Unchanged by any teller — how the centuries since have seen Atlas.
The gallery
The Farnese Atlas
Roman copy after a Hellenistic original, 2nd century AD
A Roman marble statue of the Titan kneeling under the weight of the heavens, copied from a Hellenistic original. The globe on his shoulders is carved with figures of the classical constellations, making it the oldest surviving representation of the ancient celestial sphere. It is held in the National Archaeological Museum, Naples.
Atlas
Lee Lawrie, 1937
An Art Deco bronze statue of Atlas straining beneath an open armillary sphere of the heavens, installed in 1937 at Rockefeller Center in New York, facing Fifth Avenue. It has become one of the most recognizable modern images of the Titan's eternal burden.
In play
Atlas Shrugged
Ayn Rand
Rand's title asks who holds the world up when the Atlases of industry refuse — the Titan's burden turned into a political metaphor.
Percy Jackson & the Olympians
Rick Riordan
Riordan's demigod series puts Atlas back under the sky on Mount Othrys — the Titan as a boss whose burden Percy must briefly take.