1) Male figures used as columns 2) Statues used as columns 
[Sorcerer] Atlantes was a powerful sorcerer featured in the chansons de geste. The sorcerer built a castle of iron in the Pyrenees to keep knights and ladies he had captured as a diversion for Ruggiero, a Saracen knight. Atlantes feared that Ruggiero would convert to Christianity and aid Charlemagne against the Saracens as he had foreseen t...
male figures used as columns
• (n. pl.) Figures or half figures of men, used as columns to support an entablature; -- called also telamones. See Caryatides.
These were carved male figures serving as pillars. They were also known as telamones. 
At·lan'tes noun plural [ Latin , from Greek ..., plural of .... See Atlas .] (Architecture) Figures or half figures of men, used as columns to support an entablature; -- called also telamones . See Caryatides . Oxf. Gloss. 
In Greek architecture, atlantes are figures or half figures of men, used as columns to support an entablature. The term is the plural of Atlas, and originates from the giant in Greek mythology who had to support the heavens upon his shoulders.
pl. of(def. 5).