Editing Atlas (mythology) (section)

==Mythology==
===War and punishment===
{{main|Titanomachy}}
Atlas and his brother [[Menoetius]] sided with the Titans in their war against the [[Twelve Olympians|Olympians]], the [[Titanomachy]]. When the Titans were defeated, many of them (including Menoetius) were confined to [[Tartarus]], but [[Zeus]] condemned Atlas to stand at the western edge of the earth and hold up the sky on his shoulders.<ref>[[Hesiod]], ''[[Theogony]]'' [http://data.perseus.org/citations/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0020.tlg001.perseus-eng1:507-544 517&ndash;520]; {{harvp|Gantz|1993|p=46}}</ref> Thus, he was ''Atlas Telamon'', "enduring Atlas", and became a doublet of [[Coeus]], the embodiment of the celestial axis around which the heavens revolve.<ref>The usage in [[Virgil]]'s ''maximum Atlas axem umero torquet stellis ardentibus aptum'' (''Aeneid'', iv.481f, cf vi.796f), combining poetic and parascientific images, is discussed in P. R. Hardie, "Atlas and Axis" ''The Classical Quarterly'' N.S. '''33'''.1 (1983:220–228).</ref>

A common misconception today is that Atlas was forced to hold the Earth on his shoulders, but Classical art shows Atlas holding the [[celestial spheres]], not the [[globe|terrestrial globe]]; the solidity of the marble globe borne by the [[Farnese Atlas]] may have aided the conflation, reinforced in the 16th century by the developing usage of ''atlas'' to describe a corpus of [[Atlas|terrestrial maps]].{{Citation needed|date=July 2024}} 

===Encounter with Perseus===
{{main|Perseus}}
The Greek poet [[Polyidus (mythology)|Polyidus]] {{Circa|398 BC}}<ref>[[Polyeidos (poet)|Polyeidos]], [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/polyidus-fragment/1993/pb_LCL144.203.xml fr. 837 Campbell]; [[Ovid]], ''[[Metamorphoses]]'' [https://topostext.org/work/141#4.621 4.627].</ref> tells a tale of Atlas, then a shepherd, encountering [[Perseus]] who [[Petrifaction in mythology and fiction|turned him to stone]]. Ovid later gives a more detailed account of the incident, combining it with the myth of Heracles. In this account Atlas is not a shepherd, but a king.<ref>Ovid, ''[[Metamorphoses]]'' 4.617 ff. ([http://www.theoi.com/Heros/Perseus.html#Atlas on-line English translation at Theoi Project]).</ref> According to Ovid, Perseus arrives in Atlas's Kingdom and asks for shelter, declaring he is a son of Zeus. Atlas, fearful of a prophecy that warned of a son of Zeus stealing his golden apples from his orchard, refuses Perseus hospitality.<ref name="LOTN"/> In this account, Atlas is turned not just into stone by Perseus, but an entire mountain range: Atlas's head the peak, his shoulders ridges and his hair woods. The prophecy did not relate to Perseus stealing the golden apples but to [[Heracles]], another son of Zeus, and Perseus's great-grandson.<ref>{{harvp|Ogden|2008|pp=[https://books.google.com/books?id=uRDFljXN0LkC&pg=PA49 49], 108, 114}}</ref>

===Encounter with Heracles===
{{main|Heracles}}
[[File:Lucas Cranach d.Ä. - Herkules und Atlas (Herzog Anton Ulrich-Museum).jpg|thumb|''Herkules und Atlas'' by [[Lucas Cranach the Elder]]]]
One of the [[Labours of Hercules|Twelve Labours]] of the hero [[Heracles]] was to fetch some of the golden apples that grow in [[Hera]]'s garden, tended by Atlas's reputed daughters, the [[Hesperides]] (which were also called the Atlantides), and guarded by the dragon [[Ladon (mythology)|Ladon]]. Heracles went to Atlas and offered to hold up the heavens while Atlas got the apples from his daughters.<ref name=":0">[[Diodorus Siculus]], [https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Diodorus_Siculus/4B*.html 4.27.2]; {{harvp|Gantz|1993|pp=410–413}}.</ref>

Upon his return with the apples, however, Atlas attempted to trick Heracles into carrying the sky permanently by offering to deliver the apples himself, as anyone who purposely took the burden must carry it forever, or until someone else took it away. Heracles, suspecting Atlas did not intend to return, pretended to agree to Atlas's offer, asking only that Atlas take the sky again for a few minutes so Heracles could rearrange his cloak as padding on his shoulders. When Atlas set down the apples and took the heavens upon his shoulders again, Heracles took the apples and ran away.{{Citation needed|date=July 2024}}

In some versions,<ref>a lost passage of [[Pindar]] quoted by Strabo (3.5.5) was the earliest reference in this context: "the pillars which Pindar calls the "gates of Gades" when he asserts that they are the farthermost limits reached by Heracles"; the passage in Pindar has not been traced.</ref> Heracles instead built the two great [[Pillars of Hercules]] to hold the sky away from the earth, liberating Atlas much as he liberated [[Prometheus]].