PILLARS OF HERCULES • DICTIONARY ONE.COM • Definition of Pillars of Hercules

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/pˈɪlərz əv hˈərkjəlˌiz/ Listen

Pillars of Hercules

noun

The two promontories at the eastern end of the Strait of Gibraltar; according to legend they were formed by Hercules.

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Etymology of 'Pillars of Hercules'

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"Pillars of Hercules" Quotes from Famous Books

... been prosperous in all his undertakings. In 67 B.C. a law was proposed appointing a commander (who, however, was not named), who should have absolute power for three years over the sea as far as the Pillars of Hercules (the Straits of Gibraltar), and the coast for fifty miles inland, and who should be furnished with two hundred ships, as many soldiers and sailors as he wanted, and more than a million pounds in money. The nobles were furious in their opposition, and ...

— Roman life in the days of Cicero • Alfred J[ohn] Church

... misjudge it from partial examples: the light of day is confidence, yet sudden bursts of light distress and blind. The poet is rapt, and follows thought; he leaves his meat, and by some transubstantiation feeds on the wind; he no longer sees the pillars of Hercules on a sixpence; he is mad for the hour, if a majority shall say what is madness. Meanwhile his field is unploughed; and if he falls from this ecstasy, look to see an harassed, embittered man. The birds sing as they ...

— The Atlantic Monthly, Vol. 13, No. 76, February, 1864 • Various

... master-passion of his soul. At the moment of his death, he was commencing fresh aggression in the south against the Arabians, to an indefinite extent; while his vast projects against the western tribes in Africa and Europe, as far as the Pillars of Hercules, were consigned in the orders and memoranda confidentially communicated to Kraterus. Italy, Gaul, and Spain would have been successively attacked and conquered; the enterprises proposed to him when in Bactria by the Chorasmian ...

— The Best of the World's Classics, Vol. V (of X) - Great Britain and Ireland III • Various

Words linked to "Pillars of Hercules" : Abyla, Jebel Musa, Abila, Strait of Gibraltar, Rock of Gibraltar, Calpe, geological formation, formation, Gibraltar