Atlas

Atlas was the primordial Titan that held up the celestial spheres. He is also the titan of astronomy and navigation. Although associated with various places, he became commonly identified with the Atlas Mountains in northwest Africa. Atlas was the son of the Titan Iapetus and the Oceanid Asia or Clymene.

Hyginus emphasizes the primordial nature of Atlas by making him the son of Aether and Gaia.

Punishment
Atlas and his brother, Menoetius, sided with the Titans in their war against the Olympians, the Titanomachy. When the Titans were defeated, many of them were confined to Tartarus, but Zeus condemned Atlas to stand at the western edge of Gaia and hold up Uranus on his shoulders to prevent the two from resuming their primordial embrace. Thus, he was Atlas Telamon, "enduring Atlas," and became a doublet of Coeus, the embodiment of the celestial axis around which the heavens revolve.

A common misconception today is that Atlas was forced to hold the Earth on his shoulders, but Classical art shows Atlas holding celestial spheres, not a globe.

Variations
In a late story, a giant named Atlas tried to drive a wandering Perseus from the place where the Atlas Mountains now stand. In Ovid's telling, Perseus revealed Medusa's head, turning Atlas to stone when he tried to drive him away, because Perseus, who went there accidentally and asked Atlas for hospitality, named himself a son of Zeus and a prophecy said that a son of Zeus would steal the golden apples from Atlas' orchard. As is not uncommon in myths, this account cannot be reconciled with far more common stories of Atlas' dealings with Heracles, another son of Zeus, who was Perseus' great-grandson and who sought for the golden apples.

Encounter with Heracles
One of the twelve labors of Heracles was to fetch some of the golden apples which grow in Hera's garden, tended by Atlas' daughters, the Hesperides, and guarded by the dragon Ladon. Heracles went to Atlas and offered to hold up the heavens while Atlas got the apples from his daughters.

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' 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.

In some versions, Heracles instead built the two great Pillars of Heracles to hold the sky away from the earth, liberating Atlas much like he liberated Prometheus.

Children
Sources describe Atlas as the father, by different goddesses, of numerous children, mostly females. Some of these are assigned conflicting or overlapping identifies or parentage in different sources. By Hesperius, Atlas fathered the Hesperides. By Pleione, he fathered the Hyades, Hyas, and the Pleiades. With an unknown mother he fathered Calypso, Dione, and Maera.