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As a matter of fact Earth may in a natural
way be described as having 4 corners, given that we study the sky. The
'Inhabited Earth' is a rectangular section in the
middle, what remains after having left the part above to the Gods and
the part below to the Under World. Rectangles have 4 corners. "In the most general sense, the 'earth' was the ideal plane laid through the ecliptic. The 'dry earth', in a more specific sense, was the ideal plane going through the celestial equator. The equator thus divided two halves of the zodiac which ran on the ecliptic, 23 ½o inclined to the equator, one half being 'dry land' (the northern band of the zodiac, reaching from the vernal to the autumnal equinox), the other representing the 'waters below' the equinoctial plane (the southern arc of the zodiac, reaching from the autumnal equinox, via the winter solstice, to the vernal equinox. The terms 'vernal equinox', 'winter solstice', etc., are used intentionally because myth deals with time, periods of time which correspond to angular measures, and not with tracts in space." (Hamlet's Mill) What happens if we travel to the south side of the equator? As everything now is upside down, the Polynesians must have made some special arrangements, I think. Winter becomes summer and autumn becomes spring. The 'waters below' should now be in the north, not in the south. Most of Polynesia is south of the equator, though e.g. Hawaii is on the north side. According to the Gilbertese their Earth is bounded at 24o north and at 26o south, giving 50o as the sum. (Their chain of islands straddles the equator.)
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