Job ix. 13.ATLAS. Some make Atlas to be the Son of Japhet, or Japetus, and Clymene1. They say that this Hero having offended Jupiter, was condemned to bear the Heavens upon his Head and Shoulders, in a very remote Country, over-against the Hesperides. St. Jerom seems to point at the punishment of Atlas, when he says in Job, God whose anger no one can resist, and under whose weight they bend who bear the world; sub quo curvantur qui portant orbem. The Septuagint, The Fish or Sea-monsters which are under Heaven, bend under the weight of his Majesty. Ovid2, who likewise makes him to be the Son of Japetus, says that he had a garden filled with excellent trees, one whereof bore golden Apples. Themis had foretold him, that a certain Son of Jupiter should carry off his Apples. He trusted the keeping of them to a great Dragon, and inclosed his garden with a strong wall. Perseus came to desire shelter of him; which he refusing, Perseus, to punish him, shewed him Medusa’s head, and metamorphosed him into a Mountain. This gave occasion for the report of Atlas’s bearing up Heaven, because Mount Atlas is so high that Heaven seems to rest upon the top of it. Eupolemus cited in Eusebius3, thought Atlas was the same as Enoch, whom the Ancients relate to be the inventor of Arts, and of the Science of the Heavens.
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