Ichor › The Titans of Greek myth
The Titans of Greek myth
The Titans are the generation of gods before the Olympians. They are children of Gaia (Earth) and Uranus (Sky), and their rule ended in a great war.
Where the Titans fit
In Hesiod's Theogony, the first beings are Chaos, Gaia, Tartarus and Eros. Gaia gives birth to Uranus, and together they have twelve Titans, the Cyclopes and the Hundred-Handers. Uranus hates his monstrous children and keeps them hidden. Gaia urges the Titans to rebel, and the youngest, Cronus, castrates his father with a sickle.
The twelve Titans
Hesiod names six male and six female Titans:
- Oceanus – the great river encircling the world
- Coeus and Phoebe – parents of Leto, mother of Apollo and Artemis
- Crius
- Hyperion and Theia – parents of Helios (Sun), Selene (Moon) and Eos (Dawn)
- Iapetus – father of Prometheus, Epimetheus and Atlas
- Cronus – king of the Titans
- Rhea – wife of Cronus and mother of the first Olympians
- Themis – goddess of divine law and order
- Mnemosyne – memory, mother of the Muses
- Tethys – wife of Oceanus
The Titanomachy
Cronus, warned that one of his children would depose him, swallowed each of them. His wife Rhea saved Zeus, who forced his father to disgorge the others. The Olympians then fought the Titans for ten years. Zeus freed the Cyclopes and Hundred-Handers from Tartarus to help; the Cyclopes gave him the thunderbolt. After defeat, most Titans were locked in Tartarus, a deep prison below the earth.
Titans who escaped punishment
Not all Titans were punished. Prometheus and Themis sided with Zeus. Oceanus stayed out of the war. Prometheus later helped humans by stealing fire, which angered Zeus (see myths), and was chained to a rock while an eagle ate his liver. Atlas, who fought for Cronus, was punished by being made to hold up the sky. Hesiod places him at the western edge of the world.
What came after
Later tradition has Zeus eventually release the Titans or Cronus, ruling the Isles of the Blessed in some versions. Pindar mentions this in one of his poems. Note that the sources do not agree, a point worth remembering in all of Greek myth.
Titans versus Olympians
The word "Titan" is not the same as "giant". The Giants are another group, born from Gaia, who later fought the Olympians in the Gigantomachy. Writers sometimes blur them. For the gods who won, see the Olympians. For creatures like the Cyclopes, see monsters.
Titans in later culture
The word Titan has passed into English for anything huge, and gave its name to the moon of Saturn and the ship Titanic. In art and literature, the Titans stand for older, rawer forces that the Olympians tamed. Look for the Titanomachy on Greek vases and in sculpture, though the Gigantomachy, the war with the Giants, was a more popular subject for temple decoration.
Reading the Theogony
Hesiod's Theogony is short and rewarding, and most translations are only a few dozen pages. It is the best single source for the Titans, the birth of the Olympians and the war between them. Read it with notes, because Hesiod's family trees are crowded. Introductions in Penguin or Oxford editions explain the context.
Frequently asked questions
Who was the king of the Titans?
Cronus, who overthrew his father Uranus and was later overthrown by his son Zeus.
Are Titans and Giants the same?
No. In Hesiod the Titans are the children of Gaia and Uranus, and the Giants are a separate group born from Uranus's blood.
Why did Atlas hold up the sky?
As punishment after the Titanomachy, in Hesiod's account.