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The Pillars of Hercules (, , , ) was the phrase that was applied in Antiquity to the promontories that flank the entrance to the Strait of Gibraltar. The northern Pillar is the Rock of Gibraltar (now part of the British overseas territory of Gibraltar). A corresponding North African peak not being predominant, the identity of the southern Pillar has been disputed throughout history,〔Strabo summarizes the dispute in ''Geographia'' 3.5.5.〕 with the two most likely candidates being Monte Hacho in Ceuta and Jebel Musa in Morocco. ==History== According to Greek mythology adopted by the Etruscans and Romans, when Hercules had to perform twelve labours, one of them (the tenth) was to fetch the Cattle of Geryon of the far West and bring them to Eurystheus; this marked the westward extent of his travels. A lost passage of Pindar quoted by Strabo was the earliest traceable reference in this context: "the pillars which Pindar calls the 'gates of Gades' when he asserts that they are the farthermost limits reached by Heracles."〔Strabo, 3.5.5; the passage in Pindar has not been traced.〕 There is one to one association between Herakles and Melqart since Herodotus, thus "Pillars of Melqart" in the temple near Gades/Gádeira (modern Cádiz) were widely proclaimed to be the true ''Pillars of Hercules''. Before the 6th Century BCE several mountains in the edges of mainland Greece were seen as pillars that supported the sky. Amongst others, the two southward pointing headlands on each side of the Gulf of Laconia were "pillars of Hercules".〔Davis, J.L. and Cherry, J.F., (1990) "Spacial and temporal uniformitarianism in LCI: Perspectives from Kea and Melos on the prehistory of Akrotiri" in Hardy, D.A and Renfrew, A.C. (Eds)(1990) "Thera and the Aegean World III, Proceedings of the Third International Conference, Santorini, Greece, 3–9 September 1989" (Thera Foundation)〕 Support for this Peloponnesian location for the pillars comes from Medinet Habu in Egypt, dating to 1,200 BCE, which describes the Sea Peoples invading from the islands of the north "from the pillars of heaven", by which the Egyptians meant the ends of the earth as they knew it.〔Castledon, Rodney (1998), "Atlantis Destroyed" (Routledge), p6〕 Earlier in the Aegean region there was, during Minoan and Mycenaean times a "pillar cult" in the region, that may relate to the pillars of Hercules. Crete, in Egypt was called "Keftiu" which has been etymologically related to the Greek word "Kapita" meaning "pillar" (hence the Capital of a pillar). Hercules, Ἡρακλῆς, Hēraklēs, from Hēra, "Hera", and kleos, "glory", was brought to Hera after his birth, and Hera did not recognize Heracles and nursed him out of pity. Heracles suckled so strongly that he caused Hera pain, and she pushed him away. Her milk sprayed across the heavens and there formed the Milky Way. But with divine milk, Heracles had acquired supernatural powers. Hera as a Snake Goddess sent two giant snakes just after the birth of Hercules to kill the child, but the child easily killed the snakes. Later Hercules was sent to Crete in the 7th Labour to capture the Bull of Knosses. Rodney Castledon writes of the pallace of Knossos, "There are two pillar crypts in the West Wing covered with double axe carvings. The double axe symbolises the Goddess, which implies that the carvings confirm the dedication of the west wing, at least, to the worship of the goddess. The temple´s overall plan revolves around the large rectangle of the central bull court... The East face of the square pillar, the face as you see as you enter the crypt, coincides with the Snake Goddess´s sanctuary".〔Castledon, op cit, p.145〕 According to Plato's account, the lost realm of Atlantis was situated beyond the Pillars of Hercules, in effect placing it in the realm of the Unknown. Renaissance tradition says the pillars bore the warning ''Nec plus ultra'' (also ''Non plus ultra'', "nothing further beyond"), serving as a warning to sailors and navigators to go no further. According to some Roman sources,〔Seneca, ''Hercules Furens'' 235ff.; Seneca, ''Hercules Oetaeus'' 1240; Pliny, ''Nat. Hist''. iii.4.〕 while on his way to the garden of the Hesperides on the island of Erytheia, Hercules had to cross the mountain that was once Atlas. Instead of climbing the great mountain, Hercules used his superhuman strength to smash through it. By doing so, he connected the Atlantic Ocean to the Mediterranean Sea and formed the Strait of Gibraltar. One part of the split mountain is Gibraltar and the other is either Monte Hacho or Jebel Musa. These two mountains taken together have since then been known as the Pillars of Hercules, though other natural features have been associated with the name.〔"Close to the Pillars there are two isles, one of which they call Hera's Island; moreover, there are some who call also these isles the Pillars." (Strabo, 3.5.3.); see also (H. L. Jones' gloss on this line in the Loeb Classical Library ).〕 Diodorus Siculus,〔Diodorus 4.18.5.〕 however, held that instead of smashing through an isthmus to create the Straits of Gibraltar, Hercules ''narrowed'' an already existing strait to prevent monsters from the Atlantic Ocean from entering the Mediterranean Sea. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Pillars of Hercules」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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