Cosmology of Pirates

It’s a myth that people ever believed the earth was flat. They thought it was a sphere held up by Atlas. What held Atlas up? Why a big turtle, of course.
The joke goes that some wiseacre traveled to the top of the Himalayas to ask the wise man what held the earth up. "Atlas, and a turtle," the wise man answered. "Well, then," demanded our smartalec, what holds the turtle up?" "You can’t fool me," answered the wise man: "It’s turtles all the way down."
No, says pk. There is no giant turtle. Atlas holds up the world. Atlas used to be Greek, before he was Roman, after he was Persian. More recently he’s been Spanish, and British. Now Atlas is an American.
And Atlas stands not on the back of a giant turtle, but on the shoulders of a pirate: a great pirate. And the great pirate stands on the shoulders of another thief, and the thief stands on the shoulders of a great magician ...
It’s strong men, pirates, thieves, murderers, and great deceivers all the way down.
Or so we would do better to think. Actually though, nothing holds up the earth. The earth isn’t held up. The earth doesn’t need holding: and there is no "up."

Goya, Colossus