Atlas

taken from the Book of Facts
written by Readers Digest





ATLAS;

 In the Greek legend, Atlas was a Titan, an early Greek god, and was condemned - after the Titans were defeated by the classical gods of Olympus under Zeus - to carry the heavens on his shoulders.
  Later, when he refused hospitality to the Greek hero Perseus, Perseus turned him into stone by showing him the head of the Gorgon Medusa.
  His body became the Atlas Mountains, the North African mountain range.
 Medieval map collections were often bound together with Atlas's image as the frontispiece, giving rise to the modern use of his name.