In Greek and Roman mythology , the Giants , also called Gigantes ( Greek : Γίγαντες, Gígantes , singular: Γίγας, Gígas ), were a race of great strength and aggression, though not necessarily of great size. They were known for the Gigantomachy (also spelled Gigantomachia ), their battle with the Olympian gods . According to Hesiod , the Giants were the offspring of Gaia (Earth), born from the blood that fell when Uranus (Sky) was castrated by his Titan son Cronus .
189-644: Archaic and Classical representations show Gigantes as man-sized hoplites (heavily armed ancient Greek foot soldiers) fully human in form. Later representations (after c. 380 BC) show Gigantes with snakes for legs . In later traditions, the Giants were often confused with other opponents of the Olympians, particularly the Titans , an earlier generation of large and powerful children of Gaia and Uranus. The vanquished Giants were said to be buried under volcanoes and to be
378-436: A doru , or dory . It was held with the right hand, with the left hand holding the hoplite's shield. Soldiers usually held their spears in an underhand position when approaching but once they came into close contact with their opponents, they were held in an overhand position ready to strike. The spearhead was usually a curved leaf shape, while the rear of the spear had a spike called a sauroter ("lizard-killer") which
567-529: A " Gigantomachia " in which the Titan Cronus (as a horse) sires the centaur Chiron by mating with Philyra (the daughter of two Titans), but the scholiast may be confusing the Titans and Giants. Other possible archaic sources include the lyric poets Alcman (mentioned above) and the sixth-century Ibycus . The late sixth early fifth century BC lyric poet Pindar provides some of the earliest details of
756-465: A Giant and a god might range farther afield, with Enceladus buried beneath Sicily, and Polybotes under the island of Nisyros (or Kos ). Other locales associated with Giants include Attica , Corinth , Cyzicus , Lipara , Lycia , Lydia , Miletus , and Rhodes . The presence of volcanic phenomena, and the frequent unearthing of the fossilized bones of large prehistoric animals throughout these locations may explain why such sites became associated with
945-504: A Tuticanus, whose name, Ovid complains, does not fit into meter. The final poem is addressed to an enemy whom Ovid implores to leave him alone. The last elegiac couplet is translated: "Where's the joy in stabbing your steel into my dead flesh?/ There's no place left where I can be dealt fresh wounds." One loss, which Ovid himself described, is the first five-book edition of the Amores , from which nothing has come down to us. The greatest loss
1134-421: A collection of twenty-one poems in elegiac couplets. The Heroides take the form of letters addressed by famous mythological characters to their partners expressing their emotions at being separated from them, pleas for their return, and allusions to their future actions within their own mythology. The authenticity of the collection, partially or as a whole, has been questioned, although most scholars would consider
1323-571: A combination of human and animal forms. Some are snake-legged, some have wings, one has bird claws, one is lion-headed, and another is bull-headed. Some Giants wear helmets, carry shields and fight with swords. Others are naked or clothed in animal skins and fight with clubs or rocks. The large size of the frieze probably necessitated the addition of many more Giants than had been previously known. Some, like Typhon and Tityus, who were not strictly speaking Giants, were perhaps included. Others were probably invented. The partial inscription "Mim" may mean that
1512-400: A command would be given to the phalanx or a part thereof to collectively take a certain number of steps forward (ranging from half to multiple steps). This was the famed othismos . At this point, the phalanx would put its collective weight to push back the enemy line and thus create fear and panic among its ranks. There could be multiple such instances of attempts to push, but it seems from
1701-494: A decision of which his father apparently disapproved. Ovid's first recitation has been dated to around 25 BC, when he was eighteen. He was part of the circle centered on the esteemed patron Marcus Valerius Messalla Corvinus , and likewise seems to have been a friend of poets in the circle of Maecenas . In Tristia 4.10.41–54, Ovid mentions friendships with Macer, Propertius , Ponticus and Bassus, and claims to have heard Horace recite. He only barely met Virgil and Tibullus ,
1890-647: A development of the hoplite, the Macedonian phalanx was tactically more versatile, especially used in the combined arms tactics favoured by the Macedonians . These forces defeated the last major hoplite army, at the Battle of Chaeronea (338 BC), after which Athens and its allies joined the Macedonian empire. While Alexander's army mainly fielded Pezhetairoi (= Foot Companions) as his main force, his army also included some classic hoplites, either provided by
2079-472: A doctor and utilizes medical imagery. Some have interpreted this poem as the close of Ovid's didactic cycle of love poetry and the end of his erotic elegiac project. The Metamorphoses , Ovid's most ambitious and well-known work, consists of a 15-book catalogue written in dactylic hexameter about transformations in Greek and Roman mythology set within a loose mytho-historical framework. The word "metamorphoses"
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#17327652555082268-469: A fallen Giant with his trident and Hermes with his petasos hanging in back of his head, attacking another fallen Giant. None of the Giants are named. Phidias used the theme for the metopes of the east façade of the Parthenon (c. 445 BC) and for the interior of the shield of Athena Parthenos . Phidias' work perhaps marks the beginning of a change in the way the Giants are presented. While previously
2457-609: A fellow member of Messalla's circle, whose elegies he admired greatly. He married three times and had divorced twice by the time he was thirty. He had one daughter and grandchildren through her. His last wife was connected in some way to the influential gens Fabia and helped him during his exile in Tomis (now Constanța in Romania). Ovid spent the first 25 years of his literary career primarily writing poetry in elegiac meter with erotic themes. The chronology of these early works
2646-648: A female stabbing her spear at a fallen Giant (probably Porphyrion); Athena fighting Eriktypos and a second Giant; a male stepping over the fallen Astarias to attack Biatas. and another Giant; and Hermes against two Giants. Then follows a gap which probably contained Poseidon and finally, on the far right, a male fighting two Giants, one fallen, the other the Giant Mimon (possibly the same as the Giant Mimas mentioned by Apollodorus). The Gigantomachy also appeared on several other late sixth century buildings, including
2835-474: A fleeing Giant; the archers Apollo and Artemis; another fleeing Giant (Tharos or possibly Kantharos); the Giant Ephialtes lying on the ground; and a group of three Giants, which include Hyperphas and Alektos, opposing Apollo and Artemis. Next comes a missing central section presumably containing Zeus, and possibly Heracles, with chariot (only parts of a team of horses remain). To the right of this comes
3024-487: A forward-curving blade. The scabbard of the sword was called koleos (κολεός). Dark Age warfare transitioned into hoplite warfare in the 8th century BC. Historians and researchers have debated the reason and speed of the transition for centuries. So far, 3 popular theories exist: Developed by Anthony Snodgrass , the Gradualist Theory states that the hoplite style of battle developed in a series of steps as
3213-466: A guardian to let the poet see Corinna, poem 6 is a lament for Corinna's dead parrot; poems 7 and 8 deal with Ovid's affair with Corinna's servant and her discovery of it, and 11 and 12 try to prevent Corinna from going on vacation. Poem 13 is a prayer to Isis for Corinna's illness, 14 a poem against abortion, and 19 a warning to unwary husbands. Book 3 has 15 poems. The opening piece depicts personified Tragedy and Elegy fighting over Ovid. Poem 2 describes
3402-523: A hundred snake heads growing from his shoulders. This snake-legged motif becomes the standard for the rest of antiquity, culminating in the monumental Gigantomachy frieze of the second century BC Pergamon Altar . Measuring nearly 400 feet long and over seven feet high, here the Gigantomachy receives its most extensive treatment, with over one hundred figures. Although fragmentary, much of the Gigantomachy frieze has been restored. The general sequence of
3591-399: A large concave shield called an aspis (sometimes incorrectly referred to as a hoplon ), measuring between 80 and 100 centimetres (31 and 39 inches) in diameter and weighing between 6.5 and 8 kg (14 and 18 lb). This large shield was made possible partly by its shape, which allowed it to be supported on the shoulder. The shield was assembled in three layers: the center layer
3780-464: A later addition to the corpus because they are never mentioned by Ovid and may or may not be spurious. The Heroides markedly reveal the influence of rhetorical declamation and may derive from Ovid's interest in rhetorical suasoriae , persuasive speeches, and ethopoeia , the practice of speaking in another character. They also play with generic conventions; most of the letters seem to refer to works in which these characters were significant, such as
3969-507: A lover; Ovid then digresses on the story of Vulcan's trap for Venus and Mars . The book ends with Ovid asking his "students" to spread his fame. Book 3 opens with a vindication of women's abilities and Ovid's resolution to arm women against his teaching in the first two books. Ovid gives women detailed instructions on appearance telling them to avoid too many adornments. He advises women to read elegiac poetry, learn to play games, sleep with people of different ages, flirt, and dissemble. Throughout
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#17327652555084158-450: A noon tryst, introduces Corinna by name. Poems 8 and 9 deal with Corinna selling her love for gifts, while 11 and 12 describe the poet's failed attempt to arrange a meeting. Poem 14 discusses Corinna's disastrous experiment in dyeing her hair and 15 stresses the immortality of Ovid and love poets. The second book has 19 pieces; the opening poem tells of Ovid's abandonment of a Gigantomachy in favor of elegy . Poems 2 and 3 are entreaties to
4347-482: A phalanx was only as strong as its weakest elements. Its effectiveness depended on how well the hoplites could maintain this formation in combat, and how well they could stand their ground, especially when engaged against another phalanx. The more disciplined and courageous the army, the more likely it was to win. Often engagements between various city-states of Greece would be resolved by one side fleeing after their phalanx had broken formation. As important as unity among
4536-511: A piece on the Rape of the Sabine women , Pasiphaë , and Ariadne . Book 2 invokes Apollo and begins with a telling of the story of Icarus . Ovid advises men to avoid giving too many gifts, keep up their appearance, hide affairs, compliment their lovers, and ingratiate themselves with slaves to stay on their lover's good side. The care of Venus for procreation is described as is Apollo's aid in keeping
4725-405: A poem against criticism (9), and a dream of Cupid (3). Book 4, the final work of Ovid, in 16 poems talks to friends and describes his life as an exile further. Poems 10 and 13 describe Winter and Spring at Tomis, poem 14 is halfhearted praise for Tomis, 7 describes its geography and climate, and 4 and 9 are congratulations on friends for their consulships and requests for help. Poem 12 is addressed to
4914-646: A reference to their size. Though a possible later addition, the Theogony also has the Giants born "with gleaming armour, holding long spears in their hands". Other early sources characterize the Giants by their excesses. Pindar describes the excessive violence of the Giant Porphyrion as having provoked "beyond all measure". Bacchylides calls the Giants arrogant, saying that they were destroyed by " Hybris " (the Greek word hubris personified). The earlier seventh century BC poet Alcman perhaps had already used
5103-407: A result of innovations in armour and weaponry. Chronologically dating the archeological findings of hoplite armour and using the findings to approximate the development of the phalanx formation, Snodgrass claims that the transition took approximately 100 years to complete from 750 to 650 BC. The progression of the phalanx took time because as the phalanx matured it required denser formations that made
5292-472: A series of supports and refutations in the short space of five years. Among the supporting reasons Brown presents are: Ovid's exile is only mentioned by his own work, except in "dubious" passages by Pliny the Elder and Statius , but no other author until the 4th century; that the author of Heroides was able to separate the poetic "I" of his own and real life; and that information on the geography of Tomis
5481-494: A shield for the sake of the whole line". The phalanx is an example of a military formation in which single combat and other individualistic forms of battle were suppressed for the good of the whole. In earlier Homeric , Dark Age combat, the words and deeds of supremely powerful heroes turned the tide of battle. Instead of having individual heroes, hoplite warfare relied heavily on the community and unity of soldiers. With friends and family pushing on either side and enemies forming
5670-481: A short sword. The Athenian general Iphicrates developed a new type of armour and arms for his mercenary army, which included light linen armour, smaller shields and longer spears, whilst arming his Peltasts with larger shields, helmets and a longer spear, thus enabling them to defend themselves more easily against hoplites. With this new type of army he defeated a Spartan army in 392 BC. The arms and armour described above were most common for hoplites. Hoplites carried
5859-456: A sickle of adamant which she gave to Cronus , the youngest of her Titan sons, and hid him (presumably still inside Gaia's body) to wait in ambush. When Uranus came to lie with Gaia, Cronus castrated his father, and "the bloody drops that gushed forth [Gaia] received, and as the seasons moved round she bore ... the great Giants." From these same drops of blood also came the Erinyes (Furies) and
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6048-448: A solid wall of shields in front, the hoplite had little opportunity for feats of technique and weapon skill, but great need for commitment and mental toughness. By forming a human wall to provide a powerful defensive armour, the hoplites became much more effective while suffering fewer casualties. The hoplites had a lot of discipline and were taught to be loyal and trustworthy . They had to trust their neighbours for mutual protection, so
6237-555: A solution to the armed clashes between independent city-states. As Greek civilization found itself confronted by the world at large, particularly the Persians , the emphasis in warfare shifted. Confronted by huge numbers of enemy troops, individual city-states could not realistically fight alone. During the Greco-Persian Wars (499–448 BC), alliances between groups of cities (whose composition varied over time) fought against
6426-405: A teacher of love. Ovid describes the places one can go to find a lover, like the theater, a triumph, which he thoroughly describes, or arena – and ways to get the girl to take notice, including seducing her covertly at a banquet. Choosing the right time is significant, as is getting into her associates' confidence. Ovid emphasizes care of the body for the lover. Mythological digressions include
6615-406: A theory that is little considered among scholars of Latin civilization today: that Ovid was never exiled from Rome and that all of his exile works are the result of his fertile imagination. This theory was supported and rejected in the 1930s, especially by Dutch authors. In 1985, a research paper by Fitton Brown advanced new arguments in support of Hartman's theory. Brown's article was followed by
6804-464: A visit to the races, 3 and 8 focus on Corinna's interest in other men, 10 is a complaint to Ceres because of her festival that requires abstinence, 13 is a poem on a festival of Juno , and 9 a lament for Tibullus . In poem 11 Ovid decides not to love Corinna any longer and regrets the poems he has written about her. The final poem is Ovid's farewell to the erotic muse. Critics have seen the poems as highly self-conscious and extremely playful specimens of
6993-454: Is Ovid's only tragedy, Medea , from which only a few lines are preserved. Quintilian admired the work a great deal and considered it a prime example of Ovid's poetic talent. Lactantius quotes from a lost translation by Ovid of Aratus ' Phaenomena , although the poem's ascription to Ovid is insecure because it is never mentioned in Ovid's other works. A line from a work entitled Epigrammata
7182-400: Is a didactic elegiac poem in three books that sets out to teach the arts of seduction and love. The first book addresses men and teaches them how to seduce women, the second, also to men, teaches how to keep a lover. The third addresses women and teaches seduction techniques. The first book opens with an invocation to Venus, in which Ovid establishes himself as a praeceptor amoris (1.17) –
7371-431: Is described as being as big as a mountain. Over time, descriptions of the Giants make them less human, more monstrous and more "gigantic". According to Apollodorus the Giants had great size and strength, a frightening appearance, with long hair and beards and scaly feet. Ovid makes them "serpent-footed" with a "hundred arms", and Nonnus has them "serpent-haired". The most important divine struggle in Greek mythology
7560-549: Is going to use his abilities to hurt his enemy. He cites Callimachus' Ibis as his inspiration and calls all the gods to make his curse effective. Ovid uses mythical exempla to condemn his enemy in the afterlife, cites evil prodigies that attended his birth, and then in the next 300 lines wishes that the torments of mythological characters befall his enemy. The poem ends with a prayer that the gods make his curse effective. The Tristia consist of five books of elegiac poetry composed by Ovid in exile in Tomis. Book 1 contains 11 poems;
7749-562: Is just one example of an ancient historian giving credit to a few individual soldiers and the individuality of phalanx warfare. Each hoplite provided his own equipment. Thus, only those who could afford such weaponry fought as hoplites. As with the Roman Republican army it was the middle classes who formed the bulk of the infantry. Equipment was not standardized, although there were doubtless trends in general designs over time, and between city-states. Hoplites had customized armour ,
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7938-526: Is most famous for the Metamorphoses , a continuous mythological narrative in fifteen books written in dactylic hexameters . He is also known for works in elegiac couplets such as Ars Amatoria ("The Art of Love") and Fasti . His poetry was much imitated during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages , and greatly influenced Western art and literature . The Metamorphoses remains one of
8127-567: Is not secure, but scholars have established tentative dates. His earliest extant work is thought to be the Heroides , letters of mythological heroines to their absent lovers, which may have been published in 19 BC, although the date is uncertain as it depends on a notice in Am. 2.18.19–26 that seems to describe the collection as an early published work. The authenticity of some of these poems has been challenged, but this first edition probably contained
8316-545: Is of Greek origin and means "transformations". Appropriately, the characters in this work undergo many different transformations. Within an extent of nearly 12,000 verses, almost 250 different myths are mentioned. Each myth is set outdoors where the mortals are often vulnerable to external influences. The poem stands in the tradition of mythological and etiological catalogue poetry such as Hesiod 's Catalogue of Women , Callimachus ' Aetia , Nicander 's Heteroeumena , and Parthenius ' Metamorphoses . The first book describes
8505-468: Is thought that their use began in earnest around the 7th century BC, when weapons became cheap during the Iron Age and ordinary citizens were able to provide their own weapons. Most hoplites were not professional soldiers and often lacked sufficient military training. Some states maintained a small elite professional unit, known as the epilektoi or logades (means "the chosen") since they were picked from
8694-596: The Aeneid in the case of Dido and Catullus 64 for Ariadne, and transfer characters from the genres of epic and tragedy to the elegiac genre of the Heroides . The letters have been admired for their deep psychological portrayals of mythical characters, their rhetoric, and their unique attitude to the classical tradition of mythology. They also contribute significantly to conversations on how gender and identity were constructed in Augustan Rome. A popular quote from
8883-778: The Arcadians claimed that battle took place "not at Pellene in Thrace " but in the plain of Megalopolis in the central Peloponnese where "rises up fire". The tradition of the battle being in Megalopolis may have been inspired by the presence of numerous gigantic bones around Megalopolis as noted by Pausanias, which in Ancient Greek times were attributed to giants, but which in modern times are known to be those of fossil Pleistocene mammals such as straight-tusked elephants , an enormous extinct elephant species formerly native to
9072-500: The Ars Amatoria , and is primarily addressed to men. The poem criticizes suicide as a means for escaping love and, invoking Apollo, goes on to tell lovers not to procrastinate and be lazy in dealing with love. Lovers are taught to avoid their partners, not perform magic, see their lover unprepared, take other lovers, and never be jealous. Old letters should be burned and the lover's family avoided. The poem throughout presents Ovid as
9261-822: The First Greco-Persian War . The Persian archers and light troops who fought in the Battle of Marathon failed because their bows were too weak for their arrows to penetrate the wall of Greek shields of the phalanx formation. The phalanx was also employed by the Greeks at the Battle of Thermopylae in 480 BC and at the Battle of Plataea in 479 BC during the Second Greco-Persian War . The word hoplite ( Greek : ὁπλίτης hoplítēs ; pl. ὁπλῖται hoplĩtai ) derives from hoplon ( ὅπλον : hóplon ; plural hópla ὅπλα ), referring to
9450-696: The Gigantes in Homer 's Odyssey , though it is not entirely clear that Homer and Hesiod understood the term to mean the same thing. Homer has Giants among the ancestors of the Phaiakians , a race of men encountered by Odysseus , their ruler Alcinous being the son of Nausithous , who was the son of Poseidon and Periboea , the daughter of the Giant king Eurymedon. Elsewhere in the Odyssey , Alcinous says that
9639-562: The Gorgon 's gaze turn the Giants into mountains. Valerius Flaccus , in his Argonautica , makes frequent use of Gigantomachy imagery, with the Argo (the world's first ship) constituting a Gigantomachy-like offense against natural law, and example of hubristic excess. Claudian , the fourth-century AD court poet of emperor Honorius , composed a Gigantomachia that viewed the battle as a metaphor for vast geomorphic change: "The puissant company of
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#17327652555089828-681: The Italian Peninsula until the early 3rd century BC, employed by both the Etruscans and the Early Roman army , though scutum infantry had existed for centuries and some groups fielded both. The Romans later standardized their fighting style to a more flexible maniple organization, which was more versatile on rough terrain like that of the Apennines . Roman equipment also changed, trading spears for heavy javelins ( pilum ). In
10017-590: The League of Corinth or from hired mercenaries. Beside these units, the Macedonians also used the so-called Hypaspists , an elite force of units possibly originally fighting as hoplites and used to guard the exposed right wing of Alexander's phalanx. Hoplite-style warfare was influential, and influenced several other nations in the Mediterranean. Hoplite warfare was the dominant fighting style on much of
10206-787: The Machimoi of the Ptolemaic army . The Greek armies of the Hellenistic period mostly fielded troops in the fashion of the Macedonian phalanx. Many armies of mainland Greece retained hoplite warfare. Besides classical hoplites Hellenistic nations began to field two new types of hoplites, the Thureophoroi and the Thorakitai . They developed when Greeks adopted the Galatian Thureos shield, of an oval shape that
10395-463: The Meliai (ash tree nymphs), while the severed genitals of Uranus falling into the sea resulted in a white foam from which Aphrodite grew. The mythographer Apollodorus also has the Giants being the offspring of Gaia and Uranus, though he makes no connection with Uranus' castration, saying simply that Gaia "vexed on account of the Titans, brought forth the Giants". There are three brief references to
10584-609: The Metamorphoses , Ovid refers to the Gigantomachy as: "The time when serpent footed giants strove / to fix their hundred arms on captive Heaven". Here Ovid apparently conflates the Giants with the Hundred-Handers , who, though in Hesiod fought alongside Zeus and the Olympians, in some traditions fought against them. Eratosthenes records that Dionysus, Hephaestus and several satyrs mounted on donkeys and charged against
10773-488: The Metamorphoses , scholars have focused on Ovid's organization of his vast body of material. The ways that stories are linked by geography, themes, or contrasts creates interesting effects and constantly forces the reader to evaluate the connections. Ovid also varies his tone and material from different literary genres; G. B. Conte has called the poem "a sort of gallery of these various literary genres". In this spirit, Ovid engages creatively with his predecessors, alluding to
10962-561: The Metamorphoses , the Fasti was to be a long poem and emulated etiological poetry by writers like Callimachus and, more recently, Propertius and his fourth book. The poem goes through the Roman calendar, explaining the origins and customs of important Roman festivals, digressing on mythical stories, and giving astronomical and agricultural information appropriate to the season. The poem was probably dedicated to Augustus initially, but perhaps
11151-591: The Phlegraean Fields . The third century BC poet Lycophron , apparently locates a battle of gods and Giants in the vicinity of the volcanic island of Ischia , the largest of the Phlegraean Islands off the coast of Naples, where he says the Giants (along with Typhon) were "crushed" under the island. At least one tradition placed Phlegra in Thessaly . According to the geographer Pausanias ,
11340-744: The Sacred Band of Carthage . Many Greek hoplite mercenaries fought in foreign armies, such as Carthage and Achaemenid Empire , where it is believed by some that they inspired the formation of the Cardaces . Some hoplites served under the Illyrian king Bardylis in the 4th century. The Illyrians were known to import many weapons and tactics from the Greeks. The Diadochi imported the Greek phalanx to their kingdoms. Though they mostly fielded Greek citizens or mercenaries, they also armed and drilled local natives as hoplites or rather Macedonian phalanx, like
11529-580: The Theban general Epaminondas . These tactics inspired the future king Philip II of Macedon , who was at the time a hostage in Thebes, to develop a new type of infantry, the Macedonian phalanx . After the Macedonian conquests of the 4th century BC, the hoplite was slowly abandoned in favour of the phalangite , armed in the Macedonian fashion, in the armies of the southern Greek states. Although clearly
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#173276525550811718-585: The Titans and their war with the Olympian gods, the Titanomachy . This confusion extended to other opponents of the Olympians, including the huge monster Typhon , the offspring of Gaia and Tartarus , whom Zeus finally defeated with his thunderbolt, and the Aloadae , the large, strong and aggressive brothers Otus and Ephialtes, who piled Pelion on top of Ossa in order to scale the heavens and attack
11907-476: The battle of the centaurs , and Iphigeneia . The thirteenth book discusses the contest over Achilles' arms , and Polyphemus . The fourteenth moves to Italy, describing the journey of Aeneas , Pomona and Vertumnus , and Romulus and Hersilia . The final book opens with a philosophical lecture by Pythagoras and the deification of Caesar . The end of the poem praises Augustus and expresses Ovid's belief that his poem has earned him immortality. In analyzing
12096-487: The carmen , or song, which was one cause of his banishment. The Ars Amatoria was followed by the Remedia Amoris in the same year. This corpus of elegiac, erotic poetry earned Ovid a place among the chief Roman elegists Gallus, Tibullus, and Propertius, of whom he saw himself as the fourth member. By AD 8, Ovid had completed Metamorphoses , a hexameter epic poem in 15 books, which comprehensively catalogs
12285-487: The province of L'Aquila , Abruzzo), in an Apennine valley east of Rome , to an important equestrian family, the gens Ovidia , on 20 March 43 BC – a significant year in Roman politics. Along with his brother, who excelled at oratory, Ovid was educated in rhetoric in Rome under the teachers Arellius Fuscus and Porcius Latro . His father wanted him to study rhetoric so that he might practice law. According to Seneca
12474-485: The Elder, Ovid tended to the emotional, not the argumentative pole of rhetoric. Following the death of his brother at 20 years of age, Ovid renounced law and travelled to Athens , Asia Minor , and Sicily . He held minor public posts, as one of the tresviri capitales , as a member of the Centumviral court and as one of the decemviri litibus iudicandis , but resigned to pursue poetry probably around 29–25 BC,
12663-569: The Giant Mimas was also depicted. Other less-familiar or otherwise unknown Giant names include Allektos, Chthonophylos, Eurybias, Molodros, Obrimos, Ochthaios and Olyktor. The subject was revived in the Renaissance, most famously in the frescos of the Sala dei Giganti in the Palazzo del Te , Mantua . These were painted around 1530 by Giulio Romano and his workshop, and aimed to give the viewer
12852-478: The Giants "sons of the Earth". Later the term "gegeneis" ("earthborn") became a common epithet of the Giants. The first century Latin writer Hyginus has the Giants being the offspring of Gaia and Tartarus , another primordial Greek deity. Though distinct in early traditions, Hellenistic and later writers often confused or conflated the Giants and their Gigantomachy with an earlier set of offspring of Gaia and Uranus,
13041-517: The Giants as an example of hubris, with the phrases "vengeance of the gods" and "they suffered unforgettable punishments for the evil they did" being possible references to the Gigantomachy. Homer's comparison of the Giants to the Laestrygonians is suggestive of similarities between the two races. The Laestrygonians, who "hurled ... rocks huge as a man could lift", certainly possessed great strength, and possibly great size, as their king's wife
13230-524: The Giants battling the gods. Homer's remark that Eurymedon "brought destruction on his froward people" might possibly be a reference to the Gigantomachy and Hesiod's remark that Heracles performed a "great work among the immortals" is probably a reference to Heracles' crucial role in the gods' victory over the Giants. The Hesiodic Catalogue of Women (also called Ehoiai ), following mentions of Heracles' sacks of Troy and of Kos , refers to his having slain "presumptuous Giants". Another probable reference to
13419-427: The Giants had been portrayed as typical hoplite warriors armed with the usual helmets, shields, spears and swords, in the fifth century the Giants begin to be depicted as less handsome in appearance, primitive and wild, clothed in animal skins or naked, often without armor and using boulders as weapons. A series of red-figure pots from c. 400 BC, which may have used Phidas' shield of Athena Parthenos as their model, show
13608-516: The Giants once again enemies of order and civilization. Horace makes use of this same meaning to symbolize the victory of Augustus at the Battle of Actium as a victory for the civilized West over the barbaric East. Ovid , in his Metamorphoses , describes mankind's moral decline through the ages of gold, silver, bronze and iron, and presents the Gigantomachy as a part of that same descent from natural order into chaos. Lucan , in his Pharsalia , which contains many Gigantomachy references, makes
13797-449: The Giants, a practice dating from perhaps as early as the second millennium BC. The earliest extant indisputable representations of Gigantes are found on votive pinakes from Corinth and Eleusis , and Attic black-figure pots, dating from the second quarter of the sixth century BC (this excludes early depictions of Zeus battling single snake-footed creatures, which probably represent his battle with Typhon , as well as Zeus' opponent on
13986-442: The Giants, whom he gives a "hundred arms". So perhaps do Callimachus and Philostratus , since they both make Aegaeon the cause of earthquakes, as was often said about the Giants (see below). Homer describes the Giant king Eurymedon as "great-hearted" ( μεγαλήτορος ), and his people as "insolent" ( ὑπερθύμοισι ) and "froward" ( ἀτάσθαλος ). Hesiod calls the Giants "strong" ( κρατερῶν ) and "great" ( μεγάλους ) which may or may not be
14175-544: The Giants, wish to "drag down everything from heaven and the invisible to earth". In Latin literature , in which the Giants, the Titans , Typhon and the Aloadae are all often conflated, Gigantomachy imagery is a frequent occurrence. Cicero , while urging the acceptance of aging and death as natural and inevitable, allegorizes the Gigantomachy as "fighting against Nature". The rationalist Epicurean poet Lucretius , for whom such things as lightning, earthquakes and volcanic eruptions had natural rather than divine causes, used
14364-623: The Giants. From the sixth century BC onwards, the Gigantomachy was a popular and important theme in Greek art, with over six hundred representations cataloged in the Lexicon Iconographicum Mythologiae Classicae ( LIMC ). The Gigantomachy was depicted on the new peplos (robe) presented to Athena on the Acropolis of Athens as part of the Panathenaic festival celebrating her victory over
14553-424: The Giants. As they drew closer and before the Giants had spotted them, the donkeys brayed, scaring off some Giants who ran away in terror of the unseen enemies, for they had never heard a donkey's bray before. Dionysus placed the donkeys in the skies in gratitude, and in vase paintings from the classical period, satyrs and Maenads can sometimes be seen confronting their gigantic opponents. A late Latin grammarian of
14742-544: The Gigantomachy in the Catalogue has Zeus produce Heracles to be "a protector against ruin for gods and men". There are indications that there might have been a lost epic poem, a Gigantomachia , which gave an account of the war: Hesiod's Theogony says that the Muses sing of the Giants, and the sixth century BC poet Xenophanes mentions the Gigantomachy as a subject to be avoided at table. The Apollonius scholia refers to
14931-417: The Gigantomachy to celebrate the victory of philosophy over mythology and superstition. In the triumph of science and reason over traditional religious belief, the Gigantomachy symbolized for him Epicurus storming heaven. In a reversal of their usual meaning, he represents the Giants as heroic rebels against the tyranny of Olympus. Virgil —reversing Lucretius' reversal—restores the conventional meaning, making
15120-639: The Greco-Persian Wars inspired the Persians to introduce scythed chariots . Sparta is one of the most famous city-states, along with Athens, which had a unique position in ancient Greece. Contrary to other city states, the free citizens of Sparta served as hoplites their entire lives, training and exercising in peacetime, which gave Sparta a professional standing army. Often small, numbering around 6000 at its peak to no more than 1000 soldiers at lowest point, divided into six mora or battalions ,
15309-464: The Heroides anticipates Machiavelli's "the end justifies the means". Ovid had written "Exitus acta probat" – the result justifies the means. The Amores is a collection in three books of love poetry in elegiac meter, following the conventions of the elegiac genre developed by Tibullus and Propertius . Elegy originates with Propertius and Tibullus, but Ovid is an innovator in the genre. Ovid changes
15498-579: The Hundred-Hander Briareus were also said to be buried under Etna). The Giant Alcyoneus along with "many giants" were said to lie under Mount Vesuvius , Prochyte (modern Procida ), one of the volcanic Phlegraean Islands was supposed to sit atop the Giant Mimas , and Polybotes was said to lie pinned beneath the volcanic island of Nisyros , supposedly a piece of the island of Kos broken off and thrown by Poseidon . Describing
15687-454: The Olympians (though in the case of Ephialtes there was probably a Giant with the same name). For example, Hyginus includes the names of three Titans, Coeus , Iapetus , and Astraeus , along with Typhon and the Aloadae, in his list of Giants, and Ovid seems to conflate the Gigantomachy with the later siege of Olympus by the Aloadae. Ovid also seems to confuse the Hundred-Handers with
15876-449: The Olympians fighting from above and the Giants fighting with large stones from below. With the beginning of the fourth century BC probably comes the first portrayal of the Giants in Greek art as anything other than fully human in form, with legs that become coiled serpents having snake heads at the ends in place of feet. Such depictions were perhaps borrowed from Typhon, the monstrous son of Gaia and Tartarus , described by Hesiod as having
16065-518: The Pergamon Altar. On the right side of the East frieze, the first encountered by a visitor, a winged Giant, usually identified as Alcyoneus , fights Athena . Below and to the right of Athena, Gaia rises from the ground, touching Athena's robe in supplication. Flying above Gaia, a winged Nike crowns the victorious Athena. To the left of this grouping a snake-legged Porphyrion battles Zeus and to
16254-586: The Persians. This drastically altered the scale of warfare and the numbers of troops involved. The hoplite phalanx proved itself far superior to the Persian infantry at such conflicts as the Battle of Marathon , Thermopylae , and the Battle of Plataea . During this period, Athens and Sparta rose to a position of political eminence in Greece, and their rivalry in the aftermath of the Persian wars brought Greece into renewed internal conflict. The Peloponnesian War
16443-519: The Phaiakians, like the Cyclopes and the Giants, are "near kin" to the gods. Odysseus describes the Laestrygonians (another race encountered by Odysseus in his travels) as more like Giants than men. Pausanias , the 2nd century AD geographer, read these lines of the Odyssey to mean that, for Homer, the Giants were a race of mortal men. The 6th–5th century BC lyric poet Bacchylides calls
16632-474: The Spartan army was feared for its discipline and ferocity. Military service was the primary duty of Spartan men, and Spartan society was organized around its army. Military service for hoplites lasted until the age of 40, and sometimes until 60 years of age, depending on a man's physical ability to perform on the battlefield. Later in the hoplite era, more sophisticated tactics were developed, in particular by
16821-472: The Spartans specifically chose a narrow coastal pass to make their stand against the massive Persian army. The vastly outnumbered Greeks held off the Persians for seven days. When battles occurred, they were usually set piece and intended to be decisive. The battlefield would be flat and open to facilitate phalanx warfare. These battles were usually short and required a high degree of discipline. At least in
17010-449: The accounts of the ancients that these were perfectly orchestrated and attempted organized en masse . Once one of the lines broke, the troops would generally flee from the field, sometimes chased by psiloi , peltasts , or light cavalry. If a hoplite escaped, he would sometimes be forced to drop his cumbersome aspis , thereby disgracing himself to his friends and family (becoming a ripsaspis , one who threw his shield). To lessen
17199-412: The battle between the Giants and the Olympians. He locates it "on the plain of Phlegra " and has Teiresias foretell Heracles killing Giants "beneath [his] rushing arrows". He calls Heracles "you who subdued the Giants", and has Porphyrion , whom he calls "the king of the Giants", being overcome by the bow of Apollo . Euripides ' Heracles has its hero shooting Giants with arrows, and his Ion has
17388-419: The blood of the Giants came a new race of beings in human form. According to Ovid, Earth (Gaia) did not want the Giants to perish without a trace, so "reeking with the copious blood of her gigantic sons", she gave life to the "steaming gore" of the blood soaked battleground. These new offspring, like their fathers the Giants, also hated the gods and possessed a bloodthirsty desire for "savage slaughter". Later in
17577-419: The book, Ovid playfully interjects, criticizing himself for undoing all his didactic work to men and mythologically digresses on the story of Procris and Cephalus . The book ends with his wish that women will follow his advice and spread his fame saying Naso magister erat, "Ovid was our teacher". (Ovid was known as "Naso" to his contemporaries. ) This elegiac poem proposes a cure for the love Ovid teaches in
17766-402: The campaign season being restricted to one summer. Armies generally marched directly to their destination, and in some cases the battlefield was agreed to by the contestants in advance. Battles were fought on level ground, and hoplites preferred to fight with high terrain on both sides of the phalanx so the formation could not be flanked. An example of this was the Battle of Thermopylae , where
17955-493: The campaign. All hoplites were expected to take part in any military campaign when called for duty by leaders of the state. The Lacedaemonian citizens of Sparta were renowned for their lifelong combat training and almost mythical military prowess, while their greatest adversaries, the Athenians, were exempted from service only after the age of 60. This inevitably reduced the potential duration of campaigns and often resulted in
18144-430: The catastrophic eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD , which buried the towns of Pompeii and Herculaneum , Cassius Dio relates accounts of the appearance of many Giant-like creatures on the mountain and in the surrounding area followed by violent earthquakes and the final cataclysmic eruption, saying "some thought that the Giants were rising again in revolt (for at this time also many of their forms could be discerned in
18333-563: The cause of volcanic eruptions and earthquakes. The name "Gigantes" is usually taken to imply "earth-born", and Hesiod 's Theogony makes this explicit by having the Giants be the offspring of Gaia (Earth). According to Hesiod, Gaia, mating with Uranus , bore many children: the first generation of Titans , the Cyclopes , and the Hundred-Handers . However, Uranus hated his children and, as soon as they were born, he imprisoned them inside Gaia, causing her much distress. Therefore, Gaia made
18522-748: The central group are the rest of the gods engaged in combat with particular Giants. While the gods can be identified by characteristic features, for example Hermes with his hat ( petasos ) and Dionysus his ivy crown, the Giants are not individually characterized and can only be identified by inscriptions which sometimes name the Giant. The fragments of one vase from this same period (Getty 81.AE.211) name five Giants: Pankrates against Heracles, Polybotes against Zeus, Oranion against Dionysus, Euboios and Euphorbus fallen and Ephialtes. Also named, on two other of these early vases, are Aristaeus battling Hephaestus (Akropolis 607), Eurymedon and (again) Ephialtes (Akropolis 2134). An amphora from Caere from later in
18711-489: The chorus describe seeing a depiction of the Gigantomachy on the late sixth century Temple of Apollo at Delphi , with Athena fighting the Giant Enceladus with her "gorgon shield", Zeus burning the Giant Mimas with his "mighty thunderbolt, blazing at both ends", and Dionysus killing an unnamed Giant with his "ivy staff". The early 3rd century BC author Apollonius of Rhodes briefly describes an incident where
18900-429: The cup is the same central group of gods (minus Gaia) as described above: Zeus wielding his thunderbolt, stepping into a quadriga, Heracles with lion skin (behind the chariot rather than on it) drawing his (unseen) bow and, ahead, Athena thrusting her spear into a fallen Giant. On the other side are Hephaestus flinging flaming missiles of red-hot metal from two pairs of tongs, Poseidon, with Nisyros on his shoulder, stabbing
19089-567: The death of the emperor prompted Ovid to change the dedication to honor Germanicus . Ovid uses direct inquiry of gods and scholarly research to talk about the calendar and regularly calls himself a vates , a seer. He also seems to emphasize unsavory, popular traditions of the festivals, imbuing the poem with a popular, plebeian flavor, which some have interpreted as subversive to the Augustan moral legislation. While this poem has always been invaluable to students of Roman religion and culture for
19278-403: The early classical period, when cavalry was present, its role was restricted to protection of the flanks of the phalanx, pursuit of a defeated enemy, and covering a retreat if required. Light infantry and missile troops took part in the battles but their role was less important. Before the opposing phalanxes engaged, the light troops would skirmish with the enemy's light forces, and then protect
19467-476: The elegiac Tristia , a series of poems expressing the poet's despair in exile and advocating his return to Rome, are dated to AD 9–12. The Ibis , an elegiac curse poem attacking an unnamed adversary, may also be dated to this period. The Epistulae ex Ponto , a series of letters to friends in Rome asking them to effect his return, are thought to be his last compositions, with the first three books published in AD 13 and
19656-618: The elegiac genre. About a hundred elegiac lines survive from this poem on beauty treatments for women's faces, which seems to parody serious didactic poetry. The poem says that women should concern themselves first with manners and then prescribes several compounds for facial treatments before breaking off. The style is not unlike the shorter Hellenistic didactic works of Nicander and Aratus . Si quis in hoc artem populo non novit amandi, hoc legat et lecto carmine doctus amet. The Ars Amatoria
19845-418: The elite warriors recruit Greek citizens. The large amounts of hoplite armour needed to then be distributed to the populations of Greek citizens only increased the time for the phalanx to be implemented. Snodgrass believes, only once the armour was in place that the phalanx formation became popular. The Rapid Adaptation model was developed by historians Paul Cartledge and Victor Hanson . They believed that
20034-466: The emperor for forgiveness. Book 3 in 14 poems focuses on Ovid's life in Tomis. The opening poem describes his book's arrival in Rome to find Ovid's works banned. Poems 10, 12, and 13 focus on the seasons spent in Tomis, 9 on the origins of the place, and 2, 3, and 11 his emotional distress and longing for home. The final poem is again an apology for his work. The fourth book has ten poems addressed mostly to friends. Poem 1 expresses his love of poetry and
20223-475: The end only the triarii would keep a long spear ( hasta ) as their main weapon. The triarii would still fight in a traditional phalanx formation. Though this combination or similar was popular in much of Italy, some continued to fight as hoplites. Mercenaries serving under Pyrrhus of Epirus or Hannibal (namely Lucanians) were equipped and fought as hoplites. Early in its history, Ancient Carthage also equipped its troops as Greek hoplites, in units such as
20412-486: The extreme right of the phalanx were only half-protected. In battle, opposing phalanxes would exploit this weakness by attempting to overlap the enemy's right flank. It also meant that, in battle, a phalanx would tend to drift to the right (as hoplites sought to remain behind the shield of their neighbour). The most experienced hoplites were often placed on the right side of the phalanx, to counteract these problems. According to Plutarch's Sayings of Spartans , "a man carried
20601-402: The fifth century AD, Servius , mentions that during the battle, the eagle of Zeus (who once had been the boy Aëtos before his metamorphosis) assisted his master by placing the lightning bolts on his hands. Various places have been associated with the Giants and the Gigantomachy. As noted above Pindar has the battle occur at Phlegra ("the place of burning"), as do other early sources. Phlegra
20790-551: The figures and the identifications of most of the approximately sixty gods and goddesses have been more or less established. The names and positions of most Giants remain uncertain. Some of the names of the Giants have been determined by inscription, while their positions are often conjectured on the basis of which gods fought which Giants in Apollodorus ' account. The same central group of Zeus, Athena, Heracles and Gaia, found on many early Attic vases, also featured prominently on
20979-471: The first 14 poems of the collection. The first five-book collection of the Amores , a series of erotic poems addressed to a lover, Corinna, is thought to have been published in 16–15 BC; the surviving version, redacted to three books according to an epigram prefixed to the first book, is thought to have been published c. 8 –3 BC. Between the publications of the two editions of the Amores can be dated
21168-447: The first lines ( protostates ) would stab at their opponents, at the same time trying to keep in position. The ranks behind them would support them with their own spears and the mass of their shields gently pushing them, not to force them into the enemy formation but to keep them steady and in place. The soldiers in the back provided motivation to the ranks in the front being that most hoplites were close community members. At certain points,
21357-501: The first piece is an address by Ovid to his book about how it should act when it arrives in Rome. Poem 3 describes his final night in Rome, poems 2 and 10 Ovid's voyage to Tomis, 8 the betrayal of a friend, and 5 and 6 the loyalty of his friends and wife. In the final poem Ovid apologizes for the quality and tone of his book, a sentiment echoed throughout the collection. Book 2 consists of one long poem in which Ovid defends himself and his poetry, uses precedents to justify his work, and begs
21546-464: The first semester of the year, with each book dedicated to a different month of the Roman calendar (January to June). The project seems unprecedented in Roman literature. It seems that Ovid planned to cover the whole year, but was unable to finish because of his exile, although he did revise sections of the work at Tomis, and he claims at Trist. 2.549–52 that his work was interrupted after six books. Like
21735-460: The flanks and rear of the phalanx. The military structure created by the Spartans was a rectangular phalanx formation. The formation was organized from eight to ten rows deep and could cover a front of a quarter of a mile or more if sufficient hoplites were available. The two lines would close to a short distance to allow effective use of their spears, while the psiloi threw stones and javelins from behind their lines. The shields would clash and
21924-507: The formation of the world, the ages of man , the flood , the story of Daphne 's rape by Apollo and Io 's by Jupiter. The second book opens with Phaethon and continues describing the love of Jupiter with Callisto and Europa . The third book focuses on the mythology of Thebes with the stories of Cadmus , Actaeon , and Pentheus . The fourth book focuses on three pairs of lovers: Pyramus and Thisbe , Salmacis and Hermaphroditus , and Perseus and Andromeda . The fifth book focuses on
22113-474: The foundation of the phalanx formation was birthed during this time. Specifically, he uses an example of the Chigi Vase to point out that hoplite soldiers were carrying normal spears as well as javelins on their backs. Matured hoplites did not carry long-range weapons including javelins. The Chigi vase is important for our knowledge of the hoplite soldier because it is one if not the only representation of
22302-640: The fourth book between AD 14 and 16. The exile poetry is particularly emotive and personal. In the Epistulae he claims friendship with the natives of Tomis (in the Tristia they are frightening barbarians) and to have written a poem in their language ( Ex Ponto , 4.13.19–20). Yet he pined for Rome – and for his third wife, addressing many poems to her. Some are also to the Emperor Augustus, yet others are to himself, to friends in Rome, and sometimes to
22491-475: The full spectrum of classical poetry. Ovid's use of Alexandrian epic, or elegiac couplets, shows his fusion of erotic and psychological style with traditional forms of epic. A concept drawn from the Metamorphoses is the idea of the white lie or pious fraud : "pia mendacia fraude". Six books in elegiacs survive of this second ambitious poem that Ovid was working on when he was exiled. The six books cover
22680-516: The gaps. Ovid Publius Ovidius Naso ( Latin: [ˈpuːbliʊs ɔˈwɪdiʊs ˈnaːso(ː)] ; 20 March 43 BC – AD 17/18), known in English as Ovid ( / ˈ ɒ v ɪ d / OV -id ), was a Roman poet who lived during the reign of Augustus . He was a younger contemporary of Virgil and Horace , with whom he is often ranked as one of the three canonical poets of Latin literature . The Imperial scholar Quintilian considered him
22869-420: The giants confounds all differences between things; islands abandon the deep; mountains lie hidden in the sea. Many a river is left dry or has altered its ancient course....robbed of her mountains Earth sank into level plains, parted among her own sons." Various locations associated with the Giants and the Gigantomachy were areas of volcanic and seismic activity (e.g. the Phlegraean Fields west of Naples ), and
23058-456: The gods themselves punishing the Giants for their arrogant challenge to the gods' divine authority. The Gigantomachy can also be seen as a continuation of the struggle between Gaia (Mother Earth) and Uranus (Father Sky), and thus as part of the primal opposition between female and male. Plato compares the Gigantomachy to a philosophical dispute about existence, wherein the materialist philosophers, who believe that only physical things exist, like
23247-471: The helmets shall abide the rattle [of war unbowed]". At no point in other texts does Tyrtaios discuss missiles or rocks, making another case for a transitional period in which hoplite warriors had some ranged capabilities. Extended Gradualists argue that hoplite warriors did not fight in a true phalanx until the 5th century BC. Making estimations of the speed of the transition reached as long as 300 years, from 750 to 450 BC. The exact time when hoplite warfare
23436-432: The historical Sappho to Phaon , seems spurious (although referred to in Am. 2.18) because of its length, its lack of integration in the mythological theme, and its absence from Medieval manuscripts. The final letters (16–21) are paired compositions comprising a letter to a lover and a reply. Paris and Helen , Hero and Leander , and Acontius and Cydippe are the addressees of the paired letters. These are considered
23625-472: The hoplite formation, known as the phalanx, in Greek art. This led Van Wees to believe that there was a transitional period from long-range warfare of the Dark Ages to the close combat of hoplite warfare. Some other evidence of a transitional period lies within the text of Spartan poet Tyrtaios , who wrote, "…will they draw back for the pounding [of the missiles, no,] despite the battery of great hurl-stones,
23814-596: The hoplite's equipment. In the modern Hellenic Army , the word hoplite ( Greek : oπλίτης : oplítîs ) is used to refer to an infantryman . The fragmented political structure of Ancient Greece, with many competing city-states, increased the frequency of conflict, but at the same time limited the scale of warfare. Limited manpower did not allow most Greek city-states to form large armies which could operate for long periods because they were generally not formed from professional soldiers. Most soldiers had careers as farmers or workers and returned to these professions after
24003-526: The island of Kos called Nisyros , and threw it on top of Polybotes ( Strabo also relates the story of Polybotes buried under Nisyros but adds that some say Polybotes lies under Kos instead). Hermes , wearing Hades ' helmet, killed Hippolytus , Artemis killed Gration, and the Moirai (Fates) killed Agrius and Thoas with bronze clubs. The rest of the giants were "destroyed" by thunderbolts thrown by Zeus, with each Giant being shot with arrows by Heracles (as
24192-558: The last of the Latin love elegists . Although Ovid enjoyed enormous popularity during his lifetime, the emperor Augustus exiled him to Tomis , the capital of the newly-organised province of Moesia , on the Black Sea , where he remained for the last nine or ten years of his life. Ovid himself attributed his banishment to a "poem and a mistake", but his reluctance to disclose specifics has resulted in much speculation among scholars. Ovid
24381-412: The leader of his elegies from the poet, to Amor (Love or Cupid). This switch in focus from the triumphs of the poet, to the triumphs of love over people is the first of its kind for this genre of poetry. This Ovidian innovation can be summarized as the use of love as a metaphor for poetry. The books describe the many aspects of love and focus on the poet's relationship with a mistress called Corinna. Within
24570-439: The left of Zeus is Heracles. On the far left side of the East frieze, a triple Hecate with torch battles a snake-legged Giant usually identified (following Apollodorus) as Clytius. To the right lays the fallen Udaeus, shot in his left eye by an arrow from Apollo, along with Demeter who wields a pair of torches against Erysichthon. The Giants are depicted in a variety of ways. Some Giants are fully human in form, while others are
24759-535: The letters mentioned specifically in Ovid's description of the work at Am. 2.18.19–26 as safe from objection. The collection comprises a new type of generic composition without parallel in earlier literature. The first fourteen letters are thought to comprise the first published collection and are written by the heroines Penelope , Phyllis , Briseis , Phaedra , Oenone , Hypsipyle , Dido , Hermione , Deianeira , Ariadne , Canace , Medea , Laodamia , and Hypermnestra to their absent male lovers. Letter 15, from
24948-525: The man next to you is practically touching. One piece of evidence of this is the picking of individual champions after each battle was fought. This is most evident in Herodotus' account of the Battle of Thermopylae. "Although great valor was displayed by the entire corps of Spartans and Thespians, the man who proved himself best was a Spartan Officer named Dienekes ". The brothers Alpheos and Maron were also honored for their battlefield prowess as well. This
25137-487: The metamorphoses in Greek and Roman mythology, from the emergence of the cosmos to the apotheosis of Julius Caesar . The stories follow each other in the telling of human beings transformed to new bodies: trees, rocks, animals, flowers, constellations , etc. Simultaneously, he worked on the Fasti , a six-book poem in elegiac couplets on the theme of the calendar of Roman festivals and astronomy. The composition of this poem
25326-476: The most important sources of classical mythology today. Ovid wrote more about his own life than most other Roman poets. Information about his biography is drawn primarily from his poetry, especially Tristia 4.10, which gives a lengthy autobiographical account of his life. Other sources include Seneca the Elder and Quintilian . Ovid was born in the Paelignian town of Sulmo (modern-day Sulmona , in
25515-438: The north (c. 2000 BC) over the old gods of the existing peoples of the Greek peninsula. For the Greeks, the Gigantomachy represented a victory for order over chaos—the victory of the divine order and rationalism of the Olympian gods over the discord and excessive violence of the earth-born chthonic Giants. More specifically, for sixth and fifth century BC Greeks, it represented a victory for civilization over barbarism, and as such
25704-401: The number of casualties inflicted by the enemy during battles, soldiers were positioned to stand shoulder to shoulder with their aspis . The hoplites' most prominent citizens and generals led from the front. Thus, the war could be decided by a single battle. Individual hoplites carried their shields on their left arm, protecting themselves and the soldier to the left. This meant that the men at
25893-629: The number of casualties. In the Persian war, hoplites faced large numbers of skirmishers and missile-armed troops, and such troops (e.g., peltasts ) became much more commonly used by the Greeks during the Peloponnesian War. As a result, hoplites began wearing less armour, carrying shorter swords, and in general adapting for greater mobility. This led to the development of the ekdromos light hoplite. Many famous personalities, philosophers, artists, and poets fought as hoplites. According to Nefiodkin, fighting against Greek heavy infantry during
26082-409: The phalanx was created individually by military forces, but was so effective that others had to immediately adapt their way of war to combat the formation. Rapid Adoptionists propose that the double grip shield that was required for the phalanx formation was so constricting in mobility that once it was introduced, Dark Age, free flowing warfare was inadequate to fight against the hoplites only escalating
26271-419: The phalanx". Anagnostis Agelarakis , based on recent archaeo-anthropological discoveries of the earliest monumental polyandrion (communal burial of male warriors) at Paros Island in Greece, unveiled a last quarter of the 8th century BC date for a hoplitic phalangeal military organization. The rise and fall of hoplite warfare was tied to the rise and fall of the city-state . As discussed above, hoplites were
26460-457: The poem as a mere justification for something more personal. In exile, Ovid wrote two poetry collections, Tristia and Epistulae ex Ponto , which illustrated his sadness and desolation. Being far from Rome, he had no access to libraries, and thus might have been forced to abandon his Fasti , a poem about the Roman calendar, of which only the first six books exist – January through June. He learned Sarmatian and Getic . The five books of
26649-461: The poems themselves, expressing loneliness and hope of recall from banishment or exile. The obscure causes of Ovid's exile have given rise to much speculation by scholars. The medieval texts that mention the exile offer no credible explanations: their statements seem incorrect interpretations drawn from the works of Ovid. Ovid himself wrote many references to his offense, giving obscure or contradictory clues. In 1923, scholar J. J. Hartman proposed
26838-459: The population's birth rate, were fresh in the Roman mind. Ovid's writing in the Ars Amatoria concerned the serious crime of adultery . He may have been banished for these works, which appeared subversive to the emperor's moral legislation. However, in view of the long time that elapsed between the publication of this work (1 BC) and the exile (AD 8), some authors suggest that Augustus used
27027-613: The premiere of his tragedy Medea , which was admired in antiquity but is no longer extant. Ovid's next poem, the Medicamina Faciei (a fragmentary work on women's beauty treatments), preceded the Ars Amatoria (the Art of Love ), a parody of didactic poetry and a three-book manual about seduction and intrigue, which has been dated to AD 2 (Books 1–2 would go back to 1 BC ). Ovid may identify this work in his exile poetry as
27216-481: The press that occurred when two lines of hoplites met, capable of being thrust through gaps in the shieldwall into an enemy's unprotected groin or throat, while there was no room to swing a longer sword. Such a small weapon would be particularly useful after many hoplites had started to abandon body armour during the Peloponnesian War . Hoplites could also alternatively carry the kopis , a heavy knife with
27405-566: The prophecy seemingly required). The Latin poet Ovid gives a brief account of the Gigantomachy in his poem Metamorphoses . Ovid, apparently including the Aloadae 's attack upon Olympus as part of the Gigantomachy, has the Giants attempt to seize "the throne of Heaven" by piling "mountain on mountain to the lofty stars" but Jove (i.e. Jupiter , the Roman Zeus) overwhelms the Giants with his thunderbolts, overturning "from Ossa huge, enormous Pelion ". Ovid says that (as "fame reports") from
27594-483: The quality of his poetry. The Epistulae ex Ponto is a collection in four books of further poetry from exile. The Epistulae are each addressed to a different friend and focus more desperately than the Tristia on securing his recall from exile. The poems mainly deal with requests for friends to speak on his behalf to members of the imperial family, discussions of writing with friends, and descriptions of life in exile. The first book has ten pieces in which Ovid describes
27783-492: The ranks was in phalanx warfare, individual fighting skill played a role in battle. Hoplites' shields were not locked all of the time. Throughout many points of the fight there were periods where the hoplites separated as far as two to three feet apart in order to have room to swing their shields and swords at the enemy. This led to individual prowess being more important than previously realized by some historians. It would have been nearly impossible to swing both shield and sword if
27972-581: The reason for his exile was carmen et error – "a poem and a mistake", claiming that his crime was worse than murder, more harmful than poetry. The Emperor's grandchildren, Julia the Younger and Agrippa Postumus (the latter adopted by him), were also banished around the same time. Julia's husband, Lucius Aemilius Paullus , was put to death for a conspiracy against Augustus , a conspiracy of which Ovid potentially knew. The Julian marriage laws of 18 BC , which promoted monogamous marriage to increase
28161-601: The region. Another tradition apparently placed the battle at Tartessus in Spain. Diodorus Siculus presents a war with multiple battles, with one at Pallene, one on the Phlegraean Fields, and one on Crete . Strabo mentions an account of Heracles battling Giants at Phanagoria , a Greek colony on the shores of the Black Sea . Even when, as in Apollodorus, the battle starts at one place. Individual battles between
28350-458: The regular citizen infantry. These existed at times in Athens , Sparta , Argos , Thebes , and Syracuse , among other places. Hoplite soldiers made up the bulk of ancient Greek armies. In the 8th or 7th century BC, Greek armies adopted the phalanx formation. The formation proved successful in defeating the Persians when employed by the Athenians at the Battle of Marathon in 490 BC during
28539-412: The right. Zeus mounts a chariot brandishing his thunderbolt in his right hand, Heracles, in the chariot, bends forward with drawn bow and left foot on the chariot pole, Athena, beside the chariot, strides forward toward one or two Giants, and the four chariot horses trample a fallen Giant. When present, Gaia is shielded behind Herakles, apparently pleading with Zeus to spare her children. On either side of
28728-467: The shield was decorated with family or clan emblems, although in later years these were replaced by symbols or monograms of the city states. The equipment might be passed down in families, as it was expensive to manufacture. The hoplite army consisted of heavy infantrymen. Their armour, also called panoply , was sometimes made of full bronze for those who could afford it, weighing nearly 32 kilograms (70 lb), although linen armor now known as linothorax
28917-483: The shoulder for maximum stability. An overarm motion would allow more effective combination of the aspis and doru if the shield wall had broken down, while the underarm motion would be more effective when the shield had to be interlocked with those of one's neighbours in the battle-line. Hoplites in the rows behind the lead would almost certainly have made overarm thrusts. The rear ranks held their spears underarm, and raised their shields upwards at increasing angles. This
29106-478: The side after being struck, and as a result soldiers rarely lost their shields. This allowed the hoplite soldier more mobility with the shield, as well as the ability to capitalize on its offensive capabilities and better support the phalanx. The large shields, designed for pushing ahead, were the most essential equipment for the hoplites. The main offensive weapon used was a 2.5–4.5-metre (8.2–14.8 ft) long and 2.5-centimetre (1 in) in diameter spear called
29295-470: The sixth century, gives the names of more Giants: Hyperbios and Agasthenes (along with Ephialtes) fighting Zeus, Harpolykos against Hera , Enceladus against Athena and (again) Polybotes, who in this case battles Poseidon with his trident holding the island of Nisyros on his shoulder (Louvre E732). This motif of Poseidon holding the island of Nisyros, ready to hurl it at his opponent, is another frequent feature of these early Gigantomachies. The Gigantomachy
29484-489: The sky". There was a prophecy that the Giants could not be killed by the gods alone, but they could be killed with the help of a mortal. Hearing this, Gaia sought for a certain plant ( pharmakon ) that would protect the Giants. Before Gaia or anyone else could find this plant, Zeus forbade Eos (Dawn), Selene (Moon) and Helios (Sun) to shine, harvested all of the plant himself and then he had Athena summon Heracles. According to Apollodorus, Alcyoneus and Porphyrion were
29673-464: The smoke and, moreover, a sound as of trumpets was heard)". Hoplites Hoplites ( / ˈ h ɒ p l aɪ t s / HOP -lytes ) ( Ancient Greek : ὁπλῖται , romanized : hoplîtai [hoplîːtai̯] ) were citizen-soldiers of Ancient Greek city-states who were primarily armed with spears and shields . Hoplite soldiers used the phalanx formation to be effective in war with fewer soldiers. The formation discouraged
29862-438: The solace it brings; while 2 describes a triumph of Tiberius. Poems 3–5 are to friends, 7 a request for correspondence, and 10 an autobiography. The final book of the Tristia with 14 poems focuses on his wife and friends. Poems 4, 5, 11, and 14 are addressed to his wife, 2 and 3 are prayers to Augustus and Bacchus , 4 and 6 are to friends, 8 to an enemy. Poem 13 asks for letters, while 1 and 12 are apologies to his readers for
30051-404: The soldiers from acting alone, for this would compromise the formation and minimize its strengths. The hoplites were primarily represented by free citizens – propertied farmers and artisans – who were able to afford a linen or bronze armour suit and weapons (estimated at a third to a half of its able-bodied adult male population). They also appear in the stories of Homer , but it
30240-470: The song of the Muses , which describes the rape of Proserpina . The sixth book is a collection of stories about the rivalry between gods and mortals, beginning with Arachne and ending with Philomela . The seventh book focuses on Medea , as well as Cephalus and Procris . The eighth book focuses on Daedalus ' flight, the Calydonian boar hunt, and the contrast between pious Baucis and Philemon and
30429-464: The spear overarm or underarm. Held underarm, the thrusts would have been less powerful but under more control, and vice versa. It seems likely that both motions were used, depending on the situation. If attack was called for, an overarm motion was more likely to break through an opponent's defence. The upward thrust is more easily deflected by armour due to its lesser leverage. When defending, an underarm carry absorbed more shock and could be 'couched' under
30618-473: The speed of the transition. Quickly, the phalanx formation and hoplite armour became widely used throughout Ancient Greece. Cartledge and Hanson estimate the transition took place from 725 to 675 BC. Developed by Hans Van Wees , the Extended Gradualist theory is the most lengthy of the three popular transition theories. Van Wees depicts iconography found on pots of the Dark Ages believing that
30807-471: The state of his health (10), his hopes, memories, and yearning for Rome (3, 6, 8), and his needs in exile (3). Book 2 contains impassioned requests to Germanicus (1 and 5) and various friends to speak on his behalf at Rome while he describes his despair and life in exile. Book 3 has nine poems in which Ovid addresses his wife (1) and various friends. It includes a telling of the story of Iphigenia in Tauris (2),
30996-580: The sun god Helios takes up Hephaestus , exhausted from the fight in Phlegra, on his chariot. The most detailed account of the Gigantomachy is that of the (first or second-century AD) mythographer Apollodorus . None of the early sources give any reasons for the war. Scholia to the Iliad mention the rape of Hera by the Giant Eurymedon, while according to the scholia to Pindar 's Isthmian 6, it
31185-565: The two strongest Giants. Heracles shot Alcyoneus, who fell to the ground but then revived, for Alcyoneus was immortal within his native land. So Heracles, on Athena 's advice, dragged him beyond the borders of that land, where Alcyoneus then died (compare with Antaeus ). Porphyrion attacked Heracles and Hera , but Zeus caused Porphyrion to become enamoured of Hera, whom Porphyrion then tried to rape, but Zeus struck Porphyrion with his thunderbolt and Heracles killed him with an arrow. Other Giants and their fates are mentioned by Apollodorus. Ephialtes
31374-598: The unsettling idea that the large hall was in the process of collapsing. The subject was also popular in Northern Mannerism around 1600, especially among the Haarlem Mannerists , and continued to be painted into the 18th century. Historically, the myth of the Gigantomachy (as well as the Titanomachy) may reflect the "triumph" of the new imported gods of the invading Greek speaking peoples from
31563-421: The vanquished Gigantes (along with other "giants") were said to be buried under volcanos. Their subterranean movements were said to be the cause of volcanic eruptions and earthquakes. The Giant Enceladus was thought to lay buried under Mount Etna , the volcano's eruptions being the breath of Enceladus, and its tremors caused by the Giant rolling over from side to side beneath the mountain (the monster Typhon and
31752-441: The various poems, several describe events in the relationship, thus presenting the reader with some vignettes and a loose narrative. Book 1 contains 15 poems. The first tells of Ovid's intention to write epic poetry, which is thwarted when Cupid steals a metrical foot from him, changing his work into love elegy. Poem 4 is didactic and describes principles that Ovid would develop in the Ars Amatoria . The fifth poem, describing
31941-427: The wealth of antiquarian material it preserves, it recently has been seen as one of Ovid's finest literary works and a unique contribution to Roman elegiac poetry. The Ibis is an elegiac poem in 644 lines, in which Ovid uses a dazzling array of mythic stories to curse and attack an enemy who is harming him in exile. At the beginning of the poem, Ovid claims that his poetry up to that point had been harmless, but now he
32130-585: The west pediment of the Temple of Artemis on Kerkyra (modern Corfu ) which is probably not a Giant). Though all these early Attic vases are fragmentary, the many common features in their depictions of the Gigantomachy suggest that a common model or template was used as a prototype, possibly Athena's peplos . These vases depict large battles, including most of the Olympians, and contain a central group which appears to consist of Zeus, Heracles, Athena, and sometimes Gaia. Zeus, Heracles and Athena are attacking Giants to
32319-800: The west pediment of the Alkmeonid Temple of Apollo at Delphi, the pediment of the Megarian Treasury at Olympia , the east pediment of the Old Temple of Athena on the Acropolis of Athens, and the metopes of Temple F at Selinous . The theme continued to be popular in the fifth century BC. A particularly fine example is found on a red-figure cup (c. 490–485 BC) by the Brygos Painter (Berlin F2293). On one side of
32508-425: The wicked Erysichthon . The ninth book focuses on Heracles and the incestuous Byblis . The tenth book focuses on stories of doomed love, such as Orpheus , who sings about Hyacinthus , as well as Pygmalion , Myrrha , and Adonis . The eleventh book compares the marriage of Peleus and Thetis with the love of Ceyx and Alcyone . The twelfth book moves from myth to history describing the exploits of Achilles ,
32697-505: Was already known by Virgil , by Herodotus and by Ovid himself in his Metamorphoses . Most scholars, however, oppose these hypotheses. One of the main arguments of these scholars is that Ovid would not let his Fasti remain unfinished, mainly because this poem meant his consecration as an imperial poet. Ovid died at Tomis in AD 17 or 18. It is thought that the Fasti , which he spent time revising, were published posthumously. The Heroides ("Heroines") or Epistulae Heroidum are
32886-497: Was also a popular theme in late sixth century sculpture. The most comprehensive treatment is found on the north frieze of the Siphnian Treasury at Delphi (c. 525 BC), with more than thirty figures, named by inscription. From left to right, these include Hephaestus (with bellows), two females fighting two Giants; Dionysus striding toward an advancing Giant; Themis in a chariot drawn by a team of lions which are attacking
33075-476: Was also used, as it is tougher and cheaper to produce. The linen was 0.5-centimetre (0.20 in) thick. By contrast with hoplites, other contemporary infantry (e.g., Persian ) tended to wear relatively light armour, wicker shields, and were armed with shorter spears, javelins , and bows . The most famous are the Peltasts, light-armed troops who wore no armour and were armed with a light shield, javelins and
33264-503: Was an effective defence against missiles, deflecting their force. Hoplites also carried a sword, mostly a short sword called a xiphos , but later also longer and heavier types. The short sword was a secondary weapon, used if or when their spears were broken or lost, or if the phalanx broke rank. The xiphos usually had a blade around 60 centimetres (24 in) long; however, those used by the Spartans were often only 30–45 centimetres long. This very short xiphos would be very advantageous in
33453-574: Was at first standardized and was a successful design. Later variants included the Chalcidian helmet , a lightened version of the Corinthian helmet, and the simple Pilos helmet worn by the later hoplites. Often the helmet was decorated with one, sometimes more horsehair crests, and/or bronze animal horns and ears. Helmets were often painted as well. The Thracian helmet had a large visor to further increase protection. In later periods, linothorax
33642-455: Was blinded by an arrow from Apollo in his left eye, and another arrow from Heracles in his right. Eurytus was killed by Dionysus with his thyrsus , Clytius by Hecate with her torches and Mimas by Hephaestus with "missiles of red-hot metal" from his forge. Athena crushed Enceladus under the Island of Sicily and flayed Pallas , using his skin as a shield. Poseidon broke off a piece of
33831-485: Was developed is uncertain, the prevalent theory being that it was established sometime during the 8th or 7th century BC, when the "heroic age was abandoned and a far more disciplined system introduced" and the Argive shield became popular. Peter Krentz argues that "the ideology of hoplitic warfare as a ritualized contest developed not in the 7th century [BC], but only after 480, when non-hoplite arms began to be excluded from
34020-615: Was interrupted by Ovid's exile, and it is thought that Ovid abandoned work on the piece in Tomis. It is probably in this period that the double letters (16–21) in the Heroides were composed, although there is some contention over their authorship. In AD 8, Ovid was banished to Tomis , on the Black Sea , by the exclusive intervention of the Emperor Augustus without any participation of the Senate or of any Roman judge . This event shaped all his following poetry. Ovid wrote that
34209-404: Was made of thick wood, the outside layer facing the enemy was made of bronze, and leather comprised the inside of the shield. The revolutionary part of the shield was the grip. Known as an Argive grip, it placed the handle at the edge of the shield, and was supported by a leather fastening (for the forearm) at the centre. These two points of contact eliminated the possibility of the shield swaying to
34398-483: Was more common since it was cost-effective and provided decent protection. The average farmer-peasant hoplite could not afford any armor and typically carried only a shield, a spear, and perhaps a helmet plus a secondary weapon. The richer upper-class hoplites typically had a bronze cuirass of either the bell or muscled variety, a bronze helmet with cheekplates, as well as greaves and other armour . The design of helmets used varied through time. The Corinthian helmet
34587-515: Was on a scale unlike conflicts before. Fought between leagues of cities, dominated by Athens and Sparta respectively, the pooled manpower and financial resources allowed a diversification of warfare. Hoplite warfare was in decline. There were three major battles in the Peloponnesian War, and none proved decisive. Instead there was increased reliance on navies, skirmishers, mercenaries, city walls, siege engines , and non-set piece tactics. These reforms made wars of attrition possible and greatly increased
34776-609: Was said to be an ancient name for Pallene (modern Kassandra ) and Phlegra/Pallene was the usual birthplace of the Giants and site of the battle. Apollodorus, who placed the battle at Pallene, says the Giants were born "as some say, in Phlegrae, but according to others in Pallene". The name Phlegra and the Gigantomachy were also often associated, by later writers, with a volcanic plain in Italy, west of Naples and east of Cumae , called
34965-578: Was similar to the shields of the Romans, but flatter. The Thureophoroi were armed with a long thrusting spear, a short sword and, if needed, javelins. While the Thorakitai were similar to the Thureophoroi, they were more heavily armoured, as their name implies, usually wearing a mail shirt. These troops were used as a link between the light infantry and the phalanx, a form of medium infantry to bridge
35154-401: Was the Gigantomachy, the battle fought between the Giants and the Olympian gods for supremacy of the cosmos. It is primarily for this battle that the Giants are known, and its importance to Greek culture is attested by the frequent depiction of the Gigantomachy in Greek art. The references to the Gigantomachy in archaic sources are sparse. Neither Homer nor Hesiod mention anything explicit about
35343-553: Was the theft of the cattle of Helios by the Giant Alcyoneus that started the war. Apollodorus, who also mentions the theft of Helios' cattle by Alcyoneus, suggests a mother's revenge as the motive for the war, saying that Gaia bore the Giants because of her anger over the Titans (who had been vanquished and imprisoned by the Olympians). Seemingly, as soon as the Giants are born they begin hurling "rocks and burning oaks at
35532-580: Was used by Phidias on the metopes of the Parthenon and the shield of Athena Parthenos to symbolize the victory of the Athenians over the Persians. Later the Attalids similarly used the Gigantomachy on the Pergamon Altar to symbolize their victory over the Galatians of Asia Minor . The attempt of the Giants to overthrow the Olympians also represented the ultimate example of hubris, with
35721-414: Was used to stand the spear in the ground (hence the name). It was also used as a secondary weapon if the main shaft snapped, or for the rear ranks to finish off fallen opponents as the phalanx advanced over them. In addition to being used as a secondary weapon, the sauroter doubled to balance the spear, but not for throwing purposes. It is a matter of contention, among historians, whether the hoplite used
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