Hey everyone, welcome to Mythology Explained. In today’s video, we’re going to discuss a
question of apocalyptic proportions: what would happen if Atlas stopped holding up the sky?
In the primordial past, the world existed in different configurations,
so with these as precedents, we’re given some good insight into what
might happen if Atlas abandoned his post. Would the sky simply stay where it is, would it fall,
flatten the earth, and eradicate life, would the gods be driven underground, would the gods die?
Let’s get into it.
We’re going to start this video off by diving into the primordial past, back to a time when
the sky didn’t even exist. First there was nothing, truly nothing, not even empty space,
then Chaos, the great void, emerged, and then, now that there was space for other things to exist,
the first-generation primordial deities emerged. There were five of them: Gaia, the earth,
Tartarus, the great chasm beneath the earth, Eros, love, Erebus, darkness, and Nyx, night.
Gaia independently produced three children, three second-generation primordial deities.
These were Uranus, the sky, Pontus, the sea, and Ourea, mountains. She took Uranus,
whom she created to envelop her and be a celestial abode for the gods,
as her consort, and here is where our story really begins.
Together, Gaia and Uranus had many children. To them were born the 12 first-generation Titans,
the trio of Uranian Cyclopes, who were godlike, but only had one eye, and the Hecatonchires,
powerful hundred-armed behemoths with unparalleled size and strength. Uranus hated his children,
so he kept them trapped deep within the earth. He was able to imprison them because there wasn’t, at
this time, a divide between the earth and the sky. Uranus was wrapped tightly around Gaia, smothering
her in a constant embrace. Consequently, there wasn’t any space between the earth and the sky,
so though the Titans, Cyclopes, and Hecatonchires were grown,
there wasn’t space for them to emerge, keeping them imprisoned within Gaia.
The trope of earth and sky needing to be separated is one that plays out in mythologies all over the
world. In ancient Egyptian mythology, for example, the earth, Geb, and the sky, Nut,
were locked in such a tight embrace that there wasn’t any room for life to flourish. It wasn’t
until their father, Shu, the personification of air, pried them apart that life began and nut was
able to birth her children: Osiris, Isis, Set, and Nephthys. This scene is one commonly depicted in
ancient Egyptian art, and it shows Shu standing over Geb and pressing up Nut, sundering the two.
Showing that almost the exact same series of events plays out in Greek mythology,
here’s a quote from Hesiod’s Theogony:
“For all those that were born of Earth and Heaven were the most fearsome of children,
and their own father loathed them from the beginning. As soon as each of them were born,
he hid them all away in a cavern of Earth, and would not let them into the light; and he took
pleasure in the wicked work, did heaven, while the huge Earth was tight-pressed inside, and groaned.”
Basically, since there wasn’t any separation between earth and sky, there wasn’t any space for
the Titans, the cyclopes, and the Hecatonchires to emerge, so instead of them entering the world,
they were forced underground where Uranus kept them all prisoner.
In the Egyptian version, it’s the father, Shu, who separates earth and sky,
but in the Greek version, it’s Cronus, the youngest of the 12 Titans.
Having all of her children trapped inside of her was a source of terrible suffering for Gaia,
both mentally and physically, so she devised a cunning plan to extricate herself from her
plight. She created a new element, grey adamant, and with it, she fashioned a sickle, cruel and
keen. She beseeched her children, asking them to take this weapon she had wrought and overthrow
their oppressor, Uranus. Cronus answered the call. Hidden, he lay in wait, and when his father came
to force himself on Gaia, Cronus ambushed him and cut off his genitals, casting them into the sea.
Of this seminal act came two of the most important developments in Greek mythology. It ushered in the
age of Titan rule, with Cronus usurping Uranus, and it marked the separation of earth and sky,
bringing the world into its proper configuration. With the underpinnings covered we can now address
the question at hand, which is: what would happen if Atlas stopped holding up the sky?
Based on the events of the creation myth, it seems as though there are two possibilities.
The first is that the configuration of the world would revert back to how it was
when Gaia and Uranus, earth and sky, were conjoined; and looking at what happened the last
time the domains of the world fused together like this, we know two things for certain:
that life wasn’t able to flourish and that divine beings were imprisoned underground; so if Atlas
no longer holding up the sky resulted in the earth and the sky again combining into a united entity,
then based on what happened the last time, we can conclude that life on earth would be extinguished,
and that the gods would be forced underground. Maybe they’d become trapped underground,
imprisoned in remote caverns, as the Titans were during Uranus’ rule,
or maybe they’d find their way to the underworld and bunk up with Hades in his chthonic palace.
The second possibility is far less calamitous and catastrophic. We know that the earth and the sky
separated after Cronus castrated Uranus. This means that the sky stayed up high the whole time
the Titans ruled the earth. It wasn’t until the Titans were defeated, when Atlas was condemned to
hold up the sky for all of eternity, that someone functioned as a living pillar that maintained the
divide between earth and sky. Given this, if Atlas were to stop holding up the sky,
it could be that it would just stay where it is, suspended as the celestial ceiling,
as it seems that this was the case all the years Cronus was king. It could be that the
burden of staying separate from the earth becomes Uranus’ burden when there’s no one to hold him up.
However, there is a murky myth that might make the possibility of the sky falling
and flattening the earth a near certainty if Atlas ever stopped holding up the sky.
There doesn’t seem to be a reliable source, but there is some interesting
information floating around out there about how the sky was held up in the
intervening time between the castration of Cronus and the condemnation of Atlas.
Again, I couldn’t find a source for what I’m about to discuss. In this version, Cronus,
in his usurpation of Uranus, was helped by four of his brothers. Hyperion, Iapetos, Crius, and Coeus
each grabbed hold of Uranus and held him fast while Cronus severed his sex. After Uranus was
overthrown and sundered from the earth, the four Titans that helped Cronus became the four pillars
that held up the sky, each one corresponding to one of the four cardinal directions.
Hyperion was the West, Iapetus the East, Crius, the South, and Coeus the North.
If this version is factored in, then this means that Uranus was constantly held up since his
castration: first by Cronus’ four brothers, then by Atlas after the Titans were defeated
by the gods. Therefore, because Uranus never held himself up, it would make sense that the Sky would
plummet and collide with the earth if there wasn’t anyone holding it up. At the same time, though,
if four titans were holding up the sky, it stands to reason that they’d abandon their posts during
the 10 years the titans were at war with the gods; so maybe even in this obscure and dubious version,
there was still a period when Uranus was supporting himself, which might indicate that he
would keep supporting himself if Atlas suddenly quit and let himself crumple to the ground.
But it’s all quite confounding. Several reputable websites discuss Cronus’ brothers helping him
castrate Uranus, and there’s a tide of forum posts discussing this version, but for all that,
there doesn’t seem to be a source for this version of events, which makes little sense to me.
There’s always the possibility that I’m an inept researcher, so if anyone has a
source that speaks to this version, I’d love to hear about it in the comments.
And that’s it for this video!
If you enjoy the content please LIKE the video and SUBSCRIBE to the channel
As always, leave your video suggestions down below