Antaeus

This article is about a mythological figure. For other uses, see Antaeus (disambiguation).

Heracles and Antaeus, red-figured krater by Euphronios, 515–510 BC, Louvre (G 103)

Antaeus (also Antaios) (Ἀνταίος) in Greek and Berber mythology was a half-giant, the son of Poseidon and Gaia, whose wife was Tinjis. Antaeus had a daughter named Alceis or Barce.

Mythology

Greeks of the sixth century BC, who had established colonies along the coast, located Antaeus in the interior desert of Libya.

He would challenge all passers-by to wrestling matches, kill them, and collect their skulls, so that he might one day build out of them a temple to his father Poseidon. He was indefatigably strong as long as he remained in contact with the ground (his mother earth), but once lifted into the air he became as weak as other men.

Antaeus had defeated most of his opponents until it came to his fight with Heracles (who was on his way to the Garden of Hesperides for his 11th Labour). Upon finding that he could not beat Antaeus by throwing him to the ground as he would regain his strength and be fortified, Heracles discovered the secret of his power. Holding Antaeus aloft, Heracles crushed him in a bearhug. The story of Antaeus has been used as a symbol of the spiritual strength which accrues when one rests one's faith on the immediate fact of things. The struggle between Antaeus and Heracles is a favorite subject in ancient and Renaissance sculpture.

Heracles and Antaeus: line drawing of the Roman marble in Palazzo Pitti courtyard, from Nordisk familjebok.

A location for Antaeus somewhere beyond the Maghreb might be quite flexible in longitude: when the Roman commander Quintus Sertorius crossed from Hispania to North Africa, he was told by the residents of Tingis (Tangier), far to the west of Libya, that the gigantic remains of Antaeus would be found within a certain tumulus; digging it open, his men found giant bones; closing the site, Sertorius made propitiatory offerings and "helped to magnify the tomb's reputation". In Book IV of Marcus Annaeus Lucanus' epic poem Pharsalia (c. 65-61 AD), the story of Hercules' victory over Antaeus is told to the Roman Curio by an unnamed Libyan citizen. The learned client king Juba II of Numidia (died 23 BC), husband of the daughter of Antony and Cleopatra, claimed his descent from a liaison of Hercules with "Tinga", the consort of Antaeus.

In the Berber language Antaeus is supposedly known as Änti. A different, unconnected figure from Egyptian mythology, Anti, was transliterated as "Antaeus" by the Greeks. Another spelling for the name Antaeus is Antaios. The Greek word Antaeus (Antaios) which lies behind his name means "set-against" or "hostile."

Popular culture

• In Dante Alighieri's Inferno, Antaeus is shown among the giants half-frozen up to their torsos at the edge of the Circle of Treachery. He lowers Dante and Virgil into the Circle of Treachery.
• In the made for TV movie Hercules and the Circle of Fire, Hercules fights Antaeus (who is depicted as a rocky half-giant).
• In the TV miniseries Hercules, Antaeus is one of the hero's main antagonists.
• Antaeus appears in the Hercules episode "Hercules and the Hostage Crisis" voiced by Miguel Ferrer. He is depicted as a Half-Titan/Half-Giant who led the terrorist organization P.O.O.T.L.s ("People's Organization of Titanic Liberators") and led them into holding the Prometheus Academy hostage. Antaeus planned to capture Hercules so that he can use him as bait for Zeus and get him to free the Titans.
• The story is used in Seamus Heaney's poem "Hercules and Antaeus", published in "North" (1975).
• Antaeus appears in the film Hercules Unchained. However, Hercules does not kill him.
• Antaeus appears in Rick Riordan's Percy Jackson & the Olympians series where he appeared in Battle of the Labyrinth. He ran an arena where he challenged anyone to a fight. Percy Jackson kills Antaeus by hanging him from a chandelier and stabbing him in the stomach. There was also a reference that Antaeus was a son of Gaia.
• Plato uses Antaios as a metaphor: You seem to me to play rather the role of Antaios; for you do not let anyone go who approaches you until you have forced him to strip and wrestle with you in argument.
• Socrates also had a Antaios metaphor: Your comparison with . . . Antaios pictures my complaint admirably; only I am a more stubborn combatant than they; for many a Herakles . . . strong men of words, have fallen in with me and belabored me mightily."

References

• Smith, William; Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, London (1873). "Antaeus" 1.
•  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. 
• http://www.theoi.com/Gigante/GiganteAntaios.html

External links

• Media related to Antaeus at Wikimedia Commons
• The Theoi Project, "ANTAIOS"
•  Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Antaeus". Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.