Contemporary Allusion Of Atlas Myth

Introduction:
Atlas
Titan god of astronomy, navigation, and the
bearer of the heavens
Parents:
Iapetus the Titan and Clymene the nymph
Siblings
He had three brothers, Prometheus,
Epimetheus and Menoetius
Wife
His sister, Phoebe
Children
One son, Hyas, and multiple daughters,
Pleione, the Hesperides, the Pleiades, and
the Hyades.
Family Background
Titans were giants who ruled the earth
before the Olympians came and overthrew
them.

Contemporary Allusion:
Modern day collections of maps are called atlases.

Extra: Atlas was actually holding up the sky, not the earth. Mercator, the mapmaker first started the tradition of depicting Atlas as holding the earth when he put it on the cover of his book in the 1500’s.

Myth:

The Titan brother and sisters got into a war with the gods with Atlas leading them in battle.

The gods,
being more powerful, defeated the Titans but since they could not kill the Titans, they punished them in their own way. Atlas, a very strong Titan, was forced to stand on the edge of Gaea, the earth.

Interactions:
Hercules was on his journey to complete his 12 labors. One of his tasks was to get the golden apples of Hesperides. He went to the Titan god Atlas and asked him to get the apples for him but in return Hercules had to hold up the heavens forever. Hercules took Atlas’s spot and held the weight of the heavens while Atlas got the apples for him. After Atlas returned, Hercules asked if Atlas could hold the weight one more time while he adjusted. He then picked up the apples and ran away, leaving Atlas there for eternity.
Appearance, powers, weaknesses:
Atlas was portrayed as a bearded, muscular, super human being kneeling, supporting the sky.

Atlas was extremely strong and even held up the

sky.

Atlas was also gullible because he was tricked back into holding up the sky.

The Greeks believed that something had to be holding up the sky, so they chose Atlas the Titan.

Special Objects:
The earth
The heavens

Natural Phenomena:
Celestial Bodies
Stars
The sun
The moon

Extra: Titans are immortal, they cannot be killed. Also, the present-day mountain range, the Atlas Mountains, is supposedly the body of Atlas, turned into stone after he looked at the severed head of Medusa.