Everything about Atlas Mythology totally explained
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For the Transformers character see King Atlas (Transformers).
In
Greek mythology,
Atlas was one of the primordial
Titans.
Atlas (Eng. /'æt ləs/ Gk. Ἄτλας) was the son of the Titan
Iapetus and the
Oceanid Asia or Klyménē (Κλυμένη):
"Now Iapetus took to wife the neat-ankled maid Clymene, daughter of Ocean, 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, full of various wiles, and scatter-brained Epimetheus."
Hyginus emphasises the primordial nature of Atlas by making him the son of
Aether and
Gaea. In contexts where a Titan and a Titaness are assigned each of the seven planetary powers, Atlas is paired with
Phoebe and governs the
moon. He had three brothers —
Prometheus,
Epimetheus and
Menoetius.
Punishment
Atlas, along with his brother Menoetius, sided with the Titans in their war against the
Olympians, the
Titanomachy. 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, but
Zeus condemned Atlas to stand at the western edge of the
Gaia, the Earth and hold up
Ouranos, the Sky 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, not a
Globe.
Variations
In a late story, a giant named Atlas tried to drive a wandering
Perseus from the place where the
Atlas mountains now stand. Later, out of pity, Athena revealed
Medusa's head, turning Atlas to stone. As isn't uncommon in myth, this account can't be reconciled with the far more common stories of Atlas' dealings with
Heracles, who was Perseus' great-grandson.
According to
Plato, the first king of
Atlantis was also named Atlas, but that Atlas was a mortal son of
Poseidon. A
euhemerist origin for Atlas was as a legendary Atlas, king of Mauretania, an expert astronomer.
Encounter with Heracles
One of the hero
Heracles'
Twelve Labors involved the acquisition of some of the golden apples which grow in
Hera's garden, tended by the Hesperides and guarded by the dragon
Ladon. Heracles went to Atlas, the father of the
Hesperides, 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's 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 didn't intend to return again, 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 to hold the sky away from the earth, liberating Atlas much as he liberated
Prometheus.
Etymology
The
etymology of the name
Atlas is uncertain and still debated.
Virgil 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 τλήναι "to endure"; Doig offers the further possibility that Virgil was aware of
Strabo'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 root
*tel, 'to uphold, support'; others suggest that it's a
pre-Indo-European name. Others suggest that Atlas comes from the
Pelasgian language, and is related to the Greek borrowing
"thalassa" (= sea). The Etruscan name for Atlas,
aril, is etymologically independent.
Cultural influence
Atlas' best-known cultural association is in
cartography. 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 didn't use the word "atlas" in the title of his work, an innovation of
Mercator who dedicated his "atlas" specifically "to honour the Titan, Atlas, King of Mauritania, a learned philosopher, mathematician, and astronomer."
Since the middle of the sixteenth century, any collection of cartographic maps has come to be called an
atlas.
Gerardus Mercator was the first to use the word in this way, and he actually depicted the
astronomer king.
Atlas continues to be a commonly used icon in western culture (and advertising), 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 album
"5150."
Atlas was used as a symbol in
Ayn Rand's novel,
Atlas Shrugged. Atlas is used as a metaphor for the people who produced the most in society.
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.
Further Information
Get more info on 'Atlas Mythology'.
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