Ancient Greek Mythology - Clash of the Titans

 

The Titans gods held reign over the Golden Age. The Titans came before the Olympians, but under the leadership of Zeus. It was indeed the Olympians who overthrew the Titans in the Titanomachy (War of the Titans).

Historically, the Titans were the children of Uranus (“Heaven”) and Gaia (“Earth”). There were six male Titanes (Coeus, Oceanus, Crius, Iapetus, Hyperion, and Cronus) and six female Titanides (Rhea, Theia, Themis, Phoebe, Mnemosyne, and Tethys). Cronus, who was the youngest of the family, was the ultimate ruler.

The Titane Cronus overthrew Uranus at the behest of his mother, Gaia. Uranus led the imprisonment in Gaia’s belly of the Titans’ six giant brothers — the Cyclopes and Hecatonchires (hundred-handed giants). Led by Cronus, the Titanes ambushed their father. Four of the siblings were given posts at each corner of the world: Hyperion, Coeus, Crius, and Iapetus held Uranus down while Cronus utilized a sickle to castrate him. The brothers personified the great pillars in near-Eastern cosmologies that hold heaven and earth apart, or sometimes the whole cosmos aloft.

The Titanes then released their brothers the Cyclopes and Hecatonchires from the belly of Gaia, but they subsequently imprisoned them again in quickly in Tartarus’ pit.

Now Cronus was king of the Titans, and Rhea was at his side as the queen. Many of the children of the Titans were also called Titans, including Hyperion’s children: Eos, Helios, and Selene; Coeus’ daughters: Asteria and Leto; and Iapetus’ sons: Atlas, Prometheus, Epimetheus, and Menoetius.

The Titanomachy

Gaia and Uranus gave the prophecy that Cronus’ son would overthrow the Titanes, and therefore, at the birth of each of his offspring, Cronus swallowed them immediately. The only offspring who was spared this fate was Zeus; wrapping swaddling clothes around a stone, Rhea gave Cronus the mock baby, and she sent the infant Zeus to hide Crete.

Once he entered into his adulthood years, Zeus made Cronus disgorge all six of his siblings. These younger gods freed the Cyclopes and Hecatonchires from Tartarus, allying with them to challenge the elder gods for Titanomachy power. Subsequently, Zeus, Hades, and Poseidon were presented gifts from the three Cyclopes to strengthen their war efforts: Zeus was given the thunderbolt, Hades was presented the Helmet of Darkness, and Poseidon obtained the trident. In preparation for the very first battle, Hades utilized the power of his helmet, becoming invisible and entering into the Titans’ camp unnoticed – destroying all of their weaponry in the meantime. For ten years, the war waged, ending with the younger gods emerging victorious.

According to some accounts, Cronus and the Titans were afterwards released, and the old Titane became king of Elysium. Oceanus continuously encircled the entire world, and Phoebe’s name was given for an epithet to Apollo. However, some of the Titans who did not fight the Olympians stayed on: for example, Mnemosyne stayed as a Muse.

Cronus

Cronus, the God of Time for the Titans, overthrew his father, Uranus, and he was the ruler throughout the mythological Golden Age, until he was overthrown by his son Zeus. He was imprisoned in Tartarus and then sent to rule the paradise of Elysium Fields.

Cronus sired the gods Demeter, Hera, Hades, Hestia, Poseidon, and Zeus by his wife Rhea. However, fearful of a prophecy that predicted Cronus would be overthrown by his own offspring, he subsequently swallowed all of his children right after birth – thus creating the imagery that Time is all-devouring.

Fortunately, Rhea devised a plan to save their youngest child, Zeus, from Cronus’ fateful mouth. Whisking Zeus away into hiding in Crete, Rhea instead fed Cronus a rock, disguised with baby swaddling clothes, to eat.

When Zeus became an adult, he came back for his father – forcing him to disgorge all of Zeus’ siblings that had been swallowed. Subsequently, Zeus became the leaders of the Olympians, who waged a 10 year war fighting the Titans – eventually defeating them into the Tartarus’ pit.

Those who desired a hearty crop would worship Cronus, as he was known to oversee grains, agriculture, and even time progression as it related to humans. He was commonly illustrated with a sickle, used to harvest and also well known as the weapon utilized against Uranus.

Other children Cronus is reputed to have fathered include Chiron, by Philyra, and Eris, by Nyx.

Oceanus

The Greeks believed that the ocean, particularly the Atlantic, was an enormous river encircling the world, personified as the Titane Oceanus, son of Uranus and Gaia (Poseidon ruled the Mediterranean). He was often illustrated with a muscular man’s upper body, featuring a beard that graced his shoulders. In addition to his bull horns, or occasional crab claws, Oceanus was gifted with a fish or serpent’s lower torso.

Oceanus’s wife was his sister Tethys; their children were the ocean nymphs and all of the world’s rivers, fountains, and lakes. He was also the god who regulated the rising and setting of the heavenly bodies, which rose and set into his watery realm.

In most accounts of the Titanomachy, Oceanus, along with Prometheus and Themis, withdrew from the conflict. In addition, Oceanus took his own stand, refusing to work with Cronus in revolting against Uranus, their father.

Coeus

Coeus was considered the intelligent Titan (sometimes called Polus), son of Uranus and Gaia. His sister was Phoebe, the Titan of brilliance and the moon, and together, they birthed Asteria and Leto. Leto later gave birth to Artemis and Apollo, children of Zeus. After helping his brother Cronus overthrow their father Uranus, Coeus fell victim to overthrow, concocted by the Olympians and Zeus. Coeus’s alternate name, Polos (”of the northern pole”), suggests he was the Titan of the pillar of the north. As god of the axis of heaven around which the constellations revolved, Coeus was probably also a god of oracles.

Hyperion

Hyperion was the Titan god of light, and son of Uranus and Gaia. His wife was Theia, the “lady of the ether”—the shining blue sky. Their children were the lights of heaven–Eos the dawn, Helios the sun, and Selene the moon. Hyperion presided over the pillar of the west.

A moon of Saturn is named Hyperion; it is one of the largest highly irregular (non-spherical) bodies in the solar system.

Iapetus

Iapetus presided over the east pillar of the world. He and his wife, an Oceanid named Clymene, were parents of Atlas, Prometheus, Epimetheus, and Menoetius and through the first three, a human race’s ancestor. Iapetus was mentioned by Homer in the Iliad as being in Tartarus with Cronus.

Crius

Crius presided over the south pillar of the cosmology. With Eurybia, who was the daughter of Gaia and Pontus, he was the father of Astraius, Perses, and Pallas. When Astraius and Eos, who was the dawn, came together, Eosphorus was created, who represented all of the winds and other stars.

Tethys

Tethys, daughter of Uranus and Gaia, was a Titanide and sea goddess, who was simultaneously Oceanus’ wife and sister. With this relationship, she reigned as mother of the Potamoi (rivers), Oceanides (springs, streams and fountains) and Nephelai (clouds).

She was pictured with wings on her brow, in the role of mother of rain-clouds. She often appears next to Eileithyia, the goddess of childbirth, and her fish-tailed husband Oceanus.

When Hera was unhappy with the constellational location of the Ursa Major and Minor, she called upon Tethys, who was her nurse, for assistance. In response, Tethys ensured that the constellations would never fall below the horizon of the water, thus causing the constellations to continuously move in circles around the sky.

A moon of Saturn and the prehistoric Tethys Ocean are named after this Titanide.

Theia

Theia was the Titan goddess of sight and the ether. She was also called Euryphaessa, “wide-shining,” the goddess of glitter. In this guise she gave gold, silver and gems brilliance. Theia married Hyperion, the Titan-god of light, and birthed Helios the sun, Eos the dawn, and Selene the moon.

There was an oracular shrine to Theia in Phthiotis in Thessaly. The other Titanides were likewise oracular goddesses–Phoebe held Delphi, Mnemosyne Lebadeia, Rhea Dodona, and Themis shared the four.

Rhea

The mother of all the Olympic gods, Rhea, represented the goddess of motherhood and female fertility. In translation, her name is constituted of the words “ease” and “flow.” Reigning as the wife of the God of Time, Cronus, Rhea was also symbolic of the generational flow of time for all of eternity. Her flow was represented by blood from menstruation, birthing waters, and nourishing milk. Continuing her nurture role, Rhea was also considered the goddess of ease and comfort. Rhea was usually depicted as a matron, wearing a crown, either seated on a throne surrounded by lions or in a chariot drawn by lions.

Rhea was mother to Demeter, Hades, Hera, Hestia, Poseidon, and Zeus. When her husband Cronus was warned of a prophecy about his overthrow by one of his offspring, he subsequently swallowed each child upon birth. To save her youngest, Rhea hid Zeus away in Crete, while she gave Cronus a swaddling clothes covered rock to eat instead.

Themis

Themis (meaning “law of nature”) was the Titan goddess of divine order, law, and custom. (Judges were often referred to as themistopoloi–servants of Themis.) She set down the primal laws of justice and morality, rules of customary conduct, such as piety, hospitality, good governance, and conduct.

Zeus fathered her children the Horae, embodiments of the rightness of Order unfolding in Time, and Astraea. She was often represented seated beside Zeus’s throne advising him on divine law and the rules of fate. When Themis is disregarded, Nemesis brings just retribution.

Mnemosyne

Mnemosyne was the Titan goddess of memory and the inventor of language and words. She was the mother of the Muses by Zeus. Mnemosyne was also a goddess of time, representing the rote memorization required, before the introduction of writing, to preserve the sagas of myth and history. The Muses were originally patron goddesses of the poets of the oral tradition. According to Hesiod, kings and poets received gifts of authoritative speech from Mnemosyne and their relationship with the Muses.

Phoebe

Phoebe was the Titan goddess of the “bright” intellect, wife of Coeus. They had two daughters: Leto, the mother of Artemis and Apollo, as well as Asteria, who was a star-goddess giving birth to Hecate.

Her shrine was the Oracle of Delphi, which she later gave to her grandson Apollo. Therefore, her name would eventually be utilized synonymously with Artemis, but also as an Apollo epithet.

The Titans in Popular Culture

• Today, the titanium element is named after the Titans.

• Titan is the largest moon of Saturn, the only moon known to have a dense atmosphere.

• “Titanic” refers to something of enormous size and power. This is something of a misnomer because while powerful, the Titans weren’t giants (that was the Gigantes). The RMS Titanic, the giant flying bird Titanis Walleri, and the world’s largest flower, the Titan arum, are all named after the Titans.

• Despite the name, no actual Titans appeared in the film “Clash of the Titans.”