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Atlas is presented closely related to Arcadia (in Peloponnese). In Arcadia Atlas was worshiped like a "god". The Greek tradition identified this Atlas from about 2000 to 600 according to the old calendar with the previous Atlases and recognized him as father of the Pleiades. It was accepted that the Pleiades were born on a mountain of Killini in the north of Arcadia. It is said that in a cave of this mountain Maea gave birth to Hermes (Zeus was the father).

The ancient Arcadians called themselves "offspring of the daughters of Atlas" (see F.H.G. Didot). Mountain Killini was previously named "mount Atlas" to honor the "god" (read king) Atlas. Arcadia was previously named Gigantis, land of the giants. But when in the 6^th century BC the epics of Homer and poems of Hesiod were recorded in the then language and analyzed, and when later Solon brought information from Egypt about Atlantis and Plato published it, and when the Greeks while traveling broadened the geographical horizon, the mystic stories about Atlas of Arcadia changed… The origin of the old local god Atlas was transferred from Arcadia to the Far West. So now everyone accepted that Atlas of Arcadia was the first king of the region. Historian Dionysus Alicarnessius (1^st century BC) studying the ancient history writes the amazing following: "Atlas was the first king of the country that is presently called Arcadia". Zeus married his daughter Elektra and their children "who inherited Atlas's throne, reigned for a long time in Arcadia. After that there was a great flood in all Arcadia, and water covered the valleys for a long time making them unsuitable for growing". This is where the flood of Arcadia is described by the flood of Deucalion, because in Greek mythology there is reference of only one great cataclysm, the one of Deucalion.

Historic interpretation of the myth

So everyone accepted that Atlas of Arcadia was the first king of the region and he came from the west. He seems to be a relative or offspring of Atlas III (the central king of Atlantis) and when the Atlantians conquered Peloponnese they made him king and deputy. The fact that Arcadia was previously called Gigantis (land of the giants) allows us to assume that Atlas was also the chief of the group of the Titans or Giants who settled there. A mountain of Arcadia was named Atlas after him (the mountain that was later called Killini). Another mountain was named Azan after his Atlantian consul or brother Azan or Azais. Atlas IV and the power of the Atlantians that followed him and settled in Arcadia had offspring. This is why the ancient Arcadians said they came from the Atlantians. After the cataclysm of Deucalion the destruction of Arcadia human civilization started from the beginning. The survivors of the cataclysm kept in their memory and orally transmitted to the new generation the power of Titans, Giants and Atlantians. The new generations and the next heard of things they had never thought before. So they slowly deified Atlas. Atlas of Arcadia was the last of the eminent offspring of the Titans of the generation of Iapetus and Poseidon.

copyright © Theodoros Paschos, Greece, August 2000