Some historians believe that the Balearic
Islands may be identified with the site of the Tenth Labour of Hercules and that the hero visited the Islands on
his return from setting up the twin Pillars of Hercules guarding the Straits of Gibraltar.
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The three-bodied giant
Geryones or Geryon owned some marvellous cattle which it was Hercules' task to capture. They were guarded by a
two-headed dog. Naturally Hercules slew them all and carried off his prize in triumph. |
It was once thought that the earliest
inhabitants of the Balearic Islands and other Mediterranean islands were a race of giants who constructed
the talayots and stone towers, traversed by tunnels, and known locally as clapers de gegants (giants' cairns). (The stones ploughed up by Mallorcan farmers are piled up in a cairn, known locally as a claper) |
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