Atlas Titan

Atlas Titan statue.Handmade and metal-coated. Made of cast copper resin, which allows greater detail and a nice weight. All Veronese figurines are beautifully packaged, have great detail and are great collectible gifts

In Greek mythology 

The Titan Atlas was responsible for bearing the weight of the heavens on his shoulders.  A burden given to him as punishment by Zeus. Father of many stars and a protagonist in one of Hercules‘ famous labours. He was also known as a wise man and the founder of astronomy. For Plato, he was the eponymous first king of Atlantis.  And this giant of a god also gave his name to a huge mountain range in northern Africa, the great Atlantic Ocean and any large collection of maps.

With a name perhaps conveying the meaning ‘suffering’ or ‘very enduring,’ Atlas was the son of the Titans Iapetus and Clymene (or Themis) and the elder brother of Epimetheus, Menoetius, and Prometheus. Atlas was the father of the nymph Calypso and the seven Pleiades. In a Theban version of events, Atlas is also the grandfather of Niobe.

Atlas’ Punishment from Zeus

Atlas was given the task of holding up the heavens as punishment from Zeus for leading the Titans in their battle with the Olympian Gods for control of the heavens. In a similar vein, Homer describes Atlas in his Odyssey as ‘deadly-minded,’ as knowing the depths of all the seas.  And as holding the pillars far out in the Atlantic Ocean which hold the heavens and earth apart.

Hesiod in his Theogony also describes the titan as holding up the heavens and locates him in the land of the Hesperides.Known female deities famed for their singing, which lived far to the west, at the edge of the world. Later tradition, associates the god with the Atlas Mountains in North Africa. It was here that, in punishment for his gross lack of hospitality, the Titan was transformed from a shepherd into a huge rock mountain by Perseus using the head of the Gorgon Medusa with her deadly stare. This story may go back to the 5th century BCE.