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ATHALANTE2. Atlas was the giant of North Africa who held up the heavens on his shoulders. The Seven Pleiades were his daughters (Met VI.174-175).

The learned eagle points out the seven daughters of Atlas to the frightened poet, HF II.1007.

Athalantes, the ME genitive case, is a variant of Atlantiades, the Greek patronymic that appears in Latin. Here it is applied to Atlas himself. Intrusive h after t was not pronounced. The name occurs in medial position.


Ovid, Met, ed. and trans. F.J. Miller, I: 300-301.
From CHAUCER NAME DICTIONARY
Copyright © 1988, 1996 Jacqueline de Weever
Published by Garland Publishing, Inc., New York and London.

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