Titans (Greek Mythology)

As I mentioned before at ‘Greek Creation Myth of the Universe’ article Titans are the children of Uranus (Heaven) and Gaia (Earth). According to Hesiod’s Theogony there were 12 original Titans: the brothers Oceanus, Coeus, Crius, Hyperion, Iapetus, and Cronus and the sisters Thea, Rhea, Themis, Mnemosyne, Phoebe, and Tethys. The mighty Titans were a powerful race that ruled the world before Olympians, in a time of the Golden Age of men. They were immortal giants of incredible strength and knowledge of old religion rituals and magic. They are also known as the Elder Gods and their dwelling place was at Mount Othrys. The word ‘titanic’ refers to the great size and power of the Titans, attributes necessary to make their defeat by their children, the Olympians, more impressive. At the instigation of Gaea the Titans rebelled against their father, who had shut them up in the underworld (Tartarus). Under the leadership of Cronus who castrated his father with a sickle and threw his genitalia into the sea they deposed Uranus and set up Cronus as their ruler. Cronus later learned of a prophecy that said his son would eventually overthrow him and did everything he could to prevent it. However, the prophecy came true and Zeus managed to dethrone him and end the age of the Titans, after the Titanomachy, the great war between Titans and Olympians.

12 Titans

Mnemosyne: Goddess of memory. She is the mother of the nine Muses.
Tethys: Sister and wife of Oceanus, mother of the Potamoi and the Oceanids
Theia: With her brother/consort Hyperion, they are the parents of Helios (the Sun), Selene (the Moon), and Eos (the Dawn).
Phoebe: Probably a Titan goddess of prophecy and oracular intellect. She’s the mother of Leto and Asteria.
Rhea: She is known as “the mother of gods” because Greeks saw her as the mother of the Olympian gods and goddesses.
Themis: She is the personification of divine order, fairness, law, natural law, and custom.
Oceanus: Divine personification of the sea
Hyperion: With his sister Theia, he’s teh father of Helios (Sun), Selene (Moon) and Eos (Dawn).
Coeus: He’s not an active role in Greek mythology
Cronus: He was the leader of the first generation Titans.
Crius: He’s not an active role in Greek mythology
Iapetus: He was the father of Atlas, Prometheus, Epimetheus and Menoetius

Cronus’s Rule

The first thing Cronus did was to save his siblings who were placed undergroud by his father. Cronus’s brother Oceanus and his sister Tethys from their union came the ocean nymphs, also referred to as the three-thousand Oceanids, and all the rivers of the world, fountains, and lakes. Titan Hyperion married his sister Thea. From this marriage Helios (The Sun), Selene (The Moon) and Eod (The Dawn) were born. Crios united with Erubia, the daughter of the Earth and Sea, and from this union  came forth Astrseus, Pallas and Perses. The union of Astraeus and Eos, the goddess of dawn, produced the winds.

Titan Coeus married his sister Phoebe and from this marriage Leto and Asteria, the star goddess, were born. Another Titan Iapetus married Oceanus’s daughter Clymene and their offsprings were Atlas, Menoetius, Epimetheus and Prometheus who each became a subjects of legends. Cronus married his sister Rhea and from this marriage came forth the third-generation Olympian gpds. Thede were Hestia, Demeter, Hera, Poseidon, Hades and Zeus.

Birth of Zeus

Cronus, who attained power by killing his father, feared that his children would do the same thing and thus began to swallow his newborn children.Hestia, Demeter, Hera, Hades and Poseidon were in their father’s stomach. This made Rhea very sad but she did not know how to help, until she thought of a cunning trick when her last child Zeus born.

When the baby came into the World, she took him to Crete in the darkness of the night and hid him in a cave in the depths of a forest. She deceived her husband Cronus by wrapping a stone and presenting it as the newborn. The Curetes slammed their shields together and danced so that the sound of the crying baby in the cave would not be heard by his father. The baby was fed by the Nymph Amalthea with goat’s milk and grew up in the fresh forest air. Thus he thrived day by day and became a young man. Finally, he took action against his father Cronus and saved his siblings by making him throw up all of the children that he had swallowed, one by one. He imprisoned his father in the depths of the ground. Zeus was forming the third generation of gods in Olympus, while Cronus’s Titan siblings were waging war against Zeus.

Titanomachy

Zeus then waged a war against his father with his disgorged brothers and sisters as allies: Hestia, Demeter, Hera, Hades, and Poseidon. The Titans were divided into two. Oceanus, Hyperion, Themis and Mnemosyne sided with Zeus. The second generation Titans such as Prometheus and his brother Epimetheus remained unbiased. Zeus went underground and released the Hecatonchires with hundred arms and the Cyclopes (where they had been imprisoned by Cronus) the single eyed giants, who were all chained underground. Atlas was an important leader on the side of Cronus. The Titans were fightings from Mount Othrys and Zeus was fighting from Mount Olympus. They threw large Stones at each other. The giants with hundred arms, who were on the side of Zeus, were throwing 300 stones at them at one time. When the war continued at full speed, the single-eyed Cyclopes helped Zeus by gifting him with thunder and lightining.

This war named Titanomachia, which was waged in the two high hills of Thessaly, lasted ten years and resulted in Zeus defeating the Titans who were not able to withstand the his thunderbolts. Zeus imprisoned the Titans underground, shackled them and left the hundred-armed giants as guards over them. Atlas was given the special punishment of holding up the sky. Titanomachy is also mentioned in several different contexts, such as the clash between Prometheus and Zeus, or Hera and her famous jealousies against Zeus.

End of Titans

Zeus was able to beat the Titans; however, Mother Earth, who could not stand the defeat of her offsprings, gave birth to a giant monster named Typhoon and made him attack Zeus. Zeus knocked him down with his thunderbolts and declared his dominion inn Olympus. Zeus shared the universe with his siblings and formed the Olympian group of gods. He took charge of the sky. He gave Poseidon the sea, Hades the underworld. The Earth and Olympus were accepted as common property. He equipped his other siblings Demeter, Hestia and Hera with multiple Powers and took them on as partners to his rule. He had children born from the goddesses he married to and he brought them to Olympus as well and gave them powers. Hesiod’s Works and Days preserves the idea of the Titans as the golden race, happy and long-lived. The notion developed further under the Romans—who identified Cronus with Saturn—into a golden age of peace and prosperity.