Titan

The Fall of the Giants (J. Jordaens, C.E.1636-38)

Titans (Τῑτᾶνες), are pre-Olympic deities of Greek mythology.

Quotes about Titans:

• I fueled his desire to free his brothers and sisters from Kronos, but my foolish act of mercy would have doomed the Titans forever. Because by saving Zeus we allowed him to return to us thirsty for revenge. He betrayed all the Titans to punish the sins of just one. The sins of his father, Cronos. (Gaia, God of War II)
• «He who toils, strives», i.e. Titan, is the title we reserve for Cronus, his eleven sons and a good part of their progeny. Uranus meant it as an insult, but for one reason or another the name has echoed from age to age with an accent of grandeur. Even today no one would feel insulted if they called him a Titan. (Stephen Fry)
• You will have plenty of time to act, unleash the Titans, your monstrous gang! (Hercules)
• Kratos saw before him the last ancient rulers of the Earth, the mighty Titans. Defeated by the Gods and chained in the Abyss of Tartarus, they suffered an unjust punishment. Such was their torment that everyone knew how vehemently these immortal beings hated the Olympian deities. (God of War: Chains of Olympus)
• The oldest stories in the world are written in the stars. Stories of a previous age of men and gods whose land was ruled by the Titans. The Titans were powerful, but their kingdom fell at the hands of the sons they had fathered: Zeus, Poseidon and Hades. (Clash of the Titans)
• I happened to see a titan darning his socks. It was his first titanic effort. (Stanisław Jerzy Lec)

Note:

• Hansen, p. 302; Grimal, p. 457 s.v. Titans; Tripp, p. 579 s.v. Titans; Rose, p. 1079 s.v. Titan; Smith, s.v. Titan 1..
• Hesiod, Theogony 133–138.
• Hesiod, Theogony 337–370.
• Hesiod, Theogony 404–409.
• Hesiod, Theogony 375–377.
• Hesiod, Theogony 371–374.
• Hesiod, Theogony 507–511.
• Hesiod, Theogony 453–458.
• Hesiod, Theogony 901–906, although at Theogony 217 the Moirai are said to be the daughters of Nyx (Night).
• Hesiod, Theogony 915–920.
• Parada, p. 179 s.v. TITANS; Smith, s.v. Titan 2.; Rose, p. 143 s.v. Atlas, p. 597 s.v. Leto, p. 883 s.v. Prometheus; Tripp, p. 120 s.v. Atlas, p. 266 s.v. Helius, p. 499 s.v. Prometheus.
• Hesiod, Theogony 132–138, 337–411, 453–520, 901–906, 915–920; Caldwell, pp. 8–11, tables 11–14.
• One of the Oceanid daughters of Oceanus and Tethys, at Hesiod, Theogony 351. However, according to Apollodorus, 1.2.3, a different Oceanid, Asia was the mother, by Iapetus, of Atlas, Menoetius, Prometheus, and Epimetheus.
• Although usually, as here, the daughter of Hyperion and Theia, in the Homeric Hymn to [[Hermes]{ (4), 99–100, Selene is instead made the daughter of Pallas the son of Megamedes.
• According to Plato, Critias, 113d–114a, Atlas was the son of Poseidon and the mortal Cleito.
• In Aeschylus, Prometheus Bound 18, 211, 873 (Sommerstein, pp. 444–445 n. 2, 446–447 n. 24, 538–539 n. 113) Prometheus is made to be the son of Themis.
• Although, at Hesiod, Theogony 217, the Moirai are said to be the daughters of Nyx (Night).
• Fowler C.E.2013, pp. 8, 11; Hard, pp. 36–37, p. 40; West C.E.1997, p. 147; Gantz, p. 11; Burkert 1995, pp. 91–92; West C.E.1983, pp. 119–120. According to Epimenides (see Fowler C.E.2013, pp. 7–8), the first two beings, Night and Aer, produced Tartarus, who in turn produced two Titans (possibly Oceanus and Tethys) from whom came the world egg.
• Homer, Iliad 14.201, 302 [= 201], 245. According to West C.E.1997, p. 147, these lines suggests a myth in which Oceanus and Tethys are the "first parents of the whole race of gods." And, although Gantz, p. 11, points out that, "mother" may simply refer to the fact that Tethys was Hera's foster mother for a time, as Hera tells us in the lines immediately following, while the reference to Oceanus as "the genesis of gods" might be a "formulaic epithet" referring to the innumerable rivers and springs who were the sons of Oceanus (compare with Iliad 21.195–197), Hypnos' description of Oceanus as "genesis for all" is hard to understand as meaning other than that, for Homer, Oceanus was the father of the Titans.
• Gantz, pp. 11–12, 743; West C.E.1983, pp. 117–118; Fowler 2013, p. 11; Plato, Timaeus 40d–e.
• West C.E.1983, pp. 118–120; Fowler 2013, p. 11; Plato, Cratylus 402b [= Orphic fr. 15 Kern].
• Apollodorus, 1.1.3, 1.3.1. Dione is also the mother of Aphrodite by Zeus in the Iliad, 5.370, 3.374; but in the Theogony, 191–200, Aphrodite was born from the foam which formed around Uranus' severed genitals when Cronus threw them into the sea.
• Gantz, p. 743.
• Bremmer, p. 5, calls Hyginus' genealogy "a strange hodgepodge of Greek and Roman cosmogonies and early genealogies".
• Hyginus, Fabulae Theogony 3.
• Pausanias, 8.37.5.
• Hansen, p. 302: "As a group the Titans are the older gods, the former gods, in contrast to the Oympians, who are the younger and present gods".
• West C.E.2007, p. 162; Hard, p. 35; West C.E.1997, pp. 111, 298; Hesiod, Theogony 424, 486. As noted by Woodard, p. 154 n. 44, Theogony 486: Οὐρανίδῃ μέγ’ ἄνακτι, θεῶν προτέρων βασιλῆι, which some interpret as meaning Cronus "former king of the gods" (e.g. Evelyn-White), others interpret as meaning Cronus "king of the former gods" (e.g. Most, pp. 40, 41; Caldwell, p. 56; West C.E.1988, p. 17), for an argument against "former king" see West C.E.1966, p. 301 on line 486 θεῶν προτέρων.
• Hard, p. 35: "The essential point is that the Titans [are] the former ruling gods who were banished from the upper world when the present devine order was established."; West C.E.1983, p. 164: "The Titans are by definition the banished gods, the gods who have gone out of the world"; West C.E.1966, p. 200 on line 133.
• Gantz, pp. 45–46; West 1966, p. 200 on line 133; Hesiod, Theogony 729 ff., 807–814; Homer, Iliad 8.478–481, 14.274, 14.278–279; 15.225; Aeschylus (?), Prometheus Bound 221.
• Woodard, pp. 96–97; West 1966, p. 201.
• Woodard, p. 97; Hesiod, Theogony 697.
• Gantz, p. 46; Homeric Hymn to Apollo (3) 334–339.
• Athanassakis and Wolkow, p. 140; Burkert C.E.1985, p. 200, which gives the Titans as an example of "chthonic gods"; Homer, Iliad 14.270–279.
• Woodard, p. 92; Hard, pp. 34–35; Burkert C.E.1995, p. 94; Caldwell, p. 36 on lines 133-137; West C.E.1966, p. 200.
• West C.E.1966 p. 36, which, concerning Hesiod's list of names, says: "Its very heterogeneity betrays its lack of traditional foundation. Rhea, Zeus' mother, must be married to Kronos, Zeus' father. Hyperion, as father of Helios, must be put back to that generation; so must ancient and venerable personages as Oceanus and Tethys, Themis and Mnemosyne. By the addition of four more colourless names (Koios, Kreios, Theia, and Phoibe), the list is made up to a complement of six males and six females";cf. West C.E.1966, p. 200 on line 133.
• Hard, p. 34.
• Hard, p. 35; West C.E.1966 pp. 200–201 on line 133.
• Caldwell, p. 36 on lines 133-137.
• West C.E.1966 pp. 36, 157–158 on line 18.
• Hard, pp. 65–69; West C.E.1966, pp. 18–19.
• For a detailed account of Titanomachy and Zeus' rise to power see Gantz, pp. 44–56.
• Hesiod, Theogony 132–153.
• Hesiod, Theogony 154–155. Exactly which of these eighteen children Hesiod meant that Uranus hated is not entirely clear, all eighteen, or perhaps just the Cyclopes and the Hundred-Handers. Hard, p. 67; West C.E.1988, p. 7, and Caldwell, p. 37 on lines 154–160, make it all eighteen; while Gantz, p. 10, says "likely all eighteen"; and Most, p. 15 n. 8, says "apparently only the ... Cyclopes and Hundred-Handers are meant" and not the twelve Titans. See also West C.E.1966, p. 206 on lines 139–53, p. 213 line 154 γὰρ. Why Uranus hated his children is also not clear. Gantz, p. 10 says: "The reason for [Uranus'] hatred may be [his children's] horrible appearance, though Hesiod does not quite say this"; while Hard, p. 67 says: "Although Hesiod is vague about the cause of his hatred, it would seem that he took a dislike to them because they were terrible to behold". However, West C.E.1966, p. 213 on line 155, says that Uranus hated his children because of their "fearsome nature".
• Hesiod, Theogony 156–158. The hiding place inside Gaia is presumably her womb, see West C.E.1966, p. 214 on line 158; Caldwell, p. 37 on lines 154–160; Gantz, p. 10. This place seems also to be the same place as Tartarus, see West 1966, p. 338 on line 618, and Caldwell, p. 37 on lines 154–160.
• Hesiod, Theogony 159–172.
• Hesiod, Theogony 173–182; according to Gantz, p. 10, Cronus waited in ambush, and reached out to castrate Uranus, from "inside [Gaia's] body, we will understand, if he too is a prisoner".
• Hard, p. 67; West C.E.1966, p. 19. As Hard notes, in the Theogony, although the Titans were freed as a result of Uranus' castration, apparently the Cyclopes and Hundred-Handers remain imprisoned (see below), see also West C.E.1966, p. 214 on line 158.
• Hesiod, Theogony 453–467.
• Hesiod, Theogony 468–484. Mount Aigaion is otherwise unknown, and Lyctus is nowhere else associated with Zeus' birth, later tradition located the cave on Mount Ida, or sometimes Mount Dikte, see Hard, pp. 74–75; West C.E.1966, pp. 297–298 on line 477, p. 300 on line 484.
• Hesiod, Theogony 485–491.
• Gantz, p. 44; Hesiod, Theogony 492–500.
• Hesiod, Theogony 501–506; Hard, pp. 68–69; West C.E.1966, p. 206 on lines 139–153, pp. 303–305 on lines 501–506. According to Apollodorus, 1.1.4-5, after the overthrow of Uranus, the Cyclopes (as well as the Hundred-Handers) were rescued from Tartarus by the Titans, but reimprisoned by Cronus.
• Gantz, p. 45; West C.E.1966, p. 340 on line 632; Hesiod, Theogony 630–634. As noted by West, locating the Titan's on Othrys was "presumably ... simply because it was the principal mountain on the opposite side of the [Thessalian] plain: There is no evidence that it was really a seat of gods as Olympus was. Elsewhere it is said that the Titans formerly occupied Olympus itself". For Titans on Olympus, see Hesiod, Works and Days 110–111; Aeschylus (?), Prometheus Bound 148; Apollonius Rhodius, Argonautica 1.503–508, 2.1232–1233.
• Hesiod, Theogony 624–721. This is the sequence of events understood to be implied in the Theogony by, for example, Hard, p. 68; Caldwell, p. 65 on line 636; and West C.E.1966, p. 19. However according to Gantz, p. 45, "Hesiod's account does not quite say whether the Hundred-Handers were freed before the conflict or only in the tenth year. ... Eventually, if not at the beginning, the Hundred-Handers are fighting".
• This’s the usual interpretation of Theogony 734–735 (e.g. Hard, p. 68; Hansen, pp. 25, 159, adding the caveat "presumably"; Gantz, p. 45). However according to West C.E.1966, p. 363 on lines 734–5: "It is usually assumed that the Hundred-Handers are acting as prison guards (so Tz. Th. 277 τοὺς Ἑκατόγχειρας αὺτοῖς φύλακας ἐπιστήσας). The poet does not say this—πιστοὶ φύλακες Διὸς probably refers to their help in battle, cf. 815 κλειτοὶ ἐπίκουροι". Compare with Theogony 817–819.
• Gantz, pp. 1, 11, 45.
• Hard, p. 36; Homer, Iliad 14.278–279. Compare with Iliad 14.274: "the gods that are below with Cronus", and repeated at Iliad 15.225.
• Homer, Iliad 8.478–481.
• Homer, Iliad 14.203–204.
• Gantz, pp. 45–46.
• Homeric Hymn to Apollo (3), 334–339.
• Aeschylus(?), Prometheus Bound 201–223.
• Hard, pp. 68–69; Gantz, pp. 2, 45; West C.E.1983, p. 123; Apollodorus, 1.1.1–1.2.1. As for Apollodorus' sources, Hard, p. 68, says that Apollodorus' version "perhaps derived from the lost Titanomachia or from the Orphic literature"; see also Gantz, p. 2; for a detailed discussion of Apollodorus' sources for his account of the early history of the gods, see West C.E.1983, pp. 121–126.
• Apollodorus, 1.1.3.
• Apollodorus, 1.1.1–1.1.2.
• Apollodorus, 1.1.4.
• Apollodorus, 1.1.5. The release and reimprisonment of the Hundred-Handers and Cyclopes, was perhaps a way to solve the problem in Hesiod's account of why the castration of Uranus, which released the Titans, did not also apparently release the six brothers, see Fowler C.E.2013, p. 26; West C.E.1966, p. 206 on lines on lines 139–53. In any case, as West C.E.1983, pp. 130–131, points out, while the release is "logical, since it was indignation at their imprinsonment that led Ge to incite the Titans to overthrow Uranos," their reimprisonment is needed to allow for their eventual release by Zeus to help him overthrow the Titans.
• Apollodorus, 1.1.5–1.2.1.
• Apollodorus, 1.2.1.
• Gantz, p. 45; West C.E.1966, p. 308 on line 509; Hyginus, Fabulae 150. According to Gantz: "Likely enough Hyginus has confused stories of Hera's summoning of the Gigantes to her aid (as in the Homeric Hymn to Apollo) with the overthrow of the Titans."
• Hesiod, Theogony 729–734, translation by Glenn W. Most.
• Gantz, pp. 45–46.
• Homer, Iliad 8.478–481.
• Fowler C.E.2013, p. 11; Hard, p. 37; Gantz, pp. 28, 46; West C.E.1983, p. 119.
• Hesiod, Theogony 337–398. The translations of the names used here follow Caldwell, p. 8.
• Homer, Iliad 14.200–204.
• Aeschylus (?), Prometheus Bound 286–289.
• Gantz, pp. 30–31.
• Gantz, p. 46; Hard, p. 37.
• Gantz, pp. 46, 154.
• Gantz, p. 46.
• Gantz, p. 45; West C.E.1966, p. 308 on line 509; Hyginus, Fabulae 150.
• Hesiod, Theogony 514–516.
• Gantz, pp. 40, 154; West C.E.1966, p. 308 on line 510; Apollodorus, 1.2.3.
• Gantz, pp. 40, 154–166; Hesiod, Theogony 521–534.
• Aeschylus (?), Prometheus Bound 201–223.
• Gantz, p. 46.
• Hesiod, Theogony 901–906, 915–920.
• Gantz, pp. 38–39; Homer, Iliad 445–448, 20.72, 21.497–501, 21.502–504, Odyssey 576–581.
• Gantz, p. 44.
• Homeric Hymn to Apollo (3) 93.
• Homeric Hymn to Demeter (2) 441–444.
• Bacchylides, fr. 42 Campbell, pp. 294, 295.
• Gantz, p. 46; Burkert C.E.1985, p. 221; West C.E.1966, p. 358.
• Gantz, pp. 46–48.
• Pindar, Pythian 4.289–291.
• Gantz, p. 47; West C.E.1978, p. 195 on line 173a.
• Pindar, Olympian 2.69–77.
• Gantz, pp. 46–47; West C.E.1988, p. 76, note to line 173; West 1978, pp. 194–196, on lines 173a–e.
• Beckman, pp. 155–156, 162 fig. 7.7.
• Rutherford, pp. 51–52; West C.E.2007, p. 162; West C.E.1997, p. 299; Archi, pp. 114–115.
• Woodard, p. 92; Hard, pp. 34–35; Burkert C.E.1995, p. 94; Caldwell, p. 36 on lines 133-137; West C.E.1966, p. 200. Although the Titan's mythology seems certainly to have been imported, whether the Titans were originally a group of gods native to Mycenean Greece, upon whom this borrowed mythology was simply overlaid is unknown. According to West C.E.1966, p. 200: "it is probable that the Titans were taken over from the Orient as part of the Succession Myth, or else that they were gods native to Mycenean Greece but similar enough to the ‘older gods’ of the Near East to be identified with them"; while according to Hard, p. 35: "There may have been an early group of native gods of that name who were identified with the former gods of the imported myth; or else the name Titan was simply a title that was applied by the Greeks to gods of eastern origin. There is no way of telling which alternative is true, and it makes no practical difference in any case, since we know nothing whatever of the original nature of the Titans if they had once enjoyed a separate existence in Greece.".
• For detailed discussions of the parallels of the Greek succession myth in Near East mythology, see Woodard, pp. 92–103; West C.E.1997, pp. 276–333; West C.E.1966, pp. 19–31.
• West C.E.1997, p. 278; West C.E.1966, p. 20.
• Woodard, pp. 92–98; West C.E.1997, pp. 278–280; West C.E.1966, pp. 20–21; Burkert 1985, p. 127.
• West C.E.2007, p. 162; West 1997, p. 298; Archi, p. 114.
• Rutherford, pp. 51–52; West C.E.2007, p. 162; West C.E.1997, p. 299; Archi, pp. 114–115.
• Woodard, p. 99; West C.E.1983, p. 102.

West 1997, p. 139; West 1966, p. 200.

• West C.E.1997, p. 299; Burkert C.E.1995, p. 94, with p. 203 n. 24.
• Nilsson, p. 202 calls it "the cardinal myth of Orphism"; Guthrie, p. 107, describes the myth as "the central point of Orphic story", Linforth, p. 307 says it is "commonly regarded as essentially and peculiarly Orphic and the very core of the Orphic religion", and Parker C.E.2002, p. 495, writes that "it has been seen as the Orphic 'arch-myth'.
• West C.E.1983, pp. 73–74, provides a detailed reconstruction with numerous cites to ancient sources, with a summary on p. 140. For other summaries see Morford, p. 311; Hard, p. 35; March, s.v. Zagreus, p. 788; Grimal, s.v. Zagreus, p. 456; Burkert 1985, pp. 297–298; Guthrie, p. 82; also see Ogden, p. 80. For a detailed examination of many of the ancient sources pertaining to this myth see Linforth, pp. 307–364. The most extensive account in ancient sources is found in Nonnus, Dionysiaca 5.562–70, 6.155 ff., other principle sources include Diodorus Siculus, 3.62.6–8 (= Orphic fr. 301 Kern), 3.64.1–2, 4.4.1–2, 5.75.4 (= Orphic fr. 303 Kern); Ovid, Metamorphoses 6.110–114; Athenagoras of Athens, Legatio 20 Pratten (= Orphic fr. 58 Kern); Clement of Alexandria, Protrepticus 2.15 pp. 36–39 Butterworth (= Orphic frs. 34, 35 Kern); Hyginus, Fabulae 155, 167; Suda s.v. Ζαγρεύς. See also Pausanias, 7.18.4, 8.37.5.
• West C.E.1983, p. 160 remarks that while "many sources speak of Dionysus' being 'rent apart' ... those who use more precise language say that he was cut up with a knife".
• Linforth, pp. 307–308; Spineto, p. 34. For presentations of the myth which include the anthropogony, see Dodds, pp. 155–156; West C.E.1983, pp. 74–75, 140, 164–166; Guthrie, p. 83; Burkert C.E.1985, pp. 297–298; March, s.v. Zagreus, p. 788; Parker C.E.2002, pp. 495–496; Morford, p. 313.
• See Spineto pp. 37–39; Edmonds C.E.1999 Archived 2011-04-14 at the Wayback Machine, 2008, 2013 chapter 9; Bernabé 2002, 2003; Parker 2014.
• Plutarch, On the Eating of Flesh 1.996 C; Linforth, pp. 334 ff. Edmonds C.E.1999, pp. 44–47 Archived 2011-04-14 at the Wayback Machine.
• Arnobius, Adversus Gentes 5.19 (p. 242) (= Orphic fr. 34 Kern); Nonnus, Dionysiaca 6.206–210.

Edmonds C.E.1999, p. 40 Archived 2011-04-14 at the Wayback Machine; Olympiodorus, In Plato Phaedon 1.3 (= Orphic fr. 220 Kern); Spineto p. 34; Burkert C.E.1985, p. 463 n. 15; West C.E.1983, pp. 164–165; Linforth, pp. 326 ff..

• Harrison, p. 490.
• West C.E.1983.
• Woodard, p. 97; Hard, p. 35; West 1966, p. 200; Rose, p. 1079 s.v. Titan.
• Caldwell, p. 40 on lines 207-210; Hesiod, Theogony 207–210. For a discussion see West 1966, p. 225–226 on line 209 τιταίνοντας.
• Rose, p. 1079 s.v. Titan, calls Hesiod's derivation "fanciful", while Hard, p. 35, describes it as "obviously factitious", adding that "there is some ancient evidence to suggest that it may have meant 'princes' or the like"; while West p. 225 on line 209 τιταίνοντας, says that "it is not clear how or why the Titans 'strained'".
• Harrison, pp. 491 ff.