ATLANTES, ATLANTIDES, or ATLAS, the name given by the Greeks to the figures or statues of men used to sup port entablatures with mutnles instead of pilasters or columns. They were also called ZELAMONES and PERSIANS.
In the architecture of the modern Italians, the Atlantes are often found supporting the entablature over an entrance to a palace, or garden. At Milan there is a colossal example of the finaner ; and the rustic gate to the FfINICSC Gardens at Rome is a specimen of the latter.
.A•rui UN, a court or hall in the interior of the Roman not houses, of an oblong plan. Three sides of the atrium were supported on columns, the materials of which, in later times, were marble. The side opposite to the gate was called taidinani, and the other two sides Ow. The tablinum was filled with books, and the reowds of what any one had done in his ruaiistracy. It was in the atrium where the nuptial couch was erected, Where anciently the thmily used to sup, where the mistress :old maid-servants wrought at spinning amid weaving, and where the clients used to wait. on their patrons. The atrium was adorned with pictures, with statues, of their ancestors, and with plate ; and was usually the most splendid and important part of a Roman In later times, the. atrium seems to have been divided into
different parts, separated from one another by hangings, into which persons were admitted, according tt'S their ditFerent degrees of liwour. The atrium was frequently in ancient times confounded with restilmhon, which was only a recess on the exterior side of the building, and what is now called by the Italians loggia.
Even \'itruvius, in chap. iii., book vi., confounds it with rovrrlium, which was an enclosure still further within the This author assigns three different ja.oportions to the length and breadth of the atrium : the first is 5 to 3, the second 3 to and the third is the ratio which the dia gonal of a square has to its side. 'Filchr height to the under side of the ceiling is equal to their length, wanting a fourth part. The difference between the atrium of a city and country residence was this, that in the former it was near the entrance. and in the latter, the peristylimn was placed betwt4en the atrium and the gate.
The Greeks had no atrium in their houses. In some tem ples an atrium was to be fitund.