Gigantes

(Γιγάντες). In the story about the Gigantes or giants, we must distinguish the early legends from the later ones. According to Homer, they were a gigantic and savage race of men, governed by Eurymedon, and dwelling in the distant west, in the island of Thripacia; but they were extirpated by Eurymedon on account of their insolence towards the gods. (Hom. Od. 7.59, 206, 10.120; comp. Paus. 8.29.2.) Homer accordingly looked upon the Gigantes, like the Phaeacians, Cyclopes, and Laestrygones, as a race of Autochthones, whom, with the exception of the Phaeacians, the gods destroyed for their overbearing insolence, but neither he nor Hesiod knows any thing about the contest of the gods with the Gigantes. Hesiod (Hes. Th. 185), however, considers them as divine beings, who sprang from the blood that fell from Uranus upon the earth, so that Ge was theirmother. Later poets and mythographers frequently confound them with the Titans (Serv. ad Aen. 8.698, Georg. 1.166, 278; Hor. Carm. 3.4.42), and Hyginus (Praef. Fab. p. l) calls them the sons of Ge (Terra) and Tartarus. Their battle with Zeus and the Olympian gods seems to be only an imitation of the revolt of the Titans against Uranus. Ge, it is said (Apollod. 1.6.1, &c.), indignant at the fate of her former children, the Titans, gave birth to the Gigantes, that is, monstrous and unconquerable giants, with fearful countenances and the tails of dragons. (Comp. Ov. Tr. 4.7, 17.) They were born, according to some, in Phlegrae (i. e. burning fields), in Sicily, Campania, or Arcadia, and, according to others, in the Thracian Pallene. (Apollod., Paus. ll. cc. ; Pind. N. 1.67; Strab. pp. 245, 281, 330; Schol. ad Hom. Il. 8.479.) It is worthy of remark that Homer, as well as later writers, places the Gigantes in volcanic districts, and most authorities in the western parts of Europe. In their native land they made an attack upon heaven, being armed with huge rocks and the trunks of trees. (Ov. Met. 1.151, &c.) Porphyrion and Alcyoneus distinguished themselves above their brethren. The latter of them, who had carried off the oxen of Helios from Erytheia, was immortal so long as he fought in his native land; and the gods were informed that they should not be able to kill one giant unless they were assisted by some mortal in their fight against the monsters. (Comp. Schol. ad Pind. Nem. 1.100; Eratosth. Calast. 11.) Ge, on hearing of this, discovered a herb which would save the giants from being killed by mortal hands; but Zeus forbade IIelios and Eos to shine, took himself the herb, and invited Heracles to give his assistance against the giants. Heracles, indeed, killed Alcyoneus, but as the giant fell on the ground, he came to life again. On the advice of Athena, Heracles dragged him away from his native land, and thus slew him effectually. Porphyrion attacked Heracles and Hera, but was killed by the combined efforts of Zeus and Heracles, the one using a flash of lightning and the other his arrows. (Comp. Pind. P. 8.19 with the Schol.) The other giants, whose number, according to Hyginus, amounted to twenty-four, were then killed one after another by the gods and Heracles, and some of them were buried by their conquerors under (volcanic) islands. (Eur. Cycl. 7; Diod. 4.21; Strab. p. 489; Serv. ad Aen. 3.578.) The fight of the giants with the gods was represented by Phidias on the inside of the shield of his statue of Athena. (Plin. Nat. 36.5. 4.) The origin of the story of the Gigantes must probably be sought for in similar physical phenomena in nature, especially volcanic ones, from which arose the stories about the Cyclopes. [L.S]

(Γίγαντες). In Homer the Gigantes are a wild and gigantic race of aborigines, kinsmen of the gods, as are the Cyclopes and Phaeacians. With their king Eurymedon, they are destroyed for their wickedness. Hesiod makes them the sons of Gaea, sprung from the blood of the mutilated Uranus. Neither Hesiod nor Homer knew anything of their struggle with the gods (Gigantomachia), the story of which seems to be a reflection of the myth of the Titans and their contest with the gods, and to be associated with local legends. The two are often confused by later poets. The place of the contest was Phlegra, or the place of burning; and Phlegra was always localized in volcanic regions. In the earlier stories it is on the Macedonian peninsula of Pallené; and in later times on the Phlegraean plains in Campania between Cumae and Capua, or again at Tartessus in Spain. Led on by Alcyoneus and Porphyrion, they hurled rocks and burning trunks of trees against heaven. But the gods called Heracles to their assistance, a prophecy having warned them that they would be unable to destroy the giants without the aid of a mortal. Heracles slew not only Alcyoneus, but gave the others, whom the gods had struck down, their death-blow with his arrows. As Enceladus was flying, Athené threw the island of Sicily upon him. Polybotes was buried by Poseidon under the island of Nisyros, a piece of the island of Cos, which Poseidon had broken off with his trident, with all the giants who had fled there. Besides these, the following names are given among others: Agrius, Ephialtes, Pallas, Clytius, Eurytus, Hippolytus, Thoön.

In the oldest works of art the Giants are represented in human form and equipped with armour and spears; but in course of time their attributes became terrific—awful faces, long hanging hair and beard, the skins of wild animals for garments, trunks of trees and clubs for weapons. In the latest representations, but not before, their bodies end in two scaly snakes instead of feet, as in the illustration. In the Gigantomachia of Pergamus, the grandest representation of the subject in antiquity, we find a great variety of forms; some quite human, others with snakes' feet and powerful wings, others with still bolder combinations of shape; some are naked, some clothed with skins, some fully armed, and others slinging stones. See Mayer, Die Giganten und Titanen (Leipzig, 1887); and the articles Pergamene Sculptures; Titanes.