The first cervical vertebra of the neck holds up the cranium in the same way that Atlas, the Titan of Greek mythology, holds up the celestial spheres, separating them from the Earth.

Some of us mistakenly thought Atlas held up the world, because ‘a corpus of terrestrial maps’ has taken on his name and someone didn’t look too carefully at one of those early sculptures.

I rather like the imagery of the mind being held above the body, and the head in the clouds.

Bearing the weight of the world may deform our posture as we stoop under our chores and worry about life.