Devon Notes and Queries, 69 47. Hercules Promontory. — Tfie Promontory of Heracles^ noticed by Ptolemy, has been universally identified with Hartland Point, but no satisfactory explanation has been g^ven of the occurrence of the name of a Greek hero in English topography. Camden, indeed, while expressing his disbelief in the story that Hercules himself came into Britain, took it for granted that '*the vanity of the Greeks, or the religion of the Britans, gave the name of Hercules to this point." As Ptolemy almost certainly derived his information from Phoenician sailors, there can be little doubt that, if the text is correct, the Hercules referred to is the Tyrian god Melkarth, the Baal of the Bible. There is evidence that this god was worshipped in Britain at an early date, for among the altars with Greek inscriptions found near the wall of Hadrian is one dedicated by *' Diodora, the High Priestess, to the Tyrian Hercules " {Social England, i., 74 ; Scarth*s Ronton Britain, 248). So far as I know, the only authority for the statement that there were ** pillars of Hercules " on Hartland Point, and for the name Insula Hercidea being given to Lundy, is the forged account of The Ancient State of Britain , attributed to Richard of Cirencester. In this it is stated that from Artavia, " according to the ancients, are seen the pillars of Hercules, and the island Herculea not far distant " (Six Old English Chronicles y ed. Giles, 441). In the absence of other evidence, the following appear to be possible explanations : — (i) The native name may have been something like Heracles^ and mistaken for it ; (2} the promontory may have reminded the sailors of the familiar rock of Gibraltar, or the pillars of Hercules at the entrance to the Mediterranean, and con- sequently may have been named by them; (3) there may have been actually a temple on the promontory dedicated either to the Tyrian Hercules, or to some god whose attributes resembled his, and who was identified by the sailors with him. Professor Rhys has suggested that the Heracles in this case may be equated with '^ some such a hero as Tristram or Lancelot'* (The Arthurian Legend, 362), but it seems to me that the first suggestion is the most likely. Some writers, indeed, have professed to see some connection between Heracles and the modern Hartland, formerly written Hertlaud and Hertiland, but there appears to be no more reason for deriving Hartland from Heracles than the
