ATLANTES, in architecture, male figures used as supports for an entablature, a balcony or other architectural projection, especially when such figures are posed as though they were actu ally upholding great weights, like Atlas carrying the world. When male figures resemble the female caryatides (q.v.) they are more properly known as canephorae (see CANEPHORAE) ; when they are only half figures they are known as gaines. The earliest example of true atlantes occurs on a colossal scale in the temple of Zeus at Agrigentum (c. soo B.c.) . They were favourite motifs in the later Renaissance, particularly in Italy, Germany and France.