According to the Phoenician creation legend of Philo Biblos, Atlas was the child of Ouranos and Gea. He is the brother of Ashtart, Baitules, Dagon, El, Pontus, and Zeus Demaros.
In Greek mythology, he is a Titan, son of Iapetus and the Oceanid Clymene, making him the brother of Prometheus and Epimetheus. His name means, “he who carries,” and the Greeks believed he held up the rim of the sky. This was his punishment for fighting the god Zeus, a burden he was doomed to bear forever. The Pleiades, Hyades, Calypso, and the Hesperides are the children of Atlas and his wife Pleione. It is said that Perseus turned the giant to stone with the head of Medusa out of pity. The Titan was still doomed to bear the weight of the sky for eternity, but as a mountain he would feel no more suffering.