2005.02.04
So I had a thought yesterday...just what was Atlas standing on when he was holding up the world? Google to the answer! Maybe it's the classic on the back of a turtle...and it's turtles all the way down! But I didn't remember much about turtles in my hazy memories of greek mythology. According to Godchecker's Atlas entry, I guess he's atually holding up the heavens, which makes a little more sense given a geocentric world view...but it would be harder to make into a nifty statue, so the world it is.
So the answer was a little prosaic, but at least I found Godchecker, a very readable if somewhat flippant reference on all sort s of deities.