Mauretania was the Latin name given to northwestern Africa, including modern-day Morocco and Algiers. Populated by the Berber Mauri people, who were predominantly farmers, it was taken over by the Roman Empire in approximately 30 BC. So moved with gratitude towards Heracles, Atlas decided to give him the secrets of Astronomy. For, while he was but a shepherd, Atlas was also quite a scientific mind. According to the ancient Greeks, it was Atlas who discovered the spherical nature of the sky, and so passed on to Heracles this knowledge, and how to use it to navigate the seas. After, he had gone to the province’s main city, which had an oncology hospital, and asked a doctor there how much such a surgery would cost. The doctor told him that, considering his situation, he could stay in the hospital’s welfare ward, and that his other expenses could also be reduced commensurately. The final amount wouldn’t be too much—around twenty thousand yuan. Recalling that his patient came from such a remote place, the doctor proceeded to explain the details of hospitalization and surgery. Written between 1999 and 2017 and never before published in English, these stories came into being during decades of major change in China and will take you across time and space through the eyes of one of science fiction's most visionary writers. He knew the children were burning incense and paper for him, as they had done so many times before, but this time he didn’t have the strength to criticize them for being superstitious. He had spent his whole life trying to ignite the flame of science and culture in the children’s hearts, but he knew that, compared to the fog of ignorance and superstition that enshrouded this remote mountain village, it was a feeble flame indeed, like the flame of his candles in the classroom that night. Six months earlier, a few villagers had come to the school to scavenge rafters from the roof of the already-dilapidated dorm, with which they meant to renovate the temple at the entrance to the village. He asked where the children would sleep if the dorm had no roof, and they said they could sleep in the classroom.

For instance, the Phoenician Hanno the Navigator is said to have sailed as far as Mount Cameroon in the 5th or 6th century BC. See Lemprière (1833), pp.249–250 and Ovid, The Metamorphoses, commented by Henry T. Riley ISBN 978-1-4209-3395-6 With the exception of immortals like Atlas and Artemis, bearers of the Titan's Curse obtain a streak of gray hair from holding up the sky. Eventually, however, the streak would disappear over time.

“Women Hold Up Half the Sky”

Liu Baozhu’s father had paid the dowry for a bride from Sichuan ten years before, and she had come and given birth to Baozhu. Five years after that, when Baozhu had grown a bit, his father began to neglect his wife, the small bit of closeness they’d had slipping away, and eventually she left him and returned to her family in Sichuan. He is loyal to Kronos' cause and seems to have a lust for blood much like Ares, as when he says to Artemis when he has her cornered, "The first blood in a new war." He is also described as "laughing insanely as he fought." Atlas also despises the punishment the gods gave him (holding the sky on his shoulders for all eternity) and writhes with anguish when forced to endure it again. This is probably why he bears a short temper and why he finds delight in battling gods and demigods alike. Atlas was also spiteful and extremely dismissive of other humans, even Luke, but this could be derived from Atlas' status as a Titan.

Atlas plays a minor role in the Perseus myth in stories written during the Roman Empire, with the most well-known telling found in Ovid’s Metamorphoses. In this tale, Heracles has yet to take the apples of gold, and yet the conclusion suggests Heracles’ tale could never happen. This kind of contradiction occurs often in Greek mythology so should be accepted. See Bibliotheca historica, Book III, Eusebius' Praeparatio evangelica references the same mythology as Diodorus stating "These then are the principal heads of the theology held among the Atlanteans". Overall, a great collection, with something in it for everybody: genuine ideas, emotions, art, love, war - the most prominent features that make us human, good and bad. Atlas had several children, especially daughters, having only one son named Hyas, the god of seasonal rains, who had been killed as young boy by a lion (who was possible the Nemean Lion) while fetching water. Kronos decides not to free him from the weight of the sky, despite Atlas being his best fighter and second-in-command. This is because the Titan General had failed to capture the Ophiotaurus, and because he let Artemis escape which meant he failed his duties. It is also mentioned that Krios had to "babysit" Atlas while the other Titans were fighting the Olympians. With Atlas still imprisoned, Hyperion appears to have replaced him as Kronos' second-in-command, as he is later shown leading the Titans' forces through Manhattan.

The children and firelight, the children and firelight. It was always the children and firelight, always the children at night, in the firelight. The image was forever embedded in his mind, though he never understood what it meant.