• Titan Atlas (Ατλας), Mythic
• Oceanid Nymph Pleione (Πληιόνη), Mythic

Now Iapetus took to wife the neat - ankled maid Clymene, daughter of Ocean, and went up with her into one bed. And she bare him a stout - hearted son, Atlas: also she bare very glorious Menoetius and clever Prometheus, full of various wiles, and scatter - brained Epimetheus.

—Hesiod, Theogony 507-11

In contexts where a Titan and a Titaness are assigned each of the seven planetary powers, Atlas is paired with Phoebe and governs the moon. He had three brothers: Prometheus, Epimetheus and Menoetius.

Hyginus emphasizes the primordial nature of Atlas by making him the son of Aether and Gaia.

The first part of the term "Atlantic Ocean" refers to "Sea of Atlas", the term "Atlantis" refers to "island of Atlas".

The etymology of the name Atlas is uncertain and still debated. Virgil took pleasure in translating etymologies of Greek names by combining them with adjectives that explained them: for Atlas his adjective is durus, "hard, enduring", which suggested to George Doig that Virgil was aware of the Greek τλήναι "to endure"; Doig offers the further possibility that Virgil was aware of Strabo's remark that the native North African name for this mountain was Douris. Since the Atlas mountains rise in the region inhabited by Berbers, it has been suggested that the name might be taken from one of the Berber languages, specifically adrar, Berber for "mountain".

Some modern linguists derive it and its Greek root from the Proto - Indo - European root *tel, 'to uphold, support'; others suggest that it is a pre - Indo - European name. Others hold it is pre - Indo - European, or Pelasgian in origin, associated with the word "thalassa", meaning "sea".

Atlas and his brother Menoetius sided with the Titans in their war against the Olympians, the Titanomachy. When the Titans were defeated, many of them (including Menoetius) were confined to Tartarus, but Zeus condemned Atlas to stand at the western edge of Gaia (the Earth) and hold up Uranus (the Sky) on his shoulders, to prevent the two from resuming their primordial embrace. Thus, he was Atlas Telamon, "enduring Atlas," and became a doublet of Koios, the embodiment of the celestial axis around which the heavens revolve.

A common interpretation today is that Atlas was forced to hold the Earth on his shoulders, but Classical art shows Atlas holding the celestial spheres, not a globe; the solidity of the marble globe born by the renowned Farnese Atlas may have aided the conflation, reinforced in the 16th century by the developing usage of atlas to describe a corpus of terrestrial maps.

In a late story, a giant named Atlas tried to drive a wandering Perseus from the place where the Atlas mountains now stand. In Ovid's telling, Perseus revealed Medusa's head, turning Atlas to stone (those very mountains) when he tried to drive him away, as a prophecy said that a son of Zeus would steal the golden apples. As is not uncommon in myth, this account cannot be reconciled with the far more common stories of Atlas' dealings with Heracles, who was Perseus' great - grandson.

According to Plato, the first king of Atlantis was also named Atlas, but that Atlas was a son of Poseidon and the mortal woman Cleito. A euhemerist origin for Atlas was as a legendary Atlas, king of Mauretania, an expert astronomer. Some say he is even the god of astronomy.

One of the Twelve Labors of the hero Heracles was to fetch some of the golden apples which grow in Hera's garden, tended by Atlas' daughters, the Hesperides, and guarded by the dragon Ladon. Heracles went to Atlas and offered to hold up the heavens while Atlas got the apples from his daughters.

Upon his return with the apples, however, Atlas attempted to trick Heracles into carrying the sky permanently by offering to deliver the apples himself, as anyone who purposely took the burden must carry it forever, or until someone else took it away. Heracles, suspecting Atlas did not intend to return, pretended to agree to Atlas' offer, asking only that Atlas take the sky again for a few minutes so Heracles could rearrange his cloak as padding on his shoulders. When Atlas set down the apples and took the heavens upon his shoulders again, Heracles took the apples and ran away.

In some versions, Heracles instead built the two great Pillars of Hercules to hold the sky away from the earth, liberating Atlas much as he liberated Prometheus.

The identifying name Aril is inscribed on two 5th century Etruscan bronze items, a mirror from Vulci and a ring from an unknown site. Both objects depict the encounter with Atlas of Hercle, the Etruscan Heracles, identified by the inscription; they represent rare instances where a figure from Greek mythology is imported into Etruscan mythology, but the name is not. The Etruscan name aril is etymologically independent.

Sources describe Atlas as the father, by different goddesses, of numerous children, mostly daughters. Some of these are assigned conflicting or overlapping identities or parentage in different sources.

• By Hesperis: the Hesperides;
• By Pleione (or Aethra): the Hyades; a son, Hyas; the Pleiades;
• By one or more unspecified goddesses: Calypso; Dione; Maera.

Atlas' best known cultural association is in cartography. The first publisher to associate the Titan Atlas with a group of maps was the print seller Antonio Lafreri, on the engraved title page he applied to his ad hoc assemblages of maps, Tavole Moderne Di Geografia De La Maggior Parte Del Mondo Di Diversi Autori (1572); however, he did not use the word "atlas" in the title of his work, an innovation of Gerardus Mercator, who dedicated his "atlas" specifically "to honor the Titan, Atlas, King of Mauretania, a learned philosopher, mathematician and astronomer"; he actually depicted the astronomer king.

Pleione was the daughter of Oceanus and Tethys who were the Titan God and Goddess of bodies of water.

Pleione was mother to seven daughters, known as the Pleiades. Their names were: Maia, Electra, Taygete, Alcyone, Celaeno, Sterope and Merope. She is often said to be the mother of Calypso with Atlas as well.

Among her grandchildren were the god Hermes and the demigod Iasion.

Pleione lived in a southern region of Greece called Arcadia, on a mountain named Mount Kyllini. She married the Titan Atlas and gave birth to the Hyades, Hyas and the Pleiades. She was also the protectress of sailing.

In some accounts, when Pleione once was traveling through Boeotia with her daughters, Orion who was accompanying her, fell in love with the mother and tried to attack her. She escaped but Orion sought her for seven years and couldn't find her, until at last, Zeus pitying the girls, changed them into stars which still continue to fly from Orion.