Atlas: the Cursed Titan, the Titan too Powerful for Tartarus
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Published 2023-11-25
Atlas had two notable interactions with heroes, one with Perseus and one with Hercules.
Perseus, After slaying Medusa and collecting her severed head, used his winged sandals and took to the skies. Capricious winds blew Perseus so that every sea and every continent passed below him, until finally, overcome by fatigue, Perseus alighted at the world’s end, where Atlas was imprisoned by the weight of the sky bearing down on him. Perseus asked Atlas for hospitality, but Atlas, who had learnt from an oracle that a son of Zeus would despoil his sacred trees by taking their golden apples, refused him. Scorned, Perseus unveiled and held up Medusa’s severed head before Atlas, who was turned to stone when he looked upon the Gorgon’s hideous face.
Atlas also encountered Hercules during the hero's 11th labor, which was to retrieve the golden apples of the Hesperides. Hercules met Atlas, who offered to fetch the apples if Hercules would temporarily hold the sky up in his place. Hercules agreed, but Atlas was reluctant to resume his plight, having already borne the sky for years uncounted. Hercules, though, was able to extricate himself from his predicament with some quick thinking. He asked Atlas if he could briefly hold up the sky for him while he found something to cushion his shoulders with, but of course, after the switch was made, Hercules took the apples and left Atlas imprisoned once more, never returning.
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All Comments (16)
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Thanks for watching! :)
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As you’re talking about Greek mythology here, it’s Heracles, not Hercules.
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Very interesting video
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I absolutely love your content!
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Good video he is strong 💪🏻
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Much respect to the powerful Titan.
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Love your work
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While we're on the topic, Medusa was depicted as the most beautiful of her three sisters which was what caught Poseidon's eye int he first place. She wasn't hideous as you said in the video. Just a minor correction.
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Interesting
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I wouldn't say Prometheus escaped a horrible fate.
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Thankz😂
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Kratos , God of war 3
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Atlas is too stronk
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Who held up the heavens before Atlas?
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Incorrect. . Atlas was one of the 12 sons of Poseidon and Cleito. His lot and importance to his Father was the greatest. The very Atlantic Ocean is named after him. You are reading / getting your information about him from "comic book" like literature. Most probably from the propaganda books on mythology by Bulfinch. . Or should we just say by Bullshite. PEOPLES new their own histories. Half the books extant from ancient Greece & Rome are basically all about their Histories. . . POETS used stories to pass down some of these histories as well, embellishing them for the sake of memory and interest to the listener. . . Always remember, the nineteenth century, the century of strict dogma, HUXLEY, and the ridicule of history, Bulfinch. Remember Academia at that time INSISTED that Homer's tales were just that, mythology. . . But Schliemann PROVED them all wrong. Yet, for some reason, all of academia did everything they could to prove that Troy was a myth, . . Hence Bulfinch's book of nonsense. . . Nearly all historians prior to say, 1850, going back to ancient Greece, believed what the Authors of History and playwrites were telling us, was the truth. God bless people like Schliemann, who used his own money, to prove ALL of academia wrong. .. In summary, your comic book telling here of Atlas is disingenuous to your listeners, and laughable to myself. Next you'll tell me that the people in the Old Testament are just mythology. At the very least, you should give all the information about Atlas here, and let the listeners decide, instead of regurgitating Bulfinch.
