Atlas Had No Unkind Feelings For Hercules

Both passage one and two share a multitude of themes throughout each story. Each story showcases different lessons to be learned, but are both a story of the sky needing to be held up, but either character not wanting that burdensome task. Both stories showcase the themes of selfishness and untrustworthiness.
One of the first themes exhibited in both passages is that being selfish and taking the easy way out can make it harder for other people. The first passage shows this theme when the giant is making Hercules hold up the sky when Hercules had a mission of bringing the three golden apples to the king. Paragraph 8 of passage 1 says “for he had no unkind feelings for Hercules, and was merely acting with a too selfish consideration of his own

In passage 1, Hercules is holding the sky up for the giant, Atlas, while Atlas is getting golden apples for Hercules. After he gets the apples, he insists on taking them to the king for Hercules because Atlas wants to be free longer and not have to worry about holding up the sky. Hercules shows that he’s upset about it,and it shows when he says in paragraph 7, “Pish! A fig for its talk!’ cried Hercules with another hitch of his shoulders. “Just take the sky upon your head one instant, will you?” Hercules and Atlas were both untrustworthy in the situation as they both didn’t want to hold up the sky and were both willing to trick each other to not have to bear the burden. In passage 2, Heracles is holding up the sky and Atlas asks if he needs anything. Heracles responds “Since you asked, I’d like a pad for my head-take the weight off,”(Paragraph 22.) Heracles was the untrustworthy one in the situation and Atlas shouldn’t have trusted him. After Atlas helps Heracles, Atlas gets tricked and stuck holding the sky up. Ultimately, both passages show the theme of untrustworthiness, by either one character or two in both