Atlas is the Titan condemned to hold up the weight of the sky for eternity. His figure, bent under an immense load, has become one of the most powerful symbols of Greek mythology: strength, endurance and responsibility. Here is who he really was, why he was punished and what he has to do with maps.
Who was Atlas
Atlas was a Titan, son of Iapetus and the Oceanid nymph Clymene. Among his brothers was Prometheus, the Titan who stole fire from the gods to give it to humankind. The Titans were the generation of gods who ruled before the Olympians.
The Titanomachy and his punishment
When Zeus and the Olympian gods rose against the Titans, a ten-year war broke out: the Titanomachy. Atlas fought on the Titans' side. After the victory, Zeus sentenced him to an eternal punishment: to stand at the western edge of the world and bear the vault of the sky on his shoulders, so that it would not fall back onto the earth.
The sky, not the Earth
Many people picture Atlas carrying the globe of the Earth, but in the original myth he holds up the sky. The confusion comes from art: in the famous Farnese Atlas, a Roman copy in the National Archaeological Museum of Naples, the Titan carries a celestial globe decorated with the constellations, which over time was mistaken for the Earth.
Atlas and Hercules
The best-known episode involving him is linked to the twelve labours of Hercules. The hero had to obtain the golden apples from the garden of the Hesperides, nymphs connected to Atlas. Hercules persuaded the Titan to fetch them for him, offering to hold up the sky in the meantime. Atlas returned with the apples but, happy to be free, no longer wanted to take the weight back. Hercules pretended to agree and only asked him to hold the sky for a moment while he put a cushion on his shoulders: as soon as Atlas took it back, the hero left with the apples. Read the hero's whole story in our guide to Hercules and the twelve labours.
Atlas and Perseus
According to the Roman poet Ovid, Atlas also met the hero Perseus, who asked him for hospitality. The Titan drove him away rudely and Perseus, in revenge, showed him the head of Medusa: Atlas turned to stone, becoming the huge Atlas Mountains in North Africa.
Why maps are called "atlases"
The Titan's name has entered everyday language. In the 16th century the cartographer Gerardus Mercator titled his collection of maps "Atlas", and since then every book of maps has been called an atlas. The Atlantic Ocean is also named after him, as is the atlas in anatomy, the first vertebra of the neck, which supports the weight of the head.
The meaning of Atlas
- Strength and endurance. Atlas is the image of someone who bears an enormous weight without giving way.
- Responsibility. He holds up the sky so the world won't collapse: the symbol of the person who "holds everything together".
- Weariness and the longing for freedom. The episode with Hercules also shows his human side: the dream of being freed from his burden.
An Atlas statue for your home
Because of its meaning of strength and constancy, Atlas is a much-appreciated gift for a graduation, a new job or someone facing a demanding time. Our Atlas statue in plaster-effect resin, hand-finished in Turin, captures the Titan in superhuman effort, every muscle straining. Find the other heroes of myth in the Greek Heroes collection.