Metropolitan marble head of Herakles Roman 1C AD

Tinjis () (also called Tinga, and also spelled as Tingis) was a Libyan queen as the wife of King

Antaeus Antaeus (; , derived from ), known to the Berbers as Anti, was a figure in Traditional Berber religion, Berber and Greek mythology. He was famed for his defeat by Heracles as part of the Labours of Hercules. Family In Greek sources, he was ...

Berber Berber or Berbers may refer to: Ethnic group * Berbers, an ethnic group native to Northern Africa * Berber languages, a family of Afro-Asiatic languages Places * Berber, Sudan, a town on the Nile People with the surname * Ady Berber (1913–196 ...

and

Greek mythology Greek mythology is the body of myths originally told by the Ancient Greece, ancient Greeks, and a genre of ancient Greek folklore, today absorbed alongside Roman mythology into the broader designation of classical mythology. These stories conc ...

, and some kind of a female

deity A deity or god is a supernatural being considered to be sacred and worthy of worship due to having authority over some aspect of the universe and/or life. The ''Oxford Dictionary of English'' defines ''deity'' as a God (male deity), god or god ...

Family

Tinjis' husband was the son of

Poseidon Poseidon (; ) is one of the twelve Olympians in ancient Greek religion and mythology, presiding over the sea, storms, earthquakes and horses.Burkert 1985pp. 136–139 He was the protector of seafarers and the guardian of many Hellenic cit ...

and Gaia. Tinjis bore Antaeus daughters named Alceis or Barce and probably Iphinoe who mothered Palaemon by the hero

Heracles Heracles ( ; ), born Alcaeus (, ''Alkaios'') or Alcides (, ''Alkeidēs''), was a Divinity, divine hero in Greek mythology, the son of ZeusApollodorus1.9.16/ref> and Alcmene, and the foster son of Amphitryon.By his adoptive descent through ...

Mythology

The historian and archaeologist Mustapha Ouachi noticed that the city

Tangier Tangier ( ; , , ) is a city in northwestern Morocco, on the coasts of the Mediterranean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean. The city is the capital city, capital of the Tanger-Tetouan-Al Hoceima region, as well as the Tangier-Assilah Prefecture of Moroc ...

is geographically related to its myth. The mother of Antaeus was the goddess of the

Earth Earth is the third planet from the Sun and the only astronomical object known to Planetary habitability, harbor life. This is enabled by Earth being an ocean world, the only one in the Solar System sustaining liquid surface water. Almost all ...

whereas the father of Antaeus was

who was the god of the sea, according to the Libyan legend. In addition,

Herodotus Herodotus (; BC) was a Greek historian and geographer from the Greek city of Halicarnassus (now Bodrum, Turkey), under Persian control in the 5th century BC, and a later citizen of Thurii in modern Calabria, Italy. He wrote the '' Histori ...

considered Poseidon to be an

ancient Libya During the Iron Age and Classical antiquity, ''Libya'' (from Greek :wikt:Λιβύη, Λιβύη: ''Libyē'', which came from Berber language, Berber: ''Libu'') referred to the area of North Africa directly west of the Nile, Nile river (Modern day ...

n god that was adopted by the ancient Greeks, like Athena. According to

Plutarch Plutarch (; , ''Ploútarchos'', ; – 120s) was a Greek Middle Platonist philosopher, historian, biographer, essayist, and priest at the Temple of Apollo (Delphi), Temple of Apollo in Delphi. He is known primarily for his ''Parallel Lives'', ...

, the Amazigh believed that

consorted with Tinjis after the death of Antaeus and that Heracles and Tinjis were the parents of Sufax. According to their myth, Sufax built the city "Tangier" (which was known as Tingis in the ancient sources) and named it after his mother. In fact, Tangier is believed to have been built by Berbers. It was an important city in an early short-lived kingdom known as

Mauretania Mauretania (; ) is the Latin name for a region in the ancient Maghreb. It extended from central present-day Algeria to the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, encompassing northern present-day Morocco, and from the Mediterranean Sea, Mediterranean in the ...

. The name of Sufax, mythical king and founder of Tangier,Syphax or Sophax: king of the Masaeisylians in Numidia
/ref> is similar to that of Syphax, king of the Masaesyli tribe of western

Numidia Numidia was the ancient kingdom of the Numidians in northwest Africa, initially comprising the territory that now makes up Algeria, but later expanding across what is today known as Tunisia and Libya. The polity was originally divided between ...

Notes

External links

*
Plutarch, The Parallel Lives: The Life of Sertorius
' Women of Heracles Women in Greek mythology Libyan characters in Greek mythology Berber goddesses History of Tangier {{Greek-myth-stub