Like many great authors, both past and present, Henry David Thoreau uses literary techniques not limited to Greek mythological allusions. Throughout his masterpiece, Walden, mythological allusions are made from his ideas of life and his thoughts about his present state of the environment. Thoreau uses a mythological allusion when he states that, They [the beans] attached me to the earth, and so I got strength like Antaeus. (Thoreau, 1849) Although Thoreau wrote Walden many centuries after the Greek civilization had been wiped out, the historical use of strength as exemplified in the myth of Antaeus drives many themes throughout Walden.The giant Antaeus was the child of two great gods. His mother was Gaia, goddess of mother earth, and his father was Poseidon, god of the sea. (Encyclopedia Mythica, 1) Antaeus was said to be the strongest of all the gods. He was King of Lydia and greatly renowned as a great wrestler. As the myth states, Antaeus defeated and killed all who vainly tried to upscale him. It was said that he gained more and more strength every time he touched his mother,-the earth- for she supplied him with never ending strength. Although undefeated for years, Hercules finally was able to defeat him. Hercules knew his strength was contact with the earth. He proceeded to engage in a battle with the undefeated giant. Hercules won the fight by lifting him off the ground, holding him by the neck and strangled the great Antaeus to death. Antaeus couldnt regain his strength because he had lost contact with the ground- the source of his replenishing strength. (Eddie, 1) Thoreau uses the idea of never ending strength that is derived from the earth throughout Walden.The earth is symbol of strength throughout the novel. An example of the strength of the earth appears in the first chapter where Thoreau is explaining why he wants to get away from every-day life and live off the land. He decides to live with only the bas...
