Gods, Myths and Heroes - Part 47

Atlas

In Greek mythology, Atlas was a Titan, a type of early god that pre-dated the Olympian gods like Zeus.  The Titans fought the Olympian gods and lost, and Atlas was punished by banishing him to the western end of the Mediterranean (which was the western end of the world, as far as the Greeks knew) and making him hold up the sky.  This illustration from the 1665 book Tableaux du Temple des Muses shows Atlas holding up the sky.

The more conventional representation of Atlas showed him holding a globe representing the heavens.  This is the sky, not the Earth.  The images on it represent constellations and the symbols of the Zodiac.  This statue is the Farnese Atlas, a 2nd century Roman copy of an older Greek original.

A rear view of the Farnese Atlas.  Atlas was often represented nude, like many other Greek and Roman gods and heroes.  In those days such nudity was heroic, not obscene.

This 1550 painting is called Hercules Takes the Sky from Atlas.  The artist is unknown.  One of the 12 labors of Hercules that he had to perform was to fetch the Golden Apples of the Hesperides, who were the daughters of Atlas.  Hercules offered to hold up the sky for a while if Atlas got the apples from his daughters.  When he returned, Atlas decided not to take back the sky, but to leave Hercules holding it up, stranded.  But Hercules was smarter than Atlas.  He asked Atlas to take the sky back just for a moment so Hercules could put a pad on his shoulders to help him bear the weight.  Atlas took back the sky, and Hercules grabbed the apples and left, saying the ancient Greek equivalent of "So long, sucker."

In another variation of the myth, Hercules took pity on Atlas and created the "pillars of Hercules" to hold up the sky, freeing the Titan from his long labor.  The pillars of Hercules were the rock of Gibraltar on one side of the entrance to the Mediterranean, and on the other side, a mountain in Morocco now called Jebel Musa.  To this day, the mountains in northwest Africa are called the Atlas Mountains.

Above, a statue of Atlas holding up the sky at the Doge's palace in Venice, c. 1580.

But at some point, the globe of the sky that Atlas was holding up got confused with a globe of the Earth.  Also, the word "atlas" came to mean a book of maps of the Earth.  Nowadays, almost all representations of Atlas show him holding up the Earth, even though it makes no sense (where would he be standing?).

Above is a brochure from the bodybuilder Charles Atlas, showing the naked Charles Atlas holding up the Earth.  He was born Angelo Siciliano in Italy, but he moved to Brooklyn, changed his name, and became famous selling his exercise program.

I got this photo from the blog Vintage Muscle Men.  Thanks, Jerry!

Here's a 1947 photo by Al Urban of bodybuilder Jack Gallagher posing as Atlas holding up the Earth.

And here's another view of Gallagher from that same photo session.

The idea of Atlas holding up the Earth remains popular.  Above, a marcher in the Vancouver Pride parade in 2010.  He's not exactly a strongman, but at least he's naked.

However, some artists and photographers have had fun with the idea of what Atlas is holding.  Here's a 2012 photo of Atlas holding a disco mirror ball.

And this 2024 photo is called Atlas of the Cube.

But some people still know that Atlas holds up the sky, not the Earth.  We end with this 2019 photo taken in a shop in Athens, showing a statue of a naked Atlas holding up a globe decorated with constellations, not continents.