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Divine Lineage
A third-century Gandharan relief carved in schist, showing Atlas as a straining support figure — the Greek god absorbed into Buddhist architecture in what is now Pakistan.

Sky

Atlas

ἌτλαςRoman: Atlas

Holds the sky apart from the earth, standing at the western edge, forever.

Schist relief, Gandhara — 3rd century CE

2
epithets
0
cult sites
1
offspring
0
unions
1
recorded birth

Vitals

Kind
Titan
Generation
2
Domains
endurance, the western edge, the pillars that hold sky from earth
Accent
Sky — the open air, weather, the thunderbolt
Sacred symbols
the celestial sphere, the pillar
Principal cult sites
No cult attested

What they were called

  • κρατερόφρων

    strong-minded

  • Ἄτλας

    the very enduring one

Lineage

See in the tree

Descent

FatherIapetosHesiod, Theogony

Mother: the Okeanid Klymene (Hesiod), outside the v1 roster.

Offspring in this roster

ChildMaia

Notable myths

  1. The Weight and the Apples

    Herakles needed the apples of the Hesperides, which Atlas's daughters guarded. He offered to hold the sky while Atlas fetched them. Atlas returned, felt how good it was to stand upright, and offered to carry the apples the rest of the way himself. Herakles agreed, then asked him to hold the sky for a moment while he adjusted a pad for his shoulders, picked up the apples and left.

    Apollodorus, Bibliotheca 2.5.11

The account

Atlas stands at the limits of the earth, in front of the Hesperides, and holds up the wide sky with his head and his tireless hands. Hesiod says Zeus assigned him this by strong necessity, and does not elaborate. The punishment is precise: he is not imprisoned, he is load-bearing. If he puts it down the sky comes back onto the earth and the world stops having a space in it. Later writers give him a brief release. Herakles, sent for the golden apples, offers to take the weight while Atlas fetches them; Atlas comes back and proposes to deliver the apples himself and leave Herakles holding it, and Herakles asks him to take it back for a moment so he can pad his shoulders, then walks off. Ovid supplies a different ending in which Perseus shows him the Gorgon's head and turns him into the mountain range that carries his name. In art he is almost always shown mid-effort, which is the whole of the characterisation.

Ancient sources

  • Hesiod, Theogony 507-509
  • Apollodorus, Bibliotheca 2.5.11

Where a line reference is not given, the work is cited without one rather than guessed at.

Image credit

Title
Pakistan Gandhara - 3rd C - Greek god Atlas - schist IMG 9617 Museum of Asian Civilisation
Artist
Bjoertvedt
Date
Unknown
Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0
Source
Wikimedia Commons file page