Editing Pillars of Hercules (section)

==History==
According to [[Greek mythology]] adopted by the [[Etruscans]] and Romans, when [[Heracles|Hercules]] had to perform [[Labours of Hercules|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]]".<ref>Strabo, 3.5.5; no passage in Pindar has been traced in which the pillars are called "the gates of Gades" (Στήλας, ἃς Πίνδαρος καλεῖ πύλας Γαδειρίδας), but at ''Nem''. 3.20–23 Pindar does speak of "the trackless sea beyond the pillars of Heracles, which that hero and god set up as famous witnesses to ''the furthest limits'' of seafaring".</ref> Since there has been a one-to-one association between Heracles and [[Melqart]] since [[Herodotus]], the "Pillars of Melqart" in the temple near Gades/Gádeira (modern [[Cádiz]]) have sometimes been considered to be the true ''Pillars of Hercules''.<ref name="Burkert1985">{{cite book|last=Burkert|first=Walter|title=Greek Religion|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=sxurBtx6shoC&pg=PA210|access-date=2 November 2012|year=1985|publisher=Harvard University Press|isbn=978-0-674-36281-9|page=210}}</ref>

[[Plato]] placed the legendary island of [[Atlantis]] beyond the "Pillars of Hercules".<ref>{{Cite web |last=Copley |first=Jon |date=19 September 2001 |title=Sea level study reveals Atlantis candidate |url=https://www.newscientist.com/article/dn1320-sea-level-study-reveals-atlantis-candidate/ |access-date=2019-12-12 |website=New Scientist |language=en-US}}</ref> Renaissance tradition says the pillars bore the warning ''Ne plus ultra'' (also {{Lang|la|[[Non plus ultra]]}}, "nothing further beyond"), serving as a warning to sailors and navigators to go no further.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=UuGrDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA104 |title=Renaissance Futurities: Science, Art, Invention|publisher=Univ of California Press|year=2019|isbn=978-0520296985|editor-last=Villaseñor Black|editor-first=Charlene|pages=104}}</ref>

According to some Roman sources,<ref>Seneca, ''Hercules Furens'' 235ff.; Seneca, ''Hercules Oetaeus'' 1240; Pliny, ''Nat. Hist''. iii.4.</ref> 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 (mythology)|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 (Morocco)|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.<ref>"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 [https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Strabo/3E*.html#note140 H. L. Jones' gloss on this line in the Loeb Classical Library].</ref>

[[Diodorus Siculus]], 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.<ref>Diodorus 4.18.5.</ref>

In some versions, Heracles instead built the two to hold the sky away from the earth, liberating Atlas from his damnation.<ref>A lost passage of [[Pindar]] quoted by Strabo (3.5.5) was the earliest 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"; the passage in Pindar has not been traced.</ref>

===Phoenician connection===
Beyond Gades, several important [[Mauretania]]n colonies (in modern-day [[Morocco]]) were founded by the [[Phoenicia]]ns as the Phoenician merchant fleet pushed through the Pillars of Hercules and began constructing a series of bases along the Atlantic coast starting with [[Lixus (ancient city)|Lixus]] in the north, then [[Chellah]] and finally [[Mogador]].<ref>[http://www.megalithic.co.uk/article.php?sid=17926 C. Michael Hogan, ''Mogador, Megalithic Portal'', ed. Andy Burnham, 2007]</ref>

Near the eastern shore of the island of Gades/Gadeira (modern [[Cádiz]], just beyond the strait) [[Strabo]] describes<ref>([[Strabo]] 3.5.2–3</ref> [[Temple of Hercules Gaditanus|the westernmost temple]] of [[Tyre, Lebanon|Tyrian]] [[Heracles]], the god with whom Greeks associated the Phoenician and Punic [[Melqart]], by {{lang|la|[[interpretatio graeca]]}}. Strabo notes<ref>Strabo 3.5.5–6</ref> that the two bronze pillars within the temple, each eight [[cubit]]s high, were widely proclaimed to be the true Pillars of Hercules by many who had visited the place and had sacrificed to Heracles there. But Strabo believes the account to be fraudulent, in part noting that the inscriptions on those pillars mentioned nothing about Heracles, speaking only of the expenses incurred by the Phoenicians in their making.  The [[Melqart#Cult|columns of the Melqart temple]] at [[Tyre, Lebanon|Tyre]] were also of religious significance.

===The Pillars in Syriac geography===
[[Syriac studies|Syriac]] scholars were aware of the Pillars through their efforts to translate Greek scientific works into their language as well as into Arabic. The Syriac compendium of knowledge known as ''Ktaba d'ellat koll 'ellan'' (''[[Cause of All Causes]]'') is unusual in asserting that there were three, not two, columns.<ref>[https://archive.today/20130216044943/http://isawnyu.github.com/isaw-papers-awdl/5/preprint Adam C. McCollum. (2012). ''A Syriac Fragment from The Cause of All Causes on the Pillars of Hercules''. ISAW Papers, 5. ].</ref>