Atlas

Atlas was a Titan in Greek mythology who was condemned to eternally hold up the celestial heavens after the Titanomachy war. According to Hesiod, he performed this task at the western edge of the world, a location later associated with the Atlas Mountains in northwest Africa. Over time, traditions emerged depicting him as the first king of Mauretania (modern-day Morocco and western Algeria) and crediting him with expertise in philosophy, mathematics, and astronomy—including the invention of the first celestial sphere.

Born to the Titan Iapetus and the Oceanid Asia (or Clymene), Atlas was brother to Epimetheus and Prometheus. His children included several groups of daughters: the Hesperides, the Hyades, the Pleiades, and the nymph Calypso of Ogygia. He appears in the myths of both Heracles and Perseus, two of Greece's greatest heroes.

His cultural impact extends beyond mythology—the term "atlas" for a collection of maps was coined by 16th-century geographer Gerardus Mercator in his honor. His name also lives on in the Atlantic Ocean (meaning "Sea of Atlas") and in Plato's Atlantis ("Atlas's Island").