Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition/Antæus

ANTÆUS, in Greek Mythology, a giant of Lybia, the son of Poseidon and Ge (Terra). 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 invin cible. With the skulls of those whom he had slain he built a temple to his father. Hercules, in combat with him, discovered the source of his strength, and lifting him up from the earth crushed him to death. The struggle between Antaeus and Hercules is a favourite subject in ancient sculpture.