| Gigantes | |
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 Detail of the Sala dei Giganti in the Palazzo del Te, Mantua, c. 1530, Giulio Romano | |
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Other Names |
Giants, Gigas |
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First Appearance |
Greek Myths |
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Created by |
Unknown |
Origin[]
A Giant fighting Artemis. Illustration of a Roman relief in the Vatican Museum.
In Greek and Roman mythology, the Giants, also called Gigantes, were a race of great strength and aggression, though not necessarily of great size. They were known for the Gigantomachy (also spelled Gigantomachia), their battle with the Olympian gods.
The name "Gigantes" is usually taken to imply "earth-born". According to Hesiod, the Giants were the offspring of Gaia (Earth), born from the blood that fell when Uranus (Sky) was castrated by his Titan son Cronus. From these same drops of blood also came the Erinyes (Furies) and the Meliai (ash tree nymphs), while the severed genitals of Uranus falling into the sea resulted in a white foam from which Aphrodite grew.
Archaic and Classical representations show Gigantes as man-sized hoplites (heavily armed ancient Greek foot soldiers) fully human in form. Later representations (after c. 380 BC) show Gigantes with snakes for legs. Hesiod calls the Giants "strong" (κρατερῶν) and "great" (μεγάλους) which may or may not be a reference to their size. Though a possible later addition, the Theogony also has the Giants born "with gleaming armour, holding long spears in their hands".
In later traditions, the Giants were often confused with other opponents of the Olympians, particularly the Titans, an earlier generation of large and powerful children of Gaia and Uranus.Ovid also seems to confuse the Hundred-Handers with the Giants, whom he gives a "hundred arms". So perhaps do Callimachus and Philostratus, since they both make Aegaeon the cause of earthquakes, as was often said about the Giants.
Over time, descriptions of the Giants make them less human, more monstrous and more "gigantic". According to Apollodorus the Giants had great size and strength, a frightening appearance, with long hair and beards and scaly feet. Ovid makes them "serpent-footed" with a "hundred arms", and Nonnus has them "serpent-haired".
There are three brief references to the Gigantes in Homer's Odyssey, though it is not entirely clear that Homer and Hesiod understood the term to mean the same thing. Homer has Giants among the ancestors of the Phaiakians, a race of men encountered by Odysseus, their ruler Alcinous being the son of Nausithous, who was the son of Poseidon and Periboea, the daughter of the Giant king Eurymedon. Elsewhere in the Odyssey, Alcinous says that the Phaiakians, like the Cyclopes and the Giants, are "near kin" to the gods. Odysseus describes the Laestrygonians (another race encountered by Odysseus in his travels) as more like Giants than men. Pausanias, the 2nd century AD geographer, read these lines of the Odyssey to mean that, for Homer, the Giants were a race of mortal men.
There was a prophecy that the Giants could not be killed by the gods alone, but they could be killed with the help of a mortal. Hearing this, Gaia sought for a certain plant (pharmakon) that would protect the Giants. Before Gaia or anyone else could find this plant, Zeus forbade Eos (Dawn), Selene (Moon) and Helios (Sun) to shine, harvested all of the plant himself and then he had Athena summon Heracles.
According to Apollodorus, Alcyoneus and Porphyrion were the two strongest Giants. Heracles shot Alcyoneus, who fell to the ground but then revived, for Alcyoneus was immortal within his native land. So Heracles, on Athena's advice, dragged him beyond the borders of that land, where Alcyoneus then died (compare with Antaeus). Porphyrion attacked Heracles and Hera, but Zeus caused Porphyrion to become enamoured of Hera, whom Porphyrion then tried to rape, but Zeus struck Porphyrion with his thunderbolt and Heracles killed him with an arrow.
Other Giants and their fates are mentioned by Apollodorus. Ephialtes was blinded by an arrow from Apollo in his left eye, and another arrow from Heracles in his right. Eurytus was killed by Dionysus with his thyrsus, Clytius by Hecate with her torches, and Mimas by Hephaestus with "missiles of red-hot metal" from his forge. Athena crushed Enceladus under the Island of Sicily and flayed Pallas, using his skin as a shield. Poseidon broke off a piece of the island of Kos called Nisyros, and threw it on top of Polybotes (Strabo also relates the story of Polybotes buried under Nisyros but adds that some say Polybotes lies under Kos instead). Hermes, wearing Hades' helmet, killed Hippolytus, Artemis killed Gration with her bow and arrows, and the Moirai killed Agrius and Thoas with bronze clubs. The rest of the giants were "destroyed" by thunderbolts thrown by Zeus, with each Giant being shot with arrows by Heracles (as the prophecy seemingly required).
The vanquished Giants were said to be buried under volcanoes and to be the cause of volcanic eruptions and earthquakes.
Public Domain Appearances[]
All published appearances of Gigantes from before January 1, 1930 are public domain in the US.
Public Domain Literary Appearances[]
- Theogony
- Titanomachia Fragments
- Pindar, Odes
- Greek Lyric IV Bacchylides, Fragments
- Greek Lyric V Anonymous, Fragments
- Eumenides
- Aristophanes, Birds
- Euthyphro
- Republic
- Apollodorus, The Library
- Apollonius Rhodius, The Argonautica
- Callimachus, Hymns
- Callimachus, Fragments
- Lycophron, Alexandra
- The Library of History
- Strabo, Geography
- Description of Greece
- Imagines
- Life of Apollonius of Tyana
- Cynegetica
- Fall of Troy
- Dionysiaca
- Greek Papyri III Anonymous, Fragments
- Fabulae
- Astronomica
- Metamorphoses
- Fasti
- Georgics
- Elegies
- De Natura Deorum
- Hercules Furens
- Oedipus
- Valerius Flaccus, The Argonautica
- Thebaid
- The Suda
Notes[]
- A list of named Gigantes can be found here.