The Titan Atlas was one of the Mythological Titans of Greece who had to support the heaven with his shoulders. That was  a punishment that he got from Zeus because he participate against the Olympian gods with the giants, in the war  between gods and giants. His father was a Titan, Lapetus, and his mother Clymene, a nymph. He also had a brother called Prometheus. Atlas's children were the seven Hesperids who protected the tree with apples made of gold. He was also the father or protector of the Atlants, a people in Morocko.

When Perseus showed Atlas the head of Medusa, Atlas turned into a mountain chain which was believed to have stretched from Africa to Spain until Heracles broke it, thus creating the Pillars of Hercules, in modern geography: Gibraltar. He also helped Hercules to get the Hesperides apples in return that Hercules had to carry the heaven as long Atlas was bringing the apples.