The Titan
Atlas was
one of the Mythological
Titans of Greece who had to support the heaven with his shoulders. That was a punishment
that he got from Zeus because he participate against the Olympian gods with
the giants, in the war between gods and giants. His father was
a Titan, Lapetus, and his mother Clymene, a nymph. He also had a brother called
Prometheus. Atlas's children were the seven Hesperids who protected the tree
with apples made of gold. He was also the father or protector of the Atlants,
a people in Morocko.
When Perseus showed Atlas the head of Medusa, Atlas turned into a mountain
chain which was believed to have stretched from Africa to Spain until Heracles
broke it, thus creating the Pillars of Hercules, in modern geography: Gibraltar.
He also helped Hercules to get the Hesperides apples in return that Hercules
had to carry the heaven as long Atlas was bringing the apples.