Atlas, same name was used by the Latin authors
Show NotesNotes:
1. Atlas was the descendant of Iapetus and Asia(Apollodorus). alternatively, Atlas was a son of Iapetus and Clymene, the daughter of Oceanus(Hesiod, Hyginus). There was another titan Atlas, born to Aether and Gaea(Hyginus). Hyginus mentioned both as titans, born of different origin, but it`s likely that this was one and the same character.
2. Atlas had brothers Prometheus(Aeschylus, Hesiod, Apollodorus, Hyginus), Epimetheus(Hesiod, Apollodorus, Hyginus) and Menoetius(Hesiod, Apollodorus).
3. According to most authors that are mentioning Atlas` descendants, the titan was credited to had consorted with Pleione, an oceanid and the daughter of Oceanus, and had the daughters called Pleiades. There is some contradictions however. For instance, while the seven daughters, Teygate, Electra, Alcyone, Asterope, Celaeno, Maia and Merope are mentioned by all of the authors (only the names slightly vary), there is an alternative explanation in Hyginus`s Astronomica and Fabulae. In Astronomica it is said by the Muses that Pleiades were fifteen daughters of Atlas and Aethra. Five of them are called Hyades and the rest ten Pleiades. And in Fabulae it is said that Atlas and Pleione had a twelve daughters and a son Hyas. I recommend reading it through for further info.
4. Atlas is by all authors mentioned as holding heavens and earth apart. However, while some authors are just mentioning him holding heavens on his back, others are describing him in their own very imaginary ways. He is mentioned as barely supporting this enormous weight of heavens(Aeschylus, Ovid). alternatively, he was described as enormous giant, standing in ocean and his head reaching above the clouds, while holding heavens(Virgil, Vallerius Flaccus). But they all seem to agree that this is his burden that was given to him by Zeus.
5. Atlas is mentioned as the leader of the titans in a ten-year war against Olympians, and while others were sent to Tartarus after defeat, Zeus punished him by holding heavens and earth apart for eternity(Hyginus).
6. Heracles met Atlas in his quest to obtain the apples of Hesperides(Philostratus the Elder, Pausanias, Apollodorus, Diodorus Siculus).
7. Hesperides were also the daughters of Atlas in an interesting aspect on the story of Atlas and his brother Hesperus by Diodorus Siculus. In his Library of History, there is quite an interesting story, different to others, where Atlas and Hesperus were famous brothers and eventually one of Hesperus` daughters by the name Hesperis marries Atlas and bore him seven daughters who are named Atlantides, after their father, and Hesperides, after their mother. Heracles is also mentioned in the same story and Atlas is also credited for mastering science of astrology, discovering the spherical nature of the stars and therefore being touted as the heaven-bearer.
8. Perseus was described meeting Atlas and after a quarrel turning him to stone, known as Mount Atlas(Fulgentius and Ovid).
- General (Description)
- Family
- Titanomachy
- Account with Heracles
- Account with Perseus
- Other
AESCHYLUS, PROMETHEUS BOUND, translated by H. W. SMYTH
PROMETHEUS [342] I thank you for all this and shall never cease to thank you; in zeal you lack nothing, but do not trouble yourself; for your trouble will be vain and not helpful to me—if indeed you want to take the pain. No, keep quiet and keep yourself clear of harm. For even if I am in sore plight, I would not wish affliction on everyone else. No, certainly, no! since, besides, I am distressed by the fate of my brother Atlas, who, towards the west, stands bearing on his shoulders the pillar of heaven and earth, a burden not easy for his arms to grasp.
CHORUS [425] One other Titan god before this I have seen in distress, enthralled in torment by adamantine bonds —Atlas, pre-eminent in mighty strength, who moans as he supports the vault of heaven on his back. The waves of the sea utter a cry as they fall, the deep laments, the black abyss of Hades rumbles in response, and the streams of pure-flowing rivers lament your piteous pain.
CLAUDIAN, GIGANTOMACHIA, translated by M. PLATNAUER
[14] “Children, ye shall conquer heaven: all that ye see is the prize of victory; win, and the universe is yours. At last shall Saturn’s son feel the weight of my wrath; shall recognize Earth’s power. What! can any force conquer me? Has Cybele born sons superior to mine? Why has Earth no honour? Why is she ever condemned to bitter loss? Has any form of injury passed me by? There hangs luckless Prometheus in yon Scythian vale, feeding the vulture on his living breast; yonder, Atlas supports the weight of the starry heavens upon his head, and his grey hair is frozen stiff with cruel cold."
DIODORUS SICULUS, LIBRARY OF HISTORY, Book 4, translated by C. H. OLDFATHER
[4.27.5] For Atlas had worked out the science of astrology to a degree surpassing others had had ingeniously discovered the spherical nature of the stars, and for that reason was generally believed to be bearing the entire firmament upon his shoulders. Similarly in the case of Heracles, when he had brought to the Greeks the doctrine of the sphere, he gained great fame, as if he had taken over the burden of the firmament which Atlas had borne, wince men intimated in this enigmatic way what had actually taken place.
HOMER, ODYSSEY, Book 1, translated by IAN JOHNSTON
[67] He's[Odysseus] on an island, surrounded by the sea, the one that forms the ocean's navel stone. In the forests of that island lives a goddess, daughter of tough-minded Atlas, who knows the ocean depths and by himself holds up those gigantic pillars which separate earth and heaven.
NONNUS, DIONYSIACA, Book 2, translated by W. H. D. ROUSE
[258] “Smash the house of Zeus, O my hands! Shake the foundation of the universe, and the blessed ones with it! Break the bar of Olympos, self-turning, divine! Drag down to earth the heavenly pillar, let Atlas be shaken and flee away, let him throw down the starry vault of Olympos and fear no more its circling course – for I will not permit a son of Earth to be bowed down with chafed shoulders, while he under-props the revolving compulsion of the sky! No, let him leave his endless burden to the other gods, and battle against the Blessed Ones! Let him break off rocks, and volley with those hard shots the starry vault which he once carried! Let the timid Seasons, the Sun’s handmaids, flee the heavens under the shower of mountains! Mix earth with sky, water with fire, sea with Olympos, in a litter of confusion!
NONNUS, DIONYSIACA, Book 3, translated by W. H. D. ROUSE
[348] And away by the boundary of Libya my father still suffers hardship, old Atlas with chafing shoulders bowed, upholding the seven-zoned vault of the sky.
OVID, METAMORPHOSES, Book 2, translated by BROOKES MORE
[295] Atlas, huge, with restive shoulders hardly can support the burning heavens. If the seas and lands together perish and thy palace fall, the universe confused will plunge once more to ancient Chaos.
OVID, METAMORPHOSES, Book 5, translated by BROOKES MORE
[621] Thence wafted by the never-constant winds through boundless latitudes, now here now there, as flits a vapour-cloud in dizzy flight, down-looking from the lofty skies on earth, removed far, so compassed he the world. Three times did he behold the frozen Bears, times thrice his gaze was on the Crab's bent arms. Now shifting to the west, now to the east, how often changed his course? Time came, when day declining, he began to fear the night, by which he stopped his flight far in the west—the realm of Atlas—where he sought repose till Lucifer might call Aurora\'s fires; Aurora chariot of the Day. There dwelt huge Atlas, vaster than the race of man: son of Iapetus, his lordly sway extended over those extreme domains, and over oceans that command their waves to take the panting coursers of the Sun, and bathe the wearied Chariot of the Day. For him a thousand flocks, a thousand herds overwandered pasture fields; and neighbour tribes might none disturb that land. Aglint with gold bright leaves adorn the trees,—boughs golden-wrought bear apples of pure gold.
SENECA, HERCULES OETAEUS, translated by F. J. MILLER
[1903] You too, ye thronging deities of the whirling heavens, bewail Hercules’ fate; for my Alcides bore your heavens upon his shoulders, your sky, ye gods above, when Atlas, starry Olympus’ prop, was eased of his load awhile. Where now are thy heights, O Jove? Where is the promised palace in the sky? Alcides, mortal, is dead! mortal, is buried! How oft did he save thee thy lightnings, how seldom thy fire needed hurling! Against me at least brandish thy lightning, and deem me Semele.
STATIUS, THEBAID, Book 5, translated by J. H. MOZLEY
[426] ...Even so the denizens of heaven are said to burst forth from their mystic portals, when they desire to visit the homes and the coast and the lesser banquet of the red Aethiopians: rivers and mountains yield them passage, Earth exults beneath their footsteps and Atlas knows a brief respite from the burden of the sky.
VALERIUS FLACCUS, ARGONAUTICA, Book 5, translated by J. H. MOZLEY
[407] She was silent; and they make haste to gain the threshold shown them. Even as though they drew night the presence of the radiant god and the very citadel of light eternal, so bright are the rays with which the palace gleams. There iron Atlas stands in ocean, the wave swelling and breaking on his knees; but the god himself on high hurries his shining steeds across the old man’s body, and spreads light about the curving sky; behind with smaller wheel follows his sister and the crowded Pleiads and the fires whose tresses are wet with dripping rain.
VIRGIL, AENEID, Book 4, translated by H. R. FAIRCLOUGH
[245] ...And now in flight he descries the peak and steep sides of toiling Atlas, who props heaven on his peak – Atlas, whose pine-wreathed head is ever girt with black clouds, and beaten with wind and rain; fallen snow mantles his shoulders while rivers plunge down the aged chin and his rough beard is stiff with ice.
[479] ...Near Ocean’s bound and the setting sun lies Ethiopia, farthest of lands, where mightiest Atlas on this shoulders turns the sphere, inset with gleaming stars.
APOLLODORUS EPITOME OF LIBRARY, translated by J. G. FRAZER
[E.7.24] There Calypso, daughter of Atlas, received him[Odysseus], and bedding with him bore a son Latinus. He stayed with her five years, and then made a raft and sailed away.
APOLLODORUS LIBRARY, Book 1, translated by J. G. FRAZER
[1.2.3] to Iapetus and Asia was born Atlas, who has the sky on his shoulders, and Prometheus, and Epimetheus, and Menoetius, he whom Zeus in the battle with the Titans smote with a thunderbolt and hurled down to Tartarus.
[1.9.3] And Sisyphus, son of Aeolus, founded Ephyra, which is now called Corinth, and married Merope, daughter of Atlas.
APOLLODORUS LIBRARY, Book 3, translated by J. G. FRAZER
[3.10.1] Atlas and Pleione, daughter of Ocean, had seven daughters called the Pleiades, born to them at Cyllene in Arcadia, to wit: Alcyone, Merope, Celaeno, Electra, Sterope, Taygete, and Maia. Of these, Sterope was married to Oenomaus, and Merope to Sisyphus. And Poseidon had intercourse with two of them, first with Celaeno, by whom he had Lycus, whom Poseidon made to dwell in the Islands of the Blest, and second with Alcyone, who bore a daughter, Aethusa, the mother of Eleuther by Apollo, and two sons Hyrieus and Hyperenor. Hyrieus had Nycteus and Lycus by a nymph Clonia; and Nycteus had Antiope by Polyxo; and Antiope had Zethus and Amphion by Zeus.> And Zeus consorted with the other daughters of Atlas.
APOLLONIUS RHODIUS, ARGONAUTICA, Book 4, translated by R. C. SEATON
[570] ...And next they passed Melite, rejoicing in the soft-blowing breeze, and steep Cerossus, and Nymphaea at a distance, where lady Calypso, daughter of Atlas, dwelt; and they deemed they saw the misty mountains of Thunder.
CLEMENT, RECOGNITIONS, Book 10, translated by REV. THOMAS SMITH
[Chapter 21]BLACK CATALOGUE [Zeus impregnated] Taygete, Electra, Maia, Plutide, daughters of Atlas, of whom respectively he begot Lacedæmon, Dardanus, Mercury, and Tantalus;
[Chapter 23]WHY A GOD? He[Zeus] also committed adultery with Europa, the wife of his own uncle Oceanus, and with her sister Eurynome, and punished their father; and he committed adultery with Plute, the daughter of his own son Atlas, and condemned Tantalus, whom she bore to him.
DIODORUS SICULUS, LIBRARY OF HISTORY, Book 4, translated by C. H. OLDFATHER
[4.27.1] But we must not fail to mention what the myths relate about Atlas and about the race of the Hesperides. The account runs like this: In the country known as Hesperitis there were two brothers whose fame was known abroad, Hesperus and Atlas. Thse brothers possessed flocks of sheep which excelled in beauty and were in colour of a golden yellow, this being the reason why the poets, in speaking of these sheep as mela, called them golden mela.
[4.27.2] Now Hesperus begat a daughter named Hesperis, whom he gave in marriage to his brother and after whom the land was given the name Hesperitis; and Atlas begat by her seven daughters, who were named after their father Atlantides, and after their mother, Hesperides. And since these Atlantides excelled in beauty and chastity, Busiris the king of the Egyptians, the account says, was seized with the desire to get the maidens into his power; and consequently he dispatched pirates by sea with orders to seize the girls and deliver them into his hands.
HESIOD, FRAGMENTS, Fragment 1, translated by H. G. EVELYN-WHITE
Scholiast on Pindar, Nem. ii. 16: The Pleiades . . . whose stars are these: -- "Lovely Teygata, and dark-faced Electra, and Alcyone, and bright Asterope, and Celaeno, and Maia, and Merope, whom glorious Atlas begot . . . \"((lacuna))\"In the mountains of Cyllene she (Maia) bare Hermes, the herald of the gods.
HESIOD, THEOGONY, translated by H. G. EVELYN-WHITE
[507] Now Iapetus took to wife the neat-ankled mad 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 who from the first was a mischief to men who eat bread; for it was he who first took of Zeus the woman, the maiden whom he had formed. But Menoetius was outrageous, and far-seeing Zeus struck him with a lurid thunderbolt and sent him down to Erebus because of his mad presumption and exceeding pride. And Atlas through hard constraint upholds the wide heaven with unwearying head and arms, standing at the borders of the earth before the clear-voiced Hesperides; for this lot wise Zeus assigned to him.
[938] \"And Maia, the daughter of Atlas, bare to Zeus glorious Hermes, the herald of the deathless gods, for she went up into his holy bed.
HESIOD, WORKS AND DAYS, translated by H. G. EVELYN-WHITE
[383] When the Pleiades, daughters of Atlas, are rising [in early May], begin your harvest, and your ploughing when they are going to set [in November]. Forty nights and days they are hidden and appear again as the year moves round, when first you sharpen your sickle.
HOMER, ODYSSEY, Book 7, translated by IAN JOHNSTON
[300] There is an island called Ogygia far off in the sea. A cunning, fearful goddess lives there, fair-haired Calypso, Atlas's daughter.
HOMERIC HYMNS, Hymn to Hermes, translated by H. G. EVELYN-WHITE
[1] I sing of Cyllenian Hermes, the Slayer of Argus, lord of Cyllene and Arcadia rich in flocks, luck-bringing messenger of the deathless gods. He was born of Maia, the daughter of Atlas, when she had made with Zeus, -- a shy goddess she...
HYGINUS, ASTRONOMICA, Book 2, translated by MARY GRANT
[2.21] The Pleiades were so named, according to Musaeaus, because fifteen daughters were born to Atlas and Aethra, daughter of Ocean. Five of them are called Hyades, he shows, because their brother was Hyas, a youth dearly beloved by his sisters. When he was killed in a lion hunt, the five we have mentioned, given over to continual lamentation, are said to have perished. Because they grieved exceedingly at his death, they are called Hyades. The remaining ten brooded over the death of their sisters, and brought death on themselves; because so may experienced the same grief, they were called Pleiades. Alexander says they were called Hyades because they were daughters of Hyas and Boeotia, Pleiades, because born of Pleio, daughter of Ocean, and Atlas...
The Pleiades are called seven in number, but only six can be seen. This reason has been advanced, that of the seven, six mated with immortals (three with Jove, two with Neptune, and one with Mars); the seventh was said to have been the wife of Sisyphus. From Electra and Jove, Dardanus was born; from Maia and Jove, Mercury; from Taygete and Jove, Ladedaemon; from Alcyone and Neptune, Hyrieus; from Celaeno and Neptune, Lycus and Nycteus. Mars by Sterope begat Oenomaus, but others call her the wife of Oenomaus. Merope, wed to Sisyphus, bore Glaucus, who, as many say, was the father of Bellerophon. On account of her other sisters she was placed among the constellations, but because she married a mortal, her star is dim. Others say Electra does not appear because the Pleiades are thought to lead the circling dance for the stars, but after Troy was captured and her descendants through Dardanus overthrown, moved by grief she left them and took her place in the circle called Arctic. From this she appears, in grief for such a long time, with her hair unbound, that, because of this, she is called a comet.
But ancient astronomers placed these Pleiades, daughters of Pleione and Atlas, as we have said, apart from the Bull. When Pleione once was travelling through Boeotia with her daughters, Orion, who was accompanying her, tried to attack her. She escaped, but Orion sought her for seven years and couldn’t find her. Jove, pitying the girls, appointed a way to the stars, and later, by some astronomers, they were called the Bull’s tail. And so up to this time Orion seems to be following them as they flee towards the west. Our writers call these stars Vergiliae, because they rise after spring. They have still greater honour than the others, too, because their rising is a sign of summer, their setting of winter - a thing is not true of the other constellations.
HYGINUS, FABULAE, translated by MARY GRANT
From Aether and Earth: Grief, Deceit, Wrath, Lamentation, Falsehood, Oath, Vengeance, Intemperance, Altercation, Forgetfulness, Sloth, Fear, Pride, Incest, Combat, Ocean, Themis, Tartarus, Pontus; and the Titans, Briareus, Gyges, Steropes, Atlas, Hyperion, and Polus, Saturn, Ops, Moneta, Dione; and three Furies – namely, Alecto, Megaera, Tisiphone.
From Iapetus and Clymene, Atlas, Epimetheus, Prometheus.\"
\r\n\"From Atlas and Pleione, Maia, Calypso, Alcyone, Merope, Electra, Celaeno.
Fable [192] Atlas by Pleione or an Oceanid had twelve daughters, and a son, Hyas. The son was killed b y a wild boar or a lion, and the sisters, grieving for him, died of this grief. The five of them first put among the stars have their place between the horns of the bull – Phaesyla, Ambrosia, Coronis, Eudora, Polyxo – and are called, from their brother’s name, Hyades. In Latin they are called Suculae. Some say that since they are arranged in the form of the letter Upsilon they are called Hyades; some, they are so called because they bring rain when they rise, for “to rain” is hyein in Greek. There are those who think they are among the stars because they were the nurses of Father Liber whom Lycurgus drove out from the island Naxos.
The rest of the sisters, later dying from grief, were made stars, and because they were many, were called Pleiades. Some think they were so named because they are joined together, that is, plesion, for they are so close together that they can scarcely be counted, nor can anyone be sure whether they are six or seven in number. Their names are as follows: Electra, Alcyone, Celaeno, Merope, Sterope, Taygeta, and Maia. Of these, they say Electra does not appear, because of the death of Dardanus and the loss of Troy. Others think that Merope appears to blush because she had a mortal as husband, though the others had gods. Driven from the band of her sisters because of this, she wears her hair long in grief, and is called a comet, or longodes because she trails out for a long distance, or xiphias because she shows the shape of a sword-point. This star, too, portends grief.
OVID, FASTI, Book 3, translated by J. G. FRAZER
[99] Nor had the ancients as many Kalends as we have now: their year was short by two months. Conquered Greece had not yet transmitted her arts to the victors; her people were eloquent but hardly brave. The doughty warrior understood the art of Rome, and he who could throw javelins was eloquent. Who then had noticed the Hyades or the Pleiads, daughters of Atlas, or that there were two poles in the firmament?
OVID, FASTI, Book 5, translated by J. G. FRAZER
[80] Then Calliope, her unkempt hair bound up with ivy, thus began, first of her choir: “Tethys, the Titaness, who wedded of old by Ocean, who encompasses the earth, far as it stretches, with his flowing waters. Their daughter Pelione, as report has it, was united to Atlas, who upholds the sky, and she gave birth to the Pleiads.
PAUSANIAS, DESCRIPTION OF GREECE, Book 8, translated by W. H. S. JONES
[8.48.6] There are also here tombs of Tegeates, the son of Lycaon, and of Maera, the wife of Tegeates. They say that Maera was a daughter of Atlas, and Homer makes mention of her in the passage where Odysseus tells to Alcinous his journey to Hades, and of those whose ghosts he beheld there.
HESIOD, THEOGONY, translated by H. G. EVELYN-WHITE
[510] And Atlas through hard constraint upholds the wide heaven with unwearying head and arms, standing at the borders of the earth before the clear-voiced Hesperides; for this lot wise Zeus assigned to him.
HYGINUS, FABULAE, translated by MARY GRANT
Fable [150] After Juno saw that Epaphus, born of a concubine, ruled such a great kingdom, she saw to it that he should be killed while hunting, and encouraged the Titans to drive Jove from the kingdom and restore it to Saturn. When they tried to mount heaven, Jove with the help of Minerva, Apollo, and Diana, cast them headlong into Tartarus. On Atlas, who had been their leader, he put the vault of the sky; even now he is said to hold up the sky on his shoulders.
APOLLODORUS LIBRARY, Book 2, translated by J. G. FRAZER
[2.5.11] When the labours had been performed in eight years and a month, Eurystheus ordered Hercules, as an eleventh labour, to fetch golden apples from the Hesperides, for he did not acknowledge the labour of the cattle of Augeas nor that of the hydra. These apples were not, as some have said, in Libya, but on Atlas among the Hyperboreans.
Now Prometheus had told Hercules not to go himself after the apples but to send Atlas, first relieving him of the burden of the sphere; so when he was come to Atlas in the land of the Hyperboreans, he took the advice and relieved Atlas. But when Atlas had received three apples from the Hesperides, he came to Hercules, and not wishing to support the sphere he said that he would himself carry the apples to Eurystheus, and bade Hercules hold up the sky in his stead. Hercules promised to do so, but succeeded by craft in putting it on Atlas instead. For at the advice of Prometheus he begged Atlas to hold up the sky till he should put a pad on his head. When Atlas heard that, he laid the apples down on the ground and took the sphere from Hercules. And so Hercules picked up the apples and departed.
DIODORUS SICULUS, LIBRARY OF HISTORY, Book 4, translated by C. H. OLDFATHER
[4.27.3] About this time Heracles, while engaged in the performance of his last Labour, slew in Libya Antaeus, who was compelling all strangers to wrestle with him, and upon Busiris in Egypt, who was sacrificing to Zeus the strangers who visited his country, he inflicted the punishment which he deserved. After this Heracles sailed up the Nile into Ethiopia, where he slew Emathion, the king of the Ethiopians, who had made battle with him unprovoked, and then returned to the completion of his last Labour.
[4.27.4] Meanwhile the pirates had seized the girls while they were playing in a certain garden and carried them off, and fleeing swiftly to their ships had sailed away with them. Heracles came upon the pirates as they were taking their meal on a certain strand, and learning from the maidens what had taken place he slew the pirates to a man and brought the girls back to Atlas their father; and in return Atlas was so grateful to Heracles for his kindly deed that he not only gladly gave him such assistance as his Labour called for, but he also instructed him quite freely in the knowledge of astrology.
PAUSANIAS, DESCRIPTION OF GREECE, Book 5, translated by W. H. S. JONES
[5.10.9] Most of the labours of Heracles are represented at Olympia. Above the doors of the temple is carved the hunting of the Arcadian boar, his exploit against Diomedes the Thracian, and that against Geryones at Erytheia; he is also about to receive the burden of Atlas, and he cleanses the land from dung for the Eleans. Above the doors of the rear chamber he is taking the girdle from the Amazon; and there are the affairs of the deer, of the bull at Cnossus, of the Stymphalian birds, of the hydra, and of the Argive lion.
[5.18.4] There are also figures of Muses singing, with Apollo leading the song; these too have an inscription:
This is Leto\'s son, prince Apollo, far-shooting;
Around him are the Muses, a graceful choir, whom he is leading.
Atlas too is supporting, just as the story has it, heaven and earth upon his shoulders; he is also carrying the apples of the Hesperides. A man holding a sword is coming towards Atlas. This everybody can see is Heracles, though he is not mentioned specially in the inscription, which reads:
Here is Atlas holding heaven, but he will let go the apples.
PHILOSTRATUS THE ELDER, IMAGINES, Book 2, translated by A. FAIRBANKS
[2.20] With Atlas also did Heracles contend, and that too without a command from Eurystheus, claiming that he could sustain the heavens better than Atlas. For he saw that Atlas was bowed over and crushed by the weight and that he was crouching on one knee alone and barely had strength left to stand, while as for himself, he averred that he could raise the heavens up and after setting them aloft could hold them for a long time. Of course he does not reveal this ambition at all, but merely says that he is sorry for Atlas on account of his labour and would willingly share his burden with him. And Atlas has so gladly seized upon the offer of Heracles that he implores him to venture the task.
Atlas is represented as exhausted, to judge by all the sweat that trickles from him and to infer from his trembling arm, but Heracles earnestly desires the task. This is shown by the eager look on his face, the club thrown on the ground and the hands that beg for the task. There is no need to admire the shaded parts of Heracles’ body because they are vigorously drawn – for the attitudes of recumbent figures or persons standing erect are easily shaded, and their accurate reproduction is not at all a mark of skill – but the shadows on Atlas show a high degree of skill; for the shadows on a crouching figure like his run into one another, and do not darken any of the projecting parts but they produce light on the parts that are hollow and retreating. The belly of Atlas, for instance, one can see although he is bending forward, and one can perceive that he is panting. The bodies in the heavens which he carries are painted in the ether that surrounds the stars; one can recognize a bull, that is the Bull of the heavens, and bears, the kind that are seen here. Of the winds some are represented facing in the same direction and others as facing in the opposite direction, and while some are friendly with each other others seem to keep up their strife in the heavens. You will uphold these heavenly bodies for the present, Heracles; but before long you will live with them in the sky, drinking, and embracing the beautiful Hebe; for you are to marry the youngest of the gods and the one most revered by them, since it is through her that they also are young.
FULGENTIUS, MYTHOLOGIES, Book 1, translated by L. G. WHITBREAD
[1.21] Perseus, coveting her rich domain, slew her (he is called winged because he came with ships); and carrying off her head, that is, her substance, he grew all the richer by securing her wide territories. Then, invading the kingdom of Atlas, eh forced him to flee into a mountain, whence he is said to have been changed into a mountain, as it were, by the head of the Gorgo, that is, by her substance.
OVID, METAMORPHOSES, Book 5, translated by BROOKES MORE
[639] And Perseus spoke to Atlas, “O my friend, if thou art moved to hear the story of a noble race, the author of my life is Jupiter; if valiant deeds perhaps are thy delight mine may deserve thy praise.—Behold of thee kind treatment I implore—a place of rest.” But Atlas, mindful of an oracle since by Themis, the Parnassian, told, recalled these words, “O Atlas! mark the day a son of Jupiter shall come to spoil; for when thy trees been stripped of golden fruit, the glory shall be his.” Fearful of this, Atlas had built solid walls around his orchard, and secured a dragon, huge, that kept perpetual guard, and thence expelled all strangers from his land. Wherefore he said, “Begone! The glory of your deeds is all pretense; even Jupiter, will fail your need.”
[651] With that he added force and strove to drive the hesitating Alien from his doors; who pled reprieve or threatened with bold words. Although he dared not rival Atlas' might, Perseus made this reply; “For that my love you hold in light esteem, let this be yours.” He said no more, but turning his own face, he showed upon his left Medusa's head, abhorrent features.—Atlas, huge and vast, becomes a mountain—His great beard and hair are forests, and his shoulders and his hands mountainous ridges, and his head the top of a high peak;—his bones are changed to rocks. Augmented on all sides, enormous height attains his growth; for so ordained it, ye, O mighty Gods! who now the heavens\' expanse unnumbered stars, on him command to rest.
PAUSANIAS, DESCRIPTION OF GREECE, Book 3, translated by W. H. S. JONES
[3.18.10] It is supported in front, and similarly behind, by two Graces and two Seasons. On the left stand Echidna and Typhos, on the right Tritons. To describe the reliefs one by one in detail would have merely bored my readers; but to be brief and concise (for the greater number of them are not unknown either) Poseidon and Zeus are carrying Taygete, daughter of Atlas, and her sister Alcyone. There are also reliefs of Atlas, the single combat of Heracles and Cycnus, and the battle of the Centaurs at the cave of Pholus.
PAUSANIAS, DESCRIPTION OF GREECE, Book 6, translated by W. H. S. JONES
[6.19.8] The third of the treasuries, and the fourth as well, were dedicated by the Epidamnians . . . It shows the heavens upheld by Atlas, and also Heracles and the apple-tree of the Hesperides, with the snake coiled round the apple-tree.
PAUSANIAS, DESCRIPTION OF GREECE, Book 9, translated by W. H. S. JONES
[9.20.3] There is in Tanagra the tomb of Orion, and Mount Cerycius, the reputed birthplace of Hermes, and also a place called Polus. Here they say that Atlas sat and meditated deeply upon hell and heaven, as Homer says of him:
Daughter of baneful Atlas, who knows the depths
Of every sea, while he himself holds up the tall pillars,
Which keep apart earth and heaven.