ANTAEUS  , in

Greek mythology, a giant of Libya, the son of Poseidon and Gaea . He compelled all strangers passing through the country to wrestle with him, and as, when thrown, he derived fresh strength from each successive contact with his mother earth, he proved invincible . With the skulls of those whom he had slain he built a temple to his father . Heracles, in combat with him, discovered the source of his strength, and lifting him up from the earth crushed him to death (Apollodorus ii . 5; Hyginus, Fab . 31) . The struggle between Antaeus and Heracles is a favourite subject in ancient sculpture .