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75-665: Cottus may refer to: Cottus, one of the Hecatoncheires of Greek mythology Cottus (fish) , a genus of sculpin fish Topics referred to by the same term [REDACTED] This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the title Cottus . If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article. Retrieved from " https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Cottus&oldid=932775787 " Category : Disambiguation pages Hidden categories: Short description

150-898: A Pre-Greek or Minoan source. Rhea is the sister of the Titans ( Oceanus , Crius , Hyperion , Iapetus , Coeus , Themis , Theia , Phoebe , Tethys , Mnemosyne , Cronus , and sometimes Dione ), the Cyclopes , the Hecatoncheires , the Giants , the Meliae , and the Erinyes ; and the half-sister of Aphrodite (in some versions), Typhon , Python , Pontus , Thaumas , Phorcys , Nereus , Eurybia , and Ceto . According to Hesiod , Rhea had six children with Cronus : Hestia , Demeter , Hera , Hades , Poseidon , and Zeus . The philosopher Plato recounts that Rhea, Cronus, and Phorcys were

225-592: A connection with the Aegean Sea . Poseidon was sometimes called Aegaeon or Aegaeus ( Αἰγαῖος ). Aegaeon could be a patronymic , i.e. "son of Aegaeus", or it could instead mean "the man from Aegae". The name Hecatoncheires derives from the Greek ἑκατόν (hekaton, "hundred") and χείρ (cheir, "hand" or "arm"). Although the Theogony describes the three brothers as having one hundred hands ( ἑκατὸν μὲν χεῖρες ),

300-537: A different tradition than the more familiar account in the Theogony . Here Briareus/Aegaeon was the son of Earth (Gaia) and Sea ( Pontus ) rather than Earth and Sky (Uranus), and he fought against the Olympians, rather than for them. According to the same scholion on Apollonius of Rhodes mentioned above, the fifth-century BC poet Ion of Chios said that Aegaeon (who Thetis summoned in the Iliad to aid Zeus), lived in

375-530: A final great battle was fought. Striding forth from Olympus, Zeus unleashed the full fury of his thunderbolt, stunning and blinding the Titans, while the Hundred-handers pelted them with enormous boulders: ... among the foremost Cottus and Briareus and Gyges, insatiable of war, roused up bitter battle; and they hurled three hundred boulders from their massive hands one after another and overshadowed

450-592: A functional level, Rhea was thought equivalent to Roman Ops or Opis . In Homer , Rhea is the mother of the gods, although not a universal mother like Cybele , the Phrygian Great Mother , with whom she was later identified. In the Argonautica by Apollonius of Rhodes , the fusion of Rhea and Phrygian Cybele is completed. "Upon the Mother depend the winds, the ocean, the whole earth beneath

525-457: A place where Poseidon had a temple. Briareus/Aegaeon seems also closely connected with Poseidon . The name Aegaeon has associations with Poseidon. As noted above, Homer locates Poseidon's palace in Aegae. Poseidon was sometimes himself called Aegaeon, or Aegaeus ( Αἰγαῖος ), and Aegaeon could mean 'son of Aegaeus'. Homer says that Briareus/Aegaeon "is mightier than his father", but who Homer

600-643: A religious ecstasy. Her priests impersonated her mythical attendants, the Curetes and Dactyls, with a clashing of bronze shields and cymbals. The tympanon's use in Rhea's rites may have been the source for its use in Cybele 's – in historical times, the resemblances between the two goddesses were so marked that some Greeks regarded Cybele as their own Rhea, who had deserted her original home on Mount Ida in Crete and fled to

675-451: A similar manner a Phrygian man named Pyrrhus tried to rape her, but the goddess changed him into stone for his hubris. In one Orphic myth, Zeus was filled with desire for his mother and pursued her, only for Rhea to refuse him and change into a serpent to flee. Zeus also turned himself into a serpent and raped her. The child born from that union was their daughter Persephone , and afterwards Rhea became Demeter . The child, Persephone,

750-571: A stone in the place of Zeus after his birth was assigned to have taken place on Petrakhos Mountain in Arcadia as well as on Mount Thaumasios in Arcadia, both of which were holy places: The center of the worship of Rhea was however on Crete, where Mount Ida was said to be the birthplace of Zeus. Reportedly, there was a "House of Rhea" in Knossos: Upon Mount Ida, there was a cave sacred to Rhea: Rhea only appears in Greek art from

825-477: A story that survives nowhere else, the Iliad briefly mentions Briareus (where it is said he was also called Aegaeon), referring to his having been summoned to Zeus' defense when "the other Olympians wished to put [Zeus] in bonds, even Hera and Poseidon and Pallas Athene." Achilles , while asking his mother the sea goddess Thetis to intercede with Zeus on his behalf, reminds her of a frequent boast of hers, that, at

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900-557: A temple at Lagina , the goddess of crossroads Hecate assisted Rhea in saving Zeus from his father. The frieze shows Hecate presenting to Cronus the swaddled stone while the real infant is being whisked away in safety. While Zeus was still an infant hidden in Crete , Rhea caught her husband Cronus with his mistress the nymph Philyra in the act; Cronus then transformed into a horse and galloped away, in order not to be seen by his wife. In some accounts, Rhea along with Metis gave Cronus

975-405: A time when the other Olympians wished to bind Zeus, she saved him by fetching the hundred-handed Briareus to Olympus: But you came, goddess, and freed [Zeus] from his bonds, when you had quickly called to high Olympus him of the hundred hands, whom the gods call Briareus, but all men Aegaeon; for he is mightier than his father. He sat down by the side of the son of Cronos, exulting in his glory, and

1050-454: Is a mother goddess in ancient Greek religion and mythology , the Titan daughter of the earth goddess Gaia and the sky god Uranus , himself a son of Gaia. She is the older sister of Cronus , who was also her consort, and the mother of the five eldest Olympian gods ( Hestia , Demeter , Hera , Poseidon , and Zeus ) and Hades , king of the underworld . When Cronus learnt that he

1125-478: Is a central figure in the story told about the Hundred-Hander in the ‘’Iliad’’. Both are sea-gods with a special connection to Euboea. As noted above Poseidon was sometimes called Aegaeon, and it is possible that Aegaeon was an older cult-title for Poseidon, however according to Lewis Richard Farnell , it is more likely that Poseidon inherited the title of an "older Euboean sea-giant". As mentioned above,

1200-525: Is different from Wikidata All article disambiguation pages All disambiguation pages Hecatoncheires The three Hundred-Handers were named Cottus, Briareus and Gyges. Cottus ( Κόττος ) is a common Thracian name, and is perhaps related to the name of the Thracian goddess Kotys . The name Briareus ( Βριάρεως ) was probably formed from the Greek βριαρός meaning "strong". Hesiod 's Theogony also calls him "Obriareus". The name Gyges

1275-547: Is given a second name, Aegaeon, saying that Briareus is the name the gods call him, while mortals call him Aegaeon. It is told in the Iliad how, during a palace revolt by the Olympians Hera, Poseidon and Athena, who wished to chain Zeus, the sea goddess Thetis brought to Olympus: him of the hundred hands [ ἑκατόγχειρον ], whom the gods call Briareus, but all men Aegaeon; for he is mightier than his father. He sat down by

1350-527: Is known as "the mother of gods" and therefore is strongly associated with Gaia and Cybele , who have similar functions. The classical Greeks saw her as the mother of the Olympian gods and goddesses . The Romans identified her with Magna Mater (their form of Cybele), and the Goddess Ops . Some ancient etymologists derived Rhea ( Ῥέα ) (by metathesis ) from ἔρα ( éra , 'ground', 'earth');

1425-412: Is possible that Acusilaus used the name, but the first certain usage is found in the works of the mythographers such as Apollodorus . The Hundred-Handers, Cottus, Briareus and Gyges, were three monstrous giants, of enormous size and strength, with fifty heads and one hundred arms. They were among the eighteen offspring of Uranus (Sky) and Gaia (Earth), which also included the twelve Titans , and

1500-413: Is possibly related to the mythical Attic king Ogyges ( Ὠγύγης ). "Gyes", rather than Gyges, is found in some texts. Homer 's Iliad gives Briareus a second name, saying that Briareus is the name the gods call him, while Aegaeon ( Αἰγαίων ) is the name that men call him. The root αἰγ- is found in words associated with the sea: αἰγιαλός "shore", αἰγες and αἰγάδες "waves". The name suggests

1575-474: Is referring to as the father is unclear. It has been sometimes supposed that contrary to Hesiod, who makes Uranus the father of Briareus, Cottus and Gyges, the father being referred to here is Poseidon, although this interpretation of Homer is uncertain at best. In the Theogony Briareus becomes the son-in-law of Poseidon, while Poseidon, whether regarded as the father of Briareus/Aegaeon, or not,

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1650-646: The Cyclopes and the Hecatoncheires , not the Titans . With the help of Gaia, the youngest child, Cronus , overthrew his father, became king in his place, freed his siblings, and took his sister Rhea to wife. Ophion and Eurynome, a daughter of Oceanus , were said to have ruled snowy Mount Olympus in the early age. Rhea and Cronus fought them, and threw them into the waves of the Ocean, thus becoming rulers in their place. Rhea, skilled in wrestling, battled Eurynome specifically. Gaia and Uranus told Cronus that just as he had overthrown his own father and become ruler of

1725-511: The Gorgons , the Harpies , and Geryon . Later Virgil describes the "hundred-handed" Aegaeon (the Iliad' s Briareus): Like old Aegaeon of the hundred arms, the hundred-handed, from whose mouths and breasts blazed fifty fiery blasts, as he made war with fifty sounding shields and fifty swords against Jove's thunder. Here Virgil has the Hundred-Hander as having fought on the side of

1800-633: The Pillars of Heracles (i.e. the Strait of Gibraltar ) had been previously named the Pillars of Briareus. Ovid , in his Metamorphoses , describes Aegaeon as a "dark-hued" sea god "whose strong arms can overpower huge whales", while according to Arrian apparently, the Aegean Sea was said to have been named after Aegaeon. As reported by Pliny , according to the Euboean Archemachus ,

1875-422: The Theogony first tells us that they returned to Tartarus, to live nearby the "bronze gates" of the Titans' prison, where presumably, they took up the job of the Titans' warders. However, later in the poem, we are told that Cottus and Gyges "live in mansions upon the foundations of Ocean", while Briareus, "since he was good" became the son-in-law of Poseidon , who gave him " Cymopoliea his daughter to wed". In

1950-475: The (sea-nymph?) daughter of Poseidon the god of the sea, where it might be supposed the couple dwells, while in the Iliad one might also suppose that Briareus dwells in the sea, since it was the sea goddess Thetis that fetched him to Olympus. Apparently, this was made explicit by the fifth-century BC poet Ion of Chios , who referring to the Homeric story of the Olympians' revolt against Zeus, said that Aegaeon

2025-599: The Hundred-Handers because they lived in a city called Hecatoncheiria ("Hundredarm"). They came to the aid of the residents of the city of Olympia (i.e. the Olympians) in driving away the Titans from their city. Briareus was the most prominent of the three Hundred-Handers. In Hesiod's Theogony he is singled out as being "good", and is rewarded by Poseidon, who gives Briareus his daughter Cymopolea (otherwise unknown) for his wife. In Homer's Iliad , Briareus

2100-451: The Hundred-Handers from their bondage under the earth, and brought them up again into the light. Zeus restored their strength by feeding them nectar and ambrosia , and then asked the Hundred-Handers to "manifest your great strength and your untouchable hands" and join in the war against the Titans. And Cottus, speaking for the Hundred-Handers, agreed saying: ... It is by your prudent plans that we have once again come back out from under

2175-457: The Kite" (presumably a star or constellation named after the bird) came to reside in the heavens. According to Ovid, there was a monstrous offspring of "mother Earth", part bull, part serpent , about which it had been prophesied that whoever burned its entrails would be able to conquer the gods. Warned by the three Fates , Styx penned up the bull in "gloomy woods" surrounded by three walls. After

2250-582: The Titans rather than the Olympians, as in the Titanomachy , with the additional descriptive details of the fifty fire-breathing mouths and breasts, and the fifty sets of sword and shield, perhaps also coming from that lost poem. The late first-century BC Latin poet Ovid , makes several references to the Hundred-Handers Briareus and Gyges in his poems. Briareus figures in a story that Ovid tells in his Fasti about how "The star of

2325-495: The Titans were overthrown, Briareus (whom Ovid appears to regard as a Titan, or Titan ally) "sacrificed" the bull with an adamantine axe. But when he was about to burn the entrails, the birds, as commanded by Jupiter (Zeus), snatched them away, and were rewarded with a home among the stars. In his Metamorphoses , Ovid describes Aegaeon (the Iliad' s Briareus) as a "dark-hued" sea god "whose strong arms can overpower huge whales". In both of these poems, Ovid appears to be following

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2400-403: The Titans with their missiles. They sent them down under the broad-pathed earth and bound them in distressful bonds after they had gained victory over them with their hands, high-spirited though they were, as far down beneath the earth as the sky is above the earth. Thus the Titans were finally defeated and cast into Tartarus , where they were imprisoned. As to the fate of the Hundred-Handers,

2475-571: The Titans' defeat. The Titans were then imprisoned in Tartarus with the Hundred-Handers as their guards. The lost epic poem the Titanomachy (see below), although probably written after Hesiod's Theogony , perhaps preserved an older tradition in which the Hundred-Handers fought on the side of the Titans, rather than the Olympians. According to a euhemeristic rationalized account, given by Palaephatus , Cottus and Briareus, rather than being hundred-handed giants, were instead men, who were called

2550-477: The acropolis of Corinth ( Acrocorinth ) to Helios. The third-century BC poet Callimachus , apparently confusing Briareus as one of the Giants , says he was buried under Mount Etna in Sicily , making his shift from one shoulder to the other, the cause of earthquakes. Like Callimachus, Philostratus also makes Aegaeon the cause of earthquakes. According to an Oxyrhynchus papyrus , “the first to use metal armour

2625-451: The blessed gods were seized with fear of him, and did not bind Zeus. Who Homer means here as the father of Briareus/Aegaeon is unclear. The lost epic poem the Titanomachy , based on its title, must have told the story of the war between the Olympians and the Titans. Although probably written after Hesiod's Theogony , it perhaps reflected an older version of the story. Only references to it by ancient sources survive, often attributing

2700-471: The collective name Hecatoncheires ( Ἑκατόγχειρες ), i.e. the Hundred-Handers, is never used. The Theogony once refers to the brothers collectively as "the gods whom Zeus brought up from the dark", otherwise it simply uses their individual names: Cottus, Briareus (or Obriareus) and Gyges. The Iliad does not use the name Hecatoncheires either, although it does use the adjective hekatoncheiros ( ἑκατόγχειρος ), i.e. "hundred-handed", to describe Briareus. It

2775-454: The cosmos, he was destined to be overcome by his own child; so as each of his children was born, he swallowed them. Rhea, Uranus, and Gaia devised a plan to save the last child, Zeus. Rhea gave birth to Zeus in a cavern on the island of Crete and gave Cronus a stone wrapped in swaddling clothes, which he promptly swallowed; Rhea hid Zeus in a cave on Mount Ida . Her attendants, the warrior-like Kouretes and Dactyls , acted as bodyguards for

2850-557: The earth, in pain, they sat at the edge, at the limits of the great earth, suffering greatly for a long time, with much grief in their hearts. Eventually Uranus' son, the Titan Cronus , castrated Uranus, freeing his fellow Titans (but not, apparently, the Hundred-Handers), and Cronus became the new ruler of the cosmos. Cronus married his sister Rhea , and together they produced five children, whom Cronus swallowed as each

2925-504: The eldest children of Oceanus and Tethys . According to the Orphic myths, Zeus wanted to marry his mother Rhea. After Rhea refused to marry him, Zeus turned into a snake and raped her. She had Persephone with Zeus. Rhea was born to the earth goddess Gaia and the sky god Uranus , one of their twelve (or thirteen ) Titan children. According to Hesiod , Uranus imprisoned all his children, while Apollodorus states he only imprisoned

3000-423: The first man to sail in a "long ship” was Aegaeon. According to the sixth-century BC lyric poet Ibycus , the belt that Heracles was sent to fetch in his ninth labour (usually said to have belonged to Hippolyta ), belonged to Oeolyca, the daughter of Briareus. Briareus/Aegaeon had a particular connection with the Greek island of Euboea . According to the third-century Latin grammarian Solinus , Briareus

3075-439: The fourth century BC, when her iconography draws on that of Cybele ; the two therefore are often indistinguishable; both can be shown wearing a crown (either a Mural crown or a Polos ), seated on a throne flanked by lions , riding a lion, and on a chariot drawn by two lions. In Roman religion , her counterpart Cybele was Magna Mater deorum Idaea , who was brought to Rome and was identified in as an ancestral Trojan deity. On

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3150-445: The gods, rather than an ally. In his Aeneid , Virgil has Aegaeon make war against the gods, "with fifty sounding shields and fifty swords". Ovid , in his poem Fasti , has Briareus on the side of the Titans. As Ovid tells us, after the Titans had been overthrown, apparently in order to restore the Titans to power, Briareus sacrificed a bull, about which it had been prophesied that whoever burned its entrails would be able to conquer

3225-465: The gods. However just when Briareus was about to burn the entrails, birds snatched them away, and were rewarded with a home among the stars. In the lost epic Titanomachy , Aegaeon was the son of Pontus (Sea), and lived in the sea. Briareus/Aegaeon's association with the sea can perhaps already be seen in Hesiod and Homer. In the Theogony , Briareus ends up living, apart from his brothers, with Cymopolea

3300-538: The hand of Atalanta in marriage thanks to the help he received from Aphrodite , he neglected to thank her. Thus the goddess inflicted them with great passion for each other when they were near a temple of Rhea. The two then proceeded to have sex inside the temple. In anger, Rhea turned them into lions. At some point, a mortal man named Sangas offended the goddess, and she turned him into a river that bore his name; Sangarius (now Sakarya River ) in Asia Minor . In

3375-638: The hundred-handers with the Giants (a different set of monstrous offspring of Gaia) who tried to storm Olympus in the Gigantomachy . Ovid perhaps also confused the Hundred-Handers with the Giants in his Metamorphoses , where he refers to the Giants having tried to "fix their hundred arms on captive Heaven". Ovid also refers to "a hundred-handed Gyes" in his Tristia . Rhea (mythology) Rhea or Rheia ( / ˈ r iː ə / ; Ancient Greek : Ῥέα [r̥é.aː] or Ῥεία [r̥ěː.aː] )

3450-417: The infant Zeus, helping to conceal his whereabouts from his father. In some accounts, by the will of Rhea a golden dog guarded a goat which offered her udder and gave nourishment to the infant Zeus. Later on, Zeus changed the goat into an immortal among the stars while the golden dog that guarded the sacred spot in Crete was stolen by Pandareus . In an obscure version, attested only on the east frieze of

3525-440: The mighty strength in their great forms was immense. Uranus hated his children, including the Hundred-Handers, and as soon as each was born, he imprisoned them underground, somewhere deep inside Gaia. As the Theogony describes it, Uranus bound the Hundred-Handers ... with a mighty bond, for he was indignant at their defiant manhood and their form and size; and he settled them under the broad-pathed earth. Dwelling there, under

3600-509: The mortal princess Semele . Later on she went on to heal Dionysus' raging madness, which had been inflicted on him by the jealous Hera, causing him to wander around aimlessly for some time. Rhea gave Dionysus the amethyst , which was thought to prevent drunkenness. Rhea sometimes joined Dionysus and his Maenads in their frenzy dances. According to Bacchylides , it was Rhea herself who restored Pelops to life after his father Tantalus cut him down. Rhea and Aphrodite rescued Creusa ,

3675-424: The most notable exceptions being Hera and Eileithyia , the goddess of childbirth, whose absence left Leto in terrible agony. Rhea was said to be a goddess who eased childbirth for women. After Demeter reunited with her daughter Persephone , Zeus sent Rhea to persuade Demeter to return to Olympus and rejoin the gods. Rhea raised another one of her grandsons, Dionysus , after the fiery death of his mother,

3750-412: The murky gloom, from implacable bonds—something, Lord, Cronus’ son, that we no longer hoped to experience. For that reason, with ardent thought and eager spirit we in turn shall now rescue your supremacy in the dread battle-strife, fighting against the Titans in mighty combats. And so the Hundred-Handers "took up their positions against the Titans ... holding enormous boulders in their massive hands", and

3825-538: The poem to Eumelus a semi-legendary poet from Corinth . One mentions Aegaeon, the name identified with the Hundred-Hander Briareus in the Iliad . According to a scholion on Apollonius of Rhodes ' Argonautica : Eumelus in the Titanomachy says that Aigaion was the son of Earth and Sea , lived in the sea, and fought on the side of the Titans. Thus the Titanomachy apparently followed

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3900-440: The potion that made him disgorge the children he had eaten. Following Zeus's ascension, Rhea withdrew from spotlight as she was no longer queen of gods, but remained an ally of her children and their families. In some traditions, Rhea disapproved of her children Hera and Zeus getting married, so the two had to elope in order to be together. Rhea was present in the birth of her grandson Apollo , along with many other goddesses,

3975-419: The powerful Hundred-Hander Briareus was a faithful and rewarded ally of Zeus, the Titanomachy seems to have reflected a different tradition. Apparently, according to the Titanomachy , Aegaeon was the son of Gaia and Pontus (Sea), rather than Gaia and Uranus, and fought on the side of the Titans, rather than the Olympians. The scholiast on Apollonius of Rhodes , tells us that according to Cinaethon, Aegeaon

4050-525: The rise of the Olympian gods into power, Rhea withdraws from her role as the queen of the gods to become a supporting figure on Mount Olympus. She has some roles in the new Olympian era. She attended the birth of her grandson Apollo and raised her other grandson Dionysus . After Persephone was abducted by Hades, Rhea was sent to Demeter by Zeus. In the myth of Pelops , she resurrects the unfortunate youth after he has been slain. In early traditions, she

4125-548: The same is suggested also by modern scholars, such as Robert Graves . A different tradition, embodied in Plato and in Chrysippus , connected the word with ῥέω ( rhéo , 'flow, discharge'), which is what A Greek–English Lexicon supports. Alternatively, the name Rhea may be connected with words for the pomegranate : ῥόα ( rhóa ), and later ῥοιά ( rhoiá ). The name Rhea may ultimately derive from

4200-548: The same tradition as in the lost Titanomachy , where Aegaeon was the sea god son of Pontus and a Titan ally. Ovid mentions "Gyas of the hundred hands" in his Amores , when "Earth made her ill attempt at vengeance, and steep Ossa , with shelving Pelion on its back, was piled upon Olympus." In his Fasti , Ovid has Ceres ( Demeter ), complaining about the abduction of her daughter, say: "What worse wrong could I have suffered if Gyges had been victorious and I his captive." In both of these poems, Ovid has apparently confused

4275-464: The scholiast on Apollonius of Rhodes , tells us that according to Cinaethon, Aegeaon was defeated by Poseidon. Possibly then, Briareus/Aegaeon was an older (pre-Greek?) sea-god eventually displaced by Poseidon. According to a Corinthian legend, Briareus was the arbitrator in a dispute between Poseidon and Helios (Sun) over some land, deciding that the Isthmus of Corinth belonged to Poseidon and

4350-575: The sea and was the son of Thalassa . The first-century BC Latin poet Virgil , in his Aeneid , may have drawn on the same version of the story as that given in the lost Titanomachy . Virgil locates Briareus, as in Hesiod, in the underworld, where the Hundred-Hander dwells among "strange prodigies of bestial kind", which include the Centaurs , Scylla , the Lernaean Hydra , the Chimaera ,

4425-424: The side of [Zeus], exulting in his glory, and the blessed gods were seized with fear of him, and did not bind Zeus. This second name does not seem to be a Homeric invention. According to the scholiast on Apollonius of Rhodes, the legendary seventh-century BC poet Cinaethon apparently knew both names for the Hundred-Hander. The name also appears in the lost epic poem the Titanomachy . While in Hesiod and Homer,

4500-537: The snowy seat of Olympus; whenever she leaves the mountains and climbs to the great vault of heaven, Zeus himself, the son of Cronus , makes way, and all the other immortal gods likewise make way for the dread goddess," the seer Mopsus tells Jason in Argonautica ; Jason climbed to the sanctuary high on Mount Dindymon to offer sacrifice and libations to placate the goddess, so that the Argonauts might continue on their way. For her temenos they wrought an image of

4575-695: The statue was made by Pheidias. In Sparta there was furthermore a sanctuary to Meter Megale (“[the] Great Mother”). Olympia had both an altar and a temple to the Meter Theon: Her temple in Akriai , Lakedaimon, was said to be her oldest sanctuary in the Peloponnese : Statues of her were also standing in the sanctuaries of other gods and in other places, such as a statue of Parian marble by Damophon in Messene. The scene in which Rhea gave Chronos

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4650-590: The three one-eyed Cyclopes . According to the Theogony of Hesiod , they were the last of these children of Uranus to be born, while according to the mythographer Apollodorus they were the first. In the Hesiodic tradition, they played a key role in the Greek succession myth, which told how the Titan Cronus overthrew his father Uranus, and how in turn Zeus overthrew Cronus and his fellow Titans, and how Zeus

4725-441: The twelve Titans , next the three one-eyed Cyclopes , and finally the three monstrous brothers Cottus, Briareus and Gyges. As the Theogony describes it: Then from Earth and Sky came forth three more sons, great and strong, unspeakable, Cottus and Briareus and Gyges, presumptuous children. A hundred arms sprang forth from their shoulders, unapproachable, and upon their massive limbs grew fifty heads out of each one’s shoulders; and

4800-577: The uncontrolled power of the sea itself. As noted above, Briareus/Aegaeon may have been an older god of the sea, replaced by Poseidon. He was perhaps a Greek reflection of Near-Eastern traditions in which the Sea challenged the storm-god, such as in the Ugaritic tradition of the battle between Yammu (Sea) and the storm-god Baal . According to the Theogony of Hesiod , Uranus (Sky) mated with Gaia (Earth) and produced eighteen children. First came

4875-508: The wife of Aphrodite 's son Aeneas , from the slavery the Greeks would have subjected her to after the fall of Troy . As for Aeneas, when he landed in Italy , a local warlord named Turnus set his pine-framed vessels ablaze. Rhea (or Cybele ), remembering that those hulls had been crafted from trees felled on her holy mountains, transformed the vessels into sea nymphs. After Melanion won

4950-735: The wilds of Phrygia to escape Cronus. Rhea was often referred to as Meter Theon (“Mother of the Gods”) and there were several temples around Ancient Greece dedicated to her under that name. Pausanias mentioned temples dedicated to Rhea under the name Meter Theon in Anagyros in Attika, Megalopolis in Arkadia , on the Acropolis of Ancient Corinth, and in the district of Keramaikos in Athens, where

5025-421: Was Briareos, whilst previously men protected their bodies with animal skins.” These stories are perhaps connected to a myth which may have made Briareus, like the Olympian god Hephaestus , a subterranean smith, who used the fires of Mount Etna as a forge for metalworking. Briareus and Aegean, were perhaps originally, separate entities. Briareus/Aegaeon may have once been a many-armed sea monster, personifying

5100-424: Was born so deformed that Rhea ran away from her frightened, and did not breastfeed her daughter. Rhea had "no strong local cult or identifiable activity under her control." She was originally worshiped on the island of Crete , identified in mythology as the site of Zeus's infancy and upbringing. Her cults employed rhythmic, raucous chants and dances, accompanied by the tympanon (a wide, handheld drum), to provoke

5175-407: Was born, but the sixth child, Zeus, was saved by Rhea and hidden away to be raised by his grandmother Gaia. When Zeus grew up, he caused Cronus to disgorge his children, and a great war was begun, the Titanomachy , between Zeus and his siblings, and Cronus and the Titans, for control of the cosmos. Gaia had foretold that Zeus would be victorious with the help of the Hundred-Handers, so Zeus released

5250-582: Was defeated by Poseidon. Apollonius of Rhodes mentions the "great tomb of Aegaeon", seen by the Argonauts when "they were passing within sight of the mouth of the Rhyndacus ... a short distance beyond Phrygia". The scholiast on Apollonius, says that the tomb marked the spot where Aegaeon's defeat occurred. As in the lost Titanomachy , for the Latin poets Virgil and Ovid, Briareus was also an enemy of

5325-432: Was destined to be overthrown by one of his children like his father before him, he swallowed all the children Rhea bore as soon as they were born. When Rhea had her sixth and final child, Zeus, she spirited him away and hid him in Crete , giving Cronus a rock to swallow instead, thus saving her youngest son who would go on to challenge his father's rule and rescue the rest of his siblings. Following Zeus's defeat of Cronus and

5400-642: Was eventually established as the final and permanent ruler of the cosmos. According to the standard version of the succession myth, given in the accounts of Hesiod and Apollodorus, the Hundred-Handers, along with their brothers the Cyclopes, were imprisoned by their father Uranus. Gaia induced Cronus to castrate Uranus, and Cronus took over the supremacy of the cosmos. With his sister the Titaness Rhea , Cronus fathered several offspring, but he swallowed each of them at birth. However, Cronus' last child Zeus

5475-476: Was saved by Rhea, and Zeus freed his brothers and sisters, and together they (the Olympians ) began a great war, the Titanomachy , against the Titans, for control of the cosmos. Gaia had foretold that, with the help of the Hundred-Handers, the Olympians would be victorious, so Zeus released them from their captivity and the Hundred-Handers fought alongside the Olympians against the Titans and were instrumental in

5550-451: Was the son of Thalassa (Sea) and that Thetis "summoned him from the Ocean". A connection to the sea can also be seen in the name Aegaeon ( Αἰγαίων᾽ ) itself. The root αἰγ- is found in words associated with the sea: αἰγιαλός 'shore', αἰγες and αἰγάδες 'waves'. while Poseidon himself was sometimes called Aegaeon. Later writers also make Briareus/Aegaeon's association with the sea explicit. According to Aelian , Aristotle said that

5625-505: Was worshipped at Carystus , and Aegaeon at Chalcis . Aegaeon was said to be the name of a ruler of Carystus, which had also been named Aigaie ( Αίγαίη ) after him, while Briareus was said to be the father of Euboea , after whom the island took its name. Aegeaon was perhaps associated with the place name Aegae mentioned by Homer ( Il. 13.21, Od. 5.381) as Poseidon's home, and located by Strabo (8.7.4, 9.2.13) in Euboea north of Chalcis, as

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