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{{Short description|Phrase used in antiquity to label the promontories of the Strait of Gibraltar}}
{{for multi|the Paul Theroux book|The Pillars of Hercules (book){{!}}''The Pillars of Hercules'' (book)|the London pub|Pillars of Hercules, Soho}}
{{EngvarB|date=June 2025}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=June 2025}}
[[File:De Zuilen van Hercules Gibraltar en Ceuta.jpg|thumb|The European Pillar of Hercules: the [[Rock of Gibraltar]], with the North African shore and [[Jebel Musa (Morocco)|Jebel Musa]] in the background.]]
[[File:Tarifa, Estrecho de Gibraltar. Strait of Gibraltar.jpg|thumbnail|right|Jebel Musa, the African Pillar of Hercules, as seen from [[Tarifa]], at the other shore of the [[Strait of Gibraltar]].]]
[[File:Straße von gibraltar.JPG|thumb|right|Jebel Musa and the Rock of Gibraltar seen from the [[Mediterranean Sea]].]]

The '''Pillars of Hercules'''{{efn|
*{{langx|la|Columnae Herculis}}
*{{langx|grc|Ἡράκλειαι Στῆλαι|{{#invoke:Ancient Greek|translit|Ἡράκλειαι Στῆλαι}}}}
*{{langx|ar|أعمدة هرقل|Aʿmidat Hiraql}}
*{{langx|es|Columnas de Hércules}}
}} are the [[promontory|promontories]] that flank the entrance to the [[Strait of Gibraltar]]. The northern Pillar, Calpe Mons, is the [[Rock of Gibraltar]]. A corresponding North African peak not being predominant, the identity of the southern Pillar, Abila Mons, has been disputed throughout history,<ref>Strabo summarizes the dispute in ''Geographia'' 3.5.5.</ref> with the two most likely candidates being [[Monte Hacho]] in [[Ceuta]] and [[Jebel Musa (Morocco)|Jebel Musa]] in Morocco.  The term was applied in [[Classical antiquity|antiquity]]: [[Pliny the Elder]] included the Pillars of Hercules in his ''[[Natural History (Pliny)|Naturalis historia]]'' (Book III:3).

==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>

==In art==
===Dante's ''Inferno''===
In ''[[Inferno (Dante)|Inferno]]'' XXVI [[Dante Alighieri]] mentions [[Odysseus|Ulysses]] in the pit of the Fraudulent Counsellors and his voyage past the Pillars of Hercules. Ulysses justifies endangering his sailors by the fact that his goal is to gain knowledge of the unknown. After five months of navigation in the ocean, Ulysses sights the mountain of [[Purgatory]] but encounters a [[whirlwind]] from it that sinks his ship and all on it for their [[hubris|daring]] to approach Purgatory while alive, by their strength and wits alone.

===Sir Francis Bacon's ''Novum Organum''===

[[Image:Instauratio Magna.jpg|thumb|upright|The title page of [[Sir Francis Bacon]]'s ''Instauratio Magna'', 1620]]

The Pillars appear prominently on the engraved title page of [[Sir Francis Bacon]]'s ''Instauratio Magna'' ("Great Renewal"), 1620, an unfinished work of which the second part was his influential ''[[Novum Organum]]''. The motto along the base says ''Multi pertransibunt et augebitur scientia'' ("Many will pass through and knowledge will be the greater").  The image was based on the use of the pillars in Spanish and Habsburg propaganda.

===Statue of the pillars of Hercules in Ceuta===
The Spanish enclave in the extreme north of the African continent, the town of [[Ceuta]] is home to a modern-day statue called "The Pillars of Hercules" (Spanish: Columnas de Hércules).[[File: Las dos columnas de Hércules - Ábyla y Calpe (2).jpg|thumb|upright=1.15|The statue of the ''Pillars of Hercules'' in Ceuta]]
The statue consists of two huge bronze pillars, which are held apart by Hercules. The statue was made by Ceuta artist [[Ginés Serrán-Pagán]].<ref>Pagan Places. ''[https://paganplaces.com/places/pillars-of-hercules-at-ceuta/ Pillars of Hercules at Ceuta] {{Webarchive|url=https://archive.today/20230724071250/https://paganplaces.com/places/pillars-of-hercules-at-ceuta/ |date=24 July 2023 }}''. Pagan Places, 2020.</ref>

===In architecture===
On the Spanish coast at [[Los Barrios]] are [[Torres de Hercules]] which are twin towers that were inspired by the ''Pillars of Hercules''. These towers were the tallest in Andalusia until [[Cajasol Tower]] was completed in [[Seville]] in 2015.

In the southern wall of the [[National_Autonomous_University_of_Mexico|National Autonomous University of Mexico's]] [[Central Library (UNAM)|Central Library]], the mural ''Historical Representation of Culture'', created by the artist [[Juan O'Gorman]], portrays a depiction of the Pillars of Hercules as an allusion to the [[History_of_Mexico#Spanish_conquest|colonial past of Mexico]] and the house of [[Charles_V,_Holy_Roman_Emperor|Charles V]].<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.bibliotecacentral.unam.mx/murales07.html |title=Biblioteca Central |access-date=2019-05-28 |archive-date=2019-05-30 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190530222652/http://www.bibliotecacentral.unam.mx/murales07.html |url-status=dead }}</ref>

==Coat of arms==

The Pillars appear as supporters of the [[coat of arms of Spain]], originating in the [[personal device|impresa]] of Spain's sixteenth century king [[Charles I of Spain|Charles I]], who was also the Holy Roman Emperor as [[Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor|Charles V]]. It was an idea of the Italian humanist [[Luigi Marliano]].<ref>{{cite book|title=Diálogo delas empresas militares y amorosas, compuesto en lengua italiana|last=Giovio|first=Paolo|date=1658|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WDbIF2wnrUwC&q=marliano}}</ref> It bears the motto ''[[Plus Ultra (motto)|Plus Ultra]]'', Latin for ''further beyond'', implying that the pillars were a gateway. This was modified from the phrase ''Nec plus ultra'', ''Nothing more beyond'' after the [[Voyages of Christopher Columbus|discovery of the Americas]], which laid to rest the idea of the Pillars of Hercules as the westernmost extremity of the inhabitable world which had prevailed since Antiquity.

<gallery class="center">
File:Pillars of Hercules.svg|The columns as depicted in the [[Spanish coat of arms]]
File:Escudo de España (mazonado).svg|[[Coat of arms of Spain]]
File:Escudo de Andalucía (oficial2).svg|[[Emblem of Andalusia]]
File:Escudo de Extremadura.svg|[[Coat of arms of Extremadura]]
File:Coat of Arms of Melilla.svg|[[Coat of arms of Melilla]]
File:Seal of San Diego, California.png|Seal of San Diego, California
File:Coat of arms of Veracruz.svg|Coat of arms of [[Veracruz]], Mexico
File:Coat of arms of Tabasco.svg|Coat of arms of [[Tabasco]], Mexico
File:Coat of Arms of Trujillo of New Castille (modern design).svg|Coat of arms of [[Trujillo, Peru]]
File:Third Coat of Arms of Potosi.svg|Coat of arms of [[Potosí]], Bolivia
File:Escudo de Cádiz (oval).svg|Coat of arms of [[Cádiz]]
File:Escudo de Tumbes.svg|Coat of arms of [[Tumbes, Peru]]
</gallery>

== Gallery ==

<gallery class="center">
File:PillarsHerculesPeutingeriana.jpg|Modern conjectural depiction of the lost western section of the [[Tabula Peutingeriana]], showing a representation of the Pillars of Hercules (''Columne Ercole'').
File:Columnas Plus Ultra.png|[[personal device|Device]] of [[Holy Roman Emperor, Charles V|Charles V]] in [[Seville]]'s city hall
File:Couly Nouailher - Hercules Carries the Two Columns - Walters 44265.jpg|[[Limoges enamel]] depicting Hercules carrying the two columns, by Couly Nouailher, mid-16th century ([[Walters Art Museum]]).
File:Leone Leoni, The Pillars of Hercules (reverse), 1553, NGA 92018.jpg|alt=<nowiki>The reverse of a bronze medal from 1553 by the sculptor Leone Leoni, 4.2 centimetres from top to bottom, showing the two fluted columns connected with a banderole ribbon, in a sea of waves. Around the circumference, in capital letters, reads: PLVS.OUTRE (that is, in English, "And beyond]</nowiki>|Leone Leoni. ''The Pillars of Hercules'' [reverse]. Bronze, 1553. 4.2&nbsp;cm. [[National Gallery of Art]], Washington. Gift of Lisa and Leonard Baskin. 
</gallery>

==See also==
*[[Caves of Hercules]]
*[[Dollar sign]]

==Notes==
{{noteslist}}

==References==
{{reflist}}

== External links ==
* {{Commons category inline|Pillars of Hercules}}

{{Hercules media}}
{{Gibraltar topics}}
{{Ceuta}}

{{coord|36|07|46|N|5|20|40|W|type:mountain_region:XZ|display=title}}<!-- Straits of Gibraltar -->

[[Category:Pillars of Hercules| ]]
[[Category:Atlantis]]
[[Category:Atlas (mythology)]]
[[Category:History of Gibraltar]]
[[Category:Landforms of Ceuta]]
[[Category:Landforms of Gibraltar]]
[[Category:Landforms of Morocco]]
[[Category:Headlands of Spain]]
[[Category:Places in Greek mythology]]
[[Category:Strait of Gibraltar]]
[[Category:Mythology of Heracles]]
[[Category:Promontories]]
[[Category:Melqart]]