Hey everyone, welcome to Mythology Explained. In today’s video, we’re going to discuss the all-out
war between the gods and the titans, a war so devastating that it remade the face of the earth,
a war so important that it decided who would sit highest and rule the cosmos.
Let’s get into it.
Just as important as the war itself were the events that lead up to it,
so we’re going to spend a little time setting the stage by exploring the preamble. First there were
the primordial deities, who were succeeded by the Titans, who were, in turn, superseded by the gods.
Cronus, the youngest and boldest of the titans, learnt of a prophecy that foretold his
downfall at the hands of one of his children, and he must have been especially paranoid of such an
eventuality; for it was he who overthrew his own father, Uranus, the personification of the sky,
by castrating him. The strategy Cronus employed was to swallow his children whole as soon as
they were born, but his consort, the titan goddess rhea, grew more distraught with each
child she lost, until she reached her tipping point and resolved to save her youngest child.
She swaddled a stone in baby’s wrappings and proffered it to Cronus in Zeus’ stead,
and Cronus, not suspecting even an inkling of trickery, promptly swallowed the stone.
Unbeknownst to Cronus, though, Zeus was whisked away and raised in secret, where he grew into a
paragon of power, strong of body and keen of mind. Once the bloom of manhood was upon him,
he made a triumphant return with the goal of casting his father down from his lofty seat,
but to accomplish this, he would need allies, so Zeus’ first move was to free his siblings.
Now, there are multiple accounts that detail exactly how Zeus
was able to force Cronus to disgorge the five gods - Zeus’ five siblings - he had
swallowed. Per Apollodorus’ account, Zeus enlisted the aid of Metis,
who contrived for Cronus to imbibe an emetic, which purged the titan’s stomach and brought
up all who were imprisoned within. First came the stone, which was swallowed in Zeus’ stead,
then the gods in this order: Poseidon, Hades, Hera, Demeter, and finally, Hestia.
Far from concluding quickly, the war raged for ten long years. The pillars of the earth shook
and the heavens trembled. Creation was the anvil, and the war was the smith’s hammer;
and each blow was cataclysm unleashed upon the land. The topography of the world was remade a
hundred times over as whole mountain ranges tumbled and the seas roiled. It was as if an
all-consuming tempest enveloped the earth in a cloud of destruction. Perpetual fire and flood
replaced the intermittency of sun and rain that blessed gentler times free of strife and sunder.
The gods were formidable, but alone against the titans, they could not secure victory.
Neither side could strike a blow from which the other could not recover, nor could either side
capture a meaningful advantage. Fortunately, the gods, due to the maltreatment suffered by
some under the yoke of the titans, were able to rally others to their cause.
Gaia prophesied that the gods would end the war
if they travelled to Tartarus and freed her other children.
In addition to the titans, Gaia and Uranus had six other children, three cyclopes and three
hecatonchires. Uranus found these six to be abominations, so he imprisoned them within the
earth; and Cronus, once he had risen to power, also kept them imprisoned, perpetuating their
incarceration in the deep dark beneath the earth. Well, as you can imagine, Neither the
Cyclopes nor the Hecatonchires were ecstatic about being trapped underground for years uncounted.
Lead by Zeus, the gods traveled to Tartarus, slayed the dragon Campe, and rescued both the
Cyclopes and the Hecatonchires, all of whom were eager for there to be a new king of the cosmos,
one who wouldn’t condemn them to an eternity in the black caverns below the earth.
The Cyclopes joined the war effort by crafting awesome weapons, weapons of
unsurpassed power, for the gods. Zeus was given the thunderbolt, Poseidon, a trident that could
shake the earth, and Hades, a cap of darkness that granted the wearer perfect invisibility.
The Hecatonchires contributed by joining the fray. They were among the mightiest monsters in Greek
mythology, peerless in both size and strength. 50 arms grew from each shoulder, and 50 heads crowned
the breadth of their shoulders. They were heavy artillery. It was as if all the world was their
quiver. They plucked mountains from the face of the earth, and bombarded the titans with them;
and with 100 arms a piece, waves of 300 enormous projectiles crashed over the titans, again, again,
and again, almost like the fragments of some destroyed planet were raining down from the sky.
Coinciding with this was Zeus’ decision to shed all restraint and finally unleash his unbridled
power. The mountain volleys were joined by an onslaught of thunderbolts. The combined force
of this attack overwhelmed the titans, who were beaten into submission and imprisoned in Tartarus.
And it should be mentioned that another factor that worked heavily in the gods’ favour
was that not all of the titans actually fought for the titans; some remained impartial and
others even betrayed their own kind and joined the gods. Though information here is sparse,
there are sources that recount neither the Titan Oceanus nor the Titan Goddesses participating,
and this loss for the Titan forces was exacerbated by the decision of Prometheus and Epimetheus
to break faith with their own ilk and become turncoats, throwing their lots in with the gods.
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