GREEK TITAN ATLAS SUPPORTS A BUDDHIST MONUMENT

The Greek influence on Buddhism is prevalent in many artifacts and monuments. A very distinctive example is found at the  site of Hadda, Afghanistan. The Greek Titan Atlas is supporting a Buddhist monument.

In Greek Religion, Atlas is a Titan condemned to hold up the celestial heavens for eternity after the Titanomachy. He is said to be skilled in philosophy, mathematics, and astronomy. In antiquity, he was credited with inventing the first celestial sphere. In some texts, he is even credited with the invention of astronomy itself.

The Farnese Atlas is a 2nd-century Roman marble copy of a Hellenistic sculpture of Atlas kneeling with the celestial spheres, not a globe, weighing heavily on his shoulders. 

Images of Atlas can be found frequently in the Art of Gandhara.