Atlas, in Grecian mythology, one of the Titans. He was the son of Japetus and Clymene, and married Pleione, daughter of Oceanus. The details of the myth vary greatly. According to Hesiod, Atlas took part in the Titan War. The victorious Zeus condemned him to stand at the western extremity of the earth, and support the sky on his shoulders and hands. Hawthorne retells the story in The Wonder Book. While searching for the golden apples of the Hesperides, Hercules came to Atlas, who offered to get the apples if Hercules would only relieve him of his burden. This Hercules agreed to do. But Atlas, although he brought the apples, as he had promised, was unwilling to resume his task. Hercules cunningly appeared to submit; but he asked Atlas to hold the sky just a minute, that he might assume a more comfortable position. Atlas innocently consented. Hercules seized his golden apples and escaped. Another story is that Atlas was a rich king, living in that part of the earth where the sun goes down. He was larger than all other men. Perseus, after the slaughter of Medusa, paused for rest and food in the kingdom of Atlas. The king, fearing that he would be robbed of the golden apples in his garden, which were his special pride, refused to receive the guest. Perseus, turning away his own face, held up the Gorgon's head, which he carried with him. This possessed the same power in death that it had had in life, and Atlas was changed into stone. His beard and hair became forests; his shoulders, huge cliffs; his head a summit. Upon the mountain thus formed from his great bulk, it pleased the gods to rest the sky.
The myth is connected in name, at least, with a mass of mountains in northwestern Africa, now included in Morocco. The altitude of the highest peak is 14,600 feet, fully sufficient to suggest the legend. Among the later writers, the Titan Atlas was represented as endowed with wisdom. He was especially learned in the subject of astronomy. The Pleiades, sometimes called Atlantides, were his daughters.
The word atlas in anatomy designates the first vertebra of the neck, which supports the head. The name is, of course, derived from the old legend of Atlas supporting the sky. Our use of the term atlas to designate a volume of maps sprang from the customary employment of a figure of Atlas crouching beneath his burden to adorn the margin of a map or to fill in a blank space.
