Giant (mythology)

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Giant in the fight against Artemis

The giants ( gr : Γίγαντες) are characters from Greek mythology . In the most common myth, the gigantomachy , they tried to overthrow the Olympic gods .

ancestry

According to the oldest tradition, the theogony of Hesiod , the giants, like the erinyes and the meliads , arose from the drops of blood that fell to the earth when Kronos emasculated his father Uranus . The mother of the giants is the goddess Gaia , the personified earth in Greek mythology. With Apollodorus, Gaia gives birth to the giants out of anger at the titans , the fatherhood of Uranus is only mentioned.

In Bacchylides , Diodorus , Ovid , Virgil and Nonno's only her mother Gaia is called. On the one hand because Gaia can bear her children of herself without a father, on the other hand because the giants in the gigantomachy are supported by their mother, but their father is no longer there. In the description of Greece by Pausanias , only her father Uranos is mentioned to illustrate the relationship between the giants and the titans and the Olympian gods . Hyginus names the name Ge for Gaia as the mother of the giants, but Tartaros as their father.

 
 
 
 Hesiod
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Hyginus
 
 
 
Gaia
 
 
 
 Uranus
 
 
 
 Ge
 
 
 
 Tartaros
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Giants
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Giants
 
 
 

Appearance

Poseidon fights Polybotes . Attic black-figure amphora, approx. 540-530 BC Chr.
Location:  Louvre .
Photo: Marie-Lan Nguyen
Depiction of a giant from the 2nd century AD. Location:  Aphrodisias
Location:  Istanbul Archaeological Museum .
Photo: Giovanni Dall'Orto

According to Hesiod, the giants "were brightly flashed with weapons, long-spear in their hands." Apollodorus describes them as unsurpassed in their size and strength, of fearsome appearance and with snake scales on their lower legs. According to Claudian they were armed with clubs, tree trunks and boulders and according to Ovid they could even tower mountains with their strength, Diodor and Gaius Valerius Flaccus only mention their monstrous size. Homer calls the Eurymedon the king and leader of the giants .

A motif that was often depicted in the visual arts was giants with legs that end in snake bodies, as Ovid describes them. The best-known representation is the giant frieze of the Pergamon Altar , which shows the battle of the giants against the Olympian gods during the Gigantomachy. Pausanias, on the other hand, considers the idea of ​​snakes instead of feet to be absurd. Nonnos, in turn, describes them with snake hair and two hundred hands.

Gigantomachy

They were especially regarded as the sons of their mother Gaia (Gäa), who supported them in their fight against the Olympians. This battle between giants and Olympians is known as gigantomachy . The Olympians should only be able to win with the help of mortal beings, because giants cannot die at the hands of the gods. This help came to the Olympians through Dionysus and Heracles , both sons of Zeus , whom he had fathered with mortal mothers, with Heracles in particular making a decisive contribution to the victory against the giants.

A miracle herb that Gaia allowed to grow was supposed to help the giants against the gods, since it would not kill them even by mortals. When Zeus found out about this, he forbade Eos , the morning light, Selene , the moon, and Helios , the sun, the children of the titan couple Hyperion and Theia , to shine until he had found them himself.

Names of the giants

The names of the giants are mentioned in several sources. The oldest is the Odyssey , in which the leader of the giants Eurymedon is mentioned. Some names are also found on Attic vases from the 6th century BC. Received. After Homer, Virgil and Properz are the first authors to mention giants by name. The first source to contain a list of names is the Libraries of Apollodorus . During his travels in Greece, Pausanias mentions names that are partly due to local adoption of the giant myth. In addition, the lists of names from Hyginus and Nonnos have been handed down.

The giants were already confused with the titans by some authors from late antiquity . Hyginus accordingly also lists titans among the giants, namely Astraios , Iapetos , Koios and Pallas . The Gigantomachy seems to have been understood here as a mere imitation of the Titanomachy . The aloid Otos is also counted among the giants by Hyginus. The name of his brother Ephialtes is the same as that of the giant Ephialtes already mentioned in Hesiod . In addition, in older stories, the attack of the aloids on Mount Olympus directly follows the gigantomachy, so that a mix-up can be assumed here. The monster Typhon , which Hesiod still describes as an independent figure, is slammed into the giants by Hyginus. Nonnos describes the typhon of the older authors, but also includes the name in the listing of the giants.

Nickname

Some authors gave the giants the nickname Gegeneis ( gr : Γηγενεῖς), which means earth-born . Used as a noun, the epithet was also used as the sole name for the giants.

List of names (incomplete)

Surname Homer Apollodor Virgil Properz Pausanias Hyginus Nonnos Material source
Agasthenes x
Agrios x x
Alkyoneus x x
Alpus x
Astraios x
Chthonios x
Damases x
Damysus
Emphytos x
Grandchildren x x x x x x
Ephialtes x x x
Euboios x
Euphorbos x
Euryalos x
Eurymedon x x
Eurytus x x
Gration x
Hippolytus x
Hopladamus x
Hyperbiosis x
Klytios x
Mimas x
Oranion x
Otos x
Pancrates x
Peloros x x
Polybotes x x x x
Porphyrion x x x
Rhoikos x
Theodamas x
Theomises x
Thoon x
Thurius x
Typhon x x

literature

Web links

Commons : Gigantes  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Hesiod : Theogony 176.
  2. ^ Libraries of Apollodorus 1, 34.
  3. ↑ Bakchylides fragment 15
  4. ↑ Diodorus 4, 15, 1.
  5. ^ Ovid : Metamorphoses 1, 151.
  6. ^ Virgil : Georgica 1, 276.
  7. ^ Nonnos : Dionysiaka 25, 85.
  8. ↑ Pausanias : Description of Greece 8, 28, 1 ff.
  9. ^ A b Hyginus : Fabulae Praefatio
  10. ^ Hesiod: Theogony in the Gutenberg-DE project
  11. ^ Libraries of Apollodorus 1, 34.
  12. ↑ Claudian : Gigantomachia Latina 66 ff.
  13. ^ Ovid : Metamorphoses 1, 153.
  14. ↑ Diodor : Historical Library 4, 21, 5.
  15. ↑ Gaius Valerius Flaccus : Argonautica 2, 16 ff.
  16. ↑ Homer : Odyssey 7, 58. Text at digbib.org (German) ( Memento from October 24, 2010 in the Internet Archive )
  17. ^ Ovid : Metamorphosen 1, 185.
  18. ^ Pausanias , Description of Greece 8, 28, 1.
  19. ^ Nonnos : Dionysiaka 25, 85 ff.
  20. ^ Virgil : Aeneid 4, 179.
  21. ^ Properz : Elegies 3, 9.
  22. ^ Libraries of Apollodorus 1, 34.
  23. ↑ Nonnos: Dionysiaka 25, 85; 48, 6.
  24. ↑ Cf. Servius : Commentary on Virgil's Aeneis 8, 698; Horace : Carmina 3, 4, 42.
  25. ↑ Cf. Libraries of Apollodor 1, 6, 3, 1 ff.
  26. ↑ Entry Aloids at theoi.com
  27. ↑ Batrachomyomachia 7; Sophocles : Trachiniai 1058 f.
  28. ↑ Aristophanes : The Clouds 853; Lycophron 1408.
  29. ↑ a b c d e Attic black-figure vase. Beazley 14590, 575-525 BC. Chr.
  30. ^ Properz : Elegies 2, 1, 39.
  31. ↑ a b Attic black-figure vase. Beazley 10148, 575-525 BC. Chr.
  32. ↑ a b c d e f Attic black-figure vase. Beazley 10047, 575-525 BC. Chr.
  33. ↑ a b Attic red-figure vase. Beazley 10047. 550-500 BC Chr.
  34. ^ Properz : Elegies 3, 9, 48.