For the ancient Greeks, The celestial vault was supported by a titan called Atlas. It was the punishment that Zeus imposed on him for having fought against him and the rest of the Olympian gods in the so-called Titanomachy.
Before the Olympian gods were born, the universe was dominated by a race of powerful divinities arising from the union of Gaia, the Earth, and Uranus, the Sky. They were the six titans and the six titanids. Atlas was the son of one of those original titans, Iapetus, and an Oceanid, Clymene..
Atlas and the war against the Olympian gods
When Atlas was born, the universe was ruled by his uncle Cronuswho, for fear of a prophecy, had taken to swallowing his offspring as soon as they were born. His power seemed eternal, but one day, the youngest of his sons, Zeus, whom all the titans believed to be company with his brothers in his father’s stomach, left the cave in which he was hiding and rebelled. Then a cosmic war, the Titanomachyin which The titans fought against Zeus and his brothersthe Olympians.
Atlas had no choice but to participate in that contest. He did it alongside his own people, and not like his brother Prometheus, who, realizing his sagacity, sensed that the winning side was that of the sons of Cronus.
Atlas distinguished himself in that war by leading the titansand that was his downfall. Zeus, who was generally generous with the rest of the Titans, was implacable with him and condemned him to bear the heavenly vault on your shoulders for all eternity.
Meeting between Atlas and Heracles
The punishment allowed Atlas to understand the secrets of heaven and earth, but that knowledge, given the magnitude of the burden he bore, was little comfort to him. The only thing he longed for was to be free of that weight once and for all.
He most famous myth in which Atlas appears It is part of the cycle of twelve labors of Heracles (the Hercules of the Romans) and it has to do, precisely, with his desire to escape his condemnation.
King Eurystheus of Mycenae had commissioned Heracles to bring him the golden apples from the garden of the Hesperidesa place located near where Atlas was serving his punishment. Such a garden was guarded by a fearsome snake, and although the hero had plenty of experience in eliminating monsters such as the Lernaean hydra or the Nemean lion, this time he preferred not to take risks. He then thought of Atlas and suggested that he go get those apples for him.
Atlas accepted. And not because he felt sympathy for Heracles (how could he have it, if the hero was one of the many sons of the same Zeus who had punished him?), but because in that assignment he saw the opportunity to transfer his heavy burden to other shoulders. Heracles then replaced him as supporter of the vault of the universe.
Released, Atlas got the apples, but once he had them in his hand, he decided that he would be the one to take them to King Eurystheus. Heracles thus found himself in a compromising situation, although, feigning resignation, he asked Atlas to hold the load for a moment, as he needed to put something on his shoulders to better support it. The celestial vault thus passed again to Atlas and it stayed there.
The Atlas Mountains
Atlas also appears in a myth starring another hero, son of Zeus, Perseus, whose greatest feat had been to decapitate the monstrous Medusa. This was an ancient priestess of Athena who, due to a curse from the goddess, turned anyone who looked back at her into stone. Perseus killed her and, with her head in his backpack, began his journey back to his home.
His steps then took him to the domain of Atlas, from whom he asked for hospitality. But the titan, whether because the burden of the heavenly vault soured his mood or because he was not willing to do anything for a son of Zeus, rejected him rudely. Angered by such treatment, Perseus took out the head of Medusa and showed it to Atlas, who immediately began to turn into stone..
According to the ancient Greeks, this is how the African Atlas mountain range was formed.
The daughters of Atlas, turned into stars
The celestial vault left no room for Atlas for love adventures. However, before Zeus imposed this punishment on him, the titan had had numerous relationships from which a significant number of daughters had been born. With Hesperis, the hour of sunset, he had the Hesperidesthe nymphs who take care of the garden of the same name in which the golden apples that Heracles was looking for grew. That’s why it was so easy for Atlas to get them: he just had to ask his daughters for them.
With the sea nymph Pléyone, Atlas had the seven Pleiades. The eldest of them, Maya, was seduced by Zeus, to whom she gave a son: Hermes, the messenger of the gods. Upon their death, the seven were deified and raised to the sky like starsfrom where they keep their father company.
Atlas and Pléyone also had the Hyades, the nymphs of the rain. Like their sisters the Pleiades, they ended turned into stars.
Another daughter of Atlas was Calypsoqueen of the island of Ogygia. For seven years he held the hero Ulysses there, to whom he even offered immortality and eternal youth if he remained at his side. Ulysses, however, preferred to return home.