In Greek mythology, Perseus turned the Titan Atlas to stone with Medusa’s severed head. This episode appears in Ovid’s Metamorphoses, where Perseus seeks shelter from Atlas during his return journey.
Atlas was guarding the western edge of the world and was associated with the golden apples of the Hesperides. Perseus asked to rest, but Atlas refused him, remembering a prophecy that a son of Zeus would one day take the apples. Perseus then revealed Medusa’s head, and Atlas was transformed into stone.
The story provides a mythic explanation for the enormous Atlas Mountains in North Africa. It also shows that Medusa’s power continued after her death: the head retained its petrifying ability even when separated from her body.
This episode is separate from Perseus’s rescue of Andromeda, which occurs later in the same broad cycle of adventures. Atlas here is a Titan, not the figure traditionally shown carrying the heavens in every version of the myth.