What is the story behind the mythological character Atlas?

Answer 1

Atlas sided with the Titans in their war (known as the Titanomachy) against the Olympians. His brothers Prometheus, Epimetheus and Menoetius weighed the odds and betrayed the other Titans by an alliance with the Olympians. When the Titans were defeated, many of them 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, to prevent the two from resuming their primordial embrace.

A common misconception is that Atlas was forced to hold the earth on his shoulders, but this is incorrect. Classical art shows Atlas holding a Celestial Sphere, not a Globe.

Heracles went to Atlas, the father of the Hesperides, and offered to hold the heavens for a little while in exchange for the apples, to which Atlas agreed. Upon his return with the apples, however, Atlas attempted to trick Heracles into carrying the sky permanently by offering to deliver the apples himself. Heracles, suspecting Atlas didn't intend to return again, 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.

Answer 2

Atlas was one of the Titans, who ruled the world before Zeus and company took over. He was doomed to hold up the sky. In one myth, the elleventh labor of Hercules, Hercules wanted the apples of the Hesperides. Atlas agreed to give him the apples if Hercules would keep up the heavens while he fetched them. So did Hercules, though Atlas had no intention to let him off his burden. Hercules insisted that he needed to get a cushion should he be able to continue keep up the sky and the stupid atlas took the burden again, while Hercules picked up the apples and backed off.

Answer 3

When Zeus, aided by his brothers and sisters, went to overthrow their father Cronus, Cronus' fellow Titans went to aid Cronus. A war developed which almost destroyed the universe. The Titans were conquered, partly because Zeus released hundred-handed monsters from their prison to fight for him, and partly because Prometheus (son of the Titan Iapetus) took Zeus' side.

Most of the conquered Titans were bound in chains and sent to the lowest regions of Tartarus. However, Atlas (Prometheus' brother) suffered a worse fate. He was condemned "to bear on his back forever the cruel strength of the crushing world and the vault of the sky. Upon his shoulders the great pillar that holds apart the earth and heaven, a load not easy to be borne."

Answer 4

NO! NO! You are not this guy's friend! Try reading the question he has graciously lent to our eyes!

He didn't ask for the contents of the story ABOUT Atlas, but noticed one in the background, "BEHIND" him, and refers to this!

Well, ladies and gentlemen! Feast your ears and buckle your seat belts - this is going to be a real treat!

Once behind his back, there was a background, and in it, behind Atlas (not the real one, but the mythological one), there was a ship carrying Mil over from Lybia to the southern coastline of Iberia. And Herakles was in hot pursuit, trying to overtake them and make them drink from his shoe..............

zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz..............*smack, smack*......uh, EH?

Oh goodness me, where was I before I followed in hot pursuit after Mil's ship with one hand on the steering wheel, and grasping my uplifted shoe in the other?...........