Antaeus

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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)
Heracles and Antaeus. Drawing from Nordisk familjebok.

Antaeus in Greek mythology was a giant of Libya, the son of Poseidon and Gaia, whose wife was Tinjis. He was extremely 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 water. 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. Heracles, finding that he could not beat Antaeus by throwing him to the ground, as he would regain his strength and be fortified, discovered the secret of his power (touching the ground) and held Antaeus aloft and crushed him in a bearhug (Apollodorus ii. 5; Hyginus, Fab. 31). 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 sculpture.

In Book IV of Marcus Annaeus Lucanus' epic poem Pharsalia, the story of Hercules victory over Antaeus is told to the Roman Curio by an unnamed Libyan citizen.

In the Berber language Antaeus is supposedly known as Änti. A different figure from Egyptian mythology, Anti, was transliterated as "Antaeus" by the Greeks.

[edit] In popular culture

  • In Dante's The Divine Comedy, Antaeus is a giant who guards the ninth circle of Hell, and lowers Dante and Virgil down to the iced-over Cocytus.
  • One of the stories of the Tanglewood Tales features Antaeus and the Pygmies (Chapter: "The Pygmies").
  • Antaeus was mentioned in the film The Great Debaters as a metaphor for growing stronger when one loses.
  • There was a literary magazine, edited by Daniel Halpern, named Antaeus.
  • Rick Riordan (Author of the Percy Jackson books) uses Antaeus in Percy Jackson and the Battle of the Labyrinth; he describes him as fully red with wave patterns etched into his skin and teeth.
  • The Irish poet Seamus Heaney wrote two poems about Antaeus in his book 'North'
  • Antaeus is the name of a men's Eau de Toilette by Chanel launched in 1981
  • The British prog-rock band Pure Reason Revolution have referenced Antaeus in the lyrics for their song 'Trembling Willows': "Songs of love & inflamed lips peristyle/Sold Antaeus darts!"
  • There is a new paraglider model, an high-end intermediate/performance glider name Antea by the Czech paragliding brand SKY. They tend to name gliders after characters of Greek mythology, like Brontes, one of the cyclopses
  • In chapter 57 of the Margaret Mitchell novel Gone With the Wind, Rhett says of Scarlett's relationship to Tara plantation (where she has gone to recover from a serious injury), "Sometimes I think she's like the giant Antaeus who became stronger each time he touched Mother Earth. It doesn't do for Scarlett to stay away too long from the patch of red mud she loves."
  • Antaeus was used by ADM Hyman G. Rickover as a metaphor for engineers who sometimes become isolated from the world around them. "... the Devil is in the details, but so is salvation."
  • The Antaeus Brotherhood is a fictional organization in the novel The Anubis Gates by Tim Powers in which they protect 17th century London from "Sorcerous treason" relying on a connection with the ground (wearing an iron chain fixed to their ankle and dragging behind) to negate magical attacks.

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[edit] Sources

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