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world beginning. Time plays itself back for me. I can hear the ferns uncurling from their tight rest. I can hear pools bubbling with life. I realise I am carrying not only this world, but all possible worlds. I am carrying the world in time as well as in space. I am carrying the world’s mistakes and its glories. I am carrying its potential as well as what has so far been realised.
    As the dinosaurs crawl through my hair and volcanic eruptions pock my face, I find I am become a part of what I must bear. There is no longer Atlas and the world, there is only the World Atlas. Travel me and I am continents. I am the journey you must make.
       
    Listen, there’s a man telling a story about the man who holds the world on his shoulders. Everybody laughs. Only drunks and children will believe that.
    * * *
    No man believes what he does not feel to be true. I should like to unbelieve myself. I sleep at night and wake in the morning hoping to be gone. It never happens. One knee forward, one knee bent, I bear the world.

Heracles
     

    Heracles stepped out of the shadows where he had been listening.
    Here he comes, the Hero of the World, wearing a lion-skin and swinging his olive club.
    ‘Have a drink Atlas, you old globe. We’ve all got our burdens to bear. Your punishment is to hold up the universe. My punishment is to work for a wanker.’
    ‘And who’s to blame?’ said Atlas. ‘Not your father Zeus, but your foster-mother, Hera.’
    ‘Call it Fate not blame,’ said Heracles. ‘Your name means “long-suffering” mine means “Glory of Hera”, which is a bit of a liberty under the circumstances. Does any woman feel love for her husband’s bastards? I am son of my father Zeus, but my mother Alcemewas mortal. Hera was deceived into suckling me. She’s not happy about that. Women don’t like a stranger at the tit.’
    ‘She sent a serpent to kill you.’
    ‘I strangled it in my cot. I was too young to bear a grudge.’
    ‘And then she drove you to madness.’
    ‘There’s plenty of men been driven to madness by a woman.’
    ‘Only a madman would come here.’
    ‘I need your help.’
    Help. He comes for help at the hinge of the world. Heaven and earth fold away from each other, but here they lie edge to edge. To this doubleness he comes for help, this man of double nature, the god in him folded back in human flesh.
       
    ‘What kind of help?’
    ‘It’s a long story.’
    ‘I’m not going anywhere.’
    ‘Well,’ said Heracles, ‘If you’ve got all the time in the world, I’ll begin.’
       
    Men are unfaithful by nature. This is not a fault in men, for nature should not be accused of faulty workmanship. It is as useless to rail against man’s infidelity as it is to complain that water is wet. What god or man is content with what he has? And if he were content, then he is less than god or man.
    Alceme was beautiful, so Zeus dressed himself up as her husband and had a quick word with the moon and he got Alceme into bed for a night that lasted thirty-six hours. He gave her pleasure and pleasure grew into a son. To save me from Hera’s marital wrath, he tricked her into suckling me just once, and so I gained immortality. Hera can hurt me but she cannot truly harm me. What she really likes to do is humiliate me.
    Even a goddess is still a woman.
    I was a bit of a braggart in my youth – killedeverything, shagged what was left, and ate the rest. Then Hera made up her mind to drive me mad, and while I was mad, I slit six of my own children, which I regret, and a tent full of other people whose names I didn’t even know. Not good behaviour, Atlas, and I always had my standards, even when drunk, so I went to Delphi to try and get forgiveness. The pythoness at Delphi ordered me to make myself servant to Eurystheus. Yes, that slack-prick, gnat- witted, wine-sour Eurystheus. As an atonement, you understand. For twelve years I must do whatever he asks. No matter that he is weak and I am strong. No matter that