01 · The stories
Myths & defining acts
Upholds the heaven (Theogony 517–520); in Apollodorus, Heracles takes over his burden while Atlas fetches the golden apples (2.5.11).
02 · Sacred lineage
Family & relations
A son of Iapetus and Clymene, and brother of Menoetius, Prometheus and Epimetheus (Hesiod, Theogony 507–514). With Pleione, daughter of Ocean, he is the father of the seven Pleiades (Apollodorus 3.10.1), and Maia is his daughter (Theogony 938).
Greek literary genealogies and Roman cult identities are not interchangeable. Explore the family tree and its traditions.
03 · Places of devotion
Abode & sacred sites
The borders of the earth, where in Hesiod he upholds the wide heaven (Theogony 517–520); in the Odyssey, a sea-girt island where his daughter Calypso lives (1.50–54).
04 · Two traditions
Greek & Roman perspectives
The Greek perspective
Hesiod says Atlas through hard constraint upholds the wide heaven at the borders of the earth. The Odyssey says Atlas, who knows the depths of every sea, himself holds the tall pillars which keep earth and heaven apart (1.52–54).
The Roman perspective
The sources cited here are Greek; Ovid's Perseus comes in the west to the realm of Atlas (Metamorphoses 4.627ff).
05 · Extensive analysis
A closer reading
In Hesiod Atlas holds the heaven by hard constraint; in the Odyssey he holds the pillars that keep earth and heaven apart; in Apollodorus, Heracles briefly takes his burden.
06 · Primary sources
What the sources say
These are the main ancient passages behind this entry, with what each one actually says.
- Hesiod, Theogony lines 507–520
Clymene bears Atlas and his brothers; Atlas through hard constraint upholds the wide heaven at the borders of the earth.
Read the passage - Homer, Odyssey book 1, lines 50–54
Calypso is the daughter of Atlas, who knows the depths of every sea and himself holds the tall pillars that keep earth and heaven apart.
Read the passage - Apollodorus, Library book 3, chapter 10, section 1
Atlas and Pleione, daughter of Ocean, have seven daughters, the Pleiades.
Read the passage - Hesiod, Theogony lines 938–939
Maia, daughter of Atlas, bears Hermes to Zeus.
Read the passage - Ovid, Metamorphoses book 4, lines 627–631 (Latin text)
As day falls, Perseus stops in the western world, in the realm of Atlas.
Read the passage
07 · Story & deeper insight
Atlas, Heracles and the weight of heaven
To obtain the golden apples, Heracles temporarily takes over Atlas's burden while the Titan goes to fetch them. Atlas returns but would prefer to deliver the apples himself, leaving Heracles under the weight. Heracles pretends to agree and asks Atlas to hold the heavens briefly while he adjusts his support. Once free, he takes the fruit and departs.
The episode turns a contest of strength into one of judgement. Atlas can obtain something inaccessible to the hero, while Heracles can endure a cosmic weight; neither advantage alone resolves the exchange. The decisive act is the recognition that a temporary arrangement could become permanent.
Atlas carries the heavens, not the earth. The story gives a cosmic punishment a sharply human feature: the hope that someone else might take responsibility for it.