Hey everyone, welcome to Mythology Explained. In today’s video we’re going to take a
look at the Giants, a formidable race that challenged the gods, and at the Gigantomachy,
which was the calamitous war fought between the gods and the giants. And to give you an
idea of what’s in store, here’s Apollodorus’ description of the giants: “unsurpassed
in size, unassailable in their strength, and fearful to behold because of the thick hair
hanging down from their head and cheeks” The titans definitely get the lion’s share
of the attention, but the giants were also incredibly powerful and weren’t to be trifled
with.
Let’s get into it.
In Greek mythology, there were two types of giants. The first type featured an array of
characters, all unrelated to each other, who were of enormous size. Examples of this type
include the giants Otus and Ephialtes, known for storming mount Olympus and stuffing Ares
in a bronze jar, Talos, a bronze giant, and Orion, a giant who was a master hunter. The
other type of giants was the race of giants spawned from the droplets of blood that fell
to the earth from Uranus’ severed genitals after he was castrated and thereby Usurped
by his youngest son Cronus. The Erinyes, commonly known as the furies, were created in the same
way, also spawning from the earth after Uranus’ blood saturated and impregnated the earth.
According to Apollodorus, Gaia was furious with the gods after the Titanomachy. All of
the titans who fought against Zeus - except for Atlas who was sentenced to hold up the
sky for eternity - were cast down into the depths of Tartarus. Gaia wished for her children
to be free, so she absorbed the droplets of Uranus’ blood, became impregnated, and then
birthed a new race of beings, the giants, a race with god-like power. The war that ensued
was called the Gigantomachy, and it was the penultimate conflict Olympus would have to
content with: the last major threat Olympus was assailed by was the monster Typhon, a
son of Gaia and Tartarus and the most powerful monster in Greek mythology. To put all the
major conflicts in order, it went: Titanomachy, the war against the titans, then Gigantomachy,
the war against the giants, and then the battle against Typhon.
An oracle revealed to the gods that they could not, by themselves, kill the giants, but if
they enlisted the aid of a mortal, then the giants would fall. For this reason, Hercules
was recruited by the gods to aid them in their fight against the Giants. Gaia also learned
of this prophecy, and because she didn’t want her children to die, she sought a herb
that would render the giants impervious to the damage any mortal could inflict. However,
Zeus prevented Gaia from procuring this herb by finding it first and picking it for himself.
He accomplished this by ordering the sun, the dawn, and the moon to not shine, leaving
the world in darkness, disrupting Gaia’s search and allowing him to obtain the herb
first.
One version had the Gigantomachy being started by Gaia when she created the giants with the
intention of having them wage war against the gods as retribution for the interminable
punishment - eternal damnation, really - her children were subject to after their defeat.
Another had the war begin when Gaia sought the herb, which would have made the giants
more powerful and, thus, an even greater threat to Olympus, one that needed to be nipped in
the bud. And yet another version had the gigantomachy begin because of the actions of one giant.
Alcyoneus, by some accounts, stole the cattle of Helios, a transgression that escalated
to all out war. And in addition to sometimes being the impetus for the Gigantomachy, Alcyoneus
was also one of the two most powerful giants. It was said that he could not perish while
fighting on the land of his birth. Hercules filled him with arrows, but when Alcyoneus
fell to the earth, his vitality and vigor returned to him. Hercules had to drag Alcyoneus
beyond the boundaries of Pallene, the land in which the giants were born, at which point
death finally took the giant. Another of the most powerful giants was Porphyrion. He unleashed
a vicious attack against Hera and Hercules, but Zeus filled the giant with a deep lust
for Hera, disrupting the attack by diverting the giant’s efforts towards sexual gratification.
While Porphyrion pursued Hera, trying to rape her, Zeus launched lighting bolts at him and
Hercules pin-cushioned him with arrows. The Giant fell dead.
Though the giants attacked the heavens, hurling a barrage of boulders and flaming tree trunks;
in the end, they were no match for the gods. Apollo shot a giant through the right eye
at the same time Hercules shot an arrow through the left. Dionysus struck a giant dead with
a blow from his Thyrsus. Hecate killed one with her torches. Hephaestus killed one with
a bombardment of missiles of red-hot iron. Athena killed two, crushing one under an island
she hurled and flaying another, Pallas, keeping the skin to protect her. Poseidon killed one
by breaking off part of an island and throwing it at a giant. Hermes, wearing Hades’ cap
of darkness killed one, and Artemis killed one. Even the Fates took up arms, wielding
bronze cudgels. The rest were destroyed by Zeus’ lightning bolts. And each one, as
they lay dying, were shot with arrows fired by Hercules.
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