Atlas

The "Atlantes" are decorative figural sculptures on a historic facade in Odessa — telamons, the male architectural counterparts to caryatids, named after the Titan Atlas who bore the heavens in Greek mythology. As load-bearing ornamental figures, they symbolically support cornices or balconies on grand 19th-century buildings. Odessa's city center is known for its elaborately decorated neoclassical and historicist facades, and such figurative stonework is a recurring motif throughout the historic core. Easy to miss, they reward the attentive street-level observer.