`` And you will never get out of my clutch , until you tell me the nearest way to the garden of the Hesperides ! '' When the old fellow heard who it was that had caught him , he saw , with half an eye , that it would be necessary to tell him everything that he wanted to know . The Old One was an inhabitant of the sea , you must recollect , and roamed about everywhere , like other sea-faring people . Of course , he had often heard of the fame of Hercules , and of the wonderful things that he was constantly performing , in various parts of the earth , and how determined he always was to accomplish whatever he undertook . He therefore made no more attempts to escape , but told the hero how to find the garden of the Hesperides , and likewise warned him of many difficulties which must be overcome , before he could arrive thither . `` You must go on , thus and thus , '' said the Old Man of the Sea , after taking the points of the compass , `` till you come in sight of a very tall giant , who holds the sky on his shoulders . And the giant , if he happens to be in the humor , will tell you exactly where the garden of the Hesperides lies . '' `` And if the giant happens not to be in the humor , '' remarked Hercules , balancing his club on the tip of his finger , `` perhaps I shall find means to persuade him ! '' Thanking the Old Man of the Sea , and begging his pardon for having squeezed him so roughly , the hero resumed his journey . He met with a great many strange adventures , which would be well worth your hearing , if I had leisure to narrate them as minutely as they deserve . It was in this journey , if I mistake not , that he encountered a prodigious giant , who was so wonderfully contrived by nature , that , every time he touched the earth , he became ten times as strong as ever he had been before . His name was Antreus . You may see , plainly enough , that it was a very difficult business to fight with such a fellow ; for , as often as he got a knock-down blow , up he started again , stronger , fiercer , and abler to use his weapons , than if his enemy had let him alone , Thus , the harder Hercules pounded the giant with his club , the further be seemed from winning the victory . I have sometimes argued with such people , but never fought with one . The only way in which Hercules found it possible to finish the battle , was by lifting Antaeus off his feet into the air , and squeezing , and squeezing , and squeezing him , until , finally , the strength was quite squeezed out of his enormous body . When this affair was finished , Hercules continued his travels , and went to the land of Egypt , where he was taken prisoner , and would have been put to death , if he had not slain the king of the country , and made his escape . Passing through the deserts of Africa , and going as fast as he could , he arrived at last on the shore of the great ocean . And here , unless he could walk on the crests of the billows , it seemed as if his journey must needs be at an end . Nothing was before him , save the foaming , dashing , measureless ocean . But , suddenly , as he looked towards the horizon , he saw something , a great way off , which he had not seen the moment before .
It gleamed very brightly , almost as you may have beheld the round , golden disk of the sun , when it rises or sets over the edge XXXXX the world .
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