The greatest demonstration of his strength, aside from the time that he upheld the heavens for Atlas, is reported by the historian Pliny. According to the myth which Pliny relates, Hercules had rent asunder the rocks which had previously divided the Mediterranean from the ocean; although another legend takes the opposite view and asserts that he had narrowed the strait in order to exclude the sea-monsters which had hitherto forced their way in from the ocean. This gateway, known as the "Pillars of Hercules," consists of two promontories which bounded the western horizon of the then known world. The promontory on the northern side of the straits is now called the "Rock of Gibraltar." Hercules one day donned a tunic that had been steeped in the blood of a Centaur which he had slain with a poisoned arrow. To escape the terrible torture, he erected a funeral pyre on Mount Etna, lay down on his lion's skin and set the pyre on fire. Amid peals of thunder Jupiter descended in his chariot and carried the hero to Mount Olympus where he was given his promised reward. "High o'er the hollow clouds the coursers fly, And lodged the hero in the starry sky." As seen in the sky, Hercules kneels on Draco, the Dragon, with his head lying downward near the head of the giant Ophiuchus. These two giants cover a vast amount of sky space although neither one have very bright stars. Although Hercules rests inactive, Ophiuchus, one notes, is busily engaged, for his limbs are enfolded by the scaly body of a huge serpent "his right hand, its writhing tail, he grasps, Its swelling neck, his left hand securely clasps, The reptile rears its crested head on high Reaching the seven-starred Crown in northern sky." In the meantime "His feet stamp Scorpio down, enormous beast, Crushing the monster's eye and plated breast." --_Aratus._ And we gaze with admiration as Aratus describes this struggle which seems by all odds to be against the giant.