Atlas&Atlas
Endurance, Astronomy, & the West
Atlas
The Burden-Bearer
Celestial sphere, pillar, mountains
Titan condemned to hold up the heavens forever after the Titanomachy.
Stoic and unyielding — strength turned into perpetual punishment.
None; his punishment was his worship.
Endurance without reward, the cosmos resting on unwilling shoulders.
Atlas
Atlas
Globe, mountains, pillar
Retained as a geographic and decorative figure; gave his name to mountains and the Atlantic.
A static emblem of immense labour, popular in Roman mosaics.
None.
The world held up by a captive — an image of the burden of empire.
Syncretism Analysis
Both traditions use Atlas as a picture rather than a god, but Rome made him cartographic — an ornament marking the far edge of the known world. Greece made him a warning; Rome made him a map.