KION OURANOU. The Sky Column on Atlas Mountain

We are presented now with the last geographical matter from the history of the legends of the titan Atlas, namely: which is the origin of the name “the Sky Column” of the colossal pyramid from the top of the Omul mountain.

With Eschyl (Prometheus, v. 349), this majestic monument of the Pelasgian world bears the name “the column of the sky and earth”.

And Homer mentions in his Odyssey (I. v. 53-54) “the long columns” on the Atlas mountain, “which separate the sky from the earth”, without saying anything though about their number. But Hesiodus tells us (Theog. v. 521-522) that Atlas supports the sky with his head and tireless arms, and this author also adds that Prometheus had been chained on the middle column.

So, according to the old legends of the Theogony, there were three stone columns on Atlas mountain, out of which one, the highest and strongest, was considered as the principal column. Three columns with particular shapes, which had once represented some sacred symbols, can still be seen on the highest peak of Omul mountain, dominating from above the figure of Zeus aigiochos (from the point of view of its geological formation, the peak called Omul was and still is considered as only one of the peaks of Caraiman mountain – Frunzescu, Dict. top. p. VI).