How was the sky held up according to Greek mythology? Famously, Atlas the Titan had to hold it up as part of a punishment from the gods. Usually, ancient and modern images depict him balancing it on his arms or shoulders. However, there is evidence that the early Greeks originally envisioned Atlas as holding up the sky by means of supporting mythological pillars of heaven.
Early traces of the pillars of heaven
The earliest trace of the concept of the pillars of heaven in Greek mythology comes from the writings of Homer. He does not provide us with a lot of information about Atlas, but the Odyssey does mention something very significant about him. Homer includes the following line:
“Atlas of baneful mind, who knows the depths of every sea and himself holds the tall pillars which keep earth and heaven apart.”
According to this quotation, Atlas did not hold up the sky directly. Rather, Atlas “holds the tall pillars which keep earth and heaven apart.” This shows that in the time of Homer, the Greeks imagined that there were pillars of heaven. This is hardly surprising, given that many other cultures around the world believed in pillars that held up the sky.
How this idea disappeared
Homer presents Atlas as holding up these pillars of heaven. Presumably, this means that he supported them, keeping them in place. When did this concept begin fading away? In fact, it seems that the concept of the pillars of heaven were already starting to disappear in Homer’s own time.
A poet contemporary to Homer was Hesiod. In Theogony, Hesiod writes:
“Atlas through hard constraint upholds the wide heaven with unwearying head and arms, standing at the borders of the earth before the clear-voiced Hesperides.”
Notice that Hesiod does not mention the pillars of heaven. Rather, he presents Atlas as holding up the sky directly. The fact that this dates to approximately the same date as Homer’s Odyssey shows that the pillars of heaven were already starting to disappear from Greek mythology.
A later reference to the pillars of heaven
It seems that the concept of the pillars of heaven essentially disappeared from Greek mythology after the time of Homer. However, there is at least one later reference to it. Clement of Alexandria, writing in the second century CE, referred to the writings of Herodorus, a Greek historian who wrote in c. 400 BCE.
According to Clement:
“Herodoros says that Herakles became a prophet and natural philosopher when he received from Atlas the Phrygian the pillars of the cosmos.”
The “pillars of the cosmos” are surely the same as the pillars of heaven that Homer mentioned. This would make this a relatively late survival of the concept of the pillars of heaven. Aside from this single reference, however, it would appear that there are no other direct references to these mythological pillars.
Preserved as the Pillars of Hercules?
It is possible that the concept of the pillars of heaven was preserved in Greek mythology in association with Heracles, better known as Hercules. The Pillars of Hercules, which marked the limits of Greek activity, were regularly referenced in ancient Greek literature.
As the quotation from Clement of Alexandria shows, at least one version of the myth of Hercules explains that these Pillars of Hercules were actually the pillars of heaven that Atlas supported.
It is true that other accounts of the Pillars of Hercules give them a slightly different origin. Nevertheless, this is easily explained by the fact that the concept of the pillars of heaven was evidently forgotten in Greek mythology early on.
With these facts in mind, it does seem likely that the Pillars of Hercules preserve, in distorted form, the original pillars of heaven that were otherwise lost from Greek mythology.
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