Libyan-greek conflict

Libyan-greek conflict

Antaeus is a Libyan giant and the son of the earth gods. Antaeus derived his strength from contact with his mother, the Earth. This giant was part of the Libya that the Greco-Roman imagination created, a land full of monsters and the supernatural, but the myth of Antaeus in particular symbolizes the Libyan-Greek cultural conflict, Antaeus represents the Libyan culture and the indigenous people, while Hercules represents the Greek culture and the Greeks arriving to Libya. In this myth, Hercules, while searching for the Gardens of the Hesperides, faces the giant Antaeus defending the Libyan land. This work embodies the Greek-Libyan conflict and the components of this conflict on both sides of the painting, in this particular myth, there is confirmation that the Greeks encountered a great Libyan culture linked to the Libyan land and it had a great influence on all of Greece.

350*200cm
Oil and mixed media on canvas
2023

©Paris louvre