Which Titan was condemned to hold up the sky for eternity? Atlas was condemned to bear the heavens after the Titans lost the Titanomachy, the war between the Titans and Zeus’s Olympian allies.
According to Hesiod’s Theogony, Atlas stood at the western edge of the world with the sky resting on his shoulders. He was the son of Iapetus and brother of Prometheus, Epimetheus, and Menoetius. Later traditions connected him with northwestern Africa and the Atlas Mountains.
A common mistake is saying that Atlas holds up the Earth. Ancient Greek art generally shows him supporting the celestial sphere or vault, meaning the heavens, rather than a terrestrial globe. The confusion was strengthened by later artistic depictions and by the modern word “atlas,” which came to mean a collection of maps.
Atlas also appears in Heracles’ quest for the golden apples of the Hesperides. Heracles temporarily took the burden while Atlas retrieved the apples, then tricked him into taking the heavens back.