in Geography, a name given to those inhabitants of the globe that live diametrically opposite to each other. The word is Greek, and compounded of ἀντί, opposite, and πόδες, a foot, because their feet are opposite to each other. Plato is regarded as the first who thought it possible that antipodes existed, and is looked upon as the inventor of the word. As this philosopher apprehended the earth to be spherical, he had only one step to make to conclude the existence of the antipodes. The ancients in general treated this opinion with the highest contempt, never being able to conceive how men and trees could subsist suspended in the air with their feet upwards, for so they Antiquarii apprehended they must be in the other hemisphere. They never reflected that these terms upcards and downcards are merely relative, and signify only nearer to, or farther from, the centre of the earth, the common centre to which all heavy bodies gravitate.