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In Greek mythology, the Titans were a primeval race of powerful deities, descendants of Gaia (Earth) and Uranus (Heaven), that ruled during the legendary Golden Age. They were immortal giants of incredible strength and stamina and were also the first pantheon of Greco-Roman gods and goddesses.
In the first generation of twelve Titans, the males were Oceanus, Hyperion, Coeus, Cronus, Crius and Iapetus and the females - the Titanesses - were Mnemosyne, Tethys, Theia, Phoebe, Rhea and Themis. The second generation of Titans consisted of Hyperion's children Eos, Helios, and Selene; Coeus's daughters Leto and Asteria; Iapetus's sons Atlas, Prometheus, Epimetheus, and Menoetius; Oceanus' daughter Metis; and Crius' sons Astraeus, Pallas, and Perses.
The Titans later gave birth to other Titans, notably the children of Hyperion (Helios, Eos, and Selene), the daughters of Coeus (Leto and Asteria), and the sons of Iapetus - Prometheus, Epimetheus, Atlas, and Menoetius; all of these descendants in the second generation are also known as "Titans".
The Titans were overthrown by a race of younger gods, the Olympians, in a ten-year war called the Titanomachy ("War of the Titans") - a series of battles which were fought in Thessaly between the two camps of deities long before the existence of mankind. This Titanomachia is also known as the Battle of the Titans, Battle of Gods, or just The Titan War. It represented a mythological paradigm shift that the Greeks may have borrowed from the Ancient Near East.
The 12 Titans gods, also known as the elder gods. Their ruler was Cronus who was dethroned by his son Zeus. Most of the Titans fought with Cronus against Zeus and were punished by being banished to Tartarus.
Greeks of the Classical age knew of several poems about the war between the gods. The dominant one, and the only one that has survived, was in the Theogony attributed to Hesiod. A lost epic Titanomachy attributed to the blind Thracian bard Thamyris, himself a legendary figure, was mentioned in passing in an essay On Music that was once attributed to Plutarch. And the Titans played a prominent role in the poems attributed to Orpheus. Although only scraps of the Orphic narratives survive, they show interesting differences with the Hesiodic tradition.
These Greek myths of the Titanomachy fall into a class of similar myths of a War in Heaven throughout Europe and the Near East, where one generation or group of gods by and large opposes the dominant one. Sometimes the Elder Gods are supplanted. Sometimes the rebels lose, and are either cast out of power entirely or incorporated into the pantheon. Other examples might include the wars of the Aesir with the Vanir and Jotuns in Scandinavian mythology, the Babylonian epic Enuma Elish, the Hittite "Kingship in Heaven" narrative, and the obscure generational conflict in Ugaritic fragments. The rebellion of Lucifer from Christianity could also fall under this category.
In Hesiod's Theogony the twelve Titans follow the Hundred-handers and Cyclopes as children of Ouranos, heaven, and Gaia, the Earth. Ouranos considers Cronus monsterous, and so imprisons him in the bowels of the Earth. Cronus, aided by the Hundred-handers and Cyclopes, then sets upon his father, castrates him, and sets himself up as king of the gods, with Rhea as his wife and queen.
Rhea bears a new generation of gods to Cronus, but in fear that they will overthrow him, he swallows them all one by one. Only Zeus is saved: Rhea gives Cronus a stone in swaddling clothes in his place, and places him in Crete to be guarded by the Kouretes.
Once Zeus reaches adulthood, he subdues Cronus by force. Using a potion concocted with the help of Gaia, his grandmother, forcibly cause Cronus to vomit up Zeus's siblings. A war between the younger and many of older gods commences, in which Zeus is aided by the Hundred-handers, Gigantes, and Cyclopes, who have once again been freed from Tartarus. Zeus wins after a long struggle, and casts many of the Titans down into Tartarus.
And yet the older gods leave their mark on the world. Some of them - like Mnemosyne, Gaia, Rhea, Hyperion, Themis and Metis - had not fought the Olympians, and become key players in the new administration. The Titans also leave behind a number of offspring, some of whom may also be counted as Titans, most notably the sons of Iapetus - Prometheus, Epimetheus, Atlas, and Menoetius. Many ancient sources follow Hesiod closely, with minor variations: Apollodorus adds Dione as a thirteenth Titan.
Surviving fragments of Orphic poetry in particular preserve some variations on the myth.In one Orphic text, Zeus does not simply set upon his father violently. Instead, Rhea spreads out a banquet for Cronus, so that he becomes drunk upon honey. Zeus chains him and castrates him. Rather than being consigned to Tartarus, Cronus is dragged - still drunk - to the cave of Night, where he continues to dream and prophesy throughout eternity.
By and large Neopagan views of Titans can be considered 'New Age'. Many of the ancient myths are often conveniently reinterpreted as metaphor or seen as man's account of the divine. As such rather or not most modern beliefs regarding the Titans are grounded in actual mythology is often irrelevant to many Neopagans of today. In the United States Hellenistic Neopagan sects often have a special place for the Titan gods of ancient Greece, in particular Gaia, Cronus, Hecate, Hyperion, Theia, and Themis. It is sometimes argued that most of the beliefs regarding these Titan gods are inspired by popular fiction and entertainment media and not by actual mythology.
The 12 Titans
Oceanus
Oceanus or Okeanos refers to the ocean, which the Greeks and Romans regarded as a river circling the world. Strictly speaking, it was the ocean-stream at the Equator in which floated the habitable hemisphere In Greek mythology this world-ocean was personified as a Titan, a son of Uranus and Gaia. In ancient Greek beliefs this Titan is often depicted as having the upper body of a muscular man with a long beard and horns, and the lower torso of a serpent.
Oceanus' consort is his sister Tethys, and from their union came the ocean nymphs, also known as the three-thousand Oceanids, and all the rivers of the world.
Some scholars believe he originally represented all bodies of salt water, including the Mediterranean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean, the two largest bodies known to the ancient Greeks. However, as geography became more accurate, Oceanus came to represent the stranger, more unknown waters of the Atlantic Ocean (also called the Ocean Sea), while Poseidon ruled over the Mediterranean.
In most variations of the war between the Titans and the Olympians ("Titanomachy"), Oceanus, along with Prometheus, and Themis, did not take the side of his fellow Titans against the Olympians, but instead withdrew from the conflict. In most variations of this myth, Oceanus also refused to side with Cronus in the latter's revolt against their father, Uranus.
Hyperion
Hyperion was the Titan god of light, the father of the three shining gods of heaven - Eos the Light of Dawn and Day, Helios the Sun, and Selene the Moon.
In the Homer's Iliad and Odyssey the sun god is called Helios Hyperion, 'Sun High-one'. But in the Odyssey, Hesiod's Theogony and the Homeric Hymn to Demeter the sun is once in each work called Hyperonides 'Son of Hyperion' and Hesiod certainly imagines Hyperion as a separate being in other places.
Hyperion is often considered the 'God of Observation' and is the brother of Theia the 'Goddess of Sight.'
In later Greek literature Hyperion is always distinguished from Helios as a Titan, the son of Gaia 'Goddess Earth' and Uranus 'God Sky', and the father of Helios 'God Sun', Selene 'Goddess Moon' and Eos 'Goddess Dawn' by his sister Theia 'Goddess Sight'.
Hyperion plays virtually no role in Greek cult and little role in mythology, save in lists of the twelve Titans. Later Greeks intellectualized their myths.
Of Hyperion we are told that he was the first to understand, by diligent attention and observation, the movement of both the sun and the moon and the other stars, and the seasons as well, in that they are caused by these bodies, and to make these facts known to others; and that for this reason he was called the father of these bodies, since he had begotten, so to speak, the speculation about them and their nature.
Modern interpretations of Hyperion by Neopagans, particularly Hellenistic sects in the United States, include the interpretation that he is the all seeing, and subsequently all knowing, god of observation. Others believe that Hyperion holds ultimate reign over the positions of the stars and the heavens, and can at times reveal celestial messages to careful observers. Hyperion is seen as impartial and unconcerned with mortals.
Hyperion is believed to play a role in the final judgment of a mortal soul, particularly making observations about one's virtuous and ill deeds before Hades, and adding weight to the scales held by Themis.Some modern pagans burn oils and incense to Hyperion and pray for worldly knowledge, or in some cases extended sight. There are those who believe that extended sight is impossible to control, and that some things in the universe are beyond mortal comprehension and should remain unseen. Others claim that extended sight can include seeing into Tartarus (hell) and may result in madness, thus some sects discourage active worship of Hyperion. Most sects that include the worship of Hyperion also include the worship of Hecate, and more commonly Theia. Such sects typically encourage experimentation with the paranormal.
Coeus
In Greek mythology, Coeus (also Koios) was the Titan of intelligence. was one of the Titans, the giant sons and daughters of Uranus (Heaven) and Gaia (Earth). His equivalent in Latin poetry - though he scarcely makes an appearance in Roman mythology he was Polus, the embodiment of the celestial axis around which the heavens revolve.
Like most of the Titans he played no active part in Greek religion - he appears only in lists of Titans - but was primarily important for his descendants. With his sister, "shining" Phoebe, Coeus fathered Leto and Asteria. Leto copulated with Zeus (the son of fellow Titans Cronus and Rhea) and bore Artemis and Apollo.
Along with the other Titans, Coeus was overthrown by Zeus and other Olympians. After the Titan War, he and all his brothers were banished into Tartarus by Zeus.
Koios (Coeus) was the Titan of the north, wisdom and farsight. He controlled the axis, and was released from Tartarus by Demeter's grief, changing the seasons. Coeus fled to the north from Zeus, and was regarded as the north star Polaris.
Cronus
Cronus "horned"), also spelled Cronos or Kronos, is often confused with Chronos/Khronos.
In Greek mythology, Cronus was the leader and the youngest of the first generation of Titans. His mother was Gaia, and his father was Uranus, whom Cronus envied.
Uranus hid the youngest children of Gaia, the one-hundred armed giants (Hecatonchires) and the one-eyed giants, the Cyclopes, in Tartarus so that they would not see the light, rejoicing in this evil doing. This caused pain to Gaia, so she created a great sickle and gathered together Cronus and his brothers to ask them to obey her. Only Cronus was willing to do the deed, so Gaia gave him the sickle and set him in ambush. Cronus ambushed his father and castrated him, casting the severed member into the sea. From that which spilled from Uranus and fell upon the Earth came forth the Gigantes, Erinyes, and Meliae. From that which was cast into the sea came forth Aphrodite. For this, Uranus called his sons Titans, meaning "strainers," for they strained and did presumptuously a fearful deed, for which vengeance would come afterwards.
Cronus was identified in antiquity with the God Saturn of Roman mythology. The period of his rule was said to be a golden age on Earth, honored by the Saturnalia feast. Beginning on December 17 of each year, during the festival known as the Saturnalia, the Golden Age was restored for seven days. All business stopped and executions and military operations were postponed. It was a period of goodwill, devoted to banquets and the exchange of visits and gifts. A special feature of the festival was the freedom given to slaves, who during this time had first place at the family table and were served by their masters.
In an alternate version, a more benevolent Cronus overthrew the wicked serpentine Titan, Ophion. In doing so he released the world from bondage and for a time ruled it justly.
After dispatching Uranus, Cronus re-imprisoned the Hecatonchires, the Gigantes, and the Cyclopes and set the monster Campe to guard them. He and Rhea took the throne as King and Queen of the gods. This time was called the Golden Age, as the people of the time had no need for laws or rules; everyone did right, so there was no need.
Cronus sired several children by Rhea: Demeter, Hera, Hades, Hestia, and Poseidon, but swallowed them all as soon as they were born, since he had learned from Gaia and Uranus that he was destined to be overcome by his own son as he had overthrown his own father. But when Zeus was about to be born, Rhea sought Uranus and Earth to devise a plan to save him, so that Cronus would get his retribution for his acts against Uranus and his own children. Rhea gave birth to Zeus in Crete, handing Cronus a stone wrapped in swaddling clothes (also known as the Omphalos Stone) which he promptly swallowed.
Then she hid Zeus in a cave on Mount Ida in Crete.
According to varying versions of the story:
1. He was then raised by Gaia.
2. He was raised by a goat named Amalthea, while a company of Kouretes, soldiers, or smaller gods danced, shouted, and clapped their hands to make noise so that Cronus would not hear the baby's cries.
3. He was raised by a nymph named Adamanthea. Since Cronus ruled over the earth, the heavens, and the sea, she hid him by dangling him on a rope from a tree so he was suspended between earth, sea, and sky and thus, invisible to his father.
Zeus forced Cronus to disgorge the other children in reverse order of swallowing: first the stone, which was set down at Pytho under the glens of Parnassus to be a sign to mortal men, then the rest. In some versions, Metis gave Cronus an emetic to force him to disgorge the babies, or Zeus cut Cronus' stomach open. Then Zeus released the brothers of Cronus, the Gigantes, the Hecatonchires, and the Cyclopes, who gave him thunder and the thunderbolt and lightning, which had previously been hidden by Gaia. In a war called the Titanomachy, Zeus and his brothers and sisters with the Gigantes, Hecatonchires, and Cyclopes overthrew Cronus and the other Titans. Cronus and the Titans were confined in Tartarus, a dank misty gloomy place at the deepest point in the Earth. Ironically, Zeus also imprisoned the Hecatonchires and the Cyclopes there as well.
Cronus was worshipped as a corn god, from his association with the Golden Age. He was a god of the harvest, grain, nature, and agriculture. He was usually depicted with a sickle, which he used to harvest crops as well as castrate his father. In Athens, on the twelfth day of every month (Hekatombaion), a festival called Kronia was held in honor of Cronus and to celebrate the harvest.
In Greek mythology, Crius (Kreios, the "Ram") was one of the Titans in the list given in Hesiod's Theogony, a son of Uranus and Gaia. The least individualized among them, he was overthrown in the Titanomachy. M.L. West has suggested how Hesiod filled out the complement of Titans from the core group, adding three figures from the archaic tradition of Delphi, Koios, Phoibe, whose name Apollo assumed with the oracle, and Themis. Among possible further interpolations among the Titans was Kreios, whose interest for Hesiod was as the father of Perses and grandfather of Hekate, for whom Hesiod is an "enthusiastic evangelist".
Consorting with Eurybia, daughter of Earth Gaia and Sea Pontus, he fathered Astraios and Pallas as well as Perses. The joining of Astraios with Eos, the Dawn, brought forth Eosphoros, the other Stars and the Winds.
Joined to fill out lists of Titans to form a total that made a match with the Twelve Olympians, Crius/Kreios was inexorably involved in the eleven-year-long war between the Olympian gods and Titans, the Titanomachy, however without any specific part to play. When the war was lost, Crius/Kreios was banished along with the others to the lower basement of Hades called Tartarus. From his chthonic position in the Underworld, no classical association with Aries, the "Ram" of the zodiac, is ordinarily made.
Iapetus
In Greek mythology Iapetus, or Iapetos, was a Titan, the son of Uranus and Gaia, and father (by an Oceanid named Clymene or Asia) of Atlas, Prometheus, Epimetheus, and Menoetius and through Prometheus and Epimetheus and Atlas an ancestor of the human race. Iapetus is the one Titan mentioned by Homer in the Iliad (8.478Ð81) as being in Tartarus with Cronus.
Iapetus' wife is normally a daughter of Oceanus and Tethys named Clymene or Asia.
But in Aeschylus's play Prometheus Bound, Prometheus is son of the goddess Themis with no father named (but still with at least Atlas as a brother).
Since mostly the Titans indulge in marriage of brother and sister, it might be that Aeschylus is using an old tradition in which Themis is Iapetus' wife but that the Hesiodic tradition preferred that Themis and Mnemosyne be consorts of Zeus alone. But it would be been quite within Achaean practice for Zeus to have taken the wives of the Titans as his mistresses after throwing down their husbands.
Iapetus is sometimes equated by Creationists with Japheth, the son of Noah, based on the similarity of their names, though scholars of Indo-European linguistics dispute such an equation vehemently.
Mnemosyne
Mnemosyne (sometimes confused with Mneme or compared with Memoria) was the personification of memory in Greek mythology. This titaness was the daughter of Gaia and Uranus and the mother of the Muses by Zeus. In Hesiod's Theogony, kings and poets receive their powers of authoritative speech from their possession of Mnemosyne and their special relationship with the Muses.
Zeus and Mnemosyne slept together for nine consecutive nights and thereby created the nine muses. Mnemosyne was also the name for a river in Hades, counterpart to the river Lethe, according to a series of 4th century BC Greek funerary inscriptions in dactylic hexameter. Dead souls drank from Lethe so they would not remember their past lives when reincarnated. Initiates were encouraged to drink from the river Mnemosyne when they died, instead of Lethe. These inscriptions may have been connected with a private mystery religion, or with Orphic poetry (see Zuntz, 1971).
Similarly, those who wished to consult the oracle of Trophonius in Boeotia were made to drink alternately from two springs called "Lethe" and "Mnemosyne". An analogous setup is described in the Myth of Er at the end of Plato's Republic.
Tethys
In Greek mythology, Tethys was a Titaness and sea goddess who was both sister and wife of Oceanus. She was mother of the chief rivers of the universe, such as the Nile, the Alpheus, the Maeander, and about three thousand daughters called the Oceanids.
Tethys, along with her husband Oceanus, ruled the seas before Poseidon; Roman mosaic from Daphne (near Antioch) made in the 4th century A.D.Tethys, a Titan sea-goddess who ruled the seas with her husband Oceanus; Roman mosaic from Antioch (House of Calendar) made between the 2nd and 3rd centuries A.D.During the war against the Titans, Tethys raised Rhea as her god-child.Tethys is sometimes confused with Thetis, the wife of Peleus and mother of Achilles.
Hera was not pleased with the placement of Callisto and Arcas in the sky, as the constellations Ursa Major and Ursa Minor, so she asked her nurse, Tethys, to help. Tethys, a marine goddess, cursed the constellations to forever circle the sky and never drop below the horizon, hence explaining why they are circumpolar.
Theia - Selene
In Greek mythology, Theia (also written Thea or Thia), also called Euryphaessa ("wide-shining"), was a Titan. With her brother and husband Hyperion, she was the mother of Helios (the Sun), Selene (the Moon) and Eos (the Dawn). According to the Homeric Hymn to Helios, Eryphaesa is listed as their mother. The name Theia alone, means simply "goddess," Theia Euryphaessa with overtones of brightness.
She seems here a goddess of glittering in particular and of glory in general, but Pindar's allusion to her as "Theia of many names" is telling, since it suggests assimilation not only to similar mother-of-the-sun goddess like Phoebe and Leto, but perhaps also to more universalizing mother-figures like Rhea and Cybele.
Theia's mythological role as the mother of the Moon goddess Selene is referenced in the application of the name to a hypothetical planet which, according to one theory, collided with the Earth, resulting in the Moon's creation.
Theia in Modern Paganism
Modern interpretations of Theia by many Neopagans, particularly sects in the United States, include the interpretation that she is the all seeing sister of Hyperion. Theia is sometimes seen as a kind and beautiful goddess, but her blessings are sometimes to be feared.
Worship of Theia may include prostration, and the burning of oils and incense, particularly at dawn or dusk. Worship of Theia is not as common as worship of many other Hellenistic gods. Some sects believe that Theia can grant the ability to see ghosts and spirits, as well as other forms of clairvoyance. Because of this many sects that worship Theia also encourage experimentation with the paranormal.
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Traces of another world found on the Moon BBC - June 6, 2014 Researchers have found evidence of the world that crashed into the Earth billions of years ago to form the Moon. Analysis of lunar rock brought back by Apollo astronauts shows traces of the "planet" called Theia. The researchers claim that their discovery confirms the theory that the Moon was created by just such a cataclysmic collision. The accepted theory since the 1980s is that the Moon arose as a result of a collision between the Earth and Theia 4.5bn years ago. Theia was named after a goddess in Greek mythology who was said to be the mother Selene the goddess of the Moon. It is thought to have disintegrated on impact with the resulting debris mingling with that from the Earth and coalescing into the Moon. It is the simplest explanation, and fits in well with computer simulations. The main drawback with the theory is that no one had found any evidence of Theia in lunar rock samples. Earlier analyses had shown Moon rock to have originated entirely from the Earth whereas computer simulations had shown that the Moon ought to have been mostly derived from Theia.
Phoebe
Phoebe, in her name simply the feminine counterpart of Phoebus, was one of the original Titans, one set of sons and daughters of Uranus and Gaia in Greek mythology. She was traditionally associated with the moon (see Selene), as in Michael Drayton's Endimion and PhÏbe, (1595), the first extended treatment of the Endymion myth in English. Her consort was her brother Coeus, with whom she had three children, Leto, Asteria and Hekate.
Through Leto she was the grandmother of Apollo and Artemis. The names Phoebe and Phoebus came to be applied as a synonym for Artemis and an epithet of Apollo. According to a speech that Aeschylus, in Eumenides, puts in the mouth of the Delphic priestess herself, she received control of the Oracle at Delphi from Themis: "Phoebe in this succession seems to be his private invention," D.S. Robertson noted, reasoning that in the three great allotments of oracular powers at Delphi, corresponding to the three generations of the gods, "Ouranos, as was fitting, gave the oracle to his wife Gaia and Kronos appropriately allotted it to his sister Themis." In Zeus' turn to make the gift, however, Aeschylus could not report that the oracle was given directly to Apollo, who had not yet been born, Robertson notes, and thus Phoebe was interposed. These supposed male delegations of the powers at Delphi are not borne out by the usual reconstruction of the sacred site's pre-Olympian history.
Rhea (or Ria meaning "she who flows") was the Titaness daughter of Uranus and of Gaia. She was sister to Cronus and mother to Demeter, Hades, Hera, Hestia, Poseidon, and Zeus. She was strongly associated with Cybele. In Roman mythology, she was Magna Mater deorum Idaea and identified with Ops.In art, Rhea was usually depicted on a chariot drawn by two lions, not always distinguishable from Cybele.
Her husband, Cronus, castrated their father, Uranus. After this, Cronus re-imprisoned the Hecatonchires, the Gigantes and the Cyclopes and set the monster Campe to guard them. He and Rhea took the throne as King and Queen of the gods. This time was called the Golden Age as the people of the time had no need for laws or rules; everyone did right and as such, there was no need.
Cronus sired several children by Rhea: Hestia, Demeter, Hera, Hades, Poseidon, but swallowed them all as soon as they were born, since he had learned from Gaia and Uranus that he was destined to be overcome by his own son as he had overthrown his own father. But when Zeus was about to be born, Rhea sought Uranus and Earth to devise a plan to save him, so that Cronus would get his retribution for his acts against Uranus and his own children. Rhea gave birth to Zeus in Crete, handing Cronus a stone wrapped in swaddling clothes which he promptly swallowed.
Then she hid Zeus in a cave on Mount Ida in Crete. According to varying versions of the story:
1. He was then raised by Gaia.
2. He was suckled by a goat named Amalthea, while a company of Kouretes, soldiers, or smaller gods danced, shouted and clapped their hands to make noise so that Cronus would not hear the baby's cry.
3. He was raised by a nymph named Adamanthea. Since Cronus ruled over the earth, the heavens and the sea, she hid him by dangling him on a rope from a tree so he was suspended between earth, sea and sky and thus, invisible to his father.
In Greek mythology, Zeus forced the Titan Cronus to disgorge the other children in reverse order of swallowing: first the stone, which was set down at Pytho under the glens of Parnassus to be a sign to mortal men, then the rest. In some versions, Metis gave Cronus an emetic to force him to disgorge the babies, or Zeus cut Cronus' stomach open. Then Zeus released the brothers of Cronus, the Gigantes, the Hecatonchires and the Cyclopes, who gave him thunder and the thunderbolt and lightning, which had previously been hidden by Gaia. Together, Zeus and his brothers and sisters with the Gigantes, Hecatonchires and Cyclopes overthrew Cronus and the other Titans.
In Homer, Rhea is the mother of the gods, though not a universal mother like Cybele, the Phrygian Great Mother, with whom she was later identified. The original seat of her worship was in Crete. There, according to legend, she saved the new-born Zeus, her sixth child, from being devoured by Kronos, by substituting a stone for the infant god and entrusting him to the care of her attendants the Curetes.
These attendants afterwards became the bodyguard of Zeus and the priests of Rhea, and performed ceremonies in her honour. In historic times, the resemblances between Rhea and the Asiatic Great Mother, Phrygian Cybele, were so noticeable that the Greeks accounted for them by regarding the latter as only their own Rhea, who had deserted her original home in Crete and fled to the mountain wilds of Asia Minor to escape the persecution of Kronos (Strabo. 469, 12). The reverse view was also held (Virgil, Aeneid iii), and it is probably true that cultural contacts with the mainland brought to Crete the worship of the Asiatic Great Mother, who became the Cretan Rhea.
In Greek mythology, Rhea's symbol is the moon. However, in Roman mythology, her symbol is known as the lunar (which would seem to mean "Moon"). She has another symbol, the swan, because it is a gentle animal. Also, her other symbol is two lions, supposedly the ones that pull her chariot.
In Greek mythology, Hesiod mentions Themis among the six sons and six daughters - of whom Cronos was one - of Gaia and Ouranos, that is, of Earth with Sky. Among these Titans of primordial myth, few were venerated at specific sanctuaries in classical times, and Themis was so ancient that the followers of Zeus claimed that it was with him she produced the Three Fates themselves (Hesiod, Theogony, 904).
A fragment of Pindar, however, tells that the Moerae were already present at the nuptials of Zeus and Themis, that in fact the Moerae rose with Themis from the springs of Okeanos the encircling World-Ocean and accompanied her up the bright sun-path to meet Zeus at Olympus. With Zeus she more certainly bore the Horae, those embodiments of the right moment - the rightness of Order unfolding in Time - and Astraea. Themis was there at Delos to witness the birth of Apollo.
Themis (meaning "law of nature" rather than "human ordinance"), she "of good counsel," was the embodiment of divine order, law and custom. When Themis is disregarded, Nemesis brings just and wrathful retribution. Themis is not wrathful: she, "of the lovely cheeks" was the first to offer Hera a cup when she returned to Olympus distraught over threats from Zeus (Iliad xv.88). Themis presided over the proper relation between man and woman, the basis of the rightly ordered family, and the family the pillar of the deme, and judges were often referred to as "themistopoloi" (the servants of Themis). Such was the basis for order upon Olympus too. Hera addressed her as "Lady Themis."
The name of Themis might be substituted for Adrasteia in the birth of Zeus on Crete. She built the Oracle at Delphi and was herself oracular. Themis was one of the gods behind the Oracle at Delphi, which she received from Gaia and gave to Phoebe.
Themis in Neopaganism
Many modern Neopagans, particularly Hellenistic Neopagans, believe that Themis is the goddess of virtue and justice. In many modern sects Themis is thought to take part in deciding the afterlife of one's mortal spirit. She carries a set of scales which weigh a persons virtuous deeds against a persons ill deeds. Themis is also thought to give the final input before the fate of a mortal is decided by Hades (The Judge).
Themis is often considered compassionate and virtuous towards mortals, and concerned with mortal wellbeing as well as mortal plights. Worship of Themis is not uncommon among many pagan sects in the United States, according to some pagan websites Themis may have as many worshippers that Artemis or Hera (two of the most popular pagan gods). Worshippers of Themis often attempt to lead virtuous and charitable lives.
Worship of Themis may take the form of chants, prayer, the burning of oils and incense, and the burning of food or spilling of drinks as offerings. Acts of Charity are also considered to be an active form of worship. Some sects that include worship of Themis encourage tithing, and many encourage proselytizing to non-believers. Proselytizing is typically rare among sects that do not include the worship of Themis. Followers of Themis often discourage hedonism, persecution, grudges, malice, spite, mockery, and revenge. Themis is thought to grant boons of good health, euphoria, virility, and charisma to her followers. Some pagan websites suggest that Themis is most commonly worshipped by males.
Minor Gods and Goddesses
Asteria
Asteria was the daughter of the Titan gods Coeus and Phoebe and sister of Leto. Asteria flung herself into the ocean in the form of a quail in order to escape the advances of Zeus. She became the island of the same name. By Zeus she became the mother of Heracles (not to be confused with the Greek demi-god) who was worshipped at Tyre. By Perses she had a daughter Hecate. Later, the island Asteria was identified with Delos, which was the only piece of earth to give refuge to the fugitive Leto when, pregnant with Zeus's children, she was pursued by vengeful Hera.
Astraeus
In Greek mythology, Astraeus is an astrological deity. His original Greek name, Astraios, translates to "Starry". In Hesiod's Theogony and in the Bibliotheca, Astraeus is a second-generation Titan, descended from Crius and Eurybia. However, Hyginus wrote that he was descended directly from Tartarus and Gaia, and referred to him as one of the Gigantes.
The wife of Astraeus is Eos, the goddess of the dawn, and their sons include the four Anemoi ("Winds"), Boreas, Notus, Eurus, and Zephyrus, and the five Astra Planeta ("Wandering Stars", i.e. planets), Phainon (Saturn), Phaethon (Jupiter), Pyroeis (Mars), Eosphoros/Hesperos (Venus), and Stilbon (Mercury). A few sources mention one daughter, Astraea, but most writers considered Astraea the child of Zeus and Themis.
He is sometimes associated with Aeolus, the Keeper of the Winds.
Atlas
Atlas was the son of Iapetus and the nymph Clymene, and brother of Prometheus. He was the father of the Hesperides, Maera, the Hyades, Calypso and the Pleiades. Atlas led the Titans in a war against the gods of Mount Olympus. When the Titans were defeated, Zeus punished him with the burden of carrying the heavens upon his shoulders. Atlas was turned to stone by Perseus using Medusa's head in the place where the Atlas mountains now stand, after he threatened Perseus when wanting to speak to his father Zeus about the punishment that had fallen upon him. He is also known as one of the founding kings of Atlantis.
Atlas was tricked by the hero Heracles, one of whose Twelve Labors involved the retrieval of some of the golden apples of the Hesperides; Heracles offered to hold the heavens for a little while in exchange for the apples, and Atlas agreed. Upon his return with the apples, however, Atlas refused to take the heavens back from Heracles. Heracles then tricked the giant again by agreeing to take his place if he would only take the sky again for a few minutes so Heracles could rearrange his cloak as padding on his shoulders. When Atlas took the heavens upon his shoulders again, Heracles left
The etymology of the name Atlas is uncertain and still debated: some derive it from the Proto-Indo-European root 'tel', 'to uphold, support'; others suggest that it is a pre-Indo-European name. Since the Atlas mountains fall in the region inhabited by Berbers, it could be that the latin name as we know it is taken from Berber.
In fact, the sun is often called the 'eye of the sky'.
And since it sets to the west, the Atlantic ocean can be called "the place of concealement of the sun" or Antal n Tit. Greeks could have borrowed this name for the ocean and called it Atlantic, and later used its root ATL to form the name Atlas."Atlas" is also the presently used name of many objects and places (see Atlas (disambiguation)).
Since the middle of the sixteenth century, he is often shown in cartographic atlases. However it was not he but rather the mythical King Atlas that was depicted by Mercator in the first book to bear the name "atlas" and who gave his name to that type of book.
Atlas continues to be a commonly used icon in western culture (and advertising), as a symbol of strength or stoic endurance such as the superhero, Captain Marvel who was granted the stamina of Atlas as part of his powers. In such contemporary depictions, he is often shown kneeling over on one knee while supporting an enormous round globe on his back and shoulders. (The depiction of Atlas holding a large round disk on his back is more accurate, however, since the Greeks believed that the world was flat.)
The image of Atlas bearing a great burden was used by the author Ayn Rand in her novel Atlas Shrugged, which serves as an important metaphor throughout the novel. A character in the novel says that Atlas is "the giant who holds the world on his shoulders", although Atlas actually held the heavens and not the Earth.
Clymene
In Greek mythology, Clymene or Klymene ("famous might") is the name of at least six possibly distinct females.
An Oceanid also called Asia, the wife of Iapetus. Mother of Atlas, Epimetheus, Prometheus, and Menoetius.
An Oceanid, mother of Phaethon by Helios, sometimes as a full wife and mother also of the Heliades (essentially equated with Rhode) and sometimes as wife of Merops with whom Helios secretly lay.
Mother of Deucalion by Prometheus. Possibly one of the above two (parent-child couplings occasionally occur among the earliest deities in Greek myth).
Wife of Merops and Queen of Ethiopia, mother of Pandareus, possibly the same as the previous.
Mother of Atalanta and wife of Schoeneus or Iasus
Grandaughter of Minos and mother of Palamedes by Nauplius.
By Ares, mother of Diomedes
Dione
Dione in Greek mythology is a vague goddess presence who has her most concrete form in Book V of Homer's Iliad as the mother of Aphrodite: Aphrodite journeys to Dione's side after she has been wounded in battle while protecting her favorite son Aeneas.
In this episode, Dione seems to be the equivalent of Rhea the Earth Mother, whom Homer also placed in Olympus. Dione's Indo-European name is really less a name than simply a title: the "Goddess", etymologically a female form of Zeus. Roman "Diana" has a similar etymology but is not otherwise connected with Dione.
After the Iliad, Aphrodite herself was sometimes referred to as "Dionaea" and even "Dione", just "the goddess" (Peck 1898). At the very ancient oracle of Zeus at Dodona, Dione rather than Hera, was the goddess resorted to in the company of Zeus, as many surviving votive inscriptions show.
Although Dione is not a Titan in Hesiod, but appears instead in his Theogony among the long list of Oceanids, Apollodorus includes her among the Titans (1.1.3 and 1.3.1).
A later mythographer, Hyginus, (Fabulae 82, 83) says that Dione is a daughter of Atlas and the mother, by Tantalus, of Pelops, Niobe and Broteas.
Epimetheus
In Greek mythology, Epimetheus was the son of Iapetus and brother of Prometheus and Atlas; "Epimetheus" is Greek for "hindsight."
He was responsible for giving a positive trait to every animal, but when it was time to give man a positive trait, there was nothing left. His brother Prometheus then stole fire from Zeus and gave it to man. As punishment, Zeus created Pandora for Epimetheus, knowing that he would fall in love with her despite the warnings of his more intelligent brother, who told him never to accept a gift from the Olympian gods ("Prometheus" means "foresight").
Epimetheus and Pandora were married. Pandora had been given a box by Hermes and was instructed never to open it. However, Hermes also gave her curiosity, and she opened it anyway releasing all the misfortunes of mankind. She shut it in time to keep one thing in the box: hope. Thus mankind always has hope in times of evil.
The daughter of Epimetheus and Pandora was Pyrrha, who married Deucalion and was one of the two who survived the deluge.
Hyperion
Hyperion is the Titan of light, an early sun god. He is the son of Gaea and Uranus. He married his sister Theia the Goddess of Sight. Their children are Helius (the sun), Selene (the moon), and Eos (the dawn). In the Homer's Iliad and Odyssey the sun god is called Helios Hyperion, 'Sun High-one'. But in the Odyssey, Hesiod's Theogony and the Homeric Hymn to Demeter the sun is once in each work called Hyperonides 'son of Hyperion' and Hesiod certainly imagines Hyperion as a separate being in other places.
In later Greek literature Hyperion is always distinguished from Helios as a Titan, the son of Gaia 'Goddess Earth' and Uranus 'God Sky', and the father of Helios 'God Sun', Selene 'Goddess Moon' and Eos 'Goddess Dawn' by his sister Theia 'Goddess Sight'.
Leto
In Greek mythology, Leto is a daughter of the Titans Coeus and Phoebe: Kos claimed her birthplace. In the Olympian scheme of things, Zeus is the father of her twins, Apollo and Artemis, the Letoides. Leto is scarcely to be conceived apart from being pregnant and finding a suitable place to be delivered of Apollo, the second of her twins. This is her one active mythic role: once Apollo and Artemis are grown, Leto withdraws, to remain a dim and benevolent matronly figure upon Olympus, her part already played.
In Roman mythology her equivalent, as mother of Apollo and Diana, is Latona.
In Crete, at the city of Dreros, Spyridon Marinatos uncovered an eighth-century post-Minoan hearth house temple in which there were found three unique figures of Apollo, Artemis and Leto made of brass sheeting hammered over a shaped core. Walter Burkert notes (in Greek Religion) that in Phaistos she appears in connection with an initiation cult. Leto was the principal goddess of Anatolian Lycia. Her sanctuary, the Letoon near Xanthos, united the Lycian confederacy of city-states. The people of Cos also claimed Leto as their own.
A measure of what a primal goddess Leto was can be recognized in her father and mother. Her Titan father is called "Coeus," and his name links him to the sphere of heaven from pole to pole. Leto's mother "Phoebe" is precisely the "pure" and "purifying" epithet of the full moon.
Origin and Meaning of Name
Several explanations have been put forward to explain the origin of the goddess and the meaning of her name. Some have seen her as an importation of the ancient Middle Eastern deity Al Latu, Latu meaning Goddess in classical Arabic (Allatu is the feminine form of Allah).
It has also been proposed that the name "Leto" originates from the verb "lanthanein" (to be concealed or oblivious) that also gives "lethe" (oblivion) and "Lotus" (the fruit that brings oblivion to those who eat it). It would thus mean "the hidden one".
Others say it comes from the same origin as "Leda", meaning "woman/wife" in ancient Lydian.
Birth of Artemis and Apollo
When Hera, the most conservative of goddesses - for she had the most to lose in changes to the order of nature Ñ discovered that Leto was pregnant and that Zeus was the father, she realized that the offspring would cement the new order. She was powerless to stop the flow of events, but she banned Leto from giving birth on "terra firma", the mainland, any island at sea, or any place under the sun.
Some mythographers hinted that Leto came down from the land of the Hyperboreans in the guise of a she-wolf, or that she sought out the "wolf-country" of Lycia for her denning. Most accounts agree that she found the barren floating island of Delos, which was neither mainland nor a real island, and gave birth there, promising the island wealth from the worshippers who would flock to the obscure birthplace of the splendid god who was to come. The island was surrounded by swans. As a gesture of gratitude, Delos was secured with four pillars and later became sacred to Apollo.
It is remarkable that Leto brought forth Artemis, the elder twin, without struggle or pain - as if she were merely revealing another manifestation of herself. Leto labored for nine nights and nine days for Apollo, according to the Homeric Hymn to Delian Apollo, in the presence of all the first among the deathless goddesses as witnesses: Dione, Rhea, Ichnaea, Themis and the "loud-moaning" sea-goddess Amphitrite. Only Hera kept apart, perhaps to kidnap Eileithyia or Ilithyia, the goddess of childbirth, to prevent Leto from going into labor. Instead Artemis, having been born first, assisted with the birth of Apollo. Another version states that Artemis was born one day before Apollo, on the island of Ortygia, and that she helped Leto cross the sea to Delos the next day to give birth to Apollo.
Leto was threatened and assailed in her wanderings by chthonic monsters of the ancient earth and old ways, and these became the enemies of Apollo and Artemis. One was the Titan Tityos, a phallic being who grew so vast that he split his mother's womb and had to be carried to term by Gaia herself. He attempted to waylay Leto near Delphi, but was laid low by the arrows of Apollo - or possibly Artemis, as another myth-teller recalled.
Another ancient earth creature that had to be overcome was the dragon Pytho, or Python, which lived in a cleft of the mother-rock beneath Delphi and beside the Castalian Spring. Apollo slew it but had to do penance and be cleansed afterwards, since Python was a child of Gaia. Sometimes the slaying was said to be because Python had attempted to rape Leto while pregnant with Apollo and Artemis, but one way or another, it was necessary that the ancient Delphic Oracle pass to the protection of the new god.
A Queen of Thebes and wife of Amphion, Niobe boasted of her superiority to Leto because she had fourteen children (Niobids), seven male and seven female, while Leto had only two. For her hubris, Apollo killed her sons as they practiced athletics, with the last begging for his life, and Artemis her daughters. Apollo and Artemis used poisoned arrows to kill them, though according to some versions a number of the Niobids were spared (Chloris, usually). Amphion, at the sight of his dead sons, either killed himself or was killed by Zeus after swearing revenge. A devastated Niobe fled to Mount Sipylus in Asia Minor and either turned to stone as she wept or killed herself. Her tears formed the river Achelous. Zeus had turned all the people of Thebes to stone so no one buried the Niobids until the ninth day after their death, when the gods themselves entombed them.
Leto was intensely worshipped in Lycia, Asia Minor. In Delos and Athens she was worshipped primarily as an adjunct to her children. Herodotus reported hearsay of a temple to her in Egypt attached to a floating island called "Khemmis" in Buto, which also included a temple to Apollo. There, Leto was wosrhipped in the form of Wadjet, the cobra-headed goddess of lower Egypt. However, Herodotus didn't believe in the existence of either temple.
Witnesses at the Birth of Apollo
According to the Homeric hymn, the goddesses who assembled to be witnesses at the birth of Apollo were responding to a public occasion in the rites of a dynasty, where the authenticity of the child must be established beyond doubt from the first moment. The dynastic rite of the witnessed birth must have been familiar to the hymn's 8th-century hearers. The dynasty that is so concerned to be authenticated in this myth is the new dynasty of Zeus and the Olympian Pantheon, and the goddesses at Delos who bear witness to the rightness of the birth are the great goddesses of the old order. Demeter is not present; her mother Rhea attends. Aphrodite, a generation older than Zeus, is not present either. The goddess Dione (in her name simply the "Goddess") is sometimes taken by later mythographers as a mere feminine form of Zeus (see entry Dodona): if this were so, she would not have assembled here.
Leto of the Golden Spindle
Pindar calls the goddess Leto Chryselakatos (Sixth Nemean Ode, 36), an epithet that was attached to her daughter Artemis as early as Homer. "The conception of a goddess enthroned like a queen and equipped with a spindle seems to have originated in Asiatic worship of the Great Mother", O. Brendel notes, but a lucky survival of an inscribed inventory of her temple on Delos, where she was the central figures of the Delian trinity, records her cult image as sitting on a wooden throne, clothed in a linen chiton and a linen himation.
The Lycian Peasants
According to Ovid's Metamorphoses, when Leto was wandering the earth after giving birth to Apollo and Artemis, she attempted to drink water from a pond in Lycia. The peasants there refused to allow her to do so by stirring the mud at the bottom of the pond. Leto turned them into frogs for their inhospitality, forever doomed to swim in the murky waters of ponds and rivers. This scene is represented in the central fountain, the Bassin de Latone, in the garden terrace of Versailles.
Metis
In Greek mythology, Metis was of the Titan generation and, like several primordial figures, an Oceanid, in the sense that Metis was born of Oceanus and Tethys, of an earlier age than Zeus and his siblings. Metis was the first great spouse of Zeus, indeed his equal (Hesiod, Theogony 896) and the mother of Athena, the goddess of war and wisdom. By the era of Greek philosophy Metis had become the goddess of wisdom and deep thought, but her name originally connoted "magical cunning" and was as easily equated with the trickster powers of Prometheus as with the "royal metis" of Zeus. The Stoic commentators allegorized Metis as the embodiment of "wisdom" or "wise counsel", in which form she was inherited by the Renaissance.
Metis was both a threat to Zeus and an indispensable aid. In order to forestall these dire consequences, Zeus tricked her into turning herself into a fly and promptly swallowed her. He was too late: Metis had already conceived a child. In time she began making a helmet and robe for her fetal daughter. The hammering as she made the helmet caused Zeus great pain and Prometheus, Hephaestus, Hermes, or Palaemon (depending on the sources examined) either cleaved Zeus's head with an axe, or hit it with a hammer at the river Triton, giving rise to Athena's epithet Tritogeneia. Athena leaped from Zeus's head, fully grown, armed, and armored, and Zeus was none the worse for the experience. The similarities between Zeus swallowing Metis and Cronus swallowing his children have been noted by several scholars.
The second consort taken by Zeus, according to the Theogony was Themis, "right order". Hesiod's account is followed by Acusilaus and the Orphic tradition, which enthroned Metis side by side with Eros as primal cosmogenic forces. Plato makes poros, or "creative ingenuity", the child of Metis.
Prometheus
In Greek mythology, Prometheus is the Titan chiefly honored for stealing fire from Zeus in the stalk of a fennel plant and giving it to mortals for their use. For that, Zeus ordered him to be chained on top of the Caucasus. Every day an eagle would come and eat his liver, but since Prometheus was immortal, his liver always grew back, so he was left to bear the pain every day. He is depicted as an intelligent and cunning figure who had sympathy for humanity. To this day, the term Promethean refers to events or people of great creativity, intellect, and boldness.
As a god of fire, burning, and craft, Prometheus had a small shrine in the Keramikon, or potter's quarter, of Athens, not far from Plato's Academy.
The Myth
Prometheus was a son of Iapetus by Clymene (one of the Oceanids). He was a brother of Atlas, Menoetius, and Epimetheus. He surpassed all in cunning and deceit. He held no awe for the gods, and he ridiculed Zeus and Zeus's lack of insight and fought alongside of the gods against the Titans.
Prometheus was the creator of man. When he and Epimetheus (hindsight) set out to make creatures to populate the earth under the orders of Zeus, Epimetheus went with quantity and made many creatures, endowing them with many gifts that were alotted to the brother for that purpose (fur, claws, wings, and fins were some of these gifts). While his brother was making creatures, Prometheus was carefully crafting a creature after the shape of the gods. It was a human.
However, Prometheus took so long in crafting his masterpiece that when he was finished, Epimetheus had already used up all the gifts from Zeus. Prometheus was sorry for his creations, and watched as they shivered in the cold winter nights.
He decided to steal fire from the gods after Zeus disagreed with his idea of helping the humans. He climbed Olympus and stole fire from the chariot of Helios (or, in later mythology, Apollo). He carried the fire back in the stalk of a fennel plant, which burns slowly and so was appropriate for this task. Thus mankind was warm.
To appease Zeus, Prometheus told the humans to burn offerings to the gods. He killed a great bull for this purpose. When the gods smelled the offerings, Prometheus decided to play a trick on the gods. The meat he hid beneath a layer of bone and sinew, whilst the bones he disguised with delicious-looking fat. He then offered Zeus his choice of "meat" for the gods to eat. Zeus picked the plate of bones, and Prometheus took the plate of meat for himself and the mortals.
To punish Prometheus for this hubris (and all of mankind in the process), Zeus took fire away from the earth.
Vulcan Chaining Prometheus
To get revenge on Prometheus for his continued offenses, Zeus had Hephaestus (Vulcan) make a woman made of clay named Pandora. Zeus brought her to life and sent her to Prometheus, along with a jar with all the valuable presents she had received from the gods in it. Prometheus was suspicious and would have nothing to do with Pandora, claiming that she was foolish (lacking foresight), and she was sent on to Epimetheus, who married her.
Zeus was further enraged by Prometheus's escape and had Prometheus carried to Mount Caucasus, where an eagle by the name of Ethon (offspring of the monsters Typhon and Echidna) would eat out his liver; it would grow back each day and the eagle would eat it again.
This punishment was to last 30,000 years. About 30 years into the punishment, Heracles, passing by on his way to find the apples of the Hesperides as part of the Twelve Labors, freed Prometheus, in a bargain he had agreed with Zeus in exchange for Chiron's immortality, by shooting the eagle with an arrow.
Zeus did not mind this time that Prometheus had again evaded his punishment, as the act brought more glory to Heracles, who was Zeus's son. Prometheus was invited to return to Olympus, though he still had to carry with him the rock that he was chained to.
As the introducer of fire and inventor of sacrifice he is seen as the patron of human civilization. Uncertain sources claim he was worshipped in ancient Rome.
He was the father of Deucalion with Celaeno. Epimetheus, the husband of Pandora, was his brother.
THE TITANES (Titans) were six elder gods named Kronos (Cronus), Koios (Coeus), Krios (Crius), Iapetos (Iapetus), Hyperionand Okeanos (Oceanus), sons of Ouranos (Uranus, Sky) and Gaia (Gaea, Earth), who ruled the cosmos before the Olympians came to power. When their father was king he imprisoned six giant brothers of the Titanes--the Kyklopes (Cyclopes) and Hekatonkheires (Hecatoncheires)--in the belly of Earth. Gaia was incensed and incited her Titan sons to rebel. Led by Kronos, five of the six brothers, laid an ambush for their father, seizing hold of him as he descended to lie upon Earth. Four of them--Hyperion, Krios, Koios and Iapetos--were posted at the four corners of the earth to hold Sky fast, while Kronos in the centre castrated him with an adamantine sickle. After they had seized control of the cosmos, the Titanes released their storm giant brothers from Gaia's belly, only to lock them away shortly afterwards in the pit of Tartaros (Tartarus).
Ouranos and Gaia prophesied that a son of Kronos would eventually depose the Titanes, and so the Titan-king, in fear for his throne, took to devouring each one of his offspring as soon as they were born. Only Zeus escaped this fate through the intervention of his mother Rhea, who deposited him in a cave on the island of Krete (Crete) and fed Kronos a substitute rock. Upon reaching adulthood, Zeus forced Kronos to disgorge his siblings, and with an army of divine-allies, made war on the Titanes and cast them into the pit of Tartaros (Tartarus). According to some (e.g. Pindar and Aeschylus) Kronos and the Titanes were later released from this prison, and the old Titan became king of Elysion (Elysium).
The sisters of the six Titanes--Rhea, Theia, Phoibe (Phoebe), Mnemosyne, Themis and Tethys--were titled Titanides(or female Titanes). Many of their sons and daughters also received the appelation of Titan including Atlas, Prometheus and Helios.
ADANOS (Adanus) An alternative name for one of the Titanes.
ANDES An alternative name for one of the Titanes, perhaps Hyperion.
HYPERION The Titan god of light and the cycles of day and night, sun and moon. He was cast into Tartaros by the gods at the end of the Titan-War.
IAPETOS (Iapetus) The Titan god of mortality and life-span. He was cast into Tartaros at the end of the Titan-War along with his brothers.
KOIOS (Coeus) The Titan god of intelligence and the axis of heaven He was also known as Polos. Koios was one of the Titanes cast into Tartaros at the end of the Titan-War. He was sometimes described as a leader of the Gigantes (Giants).
KRIOS (Crius) The Titan god of the heavenly constellations, also known as Megamedes. He was cast into Tartaros at the end of the Titan-War. Krios was sometimes called a leader of the Gigantes (Giants).
KRONOS (Cronus) The King of the Titanes, and the god of destructive time. He led his brothers in the castration of Ouranos (Uranus), and was himself deposed by Zeus. Kronos was cast into the pit of Tartaros after his defeat. Some say he was later released by Zeus and made King of Islands of the Blessed (home of the blessed dead).
MYLINOS (Mylinus) A Gigante (Giant) or Titan of the island of Krete (Crete), destroyed by Zeus. He was probably identified with Olympos or Kronos.
OKEANOS (Oceanus) The Titan god of the earth-encircling river Okeanos, the place of rising and setting of the heavenly bodies. He was the only one of the Titanes not to participate in the castration of Ouranos (Uranus), and in the Titan-Wars remained neutral.
OLYMBROS (Olymbrus) An alternative name for one of the Titanes. He may be the same as Olympos the Kretan (Cretan) mentor of Zeus.
OLYMPOS (Olympus) The Titan or Gigante (Giant) mentor of Zeus. He later roused his kin in an uprisal against the god and was destroyed. He was probably identified with the Kouretes (Curetes), Kronos or Olymbros.
OPHION The eldest of the Titanes who was wrestled by Kronos (Cronus) for the throne of heaven and cast into the Ocean-stream. He was identified with both Ouranos (Uranus) and Okeanos (Oceanus).
OSTASOS (Ostasus) An alternative name for one of the Titanes.
POLOS (Polus) The Titan god of the axis of heaven (polos). He was usually named Koios (Coeus).
LIST OF YOUNGER TITANS
ANYTOS (Anytus) One of the Titanes, Anytos was the foster-parent of Demeter's daughter Despoine. He was probably a Kourete (Curete).
ASTRAIOS (Astraeus) The Titan god of the stars, winds, astrology and astronomy.
ATLAS The Titan god of daring, endurance, and the art of astronomy. Zeus forced him to bear the heavens upon his shoulders. He was later released from this torment and made the guardian of the pillars of heaven.
AZEIOS (Azeus) A Gigante (Giant) or Titan who fought in the Titan-Wars. He was an ancestor of the kings of Arkadia (Arcadia).
EPIMETHEUS They Titan god of afterthought. He was the god who created the animals of the earth, while his brother Prometheus was busy with the crafting of man. Later Zeus tricked him into receiving Pandora with her box of evils.
HELIOS (Helius) The Titan god of the sun who rode across the skies in a chariot drawn by fiery horses. He was an ally of Zeus in the Titan-War.
HOPLODAMOS (Hoplodamus) A Titan, Kourete (Curete) or Gigante (Giant) who led his brothers in the protection of Rhea after Kronos (Cronus) learned of her deception over the birth of Zeus.
KOURETES, THE (Curetes) The shield-clashing attendants of Rhea, and protectors of the infant Zeus. They were sometimes numbered amongst the Titanes.
LELANTOS (Lelantus) The Titan god of the breezes of the air and movement unseen.
MELISSEUS The Titan or Kourete (Curete) god of honey.
MENOITIOS (Menoetius) The Titan god of violent anger, rash action and mortality. Zeus blasted him into Erebos (Erebus) with a thunderbolt. He was probably the same as Menoites, the bondsman of Haides.
PALLAS The Titan god of warcraft and the campaign season. Some say Athena made her aegis (aigis) from his goatish skin.
PERSES The Titan god of destruction, sack, burning, and summer drought.
PROMETHEUS The Titan god of forethought. He molded mankind out of clay and later stole fire from heaven on their behalf. Zeus had him chained to Mount Kaukasos where an eagle was set to gnaw out his liver as punishment. He was later released by Herakles.
SYKEUS (Syceus) A Titan or Gigante (Giant) who fled from Zeus and was hidden in the earth by Gaia (Gaea) in the shape of a fig-seed.
TITAN The Titan god of the agricultural calendar, established through the observation of the heavens.
ENCYCLOPEDIA
TITAN (Titan). 1. This name commonly appears in the plural Titanes, from Titanides, as the name of the sons and daughters of Uranus and Ge, whence they are also called Ouraniônes or Ouranidai. (Hom. Il. v. 898; Apollon. Rhod. ii. 1232.) These Titans are Oceanus, Coeus, Crius, Hyperion, Iapetus, Cronus, Theia, Rheia, Themis, Mnemosyne, Phoebe, and Tethys, to whom Apollodorus (i. 1. § 3) adds Dione. (Hes. Theog. 133, &c.) Some writers also add Phorcys and Demeter. (Heyne, ad Apollod. i. 1. § 1; Clemens, Homil. vi. 2.) Stephanus of Byzantium (s. v. Asana) has the following as the names of the children of Uranus and Ge : Adanus, Ostasus, Andes, Cronus, Rhea, Iapetus, Olymbrus; and Pausanias (viii. 37. § 3) mentions a Titan Anytus, who was believed to have brought up the Arcadian Despoena. Uranus, the first ruler of the world, threw his sons, the Hecatoncheires, Briareus, Cottys, Gyes (Hes. Theog. 617), and the Cyclopes, Arges, Steropes, and Brontes, into Tartarus. Gaea, indignant at this, persuaded the Titans to rise against their father, and gave to Cronus an adamantine sickle (harpê). They did as their mother bade them, with the exception of Oceanus. Cronus, with his sickle, unmanned his father, and threw the part into the sea, and out of the drops of his blood there arose the Erinnyes, Alecto, Tisiphone, and Megaera. The Titans then deposed Uranus, liberated their brothers who had been cast into Tartarus, and raised Cronus to the throne. But he again threw the Cyclopes into Tartarus, and married his sister Rhea (Ovid, Met. ix. 497, calls her Ops). As, however, he had been foretold by Gaea and Uranus, that he should be dethroned by one of his own children, he, after their birth, swallowed successively his children Hestia, Demeter, Hera, Pluto and Poseidon. Rhea therefore, when she was pregnant with Zeus. went to Crete, gave birth to the child in the Dictaean Cave, and entrusted him to be brought up to the Curetes, and the daughters of Melissus, the nymphs Adrasteia and Ida. The armed Curetes guarded the infant in the cave, and struck their shields with their spears, that Cronus might not hear the voice of the child. Rhea, moreover, deceived Cronus by giving him a stone wrapped up in cloth, which he swallowed, believing it to be his newly-born son. (Apollod. i. §§ 1-5; Ov. Fast. iv. 179, &c.) When Zeus had grown up he availed himself of the assistance of Metis, the daughter of Oceanus who gave to Cronus a potion which caused him to bring up the stone and the children he had swallowed. United with his brothers and sisters, Zeus now began the contest against Cronus and the ruling Titans. This contest (usually called the Titanomachia), which was carried on in Thessaly, the Titans occupying Mount Othrys, and the sons of Cronus Mount Olympus, lasted for ten years, when at length Gaea promised victory to Zeus, if he would deliver the Cyclopes and Hecatoncheires from Tartarus. Zeus accordingly slew Campe, who guarded the Cyclopes, and the latter furnished him with thunder and lightning, Pluto wave him a helmet, and Poseidon a trident. The Titans then were overcome, and hurled down into a cavity below Tartarus (Hom. Il. xiv. 279; Hes. Theog. 697, 851 ; Hom. Hymn. in Apoll. 335 ; Paus. viii. 37. § 3), and the Hecatoncheires were set to guard them. (Hom. Il. viii. 479; Hes. Theog. 617, &c.; Apollod. i. 2. § 1.) It must be observed that the fight of the Titans is sometimes confounded by ancient writers with the fight of the Gigantes.
2. The name Titans is also given to those divine or semi-divine beings who were descended from the Titans, such as Prometheus, Hecate (Hes. Theog. 424 ; Serv. ad Aen. iv. 511), Latona (Ov. Met. vi. 346), Pyrrha (i. 395), and especially Helios and Selene (Mene), as the children of Hyperion and Theia, and even the descendants of Helios, such as Circe. (Serv. ad Aen. iv. 119, vi. 725 ; Schol. ap Apollon. Rhod. iv. 54; Ov. Fast. i. 617, iv. 943, Met. iii. 173, xiv. 382; Tibull. iv. 1. 50.)
3. The name Titans, lastly, is given to certain tribes of men from whom all mankind is descended. Thus the ancient city of Cnosos in Crete is said to have originally been inhabited by Titans, who were hostile to Zeus, but were driven away by Pan with the fearful sounds of his shell-trumpet. (Hom. Hymn. in Apoll. 336 ; Diod. iii. 57, v. 66 ; Orph. Hymn. 36. 2 ; comp. Höck, Creta, p. 171, &c.; Lobeck, Aglaoph. p. 763; Völcker, Mythol. des Iapet. Geschl. p. 280, &c.)
Source: Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology.
ALTERNATE NAMES & TITLES
The Titanes had several alternative names, titles and epithets.
Homer, Iliad (Greek epic C8th B.C.) : In the Iliad of Homer the Titanes (Titans) Kronos (Cronus), Rheia, Iapetos (Iapetus), Okeanos (Oceanus), Tethys, Dione and Themis are all mentioned, although with the exception of Kronos and Iapetos, they are not explicitly described as Titanes. The name Hyperion also occurs but only as a title of Helios (Helius).
Hesiod, Theogony 133 ff (trans. Evelyn-White) (Greek epic C8th or C7th B.C.) : "She [Gaia, Earth] lay with Ouranos (Uranus, Sky) and bare deep-swirling Okeanos (Oceanus), Koios (Coeus) and Krios (Crius) and Hyperion and Iapetos (Iapetus), Theia and Rhea, Themis and Mnemosyne and gold-crowned Phoibe (Phoebe) and lovely Tethys. After them was born Kronos (Cronus) the wily, youngest and most terrible of her children."
Alcman, Fragment 61 (from Eustathius on Iliad) (trans. Campbell, Vol. Greek Lyric II) (Greek lyric C6th B.C.) : "The father of Ouranos (Uranus, Sky), as was said already, is called Akmon (Acmon) because heavenly motion is untiring (akamatos); an the sons of Ouranos (Sky) are Akmonidai (Acmonidae) [the Titanes]: the ancients make these two points clear. Alkman (Alcman), they say, tells that the heaven belongs to Akmon (Acmon)." [N.B. The word akmon also occurs in Hesiod's Theogony in connection with the Titanes. Here akmon is an anvil of bronze, which is described falling from the apex of heaven down to earth and from earth to the bottom of the pit of Tartaros, prison of the Titanes, as a measure of distances in the cosmos.]
Anacreon, Frag 505d (from Fulgentius, Mythologies) (trans. Campbell, Vol. Greek Lyric II) (Greek lyric C7th B.C.) : "According to Anakreon (Anacreon) . . . Zeus was beginning warfare against the Titani (Titans), the sons of Titan, brother of Kronos (Cronus, Saturn)."
Aeschylus, Prometheus Bound 207 ff (trans. Weir Smyth) (Greek tragedy C5th B.C.) : "The Titanes (Titans), children of Ouranos (Uranus, Heaven) and Khthon (Chthon, Earth)."
Pseudo-Apollodorus, Bibliotheca 1. 1 - 2 (trans. Aldrich) (Greek mythographer C2nd A.D.) : "[Ouranos (Uranus), Sky] fathered other sons on Ge (Earth), namely the Titanes (Titans) : Okeanos (Oceanus), Koios (Coeus), Hyperion, Kreios (Crius), Iapetos (Iapetus), and Kronos (Cronus) the youngest; also daughters called Titanides : Tethys, Rhea, Themis, Mnemosyne, Phoibe (Phoebe), Dione, Theia."
Diodorus Siculus, Library of History 5. 66. 1 (trans. Oldfather) (Greek historian C1st B.C.) : "The Titanes (Titans) numbered six men and five women, being born, as certain writers of myths relate, of Ouranos (Uranus, Heaven) and Ge (Earth), but according to others, of one of the Kouretes (Curetes) and Titaia (Titaea), from whom as their mother they derive the name they have. The males were Kronos (Cronus), Hyperion, Koios (Coeus), Iapetos (Iapetus), Krios (Crius) and Okeanos (Oceanus), and their sisters were Rhea, Themis, Mnemosyne, Phoibe (Phoebe) and Tethys." [N.B. He omits Theia.]
Orphic Hymn 37 to the Titans (trans. Taylor) (Greek hymns C3rd B.C. to 2nd A.D.) : "O mighty Titanes (Titans), who from Ouranos (Uranus, Heaven) and Gaia (Gaea, Earth) derive your noble and illustrious birth."
Pseudo-Hyginus, Preface (trans. Grant) (Roman mythographer C2nd A.D.) : "From Aether and Terra [were born various abstractions] . . . [From Caelum (Ouranos, Sky) and Terra (Gaia, Earth) were born ?] Oceanus, Themis, Tartarus, Pontus; the Titanes : Briareus, Gyes, Steropes, Atlas, Hyperion, and Polus [Koios], Saturnus [Kronos (Cronus)], Ops [Rhea], Moneta [Mnemosyne], Dione." [N.B. Hyginus' Preface survives only in summary. The Titanes should be listed as children of Ouranos (Caelum) and Gaia (Terra) not Aither and Gaia, but the notation to this effect seems to have been lost in the transcription.]
For MORE information on the female Titans see THE TITANIDES
TITANS & THE CASTRATION OF URANUS
Hesiod, Theogony 133 & 207 ff (trans. Evelyn-White) (Greek epic C8th or C7th B.C.) : "She [Gaia (Gaea), Earth] lay with Ouranos (Uranus, Sky) and bare deep-swirling Okeanos (Oceanus), Koios (Coeus) and Krios (Crius) and Hyperion and Iapetos (Iapetus), Theia and Rhea, Themis and Mnemosyne and gold-crowned Phoibe (Phoebe) and lovely Tethys. After them was born Kronos (Cronus) the wily, youngest and most terrible of her children, and he hated his lusty sire . . . And he [Ouranos] used to hide them all [Hekatonkheires (Hecatoncheires) and Kyklopes (Cyclopes), brothers of the Titanes] away in a secret place of Earth (Gaia) so soon as each was born, and would not suffer them to come up into the light: and Ouranos (Sky) rejoiced in his evil doing. But vast Gaia (Earth) groaned within, being straitened, and she made the element of grey flint and shaped a great sickle, and told her plan to her dear sons [the six Titanes]. And she spoke, cheering them, while she was vexed in her dear heart : ‘My children, gotten of a sinful father, if you will obey me, we should punish the vile outrage of your father; for he first thought of doing shameful things.’ So she said; but fear seized them all, and none of them uttered a word. But great Kronos the wily took courage and answered his dear mother : ‘Mother, I will undertake to do this deed.’ So he said: and vast Gaia (Earth) rejoiced greatly in spirit, and set and hid him in an ambush, and put in his hands a jagged sickle, and revealed to him the whole plot. And Ouranos (Sky) came, bringing on night and longing for love, and he lay about Gaia (Earth) spreading himself full upon her. Then the son from his ambush stretched forth his left hand and in his right took the great long sickle with jagged teeth, and swiftly lopped off his own father's members and cast them away to fall behind him . . . These sons whom be begot himself great Ouranos (Sky) used to call Titenes (Titans, Strainers) in reproach, for he said that they strained and did presumptuously a fearful deed, and that vengeance for it would come afterwards." [N.B. Hesiod in the last few lines says that all six brothers were involved in the ambush and castration of Ouranos : five straining to hold him fast, while the sixth, Kronos, cut off his genitals.]
Pseudo-Apollodorus, Bibliotheca 1. 3 (trans. Aldrich) (Greek mythographer C2nd A.D.) : "Now Ge (Earth), distressed by the loss of her children [the Kyklopes (Cyclopes) and the Hekatonkheires (Hecatoncheires)] into Tartaros (Tartarus), persuaded the Titanes (Titans) to attack their father, and she gave Kronos (Cronus) a sickle made of adamant. So all of them except Okeanos (Oceanus) set upon Ouranos (Uranus, Heaven), and Kronos cut off his genitals, tossing them into the sea . . . Thus having overthrown Ouranos' rule the Titanes retrieved their brothers from Tartaros and gave the power to Kronos."
Apollonius Rhodius, Argonautica 4. 982 ff (trans. Rieu) (Greek epic C3rd B.C.) : "In the Keraunian (Ceraunian) Sea, fronting the Ionian Straits, there is a rich and spacious island, under the soil of which is said to lie--bear with me, Mousai (Muses); it gives me little pleasure to recall the old tale--the sickle used by Kronos (Cronus) to castrate his father Ouranos (Uranus, Sky)."
Apollonius Rhodius, Argonautica 1. 498 ff : "He [Orpheus] sang of . . . How, in the beginning, Ophion and Eurynome, daughter of Okeanos (Oceanus), governed the world from snow-clad Olympos; how they were forcibly supplanted, Ophion by Kronos (Cronus), Eurynome by Rhea; of their fall into the waters of Okeanos; and how their successors ruled the happy Titan gods." [N.B. Ophion and Eurynome may be Ouranos (Uranus) and Gaia (Gaea).]
Nonnus, Dionysiaca 18. 223 ff (trans. Rouse) (Greek epic C5th A.D.) : "[Zeus] in his first youth battered the earthborn Titanes (Titans) for Olympos, when he was only a boy . . . Kronos (Cronus) still dripping held the emasculating sickleblade, after he had cut off the manly crop of his father's [Ouranos (Uranus) the Sky's] plow and robbed him of the Mother's [Gaia the Earth 's] bed to which he was hastening, and warred against your sire at the head of the Titanes."
For MORE information on the castration of Ouranos see OURANOS
MARRIAGES & CHILDREN OF THE TITANS
Hesiod, Theogony 334 - 515 (trans. Evelyn-White) (Greek epic C8th or C7th B.C.) : "[1 & 2] And [the Titanis (Titaness)] Tethys bare to [the Titan] Okeanos (Oceanus) eddying Potamoi (Rivers) [various named] . . . Also she brought forth a holy company of daughters [the Nymphai (Nymphs)] . . . [a long list of names is given including] Elektra (Electra), and Doris . . . lovely Dione . . . Metis, and Eurynome . . . and Styx who is the chiefest of them all. These are the eldest daughters that sprang from Okeanos and Tethys; but there are many besides. For there are three thousand neat-ankled daughters of Okeanos who are dispersed far and wide, and in every place alike serve the earth and the deep waters, children who are glorious among goddesses. And as many other Potamoi (Rivers) are there, babbling as they flow, sons of Okeanos, whom queenly Tethys bare . . . [a list of Rivers follows.] [3 & 4] And [the Titanis] Theia was subject in love to [the Titan] Hyperion and bare great Helios (Sun) and clear Selene (Moon) and Eos (Dawn) who shines upon all that are on earth and upon the deathless Gods who live in the wide heaven. [5] And [the Sea-Goddess] Eurybia, bright goddess, was joined in love to [the Titan] Krios (Crius) and bare great Astraios (Astraeus), and Pallas, and Perses who also was eminent among all men in wisdom. And Eos bare to Astraios the strong-hearted Anemoi (Winds), brightening Zephyros (West Wind), and Boreas (North), headlong in his course, and Notos (South),--a goddess mating in love with a god. And after these Erigeneia [Eos] bare the star Eosphoros (Dawn-bringer), and the gleaming Astra (Stars) with which heaven is crowned. And Styx the daughter of Okeanos (Oceanus) was joined to Pallas and bare Zelos (Zelus, Emulation) and trim-ankled Nike (Victory) in the house. Also she brought forth Kratos (Cratus, Strength) and Bia (Force), wonderful children . . . [6 & 7] Again, [the Titanis] Phoibe (Phoebe) came to the desired embrace of [the Titan] Koios (Coeus). Then the goddess through the love of the god conceived and brought forth dark-gowned Leto, always mild, kind to men and to the deathless gods, mild from the beginning, gentlest in all Olympos. Also she bare Asteria of happy name, whom Perses once led to his great house to be called his dear wife. And she conceived and bare Hekate (Hecate) whom Zeus the son of Kronos honoured above all . . . [8 & 9] But [the Titanis] Rhea was subject in love to [the Titan] Kronos (Cronus) and bare splendid children, Hestia, Demeter, and gold-shod Hera and strong Haides, pitiless in heart, who dwells under the earth, and [Poseidon] the loud-crashing Earth-Shaker, and wise Zeus, father of gods and men, by whose thunder the wide earth is shaken. These great Kronos swallowed as each came forth from the womb to his mother's knees with this intent, that no other of the proud sons of Heaven should hold the kingly office amongst the deathless gods . . . [10] Now [the Titan] Iapetos (Iapetus) took to wife the neat-ankled maid Klymene (Clymene), daughter of Okeanos (Oceanus), and went up with her into one bed. And she bare him a stout-hearted son, Atlas: also she bare very glorious Menoitios (Menoetius) and clever Prometheus, full of various wiles, and scatter-brained Epimetheus who from the first was a mischief to men who eat bread; for it was he who first took of Zeus the woman, the maiden whom he had formed."
Pseudo-Apollodorus, Bibliotheca 1. 4 - 9 (trans. Aldrich) (Greek mythographer C2nd A.D.) : "[1 & 2] [The Titan] Kronos (Cronus) . . . then married his sister [Titanis (Titaness)] Rhea. Because both Ge (Earth) and Ouranos (Uranus, Sky) had given him prophetic warning that his rule would be overthrown by a son of his own, he took to swallowing his children at birth. He swallowed his first-born daughter Hestia, then Demeter and Hera, and after them Plouton (Pluton) [Haides] and Poseidon. Angered by this, Rhea, when she was heavy with Zeus, went off to Krete (Crete) and gave birth to him . . . The [other] Titanes (Titans) had children. [3 & 4] Those of [the Titan] Okeanos (Oceanus) and [Titanis] Tethys were called Okeanides (Oceanides) : Asia, Styx, Elektra, Doris, Eurynome, and Metis. [5 & 6] The children of [Titan] Koios (Coeus) and [Titanis] Phoibe (Phoebe) were Asteria and Leto. [7 & 8] [Titan] Hyperion and [Titanis] Theia had Eos (Dawn), Helios (Sun), and Selene (Moon). [9] To [Titan] Kreios (Crius) and Eurybia, the daughter of Pontos (Sea), were born Astraios (Astraeus), Pallas and Perses. [10] Atlas, who holds the sky on his shoulders, Prometheus, Epimetheus, and Menoitios (Menoetius), whom Zeus struck with a thunderbolt in the Titan battle and confined to Tartaros (Tartarus), were all sons of [Titan] Iapetos (Iapetus) and Asia. Kheiron (Chiron), a double-formed kentauros (centaur), was born to Kronos (Cronus) and Philyra; Eos and Astraios (Astraeus) were parents of the Anemoi (Winds) and Astra (Stars); Perses and Asteria of Hekate; and Nike, Kratos (Cratus), Zelos (Zelus), and Bia were born to Pallas and Styx."
Pseudo-Hyginus, Preface (trans. Grant) (Roman mythographer C2nd A.D.) : "[1 & 2] From [Titan] Oceanus and [Titanis] Tethys [were born] the Oceanides . . . Of the same descent Rivers . . . [3 & 4] From [Titan] Polus [Koios (Coeus)] and [Titanis] Phoebe [were born], Latona, Asteria. [5] [text missing] Perses, Pallas. [6] From [Titan] Iapetus and Clymene, Atlas, Epimetheus, Prometheus. [7 & 8] From [Titan] Hyperion and [Titanis] Aethra, Sol (Sun), Luna (Moon), Aurora (Dawn). [9 & 10] From [Titan] Saturnus [Kronos (Cronus)] and [Titanis] Ops [Rhea], Vesta [Hestia], Ceres [Demeter], Juno [Hera], Jupiter [Zeus], Pluto [Haides], Neptunus [Poseidon]. From Saturnus [Kronos (Cronus)] and Philyra, Chiron, Dolops. From Astraeus and Aurora [Eos], Zephyrus, Boreas, Notus, Favonius [Zephyros]. From Atlas and Pleione, Maia, Calypso, Alcyone, Merope, Electra, Celaeno. From Pallas the Giant, and Styx, Scylla, Force, Envy, Power, Victory, Fountains, Lakes."
THE TITANOMACHY (WAR OF THE TITANS)
Titan Atlas and Gaea, Apulian red-figure volute krater C4th B.C., Dallas Museum of Art
Hesiod, Theogony 390 ff (trans. Evelyn-White) (Greek epic C8th or C7th B.C.) : "The Olympian Lightener [Zeus] called all the deathless gods to great Olympos, and said that whosoever of the gods would fight with him against the Titenes (Titans), he would not cast him out from his rights, but each should have the office which he had before amongst the deathless gods; he said, too, that the god who under Kronos (Cronus) had gone without position or privilege should under him be raised to these, according to justice."
Hesiod, Theogony 617 ff : "[Zeus] the son of Kronos (Cronus) and the other deathless gods whom rich-haired Rhea bare from union with Kronos, brought them [the stormy Hekatonkheires (Hecatoncheires)] up again to the light at Gaia's (Earth's) advising. For she herself recounted all things to the gods fully, how that with these they would gain victory and a glorious cause to vaunt themselves. For the Titan gods and as many as sprang from Kronos [Zeus, Poseidon and Haides] had long been fighting together in stubborn war with heart-grieving toil, the lordly Titenes (Titans) from high [Mount] Othrys, but the gods, givers of good, whom rich-haired Rhea bare in union with Kronos (Cronus), from Olympos. So they, with bitter wrath, were fighting continually with one another at that time for ten full years, and the hard strife had no close or end for either side, and the issue of the war hung evenly balanced. But when he had provided those three [the Hekatonkheires] with all things fitting, nectar and ambrosia which the gods themselves eat, and when their proud spirit revived within them all after they had fed on nectar and delicious ambrosia, then it was that the father of men and gods spoke amongst them : ‘Hear me, bright children [Hekatonkheires] of Gaia (Gaea) and Ouranos (Uranus), that I may say what my heart within me bids. A long while now have we, who are sprung from Kronos [Zeus, Poseidon, Haides] and the Titan gods, fought with each other every day to get victory and to prevail. But do you show your great might and unconquerable strength, and face the Titenes (Titans) in bitter strife; for remember our friendly kindness, and from what sufferings you are come back to the light from your cruel bondage under misty gloom through our counsels.’ So he said. And blameless Kottos (Cottus) answered him again : ‘Divine one, you speak that which we know well: nay, even of ourselves we know that your wisdom and understanding is exceeding, and that you became a defender of the deathless ones from chill doom. And through your devising we are come back again from the murky gloom and from our merciless bonds, enjoying what we looked not for, O lord, son of Kronos. And so now with fixed purpose and deliberate counsel we will aid your power in dreadful strife and will fight against the Titanes in hard battle.’ So he said: and the gods, givers of good things, applauded when they heard his word, and their spirit longed for war even more than before, and they all, both male and female, stirred up hated battle that day, the Titan gods, and all that were born of Kronos together with those dread, mighty ones of overwhelming strength whom Zeus brought up to the light from Erebos (Erebus) beneath the earth. An hundred arms sprang from the shoulders of all alike, and each had fifty heads growing upon his shoulders upon stout limbs. These, then, stood against the Titanes in grim strife, holding huge rocks in their strong hands. And on the other part the Titanes eagerly strengthened their ranks, and both sides at one time showed the work of their hands and their might. The boundless sea rang terribly around, and the earth crashed loudly: wide Heaven was shaken and groaned, and high Olympos reeled from its foundation u nder the charge of the undying gods, and a heavy quaking reached dim Tartaros (Tartarus) and the deep sound of their feet in the fearful onset and of their hard missiles. So, then, they launched their grievous shafts upon one another, and the cry of both armies as they shouted reached to starry heaven; and they met together with a great battle-cry. Then Zeus no longer held back his might; but straight his heart was filled with fury and he showed forth all his strength. From Heaven and from Olympos he came forthwith, hurling his lightning: the bold flew thick and fast from his strong hand together with thunder and lightning, whirling an awesome flame.The life-giving earth crashed around in burning, and the vast wood crackled loud with fire all about.All the land seethed, and Okeanos' (Oceanus') streams and the unfruitful sea. The hot vapour lapped round the Titenes Khthonios (Chthonian Titans) (Earthly): flame unspeakable rose to the bright upper air (aither): the flashing glare of the thunder-stone and lightning blinded their eyes for all that there were strong. Astounding heat seized air (khaos): and to see with eyes and to hear the sound with ears it seemed even as if Earth (Gaia) and wide Heaven (Ouranos) above came together; for such a mighty crash would have arisen if Earth (Gaia) were being hurled to ruin, and Heaven (Ouranos) from on high were hurling her down; so great a crash was there while the gods were meeting together in strife. Also the winds brought rumbling earthquake and duststorm, thunder and lightning and the lurid thunderbolt, which are the shafts of great Zeus, and carried the clangour and the warcry into the midst of the two hosts. An horrible uproar of terrible strife arose: mighty deeds were shown and the battle inclined. But until then, they kept at one another and fought continually in cruel war. And amongst the foremost Kottos (Cottus) and Briareos (Briareus) and Gyes insatiate for war raised fierce fighting : three hundred rocks, one upon another, they launched from their strong hands and overshadowed the Titanes with their missiles, and buried them beneath the wide-pathed earth, and bound them in bitter chains when they had conquered them by their strength for all their great spirit, as far beneath the earth to Tartaros . . . There by the counsel of Zeus who drives the clouds the Titan gods are hidden under misty gloom, in a dank place where are the ends of the huge earth. And they may not go out; for Poseidon fixed gates of bronze upon it, and a wall runs all round it on every side.There [the Hekatonkheires] Gyes and Kottos and great-souled Obriareus live, trusty warders of Zeus who holds the aegis . . . But when Zeus had driven the Titanes from heaven [then Gaia bore the monstrous giant Typhoeus to oppose Zeus]."
Hesiod, Theogony 881 ff : "But when the blessed gods had finished their toil, and settled by force their struggle for honours with the Titenes (Titans), they pressed far-seeing Zeus Olympios (Olympian) to reign and to rule over them, by Gaia's (Earth's) prompting. So he divided their privileges amongst them."
Hesiod, Theogony 421 ff : "For as many as were born of Ouranos (Uranus) and Gaia (Gaea) [the Titanes] amongst all these she [Hekate (Hecate)] has her due portion. The son of Kronos [Zeus] did her no wrong nor took anything away of all that was her portion among the former Titan gods : but she holds, as the division was at the first from the beginning, privilege both in earth, and in heaven, and in sea."
Eumelus or Arctinus, Titanomachia (lost poem) (Greek epic C8th B.C.) : Next to Hesiod, the oldest poem describing the Titan-War was the Titanomachia, a lost Homeric epic attributed to the poet Eumelus of Corinth or Arctinus or Miletus. The content of the work is largely unknown.
Eumelus or Arctinus, Titanomachia Fragment 1 (from Photius, Epitome of the Chrestomathy of Proclus) (trans. Evelyn-White) (Greek epic C8th B.C.) : "The Epic Cycle begins with the fabled union of Ouranos (Uranus, Heaven) and Gaia (Gaea, Earth), by which they make three Hekatonkheiroi (Hecatoncheires, Hundred-Handed) sons and three Kyklopes (Cyclopes) to be born to him."
Eumelus or Arctinus, Titanomachia Fragment 3 (from Scholiast on Apollonius Rhodius, Argonautica 1. 1165) : "Eumelos (Eumelus) says that Aigaion (Aegaeon) was the son of Gaia (Gaea, Earth) and Pontos (Pontus, Sea) and, having his dwelling in the sea, was an ally of the Titanes (Titans)."
Eumelus or Arctinus, Titanomachia Fragment 5 (from Athenaeus 1. 22c) : "Eumelos (Eumelus) [in the Titanomakhia] somewhere introduces Zeus dancing : he says--‘In the midst of them danced the Father of men and gods.’" [N.B. Presumably this is the war-dance of the Kouretes (Curetes).]
Anacreon, Fragment 505d (from Fulgentius, Mythologies) (trans. Campbell, Vol. Greek Lyric II) (Greek lyric C6th B.C.) : "According to Anakreon (Anacreon) . . . when Zeus was beginning warfare against the Titani (Titans), i.e. the sons of Titan (Titanas), brother of Kronos (Cronus, Saturn), and had sacrificed to Ouranos (Uranus, Heaven), he saw an eagle fly nearby as a favourable omen for victory. In return for this happy omen, and particularly because it was indeed followed by victory, he put a golden eagle on his war standards and dedicated it as a protection for his valour."
Aeschylus, Prometheus Bound 200 ff (trans. Weir Smyth) (Greek tragedy C5th B.C.) : "When first the heavenly powers (daimones) [the Titanes (Titans) and the Olympian gods] were moved to wrath, and mutual dissension was stirred up among them--some bent on casting Kronos (Cronus) from his seat so Zeus, in truth, might reign; others, eager for the contrary end, that Zeus might never win mastery over the gods--it was then that I [the Titan Prometheus, although advising them for the best, was unable to persuade the Titanes, children of Ouranos (Uranus, Heaven) and Khthon (Chthon, Earth); but they, disdaining counsels of craft, in the pride of their strength thought to gain the mastery without a struggle and by force. Often my mother Themis, or Gaia (Earth) (though one form, she had many names), had foretold to me the way in which the future was fated to come to pass. That it was not by brute strength nor through violence, but by guile that those who should gain the upper hand were destined to prevail. And though I argued all this to them, they did not pay any attention to my words. With all that before me, it seemed best that, joining with my mother, I should place myself, a welcome volunteer, on the side of Zeus; and it is by reason of my counsel that the cavernous gloom (melanbathês) of Tartaros (Tartarus) now hides ancient (palaigenês) Kronos and his allies [the Titanes] within it. Thus I helped the tyrant of the gods [Zeus] . . . As soon as he had seated himself upon his father's throne, he immediately assigned to the deities their several privileges and apportioned to them their proper powers."
Pseudo-Apollodorus, Bibliotheca 1. 6 - 7 (trans. Aldrich) (Greek mythographer C2nd A.D.) : "When Zeus was grown, he engaged Okeanos' (Oceanus') daughter Metis as a colleague. She gave Kronos (Cronus) a drug, by which he was forced to vomit forth first the stone and then the children he had swallowed. With them Zeus fought a war against Kronos and the Titanes (Titans). After ten years of fighting Ge (Earth) prophesied a victory for Zeus if he were to secure the prisoners down in Tartaros as his allies [the Kyklopes (Cyclopes) and Hekatonkheires (Hecatoncheires)]. He thereupon slew their jail-keeper Kampe (Campe), and freed them from their bonds. In return the Kyklopes gave Zeus thunder, lightning, and a thunderbolt, as well as a helmet for Plouton (Pluton) [Haides] and a trident for Poseidon. Armed with these the three gods overpowered the Titanes, confined them in Tartaros, and put the Hekatonkheires in charge of guarding them. The gods then drew lots for a share of the rule. Zeus won the lordship of the sky, Poseidon that of the sea, and Plouton (Pluton) the rule of Haides' realm."
Pseudo-Apollodorus, Bibliotheca 1. 34 : "Now because of her anger over the Titanes (Titans), Ge (Earth) gave birth to the Gigantes (Giants), Ouranos (Uranus, Sky) was the father."
Apollonius Rhodius, Argonautica 2. 1232 ff (trans. Rieu) (Greek epic C3rd B.C.) : "Kronos (Cronus) son of Ouranos (Uranus) . . . in the days when he ruled the Titanes (Titans) in Olympos and Zeus was still a child."
Apollonius Rhodius, Argonautica 1. 498 ff : "He [Orpheus] sang of . . . How, in the beginning, Ophion and Eurynome, daughter of Okeanos (Oceanus), governed the world from snow-clad Olympos; how they were forcibly supplanted, Ophion by Kronos (Cronus), Eurynome by Rhea; of their fall into the waters of Okeanos; and how their successors ruled the happy Titan gods when Zeus in his Diktaian (Dictaean) cave was still a child, with childish thoughts, before the earthborn Kyklopes (Cyclopes) had given him the bolt, the thunder and lightning that form his glorious armament today." [N.B. Ophion and Eurynome might be Ouranos (Uranus) and Gaia (Gaea) or Okeanos (Oceanus) and Tethys.]
Callimachus, Hymn 1 to Zeus (trans. Mair) (Greek poet C3rd B.C.) : "Zeus . . . dealer of justice to the Ouranides (sons of Ouranos) [Titanes]."
Callimachus, Fragment 54 (trans. Trypanis) (Greek poet C3rd B.C.) : "Mekone (Mecone, Poppy), seat of the Blessed, where first the gods cast lots and apportioned their honours after the war with the Gigantes (Giants) [the Titanes]."
Callimachus, Fragment 195 (from Eustathius) : "To behold again Mekone (Mecone, Poppy), seat of the Blessed (Makaroi), where first the gods cast lots and apportioned their honours after the war with the Gigantes [the Titanes]."
Lycophron, Alexandra 697 ff (trans. Mair) (Greek poet C3rd B.C.) : "The dark, stream of black Styx, where Termeios [Zeus] made the seat of the oath-swearing for the immortals, drawing the water in golden basins for libations, when he was about to go against the Gigantes (Giants) and Titanes (Titans)." [N.B. Lycophron here conflates the Giant and Titan wars--presumably the Titanes were conceived in some sort of leadership role.]
Diodorus Siculus, Library of History 5. 71. 2 (trans. Oldfather) (Greek historian C1st B.C.) : "Before the battle against the Gigantes [Titanes] in Krete (Crete), we are told, Zeus sacrificed a bull to Helios (the Sun) and to Ouranos (Uranus, Heaven) and to Ge (Earth); and in connection with each of the rites there was revealed to him what was the will of the gods in the affair, the omens indicating the victory of the gods and a defection to them of the enemy [certain Titanes defected to the side of Zeus]. And the outcome of the war accorded with the omens; for Mousaios (Musaeus)(?) deserted to him from the enemy, for which he was accorded peculiar honours, and all who opposed them were cut down by the gods."
Strabo, Geography 10. 3. 19 (trans. Jones) (Greek geographer C1st B.C. to C1st A.D.) : "Others say that the Korybantes (Corybantes), who came from Baktriana (Bactriana) (some say from among the Kolkhians (Colchians)), were given as armed ministers to Rhea by the Titanes (Titans)."
Quintus Smyrnaeus, Fall of Troy 5. 103 ff (trans. Way) (Greek epic C4th A.D.) : "[Depicted on the helm of Akhilleus (Achilles) :] Zeus in his wrath was set upon the crest throned on heaven's dome; the Immortals all around fierce-battling with the Titanes (Titans) fought for Zeus. Already were their foes enwrapped with flame, for thick and fast as snowflakes poured from heaven the thunderbolts: the might of Zeus was roused, and burning Gigantes (Giants) seemed to breathe out flames." [N.B. The Titan and Giant Wars are here conflated.]
Quintus Smyrnaeus, Fall of Troy 8. 460 ff : "On the presumptuous Titanes (Titans) once in wrath he [Zeus] poured down fire from heaven: then burned all earth beneath, and Okeanos' (Oceanus') world-engirdling flood boiled from its depths, yea, to its utmost bounds: far-flowing mighty rivers were dried up: perished all broods of life-sustaining earth, all fosterlings of the boundless sea, and all dwellers in rivers : smoke and ashes veiled the air: earth fainted in the fervent heat."
Ptolemy Hephaestion, New History Book 2 (summary from Photius, Myriobiblon 190) (trans. Pearse) (Greek mythographer C1st to C2nd A.D.) : "The tomb which passes for that of Zeus in Krete (Crete) is that of Olympos (Olympus) of Krete, who received Zeus son of Kronos (Cronus), raised him and taught divine things to him; but Zeus, he says, struck down his foster-parent and master because he had pushed the Gigantes [that is, the Titanes] to attack him in his turn; but when he had struck, before his body he was full of remorse and, since he could appease his sorrow in no other way, he gave his own name to the tomb of his victim."
Ptolemy Hephaestion, New History Book 6 (summary from Photius, Myriobiblon 190) : "Arke (Arce) was the daughter of Thaumas and her sister was Iris (Rainbow); both had wings, but, during the struggle of the gods against the Titanes (Titans), Arke flew out of the camp of the gods and joined the Titanes [to act as their messenger]. After the victory Zeus removed her wings before throwing her into Tartaros (Tartarus)."
Anonymous (perhaps Pamprepius of Panopolis), Fragments (trans. Page, Vol. Select Papyri III, No. 140b) (Greek poetry C4th A.D.) : "Zeus, the leader of the dance that slew the Gigantes (Giants) . . . Khthon (Chthon, Earth) [i.e. Gaia] teemed of old and bore a son Azeios (Azeus), who grew to manhood amid the mighty battles of the Titanes (Titans). Gigas (the Giant) Azeios encountered a Nymphe with lover's intent, and begot Lykon (Lycon) [the grandfather of King Lykaon of Arkadia]." [Cf. Eumelos' Titanomakhia Frag 3 above for the dance of Zeus. The Gigantomakhia and Titanomakhia are here synonymous. The figure of Azeios fixes the Titan war in the Arkadian chronology.]
Pseudo-Hyginus, Fabulae 150 (trans. Grant) (Roman mythographer C2nd A.D.) : "Encouraged the Titanes [and Gigantes?] to drive Jove [Zeus] from the kingdom and restore it to Saturn [Kronos (Cronus)]. When they tried to mount tot heaven, Jove with the help of Minerva [Athene], Apollo, and Diana [Artemis], cast them headlong into Tartarus. On Atlas, who had been their leader, he put the vault of the sky; even now he is said to hold up the sky on his shoulders."
Pseudo-Hyginus, Astronomica 2. 13 : "Some have called Aex (Goat) the daughter of Sol [Helios the Sun], who surpassed many in beauty of body, but in contrast to this beauty, had a most horrible face [she was the Gorgon]. Terrified by it, the Titanes (Titans) begged Terra (Earth) [Gaia] to hide her body, and Terra is said to have hidden her in a cave in the island of Crete. Later she became nurse of Jove [Zeus], as we have said before [and made his aigis-shield from her skin]."
Pseudo-Hyginus, Astronomica 2. 16 : "Aglaosthenes, who wrote the Naxica, says that Jove [Zeus] was taken secretly from Crete, brought to Naxos, and there nourished. After he came to man's estate and wished to attack the Titanes (Titans) in war, he sighted an eagle as he was sacrificing, and considering this an omen, he placed it among the stars."
Pseudo-Hyginus, Astronomica 2. 39 : "[The constellation] Altar. On this altar the gods are thought to have first made offerings and formed an alliance when they were about to oppose the Titanes (Titans). The Cyclopes made it. From this observance men established the custom that when they plan to do something, they make sacrifices before beginning the undertaking."
Ovid, Fasti 3. 793 ff (trans.Boyle) (Roman poetry C1st B.C. to C1st A.D.) : "Saturnus [Kronos (Cronus)] was thrust from his realm by Jove [Zeus]. In anger he stirs the mighty Titanes to arms and seeks the assistance owed by fate. There was a shocking monster born of Mother Terra (Earth) [Gaia], a bull, whose back half was a serpent. Roaring Styx [as an ally of Zeus] imprisoned it, warned by the three Parcae [Moirai, Fates], in a black grove with a triple wall. Whoever fed the bull's guts to consuming flames was destined to defeat the eternal gods. Briareus [or Aigaion, an ally of Kronos] slays it with an adamantine axe and prepares to feed the flames its innards [and so ensure the victory of the Titanes]. Jupiter [Zeus] commands the birds to grab them; the kite brought them to him and reached the stars on merit."
Cicero, De Natura Deorum 2. 28 (trans. Rackham) (Roman rhetorician C1st B.C.) : "According to the myths they [the gods] even engage in wars and battles . . . they actually fought wars of their own, for instance with the Titanes (Titans) and the Gigantes (Giants). These stories and these beliefs are utterly foolish."
Seneca, Hercules Furens 79 ff (trans. Miller) (Roman tragedy C1st A.D.) : "Set free the Titanes who dared to invade the majesty of Jove [Zeus]."
Nonnus, Dionysiaca 1. 378 ff (trans. Rouse) (Greek epic C5th A.D.) : "[Zeus speaks as the monster Typhoeus approaches heaven :] ‘What will my aigis [storm-cloud] do fighting with Typhon's thunderbolt? I fear old Kronos (Cronus) may laugh aloud, I am shy of the proud neck of my lordly adversary Iapetos (Iapetus).’"
Nonnus, Dionysiaca 8. 67 ff : "I [Ares] will take my Titan-destroying deathdealing spear."
Nonnus, Dionysiaca 13. 33 ff : "Zeus Lord in the Highest, did not rise to heaven without hard work, he the sovereign of the stars : firt he must beind fast those threateners of Olympos, the Titanes (Titans) and hide them deep in the pit of Tartaros."
Nonnus, Dionysiaca 18. 223 ff : "[Zeus] in his first youth battered the earthborn Titanes for Olympos, when he was only a boy."
Nonnus, Dionysiaca 20. 35 ff : "Ares, destroyer of the Titanes, his father's champion, who lifts a proud neck in heaven, still holding that shield ever soaked with gore; and . . . once upon a time valiant Pallas holding the aigis (goatskin) defended the gates of Olympos, and scattered the stormy assault of the Titanes, thus honouring the dexterous travail of her father's head."
Nonnus, Dionysiaca 24. 230 ff : "The singer wove his lay beside the mixing-bowl, how the older Titanes armed themselves against Olympos. He sang the true victory of Zeus potent in the Heights, how broadbeard Kronos (Cronus) sank under the thunderbolt, and Zeus sealed him deep in the dark Tartarean pit, armed in vain with the watery weapons of the storm."
Nonnus, Dionysiaca 27. 290 ff : "He [Pan] once helped to defend my [Zeus'] inviolable sceptre and fought against the Titanes."
Nonnus, Dionsyiaca 30. 283 ff : "[Athene addresses Dionysos :] ‘Your father and mine [Zeus] feared not battle, when the Titan-gods armed themselves against Olympos.’"
Nonnus, Dionysiaca 36. 110 ff : "[Hermes addresses Poseidon and Apollon as they engage in battle when the gods take opposite sides during Dionysos' Indian War :] ‘Brother of Zeus [Poseidon, and you his son [Apollon]--you, famous Archer, throw to the winds your bow nad your brand, and you, your pronged trident : lest the Titanes (Titans) laugh to see a battle among the gods. Let there not be intestine war in heaven once gain, after that conflict with Kronos (Cronus) which threatened Olympos : let me not see another war after the affray with Iapetos (Iapetus).’"
Nonnus, Dionysiaca 19. 158 ff : "What an old man of Titan blood might have done, show the Titan race in his speaking picture . . . Kronos (Cronus), or Phanes more primeval still, or the breed of Titan Helios as old as the universe itself."
For MORE information on the fall of Kronos see KRONOS For the closely related STORY of the War of the Giants see THE GIGANTES
THE TITANS IMPRISONED IN TARTARUS
Homer, Iliad 8. 479 ff (trans. Lattimore) (Greek epic C8th B.C.) : "The undermost limits of earth and sea, where Iapetos (Iapetus) and Kronos (Cronus) seated have no shining of the sun god Hyperion to delight them nor winds' delight, but Tartaros (Tartarus) stands deeply about them."
Homer, Iliad 14. 277 ff : "The goddess Hera of the white arms swore [a promise] as he [Hypnos, Sleep] commanded, and called by their names on all those gods who live in the Pit, and who are called Titenes (Titans). Then when she had sworn this, and made her oath a complete thing."
Hesiod, Theogony 715 ff (trans. Evelyn-White) (Greek epic C8th or C7th B.C.) : "[In the Titan War, Zeus and the Hekatonkheires (Hecatoncheires)] launched from their strong hands and overshadowed the Titenes (Titans) with their missiles, and hurled them beneath the wide-pathed earth, and bound them in bitter chains when they had conquered them by their strength for all their great spirit, as far beneath the earth as heaven is above earth; for so far is it from earth to Tartaros (Tartarus). For a brazen anvil (khalkeos akmôn) falling down from heaven nine nights and days would reach the earth upon the tenth: and again, a brazen anvil falling from earth nine nights and days would reach Tartaros upon the tenth. Round it runs a fence of bronze, and night spreads in triple line all about it like a neck-circlet, while above grow the roots of the earth and unfruitful sea. There by the counsel of Zeus who drives the clouds the Titan gods are hidden under misty gloom, in a dank place where are the ends of the huge earth. And they may not go out; for Poseidon fixed gates of bronze upon it, and a wall runs all round it on every side. There [the Hekatonkheires] Gyes and Kottos (Cottus) and great-souled Obriareus live, trusty warders of Zeus who holds the aigis."
Hesiod, Theogony 807 ff : "And there [at the edges of the cosmos], all in their order, are the sources and ends of the dark earth and misty Tartaros (Tartarus) and the unfruitful sea and starry heaven, loathsome and dank, which even the gods abhor. And there are shining gates and an immoveable threshold of bronze having unending roots and it is grown of itself. And beyond, away from all the gods, live the Titenes (Titans), beyond gloomy Khaos (Chaos)."
Hesiod, Theogony 849 ff : "[Zeus battles the monster Typhoeus :] And through the two of them . . . through the thunder and lightning, and through the fire from the monster, and the scorching winds and blazing thunderbolt . . . Haides trembled where he rules over the dead below, and the Titenes (Titans) under Tartaros who live with Kronos (Cronus), because of the unending clamour and the fearful strife."
Homeric Hymn 3 to Pythian Apollo 300 ff (trans. Evelyn-White) (Greek epic C7th - 4th B.C.) : "Hera prayed, striking the ground flatwise with her hand, and speaking thus : ‘Hear now, I pray, Gaia (Gaea) and wide Ouranos (Uranus) above, and you Titan gods (Titanes theoi) who dwell beneath the earth about great Tartaros (Tartarus), and from whom are sprung both gods and men! Harken you now to me, one and all, and grant that I may bear a child apart from Zeus.' [Her prayer was answered when she bare the monster Typhoeus.]’"
Aeschylus, Prometheus Bound 152 ff (trans. Weir Smyth) (Greek tragedy C5th B.C.) : "[Prometheus laments his fate, declaring that he would have preferred to have been cast into Tartaros with the rest of the Titanes :] Oh if only he [Zeus] had hurled me below the earth, yes beneath Haides, the entertainer of the dead, into impassable Tartaros, and had ruthlessly fastened me in fetters no hand can loose. Chorus [of Okeanides (Oceanids)] : . . . He [Zeus] in malice, has set his soul inflexibly and keeps in subjection the race sprung from Ouranos (Uranus) (genna ouranios) [i.e. the Titanes]; nor will he stop, until he has satiated his soul or another seizes his impregnable empire by some device of guile."
Aeschylus, Prometheus Bound 221 ff : "The cavernous gloom (melanbathês) of Tartaros (Tartarus) now hides ancient (palaigenês) Kronos (Cronus) and his allies [the Titanes] within it."
Aeschylus, Prometheus Bound 1050 ff : "Let him [Zeus] lift me [the Titan Prometheus] on high and hurl me down to black Tartaros with the swirling floods of stern Necessity (anankê) [i.e. the fate of the other Titanes] : do what he will, me he shall never bring to death [i.e. because the Titanes are immortal]."
Plato, Laws 701b (trans. Lamb) (Greek philosopher C4th B.C.) : "[Plato uses the suffering of the Titanes as a metaphor :] The character of the Titanes (Titans) of story, who are said to have reverted to their original state, dragging out a painful existence with never any rest from woe."
Pausanias, Description of Greece 8. 37. 1 (trans. Jones) (Greek travelogue C2nd A.D.) : "The first to introduce Titanes (Titans) into poetry was Homer, representing them as gods down in what is called Tartaros (Tartarus); the lines are in the passage about Hera's oath."
Quintus Smyrnaeus, Fall of Troy 12. 179 ff (trans. Way) (Greek epic C4th A.D.) : "Even to Haides' fathomless abyss : trembled the Titanes (Titans) there in depths of gloom [to hear the Olympian gods battling amongst themselves]."
Orphic Hymn 37 to the Titans (trans. Taylor) (Greek hymns C3rd B.C. to 2nd A.D.) : "O mighty Titanes (Titans) . . . in Tartaros (Tartarus) profound who dwell, deep merged beneath the solid ground . . . Avert your rage, if from the infernal seats one of your tribe should wish to visit our retreats."
Statius, Thebaid 8. 41 ff (trans. Mozley) (Roman epic C1st A.D.) : "Mine [Haides'] is the prison-house, now broken, of the Gigantes (Giants), and of the Titanes (Titans), eager to force their way to the world above, and his own unhappy sire [Kronos (Cronus)]."
Colluthus, Rape of Helen 48 ff (trans. Mair) (Greek poetry C5th to C6th A.D.) : "[Eris was furious at being turned away from the wedding of Peleus and Thetis :] Fain would she unbar the bolts of the darksome hollows and rouse the Titanes (Titans) from the nether pit and destroy heaven the seat of Zeus, who rules on high."
Nonnus, Dionysiaca 2. 256 ff (trans. Rouse) (Greek epic C5th A.D.) : "[Typhoeus boasts of what he intends to do after seizing the throne of heaven :] Then with his midmost man-shaped head the Gigante (Giant) yelled out threats against Zeus : ‘Smash the house of Zeus, O my hands! Shake the foundations of the universe, and the blessed ones with it! Break the bar of Olympos, self-turning, divine! Drag down to earth the heavenly pillar, let Atlas be shaken and flee away, let him throw down the starry vault of Olympos and fear no more its circling course--for I will not permit a son of Earth to be bowed down with chafed shoulders, while he underprops the revolving compulsion of the sky! No, let him leave his endless burden to the other gods, and battle against the Blessed Ones! . . . Okeanos (Oceanus) my brother shall bring his water to Olympos aloft with many-fountained throat, and rising above the five parallel circles he shall inundate the stars . . . I will keep the chains of Iapetos (Iapetus) for Poseidon; and the soaring round Kaukasos (Caucasus), another and better eagle shall tear the bleeding liver, growing for ever anew, of Hephaistos (Hephaestus) the fiery: since fire was the for which Prometheus has been suffering the ravages of his self-growing liver . . . And cannibal Kronos (Cronus) I will drag up once more to the light, another brother, to help me in my task, out of the underground abyss; I will break those constraining chains, and bring back the Titanes (Titans) to heaven, and settle under the same roof in the sky the Kyklopes (Cyclopes), sons of Gaia (Gaea).’"
Nonnus, Dionysiaca 2. 563 ff : "[Zeus gloats over the body of the defeated Typhoeus, who was sent by Gaia (Earth) to champion the cause of the Titanes (Titans) :] Kronides (Cronides) laughed aloud, and taunted him like this in a flood of words from his mocking throat : ‘A fine ally has old Kronos (Cronus) found in you, Typhoeus! Gaia could scarcely bring forth that great son for Iapetos (Iapetus)! A jolly champion of Titanes! The thunderbolts of Zeus soon lost their power against you, as I see! How long are you going to wait before taking up your quarters in the inaccessible heavens, you sceptred imposter? The throne of Olympos awaits you: accept the robes and sceptre of Zeus, God-defying Typhoeus! Bring back Astraios (Astraeus) to heaven; if you wish, let Eurynome and Ophion return to the sky, and Kronos in the train of that pair! When you enter the dappleback vault of the highranging stars, let crafty Prometheus leave his chains, and come with you; the bold bird who makes hearty meals off that rejuvenescent liver shall show him the way to heaven.’"
The Pelasgian tribes of Thrake (Thrace) were said to have been born from the blood of Titanes (Titans) or Gigantes (Giants), spilled in their war against the gods.
Lycophron, Alexandra 1358 ff (trans. Mair) (Greek poet C3rd B.C.) : "Them [the Pelasgians] who drew the root of their race from the blood of the Sithonian Gigantes (Giants)."
Strabo, Geography 7 Fragments 39 - 40 (trans. Jones) (Greek geographer C1st B.C. to C1st A.D.) : "The Paionians (Paeonians) [people of the highlands of Thrake] were called Pelagonians . . . Since the paianismos[chanting of the paian or hymn] of the Thrakians (Thracians) is called titanismos [cry to Titan] by the Greeks, in imitation of the cry uttered in paians, the Titanes (Titans) too were called Pelagonians."
Orphic Hymn 37 to the Titans (trans. Taylor) (Greek hymns C3rd B.C. to 2nd A.D.) : "O mighty Titanes (Titans). . . in Tartaros (Tartarus) profound who dwell . . . from whom began the afflicted miserable race of man: who not alone in earth's retreats abide, but in the ocean and the air reside; since every species from your nature flows, which, all-prolific, nothing barren knows."
Oppian, Halieutica 5. 4 (trans. Mair) (Greek poet C3rd A.D.) : "Someone created men to be a race like unto the blessed gods, albeit he gave them inferior strength: whether it was the son of Iapetos, Prometheus . . . or whether we are born of the blood divine that flowed from the Titanes (Titans); for there is nothing more excellent than men, apart from the gods."
For the related STORY of the birth of men from giant's-blood see THE GIGANTES
RELEASE OF THE TITANS FROM TARTARUS
Hesiod, Works and Days 156 ff (trans. Evelyn-White) (Greek epic C8th or C7th B.C.) : "And they [the heroes in Elysion (Elysium)] live untouched by sorrow in the islands of the blessed along the shore of deep swirling Okeanos (Oceanus), happy heroes for whom the grain-giving earth bears honey-sweet fruit flourishing thrice a year, far from the deathless gods, and Kronos (Cronus) rules over them; for the father of men and gods released him from his bonds. And these last equally have honour and glory."
Pindar, Pythian Ode 4. 290 ff (trans. Conway) (Greek lyric C5th B.C.) : "Does not even now great [Titan] Atlas struggle to bear up the weight of heaven, far from his fathers' land and his possessions? But almighty Zeus set free the Titanes (Titans), for as time passes and the breeze abates, the sails are set anew. [I.e. all of the Titanes were freed, even Atlas.]"
Aeschylus, Prometheus Unbound (lost play) : The Titanes (Titans) formed the chorus of Aeschylus' lost play Prometheus Unbound (Lyomenos), visiting their nephew after being released from Tartaros (Tartarus) by the clemency of Zeus. The chained hero proceeds to tell them of his benefactions to mankind and the torment he must endure.
Aeschylus, Fragment 104 Prometheus Unbound (from Arrian, Voyage in the Euxine 99. 22) (trans. Weir Smyth) (Greek tragedy C5th B.C.) : "[The Titanes (Titans) address their nephew Prometheus :] ‘We have come to look upon these thy ordeals, Prometheus, and the affliction of thy bonds.’"
Aeschylus, Fragment 107 Prometheus Unbound (from Cicero, Tusculan Disputations 2. 10. 23-25) : "[Prometheus addresses his Titan uncles :] Ye race of Titanes (Titans), offspring of Ouranos (Uranus), blood-kinsmen mine! Behold me fettered, clamped to these rough rocks."
For MORE specific stories of Titans released see KRONOS & PROMETHEUS
THE TITANS OF CRETE & THE GOLDEN AGE
Diodorus Siculus, Library of History 5. 66. 1 (trans. Oldfather) (Greek historian C1st B.C.) : "The Titanes (Titans) had their dwelling in the land about Knosos, at the place where even to this day men point out foundations of a house of Rhea and a cypress grove which has been consecrated to her from ancient times. The Titanes numbered six men and five women, being born, as certain writers of myths relate, of Ouranos (Uranus, Heaven) and Ge (Earth), but according to others, of one of the Kouretes (Curetes) and Titaia (Titaea), from whom as their mother they derive the name they have. The males were Kronos (Cronus), Hyperion, Koios (Coeus), Iapetos (Iapetus), Krios (Crius) and Okeanos (Oceanus), and their sisters were Rhea, Themis, Mnemosyne, Phoibe (Phoebe) and Tethys [he omits Theia]. Each one of them was the discover of things of benefit to mankind, and because of the benefaction they conferred upon all men they were accorded honours and everlasting fame."
Diodorus Siculus, Library of History 5. 67. 3 : "And so these gods [the Titanes], by reason of the many benefactions which they conferred upon the life of man, were not only accorded immortal honours, but it was also believed that they were the first to make their home on Mount Olympos after they had been translated from among men."
The story of the Titanes of Drepane (below) probably belonged to the same tradition.
The island of Drepane, home of Titanes (Titans) and Phaiakians (Phaeacians) was identified with both Korkyra (Corcyra) and Sikelia (Sicily).
Apollonius Rhodius, Argonautica 4. 982 ff (trans. Rieu) (Greek epic C3rd B.C.) : "In the Keraunian (Ceraunian) Sea, fronting the Ionian Straits, there is a rich and spacious island [Drepane], under the soil of which is said to lie (bear with me, Mousai (Muses); it gives me little pleasure to recall the old tale) the sickle used by Kronos (Cronus) to castrate his father Ouranos (Uranus, Sky). Others call it the reaping-hook of Demeter Khthonia (Chthonia, of the Underworld), who lived there once and taught the Titanes (Titans) to reap corn for food, in her affection for Makris (Macris). From this reaping-hook the island takes its name of Drepane, the sacred Nurse of the Phaiakians (Phaeacians), who by the same token trace their ancestry to Ouranos (Heaven)."
THE TITANS OF THRACE & ZAGREUS (THE ORPHIC MYTH)
In the story of the Thraco-Orphic godling Zagreus (a divinity combining aspects of Zeus and Dionysos) the Titanes (Titans) were a tribe of giants who dwelt on the white-chalk (titanos) peaks of Mount Titanos or Titarios in northern Thessaly. They were closely identified with the Gigantes (Giants) of Pallene who made war on the gods.
Diodorus Siculus, Library of History 5. 75. 4 (trans. Oldfather) (Greek historian C1st B.C.) : "This god [Dionysos-Zagreus] was born in Krete (Crete), men say, of Zeus and Persephone, and Orpheus has handed down the tradition in the initiatory rites that he was torn in pieces by the Titanes (Titans)."
Pausanias, Description of Greece 7. 19. 4 (trans. Jones) (Greek travelogue C2nd A.D.) : "The stories told of Dionysos by the people of Patrai (Patrae) [in Akhaia (Achaea)], that he was reared in Mesatis [in Akhaia] and incurred there all sorts of perils through the plots of the Titanes (Titans)."
Pausanias, Description of Greece 8. 37. 1 : "The first to introduce Titanes (Titans) into poetry was Homer, representing them as gods down in what is called Tartaros; the lines are in the passage about Hera's oath. From Homer the name of the Titanes was taken by [the Orphic poet] Onomakritos (Onomacritus), who in the orgies he composed for Dionysos made the Titanes the authors of the god's sufferings."
Pseudo-Hyginus, Fabulae 155 (trans. Grant) (Roman mythographer C2nd A.D.) : "Sons of Jove [Zeus]. Liber [Dionysos] by Proserpina [Persephone], whom the Titanes dismembered."
Pseudo-Hyginus, Fabulae 167 : "Liber [Dionysos], son of Jove [Zeus] and Proserpina [Persephone], was dismembered by the Titanes, and Jove gave his heart, torn to bits, to Semele in a drink. When she was made pregnant by this, Juno [Hera], changing herself to look like Semele's nurse, Beroe, said to her : ‘Daughter, ask Jove to come to you as he comes to Juno, so you may know what pleasure it is to sleep with a god.’ At her suggestion Semele made this request of Jove, and was smitten by a thunderbolt."
Nonnus, Dionysiaca 6. 155 ff (trans. Rouse) (Greek epic C5th A.D.) : "Zagreus the horned baby [son of Persephone & Zeus], who by himself climbed upon the heavenly throne of Zeus and brandished lightning in his little hand, and newly born, lifted and carried thunderbolts in his tender fingers [for Zeus meant him to be king of the universe]. But he did not hold the throne of Zeus for long. By the fierce resentment of implacable Hera, the Titanes (Titans) cunningly smeared their round faces with disguising chalk (titanos), and while he contemplated his changeling countenance reflected in a mirror they destroyed him with an infernal knife. There where his limbs had been cut piecemeal by the Titan steel, the end of his life was the beginning of a new life as Dionysos. He appeared in another shape, and changed into many forms : now young like crafty Kronides (Cronides) [Zeus] shaking the aegis-cape, now as ancient Kronos heavy-kneed, pouring rain. Sometimes he was a curiously formed baby, sometimes like a mad youth with the flower of the first down marking his rounded chin with black. Again, a mimic lion he uttered a horrible roar in furious rage from a wild snarling throat, as he lifted a neck shadowed by a thick mane, marking his body on both sides with the self-striking whip of a tail which flickered about over his hairy back. Next, he left the shape of a lion's looks and let out a ringing neigh, now like an unbroken horse that lifts his neck on high to shake out the imperious tooth of the bit, and rubbing, whitened his cheek with hoary foam. Sometimes he poured out a whistling hiss from his mouth, a curling horned serpent covered with scales, darting out his tongue from his gaping throat, and leaping upon the grim head of some Titan encircled his neck in snaky spiral coils. Then he left the shape of the restless crawler and became a tiger with gay stripes on his body; or again like a bull emitting a counterfeit roar from his mouth he butted the Titanes with sharp horn. So he fought for his life, until Hera with jealous throat bellowed harshly through the air--that heavy-resentful step-mother! And the gates of Olympos rattled in echo to her jealous throat from high heaven. Then the bold bull collapsed: the murderers each eager for his turn with the knife chopt piecemeal the bull-shaped Dionysos [Zagreus]. After the first Dionysos had been slaughtered, Father Zeus learnt the trick of the mirror with its reflected image. He attacked the mother of the Titanes [Gaia the Earth] with avenging brand, and shut up the murderers of horned Dionysos within the gate of Tartaros [after a long war]: the trees blazed, the hair of suffering Gaia (Earth) was scorched with heat . . . Now Okeanos poured rivers of tears from his watery eyes, a libation of suppliant prayer. Then Zeus clamed his wrath at the sight of the scorched earth; he pitied her, and wished to wash with water the ashes of ruin and the fiery wounds of the land. Then Rainy Zeus covered the whole sky with clouds and flooded all the earth [in the flood of Deukalion (Deucalion)]."
Nonnus, Dionysiaca 48. 41 ff : "[Gaia (Gaea) addresses the Gigantes (Giants), inciting them to make war on the gods :] ‘Wound him [Dionysos] with cutting steel and kill him for me like Zagreus, that one may say, god or mortal, that Gaia in her anger has twice armed her slayers against the breed of Kronides (Cronides) [Zeus]--the older Titanes (Titans) against the former Dionysos [Zagreus], the younger Gigantes against Dionysos later born.’"
The Titanes (Titans) were sometimes identified by the Greeks with Set, the evil god who slew and dismembered Osiris in Egyptian mythology.
Diodorus Siculus, Library of History 4. 6. 1 (trans. Oldfather) (Greek historian C1st B.C.) : "The Aigyptians (Egyptians) in their myths about Priapos [Osiris] say that in ancient times the Titanes [Set] formed a conspiracy against Osiris and slew him, and then, taking his body and dividing it into equal parts among themselves, the slipped them secretly out of the house, but this organ alone they threw into the river, since no one of them was willing to take it with him. But Isis tracked down the murder of her husband, and after slaying the Titanes [Set] and fashioning the several pieces of his body into the shape of a human figure, she gave them to the priests with orders that they pay Osiris the honours of a god, but since the only member she was unable to recover was the organ of sex she commanded them to pay to it the honours of a god and set it up in their temples in an erect position."
Pseudo-Hyginus, Fabulae 150 (trans. Grant) (Roman mythographer C2nd A.D.) : "After Juno [Hera] saw that Epaphus, born of a concubine, ruled such a great kingdom [Egypt], she saw to it that he should be killed while hunting, and encouraged the Titanes to drive Jove [Zeus] from the kingdom and restore it to Saturn [Kronos (Cronus)]. When they tried to mount tot heaven, Jove with the help of Minerva [Athene], Apollo, and Diana [Artemis], cast them headlong into Tartarus. On Atlas, who had been their leader, he put the vault of the sky; even now he is said to hold up the sky on his shoulders." [N.B. This is a conflation of various myths, including the Egyptian tale of Osiris and Set.]
HYMNS TO THE TITANS
Orphic Hymn 37 to the Titans (trans. Taylor) (Greek hymns C3rd B.C. to 2nd A.D.) : "To the Titanes (Titans), Fumigation from Frankincense. O mighty Titanes, who from Ouranos (Uranus, Heaven) and Gaia (Gaea, Earth) derive your noble and illustrious birth, our fathers' sires, in Tartaros (Tartarus) profound who dwell, deep merged beneath the solid ground: fountains and principles from whom began the afflicted miserable race of man: who not alone in earth's retreats abide, but in the ocean and the air reside; since every species from your nature flows, which, all-prolific, nothing barren knows. Avert your rage, if from the infernal seats one of your tribe should wish to visit our retreats."
CULT OF TITANS IN THE PELOPONNESE
I. TITAN CRONUS (KRONOS) IN ELIS
Pindar, Olympian Ode 1. 111 (trans. Conway) (Greek lyric C5th B.C.) : "When I come to Kronos' (Cronus') sunlit hill [at Olympia]."
Pausanias, Description of Greece 6. 20. 1 (trans. Jones) (Greek travelogue C2nd A.D.) : "Mount Kronios (Cronius), as I have already said, extends parallel to the terrace [at the sanctuary of Olympia in Elis] with the treasuries on it. On the summit of the mountain the Basilai (Kings), as they are called, sacrifice to Kronos (Cronus) at the spring equinox [the start of the new year], in the month called Elaphios (Of the Deer) among the Eleans."
Pausanias, Description of Greece 5. 7. 6 - 10 : "As for the Olympic games, the most learned antiquaries of Elis say that Kronos (Cronus) was the first king of heaven, and that in his honor a temple was built in Olympia by the men of that age, who were named the Golden Race . . . Now some say that Zeus wrestled here with Kronos himself for the throne, while others say that he held the games in honor of his victory over Kronos."
Pausanias, Description of Greece 7. 27. 11 : "Rivers come down from the mountains above Pellene [in Akhaia], the one on the side nearest Aigeira being called Krios (Crius), after, it is said, the Titanos (Titan), which rises in Mount Sipylos (Sipylus) and is a tributary of the Hermos." [N.B. Sipylos and Hermos were presumably named after the Lydian mountain and river which shared the name. Titanes (Titans) such as Prometheus and Atlas were often associated with that Anatolian kingdom.]
Pausanias, Description of Greece 4. 33. 6 : "One the road from Andania towards Kyparissiai (Cyparissiae) is Polikhne (Polichne) [in Messenia], as it is called, and the streams of Elektra (Electra) and Koios (Coeus). The names perhaps are to be connected with Elektra the daughter of Atlas and Koios the father of Leto."
Pausanias, Description of Greece 8. 27. 15 : "The river [Bouphagos (Buphagus) in southern Arkadia (Arcadia)] got its name, they say, from the hero Bouphagos (Cattle-Eater), the son of Iapetos (Iapetus) [either the Titan or a local king] and Thornax. This is what they call her in Lakonia (Laconia) also."
The Titan of Sikyonia is perhaps Hesiod's Hyperion.
Pausanias, Description of Greece 2. 11. 5 : "Having crossed the Asopos (Asopus) River again [near Titane, Sikyonia (Sicyonia)] and reached the summit of the hill, you come to the place where the natives say that Titan first dwelt. They add that he was the brother of Helios (the Sun), and that after him the place got the name Titane. My own view is that he proved clever at observing the seasons of the year and times when the sun increases and ripens seeds and fruits, and for this reason was held to be the brother of Helios (the Sun)."
For MORE information on this Titan see TITAN & HYPERION
VI. TITANS HOPLODAMUS & ANYTUS IN ARCADIA (ARKADIA)
Pausanias, Description of Greece 8. 32. 5 : "Here also [in the sanctuary of Asklepios (Asclepius) at Megalopolis, Arkadia (Arcadia)] are kept bones, too big for those of a human being, about which the story ran that they were those of one of the Gigantes (Earth-Born) mustered by Hopladamos (Hopladamus) to fight for Rhea.” [N.B. "Hoplodamos and his Gigantes" are presumably the Kouretes (Curetes).]
Pausanias, Description of Greece 8. 36. 2 : "Mount Thaumasios (Wonderful) lies beyond the river Maloitas [in Arkadia], and the Methydrians hold that when Rhea was pregnant with Zeus, she came to this mountain and enlisted as her allies, in case Kronos (Cronus) should attack her, Hopladamos and his few Gigantes (Earth-Born). They allow that she gave birth to her son on some part of Mount Lykaios (Lycaeus), but they claim that here Kronos was deceived, and here took place the substitution of a stone for the child that is spoken of in the Greek legend. On the summit of the mountain is Rhea's Cave, into which no human beings may enter save only the women who are sacred to the goddess." [N.B. These Gigantes are presumably the Kouretes (Curetes), the usual companions of Rhea.]
Pausanias, Description of Greece 8. 37. 1 : "[In the sanctuary of Despoine, near Akakesion (Acacesion), Arkadia :] By the image of Despoine [daughter of Demeter] stands Anytos (Anytus), represented as a man in armour. Those about the sanctuary say that Despoine was brought up by Anytos, who was one of the Titanes (Titans), as they are called." [N.B. Anytos was probably one of the Kouretes (Curetes).]
For MORE information on these Titan-Kouretes see HOPLODAMOS & ANYTOS
VII. YOUNGER TITANS
Prometheus was associated with Phokis (Phocis) in Central Greece, where he was said to have moulded mankind from clay; his brother Epimetheus was linked with Korinthos (Corinth) in the Peloponnese; and the daughters of Atlas were scattered throughout the region--ancestresses of the royal houses of Lakonia, Arkadia, Elis, Korinthos, and Boiotia (Boeotia).
ETYMOLOGY OF THE NAME TITAN
Hesiod derives the name "Titanes" from the Greek verb titainô meaning "to strain." The geographer Strabo, on the other hand, connects it with the titanismos, a ritual cry uttered in certain religious rites practised by the Thrakians (Thracians) to the north. The Orphic tradition alternatively has them named for titanos, white-chalk gypsum, which thte Titanes were said to have smeared on their faces when they snuck into Olympos to slay the infant god Zagreus. A mountain peak close by Olympos was also named Titanos after deposits of this mineral. Nearby flowed the river Tartaressos (cf. Tartaros), which Homer says drew its water from the netherworld Styx. It is unclear if the region was traditionally associated with the Titanes.
Hesiod, Theogony 207 ff (trans. Evelyn-White) (Greek epic C8th or C7th B.C.) : "These sons whom be begot himself great Ouranos (Sky) used to call Titanes (Titans, Strainers) in reproach, for he said that they strained and did presumptuously a fearful deed [the brothers strained to hold Ouranos down whilst Kronos castrated him]."
Strabo, Geography 7 Fragments 39 - 40 (trans. Jones) (Greek geographer C1st B.C. to C1st A.D.) : "The Paionians (Paeonians) [people of the highlands of Thrake (Thrace)] were called Pelagonians . . . Since the paianismos [chanting of the paian or hymn] of the Thrakians is called titanismos [i.e. cry to Titan] by the Greeks, in imitation of the cry uttered in paians, the Titanes too were called Pelagonians."
COMMENTARY ON THE TITANS
The Titanes were composite deities, who were represented in a number of ways through the classical age.
In the ancient cosmogonies the four represented the four great cosmic pillars which either held earth and sky asunder, or the entire cosmos aloft--Hyperion in the west, Iapetos (Iapetus) in the east, Koios (Coeus) in the north and Krios (Crius) in the south. The fifth Kronos (Cronus, Time) stood in the centre, and the sixth, Okeanos (Oceanus), circled the world in the form of the river Ocean.
Homer and Hesiod also represent them as anti-gods, divinities residing in the pit of Tartaros (Tartarus), the cosmic inverse of heaven--for just as Heaven was imagined as a solid bronze dome rising above the earth, so Tartaros was a huge pit, or reverse dome, which enclosed the underworld. The home of the Titanes in the depths of the pit, was the cosmic opposite of the apex of heaven, the home of the Olympian gods.
Hesiod also seems to imagine the Titanes as gods of time who mastered Heaven. Individually they were apparently responsible for the establishment of the portions of time:--Kronos, was time the destroyer; Krios (Crius, the Ram), leader of the constellations, and so regulator of the seasons; Koios (Coeus) (also known as Polos "the pole"), lord of the axis of heaven, around which the constellations revolved measuring the year; Hyperion, overlord of the day and night, father of sun, moon and dawn; Iapetos (Iapetus) "the piercer," Titan-god of mortal life-span and ancestor of man; and Okeanos (Oceanus) the earth-encircler, who oversaw the rising and setting of the heavenly bodies. Hesiod later confines five of the Titanes to the Tartarean pit, and Zeus assumes control over the regulation of time in their stead.
In the Cretan tradition, the Titanes were portrayed as agrarian gods who lived in the vicinity of Knossos (Cnossus) in Krete (Crete) where they ruled over mankind during the Golden Age. At this time the Earth produced an endless bounty, and presented the Titanes with the first sickle for the harvest. The Sicilian myths also speak of the Titanes harvesting the first grain. When the Titanes attempted to destroy the infant Zeus, Gaia (Gaea) and Rhea hid him away in a cave on Mount Ida from where he later returned to destroy them.
In the Thrakian (Thracian) and Thessalian tradition, the Titanes were portrayed as a barbarous tribe of giants who made war on the gods. They were almost indistinguishable from the Thrakian Gigantes (Giants) of Pallene. These barbarian gods once snuck into Olympos, their faces smeared with with white chalk (titanos), and seized the child Zagreus who was seated on the throne of heaven, removing his lightning bolts, and dismembered him with their knives. The god was reborn and the Titanes-Gigantes destroyed in the war which ensued. Certain local landmarks on the mountainous borders of Thessalia (Thessaly) and Thrake were apparently identified with this Titan-story: including the river Titaressos (c.f. Tartaros) whose murky waters were said to be drawn from the infernal Styx, and Mount Titanos or Titarios opposite Olympos whose deposits of white-chalk gypsum were the Titanes' disguise.
The individual Titanes also appear in the guise of obscure local gods with minor cults in the regions of central and southern Greece. The cult of Kronos (Cronus) was centred on the hill of Kronos at Olympia in the Peloponnese; Koios (Coeus) posssessed a stream in Messenia; Krios (Crius) one in Akhaia (Achaea) and perhaps Euboia (Euboea); Hyperion possibly had a shrine at Titane in Sikyonia (Sicyonia); and Iapetos (Iapetus) is located in the valleys of southern Arkadia (Arcadia). Second generation Titanes such as Prometheus, Atlas and Helios (Helius), and the female Titanes Themis, Dione, Rhea, Eurynome and Phoibe (Phoebe) also had minor cults scattered around the region.
Some of the Titanes were also apparently gods of foreign import : Atlas and the fire-stealing Prometheus, for example, were frequently associated with the Anatolian kingdom of Lydia. The cosmic story of five Titanes--four holding the corners of heaven--may be Phoenician in origin. Late Greek writers also equated the Titanes with Set, enemy of the god-king Osiris in Eygptian myth.
“The Aesir Against The Vanir” by Carl Ehrenberg (1882)
In Norse mythology, gods and goddesses usually belong to one of two tribes: the Aesir and the Vanir. Throughout most of the Norse tales, deities from the two tribes get along fairly easily, and it’s hard to pin down firm distinctions between the two groups. But there was a time when that wasn’t the case.
The War of the Gods
The Vanir goddess Freya was always the foremost practitioner of the art of seidr, a form of magic principally concerned with discerning and altering the course of destiny. Like historical seidr practitioners, she wandered from town to town plying her craft for hire.
Under the name Heiðr (“Bright”), she eventually came to Asgard, the home of the Aesir. The Aesir were quite taken by her powers and zealously sought her services. But soon they realized that their values of honor, kin loyalty, and obedience to the law were being pushed aside by the selfish desires they sought to fulfill with the witch’s magic. Blaming Freya for their own shortcomings, the Aesir called her “Gullveig” (“Gold-greed”) and attempted to murder her. Three times they tried to burn her, and three times she was reborn from the ashes.
Because of this, the Aesir and Vanir came to hate and fear one another, and these hostilities erupted into war. The Aesir fought by the rules of plain combat, with weapons and brute force, while the Vanir used the subtler means of magic. The war went on for some time, with both sides gaining the upper hand by turns.
Eventually the two tribes of divinities became weary of fighting and decided to call a truce. As was customary among the ancient Norse and other Germanic peoples, the two sides agreed to pay tribute to each other by sending hostages to live among the other tribe. Freya, Freyr, and Njord of the Vanir went to the Aesir, and Hoenir (pronounced roughly “HIGH-neer”) and Mimir went to the Vanir.
Njord and his children seem to have lived more or less in peace in Asgard. Unfortunately, the same can’t be said of Hoenir and Mimir in Vanaheim. The Vanir immediately saw that Hoenir was seemingly able to deliver incomparably wise advice on any problem, but they failed to notice that this was only when he had Mimir in his company. Hoenir was actually a rather slow-witted simpleton who was at a loss for words when Mimir wasn’t available to counsel him. After Hoenir responded to the Vanir’s entreaties with the unhelpful “Let others decide” one too many times, the Vanir thought they had been cheated in the hostage exchange. They beheaded Mimir and sent the severed head back to Asgard, where the distraught Odin chanted magic poems over the head and embalmed it in herbs. Thus preserved, Mimir’s head continued to give indispensable advice to Odin in times of need.
The two tribes were still weary of fighting a war that was so evenly-matched, however. Rather than renewing their hostilities over this tragic misunderstanding, each of the Aesir and Vanir came together and spat into a cauldron. From their saliva they created Kvasir, the wisest of all beings, as a way of pledging sustained harmony.[1][2][3][4]
This storyline continues in the tale of the Mead of Poetry.
Polytheism and Pluralism
This tale bears out many of the points that I make in Polytheistic Theology and Ethics. Unlike the One God of monotheistic religions, polytheistic gods are often at variance with one another and are tied to contradictory systems of values and ways of being in the world. Polytheism accepts this pluralism as inevitable and healthy. Monotheistic religions, however, try to crush this pluralism and subject everyone to the same set of values and standard of conduct.
We can catch a whiff of the monotheistic attitude in the Aesir’s initial attempt to destroy Freya for encouraging them to follow pursuits that were antithetical to their own values. Thankfully, however, the Aesir eventually realized that their attempt to kill her was futile, and that the two tribes of deities should instead learn to live side by side in an atmosphere of mutual tolerance and respect. This is a message that the defenders of a universal standard of morality have yet to learn.
Esteemed Old Norse scholar E.O.G. Turville-Petre offers the following summary of the meaning of the tale, which he places side by side with similar tales from other branches of the Indo-European family: “[T]he Norse, Irish, Roman, and Indian tales seem to serve the same purpose. They explain how gods and men, who have such different interests and ambitions, as the agriculturalist, the merchant, the warrior, and the king, can live together in harmony.”[5]
Looking for more great information on Norse mythology and religion? While this site provides the ultimate online introduction to the topic, my book The Viking Spirit provides the ultimate introduction to Norse mythology and religion period. I’ve also written a popular list of The 10 Best Norse Mythology Books, which you’ll probably find helpful in your pursuit.
References:
[1] The Poetic Edda. Völuspá, stanzas 21-24.
[2] Snorri Sturluson. Ynglinga Saga 4. In Heimskringla: eða Sögur Noregs Konunga.
[3] Snorri Sturluson. The Prose Edda. Skáldskaparmál 1.
[4] Turville-Petre, E.O.G. 1964. Myth and Religion of the North: The Religion of Ancient Scandinavia. p. 158-159.
