Mnemosyne — Classical Greek Myth Library

Antaeus, a giant son of Poseidon and Gaia (Earth), ruled in Libya and forced strangers to wrestle him. While he touched his mother Earth he drew strength from her; thrown or grounded, he rose mightier. He roofed Poseidon’s temple with the skulls of the defeated (Pindaric cruelty). Travelers who crossed his land died in his grip. Heracles, passing through Libya on the quest for the Hesperides’ apples, accepted the challenge. Wrestling in the open, he found that throwing Antaeus to the ground only restored him. Understanding the Earth’s gift, Heracles lifted the giant clear of the soil, held him aloft, and crushed or throttled him in mid-air until he died. The kill removes a Libyan barrier on the hero’s western road and becomes the classic exemplum of defeating an opponent whose power depends on contact with a parent element: separate him from Earth, and Gaia’s son falls.