Hey everyone, Welcome to Mythology Explained.
In today’s video, we’re going to discuss the five most powerful monsters in ALL of Greek mythology.
Let’s get into it. Starting off our list is Medusa
There are many versions of Medusa’s myth and how she came to be a Gorgon. The older account,
the one featured in Hesiod’s Theogony, has Medusa, along with her two sisters, Euryale and Sthenno,
born as gorgons - the offspring of two primeval sea gods, Phorcys and Ceto. Later versions,
such as the one given in Ovid’s Metamorphoses, say that Medusa was originally a beautiful maiden.
Poseidon took her against her will on the floor of Athena’s temple, and then a wrathful Athena,
as punishment for the defiling of her temple, made Medusa hideous to behold. Of the three Gorgon
sisters, only Medusa was mortal, meaning she was the only one of the three that could be killed,
which is why she was singled out and made the object of Perseus’ quest. In some versions,
it’s only Medusa whose appearance petrifies, but in others, all three sisters share this ability.
Where hair should have been were tangles of writhing snakes. Tusks that could have belonged
to huge boars jutted from their jaws. Their hands were of bronze, sharper and deadlier than eagle’s
talons. A pair of great golden wings gave each of them the power of flight. And most infamous,
most perilous of all, any who beheld them were turned to stone. Rather than some epic battle,
strength against strength, Perseus, bedecked in every godly gift imaginable, Slayed Medusa
in a furtive fashion. Made invisible by a magic cap, he flew, using his magic winged sandals,
into Medusa’s cave and lopped off her head while she slept. From the gory stump spurted more than
monster’s blood; out sprung two offspring: Pegasus, the winged horse, and Chryasor,
meaning Golden-Blade. While Medusa met an untimely end when Perseus’ blade sliced cleanly through her
neck and decapitated her, the ability to turn any living creature to stone is undeniably powerful.
The version of her myth given in Ovid’s Metamorphoses is what guaranteed her place. In it,
Perseus used Medusa’s severed head to turn the Titan Atlas to stone. Extrapolating from that,
it can be deduced that Medusa’s gaze would similarly turn other immortal beings,
like gods and other titans, to stone, making it a weapon of unparalleled power in Greek mythology.
At number 4 we have the Cyclopes
Here, when we say cyclopes, we’re not talking about lesser cyclopes,
like the cave-dwelling man-eater Polyphemus that Odysseus and his crew encountered in the Odyssey.
No, we’re talking about a specific trio of cyclopes: Arges, Steropes, and Brontes. In many
respects they were similar to the Titans and gods that were to come, except for the large single eye
in the middle of their foreheads. They were the sons of Uranus, the personification of the sky,
and Gaia, the personification of the earth. They had three older siblings, the Hecatonchires,
also known as the Hundred-Handers, and 12 younger siblings, the 12 first-generation
titans. Uranus found his 6 eldest children, the cyclopes and hecatonchires, revolting,
hideous. They were anathema to him. He trussed them up and tossed them down into Tartarus,
the personification of the cavernous abyss that existed beneath the earth. Having her children
trapped deep inside of her was agonizing for Gaia, so she beseeched her children to rise up and
overthrow their father. Only Cronus, though he was the youngest, possessed that potent pairing
of audacity and ambition that propelled him into action, championing his mother. He ambushed
his father, castrating and usurping him. Under Cronus’ rule the Cyclopes and the Hecatonchires
were released, but their time in the sun was but a brief sojourn. Cronus had them reimprisoned in
Tartarus, where they remained until Zeus ventured down to the depths, killed the dragon Campe,
the jailor, and released them. The cyclopes allied themselves with the gods, and their added strength
was a boon whose value was beyond measure; for the gods were at war with the titans, and they
desperately needed every possible advantage that could tip the balance in their favor.
For Zeus and his two brothers, Poseidon and Hades, the cyclopes, all three of them master craftsmen,
gifted three of the most powerful weapons in all of Greek mythology. Zeus received the smoking
bolt to smite his enemies; Poseidon received a trident that could shake and sunder the earth;
and Hades received a helmet that endowed the wearer with perfect invisibility.
Up next we have the Giants.
As was the case for the previous entry, when we say giants, we’re not referring to the generic
sort. Rather, this entry features a specific group of Giants that were the progeny of Gaia, who,
in this case, was impregnated by the droplets of blood that fell to the earth after Uranus’
genitals were severed and flung into the sea. (The Erinyes, perhaps better known as the Furies,
were also conceived this way.) After the Titanomachy, which was the cataclysmic 10
year war fought between the gods and the titans, the belligerent titans, those who took up arms and
fought the gods for supremacy of the cosmos, were gathered and cast down into Tartarus. Having some
of her children imprisoned inside of her yet again infuriated Gaia, so she spawned the Giants to wage
war against the gods. The giants were mortal, but they were also god-like in their power, described
by Apollodorus as “unsurpassed in size and unassailable in strength”. Fearsome and ferocious,
thick black hair covered their heads and cheeks, and their legs were serpentine mosaics of dragons’
scales. They attacked Olympus itself, hurling into the heavens barrage after barrage of boulders and
flaming trees. An oracle revealed that the Giants couldn’t be killed by the gods alone, that it
would take the combined efforts of both mortal and divine to quash the giant threat. Gaia also
learned of this and so began a frantic search for a herb that would grant her children immortality,
but Zeus forestalled her efforts, darkening the land by commanding the dawn, the sun, and the moon
to stop shining and plucking the herb for himself. At the same time, He instructed Athena to go forth
and fetch Hercules so that he could join the fray, for only with this hero’s mortal
might could the gods achieve victory. The giants were slaughtered, utterly destroyed. Each battle
between a god and a giant was punctuated by a few killing shots from Hercules’ bow.
At number 2 we have the Hecatonchires.
The Hecatonchires, Briareus, Cottos, and Gyes, were a trio of monstrous creatures.
In size and strength, only Typhon was superior. They were colossal, true behemoths, and their
strength was superlative. In the Iliad, there’s a scene described in which the mere presence of
one Hecatonchires is enough to intimidate Hera, Athena, and Poseidon into abandoning their coup
against Zeus. The Hecatonchires were known as the Hundred-Handers because each of their
shoulders supported a rippling knot of 50 arms. Surmounting the mantle of their shoulders were 50
heads - the thought of which conjures up an image of barnacles competing for real estate on a rock.
They were the oldest children of Gaia and of Uranus, meaning they were the older
brothers of the three cyclopes and of the 12 first generation Titans. Uranus thought the
Hecatonchires abominations, perversions of form, monstrous multitudes of grotesque appendages,
so he trussed them up and tossed them into Tartarus. Their interminable incarceration
was interrupted During the Titanomachy, when Zeus plunged into the depths of the earth,
killed Campe, the dragon that Guarded Tartarus, and freed them, winning them as allies. In the
war against the Titans, the Hecatonchires were an indomitable force and one of the main reasons the
Gods won the war. They rained down destruction upon the titans, launching volley after volley
of massive stone projectiles. Each handful gouged from the earth left a lake-sized crater behind.
For them, mountain ranges were like an archer’s quiver. The gods and the Hecatonchires working
in concert made their victory inexorable. The titans were overwhelmed, subdued,
and banished to Tartarus. The Hecatonchires, rather than being imprisoned for a third time,
became the new jailors of Tartarus, guarding its entrance, ensuring no one escaped.
Taking the top spot is Typhon.
Typhon was, unequivocally, the most powerful monster in Greek mythology. His powers were
so great that, of all the gods and all the titans, only Zeus could best him in combat.
Typhon’s attack on Olympus was the last real threat the gods had to contend with.
First there was the Titanomachy, then there was the giant uprising,
and finally, there was Typhon. The defeat - extermination, really, of the Giants,
consumed Gaia with rage. To exact revenge, she had intercourse with Tartarus. Their offspring,
Typhon, was the most terrible creature to ever walk the earth. He towered over mountains,
striding over them as one would step over stones on a river bed, and the stars above brushed
against him like a ceiling of leaves and branches on an overgrown trail; and it was said that,
with his arms fully outstretched, he could simultaneously reach the farthest Western
and Eastern points of the world. From his arms sprouted the heads of 100 strangling snakes,
and beneath his thighs was a mass of slithering viper coils. Wings of every sort covered his
whole body, and his eyes burned, like each socket was the mouth of a volcano. In size and strength,
no one else - not even Zeus - could match him, and were it not for Zeus’ lightning bolts,
all of creation surely would have been under the yoke of a brutal and barbarous
tyrant. There are many disparate versions that describe the battle between Zeus and Typhon.
In Hesiod’s Theogony, Zeus makes short work of Typhon, unleashing an onslaught of lightning that
lance Typhon’s multitude of bestial heads like hot pins lancing clusters of boils.
After being reduced to a charred husk, Typhon is cast into the depths of Tartarus.
However, Other versions, such as the one told in Apollodorus’ Bibliotheca, described a struggle
that easily could have gone Typhon’s way were it not for the intervention of other gods.
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