Antaeus
Antaeus (Antaios) was a giant of Libya in Greek mythology, a son of Poseidon, who forced strangers to wrestle with him and killed them. Heracles defeated him on his journey to the Garden of the Hesperides, lifting him off the ground and crushing him. His story is told by Pindar, Apollodorus and Diodorus.
Parents and Home
Apollodorus calls Antaeus a son of Poseidon, the ruler of Libya, who used to kill strangers by forcing them to wrestle (Apollodorus, Library 2.5.11). In the same passage he says that Antaeus grew stronger whenever he touched the earth, and that for this reason “some said that he was a son of Earth”. Diodorus calls him a giant, famous for his bodily strength and his skill in wrestling, who made it his practice to put to death every stranger whom he defeated (Diodorus 4.17.4). He is not named among the Gigantes who fought the gods in Apollodorus’ account of the Gigantomachy (Library 1.6.1–2); he is a giant of Libya, not one of those born from Earth at Phlegra.
Family of Antaeus
The Temple of Skulls
Pindar says that a man of small stature but unbending spirit came from Thebes to the house of Antaeus in corn-bearing Libya, to stop him from roofing the temple of Poseidon with the skulls of strangers. That man was Heracles, son of Alcmene (Pindar, Isthmian 4.52–55). The temple is thus Poseidon’s, Antaeus’ father, in Pindar’s account.
Heracles and Antaeus
In Apollodorus, Heracles meets Antaeus in the course of his eleventh labour, fetching the golden apples of the Hesperides. Heracles first learns from the sea-god Nereus where the apples are, and then crosses Libya, which was ruled by Antaeus. Forced to wrestle with him, Heracles hugged him, lifted him aloft, broke him and killed him (Apollodorus, Library 2.5.11). Quintus of Smyrna pictures the scene among the labours of Heracles worked on the shield of his grandson Eurypylus: Antaeus, who challenged him to a wrestling match, was raised high above the earth in his arms and crushed to death (Quintus, Posthomerica 6.285–288). Quintus also tells of a huge mass of bronze that two men could barely lift, which Antaeus used to hurl with ease to test his strength; Heracles took it with the rest of his spoil and later gave it to Peleus, and at the funeral games of Achilles only Ajax could throw it (Posthomerica 4.436–450).
Diodorus tells it differently. In his account Heracles sailed from Crete to Libya and, first of all, challenged Antaeus and killed the giant by grappling with him; then he subdued the land of Libya and brought it under cultivation (Diodorus 4.17.4). Elsewhere Diodorus places the killing of Antaeus at the time of Heracles’ last labour, when he again sailed to Libya for the apples (Diodorus 4.26.2, 4.27.3). Pausanias says that the carvings on the gables at Thebes, by Praxiteles, show most of the twelve labours, but in place of the Stymphalian birds and the cleansing of Elis they show the wrestling with Antaeus (Pausanias 9.11.6).
Antaeus’ Tomb
Strabo reports that the Roman historian Gabinius spoke of a sepulchre of Antaeus at Lynx in Mauretania, and of a skeleton sixty feet long that Sertorius uncovered and then covered again with earth; Strabo himself thought such stories fabulous (Strabo 17.3.8).
Antaeus Sources
Pindar, Isthmian 4.52–55; Apollodorus, Library 2.5.11, 1.6.1–2; Diodorus Siculus 4.17.4, 4.26–27; Quintus of Smyrna, Posthomerica 4.436–450, 6.285–288; Pausanias 9.11.6; Strabo 17.3.8.
See Also: Poseidon, Gaea, Gigantes, Heracles, Labours of Heracles, Hesperides, Atlas, Busiris, Nereus
What the ancient sources say
Passages that name Antaeus, in the original with English translation. The line gives the work and reference as scholars cite it.
- Diodorus Siculus, Library of History, Books 4 to 6 (the Greek myths) 4.17.1–4.21.7Heracles and the cattle of GeryonesFor his tenth labour Heracles gathers an army and sails from Crete, which he first clears of wild beasts. In Libya he kills Antaeus, in Egypt Busiris, and…
- Plato, Theaetetus 169a–172eProtagoras refutes himself; the laws of cities and the limits of the doctrineTheodorus complains that Socrates, like Sciron and Antaeus, lets no one approach without forcing him to strip and wrestle in argument, and Socrates says…
- Plutarch, Life of Sertorius 7.1–9.5Sertorius in Africa, the Islands of the Blest and the tomb of AntaeusAnnius, sent by Sulla, drives Sertorius out of Spain after Julius is treacherously killed, and Sertorius is battered by storms at sea. Sailors tell him of…
- Pindar, Pythian Odes 9.1–125Pythian 9: for Telesicrates — Cyrene and ApolloPindar praises Telesicrates of Cyrene, victor in the race in armour, and tells how Apollo fell in love with the nymph Cyrene, daughter of Hypseus, who…
- Pindar, Isthmian Odes 3.1–4.72Isthmians 3-4: for Melissus — Ajax and Heracles against AntaeusIsthmian 3 praises Melissus of Thebes, victor in the chariot race, and says that the gods alone are free from change. Isthmian 4 praises his pancratium…
- Strabo, Geography 17.3.4–8Mauretania: land, peoples and kingsStrabo describes the fertile land of Mauretania, its great trees, huge plants and wild animals, including the apes seen by Poseidonius, and the western…
- Plato, Laws 793a–796eBook VII: Unwritten customs, games of the young child, left and right hand, wrestling and the war-dancesThe Athenian says that the unwritten customs of the fathers are the bonds of every constitution, and that the children from three to six need games, which…
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