In "Atlas Shrugged", Francisco D'Anconia refers to Atlas, the giant who holds the world on his shoulders.

Actually, Atlas was a Titan, the predecessors to the Olympian gods, and he held the heavens on his shoulders.

Nevertheless, the point was well taken; the "producers" were the Atlases of society, holding society on their shoulders. I submit that the archetypes for Dagny Taggart, Francisco D'Anconia, and Ken Danagger might fit "Atlas"... but not Hank Rearden, and probably not Ellis Wyatt.

Atlas had a brother Titan, named "Prometheus". Prometheus liked people, and so he gave us a gift of fire. The Olympian gods were angered by this (it seems they pretty much only liked us for our women, wine and wars), and as punishment, Prometheus was chained to a rock in the Caucasus mountains to have his liver eaten by an eagle, an eternal torture as, being an immortal, the liver would regenerate.

Now, let's relate this to Atlas Shrugged. Rearden and Wyatt brought unique, revolutionary things to man; Rearden metal, and the method of extracting oil from shale fields. While Dagny, Francisco, and Ken, functioning as Atlas, kept the world going using the "gifts" of Wyatt and Hank.

So, wouldn't Galt, with his motor, also be Prometheus? No... Galt is, in my opinion... Heracles (Hercules to any remaining Romans). Heracles liberated Prometheus from his suffering. Galt was the destroyer of the Olympian America, but he was the liberator of the producers.

What Atlas was to industrialists, and capitalists, I think Prometheus was to scientists (real scientists, not climate scientists) and technologists, in context of the metaphor

Interesting, there's another myth of Heracles being talked into taking Atlas's burden for a period of time...