Atlas (mythology)

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Atlas (mythology)

In Greek mythology

Greek mythology

Greek mythology is the body of myths and legends belonging to the Ancient Greece concerning their List of Greek mythological figures#Immortals and Greek hero cult, Cosmology#Metaphysical cosmology, and the origins and significance of their own cult and ritual practices....
, Atlas (Eng. /'æt l?s/ Gk. ?t?a?) was the primordial Titan

Titan (mythology)

In Greek mythology, the Titans ; were a race of powerful deities that ruled during the legendary golden age. Their role as Elder Gods was overthrown by a race of younger gods, the Twelve Olympians, effected a mythological paradigm shift that the Greeks borrowed from the Ancient Near East....
who supported the heavens. Atlas was the son of the Titan Iapetus

Iapetus (mythology)

In Greek mythology, Iapetus, also Iapetos or Japetus , was a Titan , the son of Uranus and Gaia , and father of Atlas , Prometheus, Epimetheus , and Menoetius and through Prometheus, Epimetheus and Atlas an ancestor of the human race....
and the Oceanid

Oceanid

In Greek Mythology and Roman mythology, the Oceanids were the three thousand daughters of the Titans Oceanus and Tethys . One of these many daughters was also said to have been the consort of the god Poseidon, typically named as Amphitrite....
Asia

Asia (mythology)

Asia or Clymene in Greek mythology was a daughter of Oceanus and Tethys , the wife of the Titan Iapetus , and mother of Atlas , Prometheus, Epimetheus and Menoetius....
or Klyméne (???µ???):

"Now Iapetus took to wife the neat-ankled maid Clymene, daughter of Ocean
Oceanus

Oceanus was believed to be the World Ocean in classical antiquity, which the Ancient Rome and Ancient Greece considered to be an enormous river encircling the world....
, and went up with her into one bed. And she bare him a stout-hearted son, Atlas: also she bare very glorious Menoetius and clever Prometheus
Prometheus

In Greek mythology, Prometheus is a Titan known for his wily intelligence, who stole fire from Zeus and gave it to human beings for their use....
, full of various wiles, and scatter-brained Epimetheus
Epimetheus (mythology)

In Greek mythology, Epimetheus was the brother of Prometheus , a pair of Titan s who "acted as representatives of mankind" . They were the inseparable sons of Iapetus , who in other contexts was the father of Atlas ....
."

Hyginus

Gaius Julius Hyginus

Gaius Julius Hyginus was a Latin author, though whether a native of Spain or of Alexandria it is not clear, a pupil of the famous Alexander Cornelius, and a freedman of Caesar Augustus, by whom he was made superintendent of the Palatine library, according to Suetonius' minor works, De Grammaticis, 20....
emphasises the primordial nature of Atlas by making him the son of Aether

Aether (mythology)

Aether , in Greek mythology, is one of the Protogenoi, the first-born elemental gods. He is the personification of the "upper sky," space, and heaven, and the elemental god of the "Bright, Glowing, Upper Air." He is the pure upper air that the gods breathe, as opposed to normal air , the gloomy lower air of the Earth, which mortals breathe....
and Gaia

Gaia (mythology)

Gaia Gaia is a Greek primordial gods and chthonic deity in the Ancient Greek Pantheon and considered a Mother Goddess or Great Goddess....
.

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Punishment

Atlas, along with his brother Menoetius, sided with the Titans in their war against the Olympians

Twelve Olympians

The Twelve Olympians or younger gods, also known as the Dodekatheon , in Greek mythology, were the principal Greek Godss of the Greek pantheon , residing atop Mount Olympus, having supplanted the Titan or older gods in the greek mythogical narrative....
, the Titanomachy

Titanomachy

In Greek mythology, the Titanomachy, or War of the Titans , was the ten-year series of battles fought between the two races of deities long before the existence of mankind: the Titan , fighting from Mount Othrys, or Mount Etna and the Twelve Olympians, who would come to reign on Mount Olympus ....
. His brothers Prometheus and Epimetheus weighed the odds and betrayed the other Titans by forming an alliance with the Olympians. When the Titans were defeated, many of them (including Menoetius) were confined to Tartarus

Tartarus

In classic Roman mythology, below Heaven, Earth, and Pontus is Tartarus, or Tartaros . It is a deep, gloomy place, a pit, or an abyss used as a dungeon of torment and suffering that resides beneath the Hades....
, but Zeus

Zeus

Zeus in Greek mythology is the king of the gods, the ruler of Mount Olympus and the god of the sky father and List of thunder gods. His symbols are the thunderbolt, eagle, bull , and oak....
condemned Atlas to stand at the western edge of Gaia, the Earth

Gaia (mythology)

Gaia Gaia is a Greek primordial gods and chthonic deity in the Ancient Greek Pantheon and considered a Mother Goddess or Great Goddess....
and hold up Ouranos, the Sky

Uranus (mythology)

Uranus is the Latinized form of Ouranos , the Greek language word for sky. In Greek mythology Uranus , or Father Sky, is personified as the son and husband of Gaia , Mother Earth ....
on his shoulders, to prevent the two from resuming their primordial embrace. Thus, he was Atlas Telamon, "enduring Atlas." A common misconception is that Atlas was forced to hold the Earth on his shoulders, but this is incorrect. Classical art shows Atlas holding a Celestial Sphere

Celestial spheres

The celestial spheres, or celestial orbs, were the fundamental celestial entities of the cosmological celestial mechanics first invented by Eudoxus, and developed by Aristotle, Ptolemy, Copernicus and others....
, not a Globe

Globe

A globe is a three-dimensional scale Model of Earth or other spheroid celestial body such as a planet, star, or moon. It may also refer to a spherical representation of the celestial sphere, showing the apparent positions of the stars in the sky ...
.

Variations

In a late story, a giant named Atlas tried to drive a wandering Perseus from the place where the Atlas mountains

Atlas Mountains

The Atlas Mountains are a mountain range across a northern stretch of Africa extending about 2,400 km through Morocco, Algeria, and Tunisia. The highest peak is Jbel Toubkal, with an elevation of in southwestern Morocco....
now stand. Later, out of pity, Athena

Athena

In Greek mythology, Athena is the shrewd companion of Hero and the goddess of Hero endeavour. She is the virgin patron of Athens, which built the Parthenon to worship her....
revealed Medusa

Medusa

In Greek mythology, Medusa was a gorgon, a chthonic female monster; gazing upon her would turn onlookers to stone. She was beheaded by the hero Perseus, who thereafter used her head as a weapon until giving it to the goddess Athena to place on her Aegis....
's head, turning Atlas to stone. As is not uncommon in myth, this account cannot be reconciled with the far more common stories of Atlas' dealings with Heracles

Heracles

In Greek mythology, Heracles or Herakles meaning "glory of Hera", or "Glorious through Hera" Alcides or Alcaeus " was a hero, the son of Zeus and Alcmene, foster son of Amphitryon and great-grandson of Perseus....
, who was Perseus' great-grandson.

According to Plato

Plato

Plato , was a Classical Greece Greeks philosopher, mathematician, writer of philosophical dialogues, and founder of the Platonic Academy in Ancient Athens, the first institution of higher learning in the western world....
, the first king of Atlantis

Atlantis

Atlantis is a legendary island first mentioned in Plato's dialogues Timaeus and Critias .In Plato's account, Atlantis was a naval power lying "in front of the Pillars of Hercules" that conquered many parts of Western Europe and Africa 9,000 years before the time of Solon, or approximately 9600 BC....
was also named Atlas, but that Atlas was a mortal son of Poseidon

Poseidon

In Greek mythology, Poseidon was the god of the sea and, as "Earth-Shaker," of earthquakes. The name of the god Nethuns in Etruscan mythology was adopted in Latin for Neptune in Roman mythology: both were sea gods analogous to Poseidon....
. A euhemerist

Euhemerus

Euhemerus was a Greek Mythography at the court of Cassander, the king of Macedon. Euhemerus' birthplace is disputed, with Messina in Sicily or Messene in the Peloponnese as the most probable locations, while others champion Chios, or Tegea....
origin for Atlas was as a legendary Atlas, king of Mauretania, an expert astronomer.

Encounter with Heracles

One of the hero Heracles

Heracles

In Greek mythology, Heracles or Herakles meaning "glory of Hera", or "Glorious through Hera" Alcides or Alcaeus " was a hero, the son of Zeus and Alcmene, foster son of Amphitryon and great-grandson of Perseus....
' Twelve Labors involved the acquisition of some of the golden apples which grow in Hera

Hera

In the Twelve Olympians of classical Greek Mythology, Hera or Here was the wife and older sister of Zeus. Her chief function was as goddess of women and marriage....
's garden, tended by the Hesperides and guarded by the dragon Ladon

Dragons in Greek mythology

Dragons play a role in Greek mythology....
. Heracles went to Atlas, the father of the Hesperides

Hesperides

In Greek mythology, the Hesperides are nymphs who tend a blissful garden in a far western corner of the world, located near the Atlas mountains in Ancient Libya, or on a distant blessed island at the edge of the encircling Oceanus....
, and offered to hold the heavens for a little while in exchange for the apples, to which Atlas agreed. This would be an easy task for Atlas since he is related to the Hesperides who tend the apples in Hera's garden. Upon his return with the apples, however, Atlas attempted to trick Heracles into carrying the sky permanently by offering to deliver the apples himself. Heracles, suspecting Atlas did not intend to return, pretended to agree to Atlas' offer, asking only that Atlas take the sky again for a few minutes so Heracles could rearrange his cloak as padding on his shoulders. When Atlas set down the apples and took the heavens upon his shoulders again, Heracles took the apples and ran away.

In some versions, Heracles instead built the two great Pillars of Hercules

Pillars of Hercules

The "Pillars of Hercules" was the phrase that was applied in classical antiquity to the promontory that flank the entrance to the Strait of Gibraltar....
to hold the sky away from the earth, liberating Atlas much as he liberated Prometheus

Prometheus

In Greek mythology, Prometheus is a Titan known for his wily intelligence, who stole fire from Zeus and gave it to human beings for their use....
.

Etymology

The etymology

Etymology

Etymology is the study of the roots and history of words; and how their form and meaning have changed over time.In languages with a long detailed history, etymology makes use of philology, the study of how words change from culture to culture over time....
of the name Atlas is uncertain and still debated. Virgil

Virgil

Publius Vergilius Maro was a classical Roman poet, best known for three major works?the Bucolics , the Georgics and the Aeneid?although several Appendix Vergiliana are also attributed to him....
took pleasure in translating etymologies of Greek names by combining them with adjectives that explained them: for Atlas his adjective is durus, "hard, enduring", which suggested to George Doig that Virgil was aware of the Greek t???a? "to endure"; Doig offers the further possibility that Virgil was aware of Strabo

Strabo

Strabo was a Ancient Greeks history, geography and philosophy....
's remark that the native North African name for this mountain was Douris.

Some modern linguists derive it and its Greek root from the Proto-Indo-European

Proto-Indo-European language

The Proto-Indo-European language is the unattested, linguistic reconstruction common ancestor of the Indo-European languages, spoken by the Proto-Indo-Europeans....
root *tel, 'to uphold, support'; others suggest that it is a pre-Indo-European

Pre-Indo-European

Old Europe is a term coined by archaeologist Marija Gimbutas to describe what she perceives as a relatively homogeneous and widespread pre-Indo-European Neolithic Europe culture in Europe, particularly in Megalithic Temples of Malta and the Prehistoric Balkans....
name. The Etruscan name for Atlas, aril, is etymologically independent.

Cultural influence

Atlas Sculpture On Collins Street Melbourne

Atlas' best-known cultural association is in cartography

Cartography

File:Mediterranean chart fourteenth century2.jpgCartography is the study and practice of making Geography Map. Combining science, aesthetics, and technique, cartography builds on the premise that we can model reality in ways that communicate spatial information effectively....
. The first publisher to associate the Titan Atlas with a group of maps was Antonio Lafreri, on the title-page to Tavole Moderne Di Geografia De La Maggior Parte Del Mondo Di Diversi Autori; however, he did not use the word "atlas" in the title of his work, an innovation of Gerardus Mercator

Gerardus Mercator

Gerardus Mercator was a Flanders cartographer. He was born in Rupelmonde in the County of Flanders. He is remembered for the Mercator projection world map named after him....
, who dedicated his "atlas" specifically "to honour the Titan, Atlas, King of Mauritania, a learned philosopher, mathematician, and astronomer;" he actually depicted the astronomer king.

Atlas continues to be a commonly used icon in western culture, as a symbol of strength or stoic endurance. He is often shown kneeling on one knee while supporting an enormous round globe on his back and shoulders. The globe originally represented the celestial sphere of ancient astronomy, rather than the earth. The use of the term atlas as a name for collections of terrestrial maps and the modern understanding of the earth as a sphere have combined to inspire the many depictions of Atlas' burden as the earth.

Atlas is seen on the cover of Van Halen's

Van Halen

Van Halen is a hard rock band formed in in 1972. They enjoyed success from the release of their Van Halen in 1978. As of 2007 Van Halen has sold more than 80 million albums worldwide and have had the most number one hits on the Billboard Hot Mainstream Rock Tracks chart....
album "5150."

5150 (album)

5150 is the seventh album by United States hard rock band Van Halen, released in 1986 in music. This was the first album recorded with new lead singer Sammy Hagar, who replaced David Lee Roth....

Atlas was used as a symbol in Ayn Rand

Ayn Rand

Ayn Rand , was a Russian-American novelist, philosopher, playwright, and screenwriter. She is known for her best-selling novels and for developing a philosophical system called Objectivism ....
's novel, Atlas Shrugged

Atlas Shrugged

Atlas Shrugged is a novel by Ayn Rand, first published in 1957 in literature in the United States. It was Rand's fourth, List of longest novels, and last novel....
. Atlas is used as a metaphor for the people who produced the most in society, and therefore "hold up the world" in a metaphorical sense.

Mickey à travers les siècles (Mickey Through the Centuries) was a French comic strip series published in the early 1970s featuring Mickey Mouse

Mickey Mouse

Mickey Mouse is a funny animal cartoon character who has become an icon for The Walt Disney Company. Mickey Mouse was created in 1928 by Walt Disney and Ub Iwerks and voiced by Walt Disney....
as a time travel

Time travel

Time travel is the concept of moving between different moments in time in a manner analogous to moving between different points in space, either sending objects backwards in time to a moment before the present, or sending objects forward from the present to the future without the need to experience the intervening period ....
ler. In one such adventure, he assisted Heracles

Heracles

In Greek mythology, Heracles or Herakles meaning "glory of Hera", or "Glorious through Hera" Alcides or Alcaeus " was a hero, the son of Zeus and Alcmene, foster son of Amphitryon and great-grandson of Perseus....
in his twelve tasks. The story gave a Euhemerist spin on the legend of Atlas, depicted as an ordinary king

King

King is a title for a head of state.King may also refer to:...
with a passion for geography

Geography

Geography is the study of the Earth and its lands, features, inhabitants, and phenomena. A literal translation would be "to describe or write about the Earth"....
. He builds a large globe representing the Earth, and he and Heracles carry it to a suitable location. The Hesperides

Hesperides

Orange (fruit)

An orange?specifically, the sweet orange?is the citrus Citrus sinensis and its fruit. The orange is a Hybrid of ancient cultivated origin, possibly between pomelo and tangerine ....
s.

In the World's Strongest Man competitions, competitors have to carry huge stone boulders across a small distance. These stones are known as the Atlas Stones.

The first cervical vertebrae

Atlas (anatomy)

In anatomy, the atlas is the topmost cervical vertebra of the spine .It is named for the Atlas of mythology, because it supports the globe of the head ....
, one of only two specifically named vertebrae, takes its name from the eponymous Atlas, since it supports the head as Atlas supported the celestial globe.

Children

Sources describe Atlas as the father, by different goddesses, of numerous children, mostly daughters. Some of these are assigned conflicting or overlapping identities or parentage in different sources.

by Hesperis
Hesperius

In Greek mythology, Hesperius was the mother of the Hesperides by Atlas .Because of her beauty she was also associated with Aphrodite....
, the Hesperides
Hesperides

In Greek mythology, the Hesperides are nymphs who tend a blissful garden in a far western corner of the world, located near the Atlas mountains in Ancient Libya, or on a distant blessed island at the edge of the encircling Oceanus....
;
by Pleione
Pleione (mythology)

Pleione was an Oceanid nymph. She lived in a southern region of Greece called Arcadia, on a mountain named Mount Kyllini. She married Atlas and gave birth to the Hyades , Hyas and the Pleiades ....
(or Aithra)

the Hyades
Hyades (mythology)

In Greek mythology, the Hyades , are a sisterhood of nymphs that bring rain. They do not appear in Roman mythology, where Pluvius is an epithet of Jupiter , as "he who sends rain"....
,
a son, Hyas
Hyas

Hyas, in Greek mythology, was a son of the Titan Atlas by Aethra . He was a notable archer who was killed by his intended prey. Some stories have him dying after attempting to rob a lion of its cubs....
,
the Pleiades
Pleiades (mythology)

The Pleiades , , companions of Artemis, were the seven daughters of the Titan Atlas and the sea-nymph Pleione born on Mount Kyllini. They are the sisters of Calypso , Hyas, the Hyades , and the Hesperides....
;

and by one or more unspecified goddesses

Calypso
Calypso (mythology)

Sorry, no overview for this topic
,
Dione
Dione (mythology)

Dione in Greek mythology is a vague goddess presence who has her most concrete form in Book V of Homer's Iliad as the mother of Aphrodite who lived among the mortals was known for her kindness....
,
Maera
Maera

Maera can refer to:...
.

Sources

Robert Graves
Robert Graves

Robert Ranke Graves was an England poet, translator and novelist. During his long life, he produced more than 140 works. He was the son of the Anglo-Irish writer Alfred Perceval Graves and Amalie von Ranke, a niece of the famous German historian Leopold von Ranke....
, The Greek Myths
The Greek Myths

The Greek Myths is a mythography, a compendium of Greek mythology, by the poet and writer Robert Graves, normally published in two volumes....
, London: Penguin, 1955; Baltimore: Penguin. ISBN 0-14-001026-2

Atlas (mythology)

Punishment

Variations

Encounter with Heracles

Etymology

Cultural influence

Children

See also

Sources