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6. Again, figures in the form of men supporting mutules or coronae, we term “telamones”—the reasons why or wherefore they are so called are not found in any story—but the Greeks name them ἄτλαντες. For Atlas is described in story as holding up the firmament because, through his vigorous intelligence and ingenuity, he was the first to cause men to be taught about the courses of the sun and moon, and the laws governing the revolutions of all the constellations. Consequently, in recognition of this benefaction, painters and sculptors represent him as holding up the firmament, and the Atlantides, his daughters, whom we call “Vergiliae” and the Greeks Πλειάδες, are consecrated in the firmament among the constellations.
Vitruvius: The Ten Books on Architecture. Vitruvius. Morris Hicky Morgan. Cambridge: Harvard University Press. London: Humphrey Milford. Oxford University Press. 1914.
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