=Atlantes=, a people of Africa, in the neighbourhood of mount Atlas, who lived chiefly on the fruits of the earth, and were said not to have their sleep at all disturbed by dreams. They daily cursed the sun at his rising and at his setting, because his excessive heat scorched and tormented them. _Herodotus._ =Atlantiades=, a patronymic of Mercury as grandson of Atlas. _Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 1, li. 639. =Atlantĭdes=, a people of Africa near mount Atlas. They boasted of being in possession of the country in which all the gods of antiquity received their birth. Uranus was their first king, whom, on account of his knowledge in astronomy, they enrolled in the number of their gods. _Diodorus_, bk. 3.――――The daughters of Atlas, were seven in number, Maia, Electra, Taygeta, Asterope, Merope, Alcyone, and Celæno. They married some of the gods, and most illustrious heroes, and their children were founders of many nations and cities. The Atlantides were called nymphs, and even goddesses, on account of their great intelligence and knowledge. The name of Hesperides was also given them, on account of their mother Hesperis. They were made constellations after death. _See:_ Pleiades. =Atlantis=, a celebrated island mentioned by the ancients. Its situation is unknown, and even its existence is doubted by some writers. =Atlas=, one of the Titans, son of Japetus and Clymene, one of the Oceanides. He was brother to Epimetheus, Prometheus, and Menœtius. His mother’s name, according to Apollodorus, was Asia. He married Pleione daughter of Oceanus, or Hesperis, according to others, by whom he had seven daughters, called Atlantides. _See:_ Atlantides. He was king of Mauritania, and master of 1000 flocks of every kind, as also of beautiful gardens, abounding in every species of fruit, which he had entrusted to the care of a dragon. Perseus, after the conquest of the Gorgons, passed by the palace of Atlas, and demanded hospitality. The king, who was informed by an oracle of Themis that he should be dethroned by one of the descendants of Jupiter, refused to receive him, and even offered him violence. Perseus, who was unequal in strength, showed him Medusa’s head, and Atlas was instantly changed into a large mountain. This mountain, which runs across the deserts of Africa east and west, is so high that the ancients have imagined that the heavens rested on its top, and that Atlas supported the world on his shoulders. Hyginus says that Atlas assisted the giants in their wars against the gods, for which Jupiter compelled him to bear the heavens on his shoulders. The fable that Atlas supported the heavens on his back, arises from his fondness for astronomy, and his often frequenting elevated places and mountains, whence he might observe the heavenly bodies. The daughters of Atlas were carried away by Busiris king of Egypt, but