Ανταιος
A giant, son of Poseidon and Gaia (The Earth). He lived in Libya (not far from Utica, according to Lucan, but in Morocco according to most writers) and made all travellers fight with him. After he had defeated and killed them he decorated his father's temple with their corpses. Antaeus was invulnerable so long as he kept in touch with his mother (that is, the ground), but Heracles, when he was passing through Libya in his search for the Golden Apples, fought with him and choked him to death by hoisting him on his shoulders (see also Tinge).
{E2 DICTIONARY OF CLASSICAL MYTHOLOGY}
Table of Sources:
- Pind. Isth. 4, 56ff. (87ff.) with schol. on 87
- Diod. Sic. 4, 17, 4
- Paus. 9, 11, 16
- Ovid, Ibis 393ff. with schol.
- Apollod. Bibl. 2, 5, 11
- Lucan 4, 590ff.
- Hyg. Fab. 31
- Stat. Theb. 6, 893ff.
- Pomp. Mela 3, 10, 106
- Strabo 17, 3, 8, p. 829