • smash20, on 09/02/2008, -9/+332Don't you mean Atlas...?
  • Jeffler, on 09/02/2008, -1/+241Pfft, try that on Jupiter.
  • zantos420, on 09/02/2008, -2/+215"now! quickly! turn on the gravity!"
  • Equinox1, on 09/02/2008, -0/+197That's not Hercules, that's Greg.
  • KyloOb, on 09/02/2008, -1/+88Sorry, but atlas actually held up the heavens, not the earth.
  • travis6690, on 09/02/2008, -0/+79Rob Riggle?
  • Kyrgizion, on 09/02/2008, -1/+77...with a box of matches.
    Same result.
  • nova20, on 09/02/2008, -5/+79Nope. Atlas holds the earth, not some weird spacecraft cabinet thing (that's the technical term).
  • kinggimped, on 09/02/2008, -2/+68Ugh, I know I'm going to get buried to ***** for being the one who pedantically corrects stuff that isn't even worth correcting, but ***** it... I get annoyed by popular misconceptions, and what other use am I going to get out of a Classics degree?

    Atlas was punished by Zeus (for being one of the twelve Titans who tried to overthrow the Gods on Olympus) to carry the ***SKY***. Not the Earth. Atlas Telamon ('enduring Atlas') was to stand at the western edge of Gaia (which DOES mean the Earth) and hold up Ouranos (the sky) in order to prevent the two from embracing (that's another story, and a much better one).

    He is generally pictured in Classical art holding what looks like a globe, which has only helped the misconception. It's not meant to be a globe, it's meant to be a celestial sphere, representing the sky and the heavens above.

    So each time you hear the word "Atlas" mentioned in the same sentence as "holding the world on his shoulders", they're wrong. He held up the SKY.

    [BTW, for anyone who enjoys those crazy epic mythological tales where there's all kinds of *****, killing, castration and the like, I recommend checking out the Greek creation myth involving Ouranos/Uranus and Gaia/Terra. It's completely awesome, and you'll recognise many of their children as popular mythological characters, most of whom are sadly just as misconceived in popular culture thanks to lazy idioms and poor assumptions. But hey, if there isn't a Hollywood movie about it, you guys just straight up don't give a *****, right?]

    God, I am going to get dugg down for this. Insert link to that "someone is wrong on the internet" XKCD strip here.

    edit: Oh, *****, KyloOb did the good work for me. Sorry. But hey, this pedant went into a bit more detail I guess. :)
  • inactive, on 09/02/2008, -2/+67Also, Heracles did hold up the Earth for a little bit so Atlas could help with one of his 12 labors.
  • dougbot, on 07/14/2009, -0/+58sv_gravity 999999
  • trezegol, on 09/02/2008, -0/+58To be honest, standing on gas would be a ***** miracle.
  • inactive, on 09/02/2008, -3/+56I like how he's got his feet under the bars to keep him from floating away...
  • daschupa, on 09/02/2008, -0/+49Someone loves his companion cube.
  • adriaaan, on 10/12/2008, -1/+40To be honest, just standing up on Jupiter would be hard enough.
  • Saladas, on 09/02/2008, -0/+38That's not Funny. that's Stupid!
  • sap959, on 09/02/2008, -0/+38looks like David Duchovny and his giant hard drive of porn
  • vroom101, on 09/01/2008, -1/+37Via: http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/gallery/images/station ... (ISS017-E-014091, spaceflight.nasa.gov/gallery/images/station/crew-17/html/iss017e014091.html)
  • betheturtle, on 09/02/2008, -1/+36Props for actually knowing mythology and not just having seen the Columbus Circle Statue.
  • hasslinthehoff, on 09/02/2008, -7/+41So, the space race is just a trillion dollar project for nerds to look strong and impress the ladies?
  • armakaryk, on 09/02/2008, -0/+32most of scientific progress has come from trying to impress the fairer sex. why the wright brothers developed the airplane to woe ladies with aerial tours of the countryside.
  • Hodor, on 09/02/2008, -0/+30I'm sure the dozens of scientist and engineers are absolutely thrilled that he decided to put their multi-million dollar experiment on his back. :)
  • Filipp0, on 09/02/2008, -2/+30Obelix!
  • simonaelterman, on 09/02/2008, -0/+27Dugg for knowing more mythology than what you see in God Of War.
  • serif69, on 09/02/2008, -0/+25*shrugs*
  • Omano, on 09/02/2008, -2/+24Dude on the right looks Baked (or is it a woman?)
  • frosted, on 09/02/2008, -1/+22It's weightless, not MASSLESS.
    There is a difference.
  • Linake, on 09/02/2008, -0/+19Dugg for knowing more mythology than I do.
  • mike42979, on 09/02/2008, -0/+19That must be so cool to do.
  • Terasiel, on 09/02/2008, -0/+18Dugg for knowing more mythology than what is taught in schools or most encyclopedias.
  • nafango2, on 09/02/2008, -0/+16because ***** YOU, thats why.
  • ChristBehemoth, on 09/02/2008, -0/+16At NASA, you never know
  • WhiskeyLemur, on 06/30/2009, -0/+16...medic...
  • inactive, on 09/02/2008, -5/+21That would make one badass facebook profile picture.
  • mgri, on 09/02/2008, -1/+14I call fake. There is NO WAY modern data communications satellites could handle a 3MB photo. Just no way.
  • burhaan, on 09/02/2008, -0/+13Nopes, Thats a Nerd!!!
  • RaulMuadDib, on 09/02/2008, -0/+13You won't like him when he's angry.
  • Livewired, on 09/02/2008, -0/+12Anybody else see the IBM Thinkpad in the lower right hand corner?
  • crazyhorse13, on 09/02/2008, -0/+12I assume you mean woo. Unless the countryside of Kitty Hawk is really that bad...
  • max420, on 09/02/2008, -0/+11Hey groo86, I dugg you down because I don't get why you dugg down kinggimped.

    First of all, I don't see how he was rude and insulted anyone. He used a bit of profanity, so what?
  • baldgye, on 09/02/2008, -4/+14wonder how long it took to send an image that big back to earth...
  • drummerguy520, on 09/02/2008, -0/+10@Br3ach

    Man that's just harsh, Pluto never did anything to you.
  • vat0r, on 09/02/2008, -1/+10They look baked. Notice how his feet are tied in.
  • megamod, on 09/02/2008, -0/+9it's all good fun until someone gets space dementia
  • kaelyiesta, on 09/02/2008, -0/+9Heracles is the original greek form of the name. I think the romans modified it to the more known hercules but I'm not sure on that part.
  • Magnus150, on 09/02/2008, -0/+9duuuuude space is like big man.
    wait. wat?
  • Wilson, on 09/02/2008, -0/+9EXIF says: NIKON D2Xs
  • MeetMyBackhand, on 09/02/2008, -0/+9you went into space last week?! whoahh...
  • kinggimped, on 09/02/2008, -0/+8Exactly.

    groo68: for future reference... here's rude, you dumbass. :)

    Correcting people on the internet isn't just a 'great opportunity', it's also a burden... one might say I had the world upon my shoulders, just like At---- heeeey, wait a minute!
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