It’s my birthday today and one of my favourite presents has been this chocolate slab from ‘Hotel Chocolat‘. It shows the mythological Titan, Atlas, holding a sphere on his shoulders. The popular misconception about Atlas is that he holds the Earth on his shoulders. This work of chocolate art is correct in portraying him holding the ‘heavens’ on his shoulders, not just Earth. The ancient Greek belief was that the stars and other celestial objects were part of a celestial sphere that rotated about a central and stationery Earth.
The sphere that Atlas carries can be seen to be the heavens because it has constellations on it, not continents as would be the case if the globe was Earth.
