Titans and Giants

Titans and Giants

by Ignazio Caloggero

Reference page: Repertory of Cults and Myths

Some authors of the past do not seem to distinguish Titans and Giants perhaps because they are all sons of Uranus and Gea and superimposing the myth of the Gigantomachy on that of the Titanomachy.

The Titans and the Titanomachy

The myth of the Titans is somehow linked to the evolution of the religious thought of the ancient Greeks which from a natural religion which saw the divinization of the various phenomena of nature evolved into an anthropomorphic sense in which the divinities ceased to be mere expressions of natural phenomena, and took on a physical aspect (and not only) similar to that of man [1].

In reading Hesiod's Theogony, the poem that deals with the origin of the world and of the gods, one can observe this evolution: the various deities, who in a first phase personify the physical aspects of nature and constitute real natural powers, they later assume a more noble and spiritual caliber, becoming moral gods. The struggle between the Titans and the Olympic gods (Titanomachy) symbolizes, in fact, this evolution of Greek religious thought.

In Hesiod's Theogony it is said: in the beginning there was Chaos, empty space, infinite nothingness, then came Gaea (the Earth), Tartarus (the depths beneath the Earth), and Eros (Love). Gaea gave birth to Uranus (the Sky), the mountains, and Pontus (the Sea); she united with Uranus, thus giving birth to the Titans, who were no longer elemental powers of nature but true gods: Oceanus, Coeus, Crius, Hyperion, Iapetus, Thea, Rhea, Themis, Mnemosyne, Phoebe, Tethys, and Cronus ; she also gave birth to the Cyclopes and the Hecatonchires , hundred-armed giants. Uranus wanted to hide the Cyclopes and the Hecatonchires in Tartarus, but Gaea did not like this, and she instigated Cronus to dethrone him. Having seized power, Cronos mated with Rhea, who bore him Hestia, Demeter, Hera, Hades (Pluto), Poseidon, and Zeus . Fearing that one of his children would cause him to suffer the same fate as he had caused their father Uranus, he swallowed them one by one. Rhea, tired of seeing all her children devoured by Cronos, hid Zeus when he was born and gave him, in place of the baby, a stone wrapped in diapers. Zeus, therefore, survived and, once he grew up, decided to seize power for himself. So, aided by Metis, he gave his father a drug to drink, which caused Cronos to vomit out all his previously devoured children. Later, Zeus, aided by his brothers whom he had brought back to life, the Cyclopes, and the Hecatonchires, whom he freed from the underground where Cronos had imprisoned them, declared war on Cronos and the Titans. After 10 years of fierce fighting, the gods, who had settled on the summit of Mount Olympus (between Thessaly and Macedonia), and who were therefore called the Olympian gods, succeeded, led by Zeus, in dethroning Cronus and chasing the Titans into Tartarus (the deep abyss). In the division of power, Zeus obtained the Sky and dominion over the entire universe, Poseidon the Sea, and Hades (Pluto) the underworld.

The Giants and the Gigantomachy

The fight of the Titans is destined to be carried on by the Giants, not by chance also children of the Earth (Gaia) born from the blood of Uranus castrated by Cronos, the same blood that made Sicily fertile, falling on it [2]

Giants, even if of divine origin, are mortal, if killed at the same time by a God and a mortal. Their birth is essentially linked to Gaia's desire for revenge to avenge the Titans enclosed in Tartarus. Their physical characteristic was that they were of enormous stature and terrifying in appearance, half human and half beast with legs usually ending in the bodies of snakes.

The legend of the Giants is mainly linked to their fight against the gods and their defeat told in the Gigantomachy (battle of the giants).

Twenty-four Giants participated in the Gigantomachy. The first to be killed was Alcyoneus, killed by Heracles with the help of Athena, who advised him to send him away from his homeland. Heracles carried him far from Pallene, his native town, and shot him with an arrow. Porphyrion was struck by lightning by Zeus. Ephialtes was killed by an arrow shot by Apollo, Eurytus was killed by Dionysus, Clytius by Hecate, Mimas by Hephaestus, and Pallas by Athena. In essence, almost all the Giants had escaped, and the survivors tried to escape. Among the fugitives was Enceladus, but the goddess Athena buried him under a huge mound of earth she collected from the coasts of the continent. Enceladus, defeated, became an integral part of the land that came to be known as the island of Sicily . The remainder were struck by lightning by Zeus and finished off by Heracles with his arrows.

According to the version of the Gigantomachy by Claudius Claudianus (370-408 AD), some Giants were thrown into the Lucus Jovis (grove sacred to Jupiter) by Zeus (Jupiter). This location is thought to correspond to the Bosco di Aci.

Giants killed by Hercules - Villa Romana del Casale

The Myth in the IWB Register of the Sicily Region

The places of the Myth of the people of the Giants have been included by the Sicily Region in the LIM Register (Places of Identity and Memory of Sicily), sector of the Places of the gods and minor divinities.

The places concerned are:

Lentini (from Syracuse)
Wood of Aci (Acireale-province of Catania)
Messina

The choice by the Sicilian Region of Lentini and Messina is likely to have influenced the following elements:

Lentini : the fact that the myth of the Giants has been, even by many authors of the past, included within that of the Laestrygonians, another ancient legendary population who are said to have inhabited the territory of Lentini.

Messina : in Messina every year in August, during the Messina August events, the Giants' Walk takes place in honor of the myth of the two giants "Mata and Grifone" who, according to tradition, founded Messina.

As already indicated in my volume “Culti dell'Antica Sicilia” in the “Giantess” Mata we can find a syncretic element that puts her in relation with the myth of Cybele [3]

Some writers of the past have called the statues of the Giant and the Giantess, Ham and Rhea, others Saturn and Cybele, or Zancle and Rhea and also, as we know them now, Grifone and Mata. This last name has sometimes been changed to Mother, perhaps by mistake or perhaps because both Rhea and Cybele were actually seen as mothers; in fact, Ham and Rhea were considered by the population as progenitors.

The Giant and the Giantess were dressed as warriors, both on horseback, the Giantess had on her head a turreted crown similar to the one with which Cybele was often depicted [4]

Even now, Mata is depicted with her head surrounded by a turreted crown.

Mata and Grifone – Manifestation of August Messina[5]