The Titans were the oldest gods in Greek mythology.
They were the children of Uranus, the Sky, and Gaia, the Earth.
They preceded the Olympian gods.
They were not revered as the other deities, but by contrast, they helped clarify the position
of the Olympians in the world of mythology.
The main source from which we learn about the existence of the primordial gods is the
work of Hesiod, "Theogony".
According to it, in the beginning, there was Chaos.
The first forces to emerge from Chaos were the Abyss, the Earth also known as Gaia, and
Love, known as Eros.
From Chaos also sprang the Night, Day, and Darkness, also known as Erebus.
From Gaia appeared Uranus, which represented the sky, the Nymphs, and Pontus, who represented
the sea.
The union between Earth and Sky created the Cyclops, the 12 titans, and three Hecatonchires.
These, the last, were giants with 100 arms.
In the first generation of Titans, there were only twelve.
The male Titans were Oceanus, Hyperion, Coeus, Cronus, Crius, and Iapetus.
The female titans were Mnemosyne, Tethys, Theia, Phoebe, Rhea, and Themis.
The second generation consisted of the children of Hyperion: Eos, Helios, and Selene.
The daughters of Coeus: Leto and Asteria, the sons of Iapetus: Atlas, Prometheus, Epimetheus
and Menoetius, the daughter of Oceanus: Metis, and the sons of Crius: Astraeus, Pallas, and
Perses.
The first generation of Titans was also known as the elder gods.
Their leader was Cronus.
After locking the Cyclops and Hecatonchires in Tartarus, Cronus led the Titans in a revolt
against their father, an act entirely encouraged by their mother Gaia.
She gave Cronus a diamond sickle to castrate Uranus.
According to some myths, the throwing of the genitals of Uranus into the waters of the
sea, led to the birth of the goddess Aphrodite and from the gushing blood appeared the Furies,
the Giants, and the Meliads, the nymphs of the ash tree.
Cronus took the place of his father as king of the gods, with Rhea as wife and queen.
Rhea gives birth to a new generation of gods, the sons of Cronus.
Gaia and Uranus predicted to Cronus that he will be dethroned by one of his own children.
To prevent this from happening, he swallowed all his children as they were born: Hestia,
Demeter, Hera, Hades, and Poseidon.
Only Zeus, who had been sent by his mother Rhea to a cave in Crete, escaped this fate.
To fool Cronus, Rhea let him swallow a stone wrapped in baby clothes, which he didn't check.
Zeus would take revenge on his father and later have him release all his brothers, forcing
him to swallow a potion invented by his grandmother Gaia.
Cronus vomited the stone and then, one by one, in the reverse order of their birth,
all the children he swallowed.
Together with his brothers and sisters who came back to life, Zeus started his most important
war, named Titanomachy, the battle against the Titans who ruled the destinies of the
world.
The mythical battle, took place according to tradition, in Thessaly.
The Titans being on Mount Othrys, and the Olympians on Mount Olympus.
The battle is known as the War of the Titans.
It is said that the battle between the Titans and the Olympians, for gaining control over
the skies, lasted 10 years.
Gaia promised victory to Zeus, with the condition of freeing the Cyclops who were still imprisoned
in Tartarus.
Zeus accepted, and the Cyclops rewarded him by giving him the thunder and lightning, which
would become his constant attributes.
The Olympians benefited from the help of the Cyclops, but also the help of the Hecantonchirs
and Giants, who had also been released.
With this extra help, the balance tilted in favor of the Olympians when the Hecatonchires
began throwing huge boulders at the Titans.
Some of the Titans were locked in a great abyss in the darkest and deepest part of Tartarus.
With massive gates made by Poseidon, with the three Hecatonchires as guards, the Titans
could no longer threaten the order established by the Olympian gods.
Zeus assumed the role of leader of the new pantheon.
The Titans who had not fought the Olympians, Mnemosyne, Gaia, Rhea, Hyperion, Themis, and
Metis, played important roles in the new order.
Some of them became consorts of Zeus and received a place on Mount Olympus as mothers of the
gods.
The Titans left behind several more children, the most important being the sons of Iapetus.
Some of them revolted and received severe punishments.
For example, Atlas was condemned to carry the sky on his shoulders.
Prometheus was chained by a stone and an eagle was let to feed on his liver every day.
This was the story of the Titans and the war lost to the gods of Olympus.
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