In Greek sources, he was the son of
Poseidon and
Gaia,[2][3][4] who lived in the interior desert of Libya.[5] His wife was the goddess
Tinge, for whom it was claimed that the city of
Tangier in
Morocco was named (though it could be the other way around),[6] and he had a daughter named
Alceis or
Barce.[7] Another daughter,
Iphinoe, consorted with Heracles.[8]
Mythology
Antaeus would challenge all passers-by to
wrestling matches[9] and remained invincible as long as he remained in contact with his mother, the earth.[10][11][12][13] As Greek wrestling, like its
modern equivalent, typically attempted to force opponents to the ground, he always won, killing his opponents.[10][14][15] He built a
temple to his father using their
skulls.[10][16] Antaeus fought Heracles as he was on his way to the
Garden of Hesperides as his
11th Labour.[17] Heracles realized that he could not beat Antaeus by throwing or pinning him. Instead, he held him aloft and then crushed him to death in a
bear hug.[18][19][20]
Antaeus is placed in the interior desert of
Libya.[22] He was probably incorporated into Greek mythology after the Greek colonization of Cyrenaica in the mid-seventh century BC.[1]
A location for Antaeus somewhere far within the
Berber world 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".[23] It is proposed that this monument is the
Msoura stone circle, 50 km from Tangier.[24] In Book IV of
Marcus Annaeus Lucanus'
epic poemPharsalia (c. AD 65-61), the story of
Heracles' victory over Antaeus is told to the
RomanCurio by an unnamed Libyan citizen. The learned client king
Juba II (died 23 BC), husband of the daughter of Antony and Cleopatra, claimed his descent from a liaison of Heracles with Tinga, the consort of Antaeus.[25][26] In his Life of Sertorius cited above,
Plutarch recounts what he says to be a local myth, according to which Heracles consorted with Tinge after the death of Antaeus and had by her a son
Sophax, who named the city Tingis after his mother. Sophax in his turn was father of Diodorus who conquered many Libyan peoples with his army of
Olbians and
Mycenaeans brought to Libya by Heracles.[27] Moreover, some related that Heracles had a son
Palaemon by Iphinoe, the daughter of Antaeus and (presumably) Tinge.[8]
Scholiasts on
Pindar'sPythian Ode 9 also recorded a story which made Antaeus king of the city Irassa in Libya, and father of a daughter named either Alceis or Barce. Antaeus promised her hand to the winner of a race, just as
Danaus had done to find husbands for
his daughters.
Alexidamus beat all the other suitors in the race and married the daughter of Antaeus. Three versions of this story, with minor variations, were collected by the scholiasts; one of those versions made Antaeus, king of Irassa, a figure distinct from the Antaeus killed by Heracles, while another one suggested that they were one and the same.[28]
The ancient city of
Barca, probably located at
Marj, Libya, was also called Antapolis after Antaeus.[29]Antaeopolis is also the Graeco-Roman name of
Tjebu, an Egyptian city. They identified the tutelary god of Tjebu,
Nemty, a fusion of
Seth and
Horus, with Antaeus, although he may be different from the Libyan Antaeus.
^I. Malkin, Myth and Territory in the Spartan Mediterranean, 1994:181-87, giving sources, noted in Robin Lane Fox, Travelling Heroes in the Epic Age of Homer, 2008:182 and note 51.
John Tzetzes, Book of Histories, Book II-IV translated by Gary Berkowitz from the original Greek of T. Kiessling's edition of 1826.
Online version at theoi.com