Atlas is a Titan, son of Iapetus, who was punished by Zeus after the Titanomachy for siding with the Titans; he was condemned to hold up the sky (or the heavens) on his shoulders for eternity [S1][S5]. He is the father (with the oceanid Pleione) of the Pleiades, a group of sisters who were turned into stars [S1][S5]. He is also the father of the Hesperides and, in some accounts, of the Gorgons' mother Ceto. The 'holding up the sky' image is a later (post-Homeric) development; the earliest Atlas is a great Titan of strength [S5].