The Giants of Greek Mythology - (Greek Mythology Explained)

not too long ago we covered the Giants of Norse mythology which for some can be quite confusing because they are essentially almost a sub race within another race known as the owner luckily for us Giants in Greek mythology are exactly what their name would suggest a group of giant humanoids who are often destructive in nature which is something they share with their Norse counterparts along with several not so friendly interactions with their traditional deities so it would appear there may be a slight correlation between being giant in size and being a giant douche bag at least in mythological stories but even then not all Giants were bad and the purpose of this video is to examine all aspects the good the bad and the ugly and believe me there are some weird-looking Giants before we delve any further a quick word from today's sponsors raid shadow legends raid is available now on both Android and iOS and is completely free to download if you are someone who enjoys RPGs and you've been 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silver coins and a free epic champion for doing so so go and check the game out because it not only supports me but also companies willing to reach out to creators of all sizes anyway back to today's video we should probably first discuss the origin of giants and who the first Giants actually were it's not unreasonable to say that the first giant beings were either the primordial deities or the Titans but there is a difference between a giant being that is divine in nature and a giant being that is well just giant this divinity often comes in the form of some kind of power or quality that distinguishes and sets them apart from ourselves now that doesn't mean Giants can't be divine or possess some kind of special gift it's just much harder to come by with that explanation aside the very first Giants did of course come from the gods the children of Uranus and Gaia the sky and the earth but the latter is what we should really focus on because Uranus and his giant children never had much of a relationship outside of disgust and disappointment Gaia gave birth to several different sets of children the original 12 Titans the Cyclopes and the Hecate increse the Titans were about as close to human looking deities as you could imagine but the Cyclopes and hecatomb Crees were certainly not and these are arguably the first Giants that we encounter the Cyclopes were pretty much just one-eyed Giants and the hecatomb Crees were giants with 50 heads and 100 hands which is pretty much the direct translation to their name 100 hands or 300 handed ones so what's the big deal here the guy gave birth to some Titans and some weird-looking Giants but she loved them all the same right well yes but the issue here is with the father of the year Uranus who found the Hecate encrease so repulsive that when they were born he shoved them back inside of the womb the twice-born is often a title given to Dionysus because he was taken out of his mother and then later born from Zeus's thigh but the hecatomb crews were the first to have the pleasure of being born twice fearing these monstrosities Uranus locked both the Cyclopes and hokotan quarries away in Tartarus when Uranus was later castrated and Cronus assumed his father's position he also shared his father's disdain for his nun tight and siblings and showed little to no interest in releasing them leaving them exiled in Tartarus for many more years so I guess the father of the Year award is actually up for discussion you have Uranus who despised his children so much that when they were born he forced them back inside of their mother and then sentenced them to a life of exile you then of course have Cronus who were so scared that one day his children would overthrow him that he decided to eat them as soon as they were born I'll leave you to decide who the winner is in the comments below with the Titans now the ruling generation the Cyclopes and Hecate encrease just festered away in Tartarus with no real hopes of being set free that is until Zeus made them a proposition that they could not refuse side of the Olympians in their war with the Titans and he would set them free and so they join Zeus and his fellow Olympians in this battle known as the Titan ìmake when they eventually emerged victorious Zeus honored his word and gave them their freedom the original three Cyclopes were skilled craftsmen and weapons myths and they made a lot of the gods weaponry armor and trinkets there were other Cyclopes later on down the line but these didn't come from Gaia and they were far less friendly than the original three there is a more detailed video on the channel devoted to just these cyclops or the Cyclopes if that is something you'd be interested in the Hecker's hungary story is somewhat of a Redemption arc they were always seen as these enormous monsters who could barely function because each one had fifty screaming heads and 100 hands flailing around all over the place they were basically giants made up of smaller organisms considering their early lives consisted of being shunned neglected imprisoned and despised by most of their family it isn't a huge surprise that they became the deform monstrosity their father always believed them to be regardless they got their act together when given the opportunity perhaps Zeus giving them control of their own lives meant they were finally able to gain control of their own bodies and act in unison or maybe just the thought of using all 100 of those hands to throw giant boulders at their Titan siblings who had treated them so poorly over the years was all the motivation they needed when the Titanomachy was over they were given numerous rewards for the role that they played from underwater palaces to a pic of Poseidon's daughters to Mary but most importantly they will no longer treated like monsters in the end they chose to guard the gates of Tartarus because when squashing your siblings with giant boulders isn't enough why not just become their prison guards to ensure that they never escape you also have to appreciate the irony of the Titans being sentenced to a lifetime in the same prison they once condemned their siblings to with those same siblings using all 100 of those hands to point and laugh and maybe even make some other gestures so at this point in time the Olympians have defeated the Titans and everything is nice and peaceful right no of course not seeing her children dethroned Gaea wanted to restore what she believed to be the natural balance but in order to do so she would have to defeat her grandchildren who had already proven this would be no easy task and so in the depths of Tartarus she gave birth to Ty Fionn an actual monster well technically the father of monsters was the name given to him hyphens appearance can vary depending on the source but a fairly common depiction is that of a giant with the torso of a man enormous wings and serpents for arms and legs some say each hand and leg had 50 serpent heads and from his torso was another hundred with only one of these heads resembling a human from his eyes and mouth came turrets of fire this somewhat human appearance is white - is considered a giant at times although some of the earliest depictions instead show him as merely an enormous serpent but he definitely still warrants a mention as one of the most influential Giants in Greek story he was born with only one real purpose to dethrone and destroy the Olympians you can argue that he was created out of revenge and anger and that is why he takes such a monstrous form or perhaps a month off his magnitude and Dredd is the only thing the Olympians would fear the gyres plan at first seemed to be working the Olympians sought - as he pillaged and set fire to their cities and stood by idly in fact most of them were so scared that they transform themselves into animals and fled south to Egypt only Zeus and a few stragglers remained when Zeus took his first stand against the monster he was defeated with relative ease but - refused to kill the God instead he sliced out his tendons and sinews leaving him unable to walk and humiliated eventually the remaining gods retrieve the sinews and tendons and with Zeus at full strength he would faced - a second time and this time he would be victorious in some stories he then cast - into Tartarus with the rest of Gaius children and in others he buried the giant under Mount Etna whenever the volcano rumbled that was thought to be the sound of Taif and trying to escape the entire story of - may have just been a way to explain the destructive nature of volcanoes at first glance they obviously both caused destruction - anything in their path volcanic eruptions are essentially expelling heat from the Earth's core to stop it from overheating and when that's all done what you're left with is volcanic soil which is extremely rich and fertile plants may have been destroyed but new ones grow back in their place and new life is formed the entire purpose of Typhoon was not to destroy everything we know but merely to dethrone the Olympians symbolizing a fresh start or a new beginning somewhere in between his mission to destroy the Olympians he found time to take a monster wife known as a kid nur and together they had a bunch of monster children hence the name the father of all monsters now obviously this isn't a literal title because there are other monsters didn't come from - but he did father some of the most well-known monsters and creatures some of these children included the Hydra the Chimera the Sphinx and even Cerberus regardless of whether you want to class - as a giant a Titan or a giant Titan snake he still played a large role in the mythos and not just because he fathered so many monsters but because his death symbolized the end of the Titan ìmake and the start of the Olympian rule with the exception of Taif and the Olympians seemed to have a pretty good relationship of the Giants early on so where did this overall hatred even stem from this is where the Giganta McKee comes into play the war between the Giants and the gods the biggest mythological event involving Giants within Greek mythology despite this there are very few accounts of this event from poets we often look to such as Hesiod or Homer instead most of what we see early comes from ancient paintings sculptures and pottery we don't really get any written accounts until poets and historians such as Xenophon EES apollo Gnaeus of rhodes and pinterest start to provide some details with the latter given us the first accounts of the battle itself pindaris believed that the prophet Tiresias foretold of a battle where Heracles would slay many giants where the king of giants himself Porphyrion is killed by an arrow from Apollo in this battle we also see zu striking a giant with a thunderbolt and Dionysus stabbing one with his IV staff and Athena fending off a giant wielding her Gorgon encrusted shield we don't know for sure why the battle started because none of the early sources really explain this aspect we only know that pin Duras believed it took place on a peninsula somewhere in Macedonia several reasons for this battle began to later surface sometime after the 2nd century AD and these reasons ranged from the giant Alka næss stealin Apollo's cattle to the giant gyro Medan raping her and even Gaia just wanting more revenge for her children being imprisoned in Tartarus with it being Greek mythology all of these reasons make sense but I personally like to think of it as Gaia continuing her revenge after typhoon was unsuccessful although Hesiod never discusses the battle itself he describes Giants in a similar manner to Athena in terms of them being born ready for battle granted Athena welding a sword and shield when she was born doesn't paint the same image as Giants throwing burning oak trees and boulders when they were born one is obviously more destructive than the other the idea of giants being this destructive force the second they're born is why I prefer guys revenge as the explanation for this entire war we've already seen her attempt to the throne Olympians once before so Giants being born this way is quite literally a reflection of their mother's rage it also explains some of the bad blood between the two if Giants share their mother's fury in Ovitz interpretation this battle took place in the heavens as the Giants stormed Olympus they were then struck down by Zeus's Thunderbolts and from their blood Gaia created a new race of Giants who like their fathers would also hate the gods there's also a pretty early version of this story that discusses a prophecy that states the gods could not kill the Giants alone they would need the help of a mortal and this is where the involvement of Heracles began before he was summoned a guy who began searching for a rare plant that would protect the Giants against the gods but when Zeus got word of this he stopped the Sun from rising and harvested all of the plant before it could be used against them Heracles was then summoned and one of the Giants he killed was Alka næss well he actually killed him several times but every time he did he just got back up Alka næss couldn't die whilst in his native land so it's likely the battle didn't take place on Olympus in this particular interpretation athena suggested killing the Giants and then dragging him outside of the borders of his city and when Heracles did this the giant died to his previous wounds the war itself always seems to end in the same way with the Giants being killed and Gaia ending her quest for revenge but that isn't to say she forgave her grandchildren I guess she just accepted that they were the rulers the constant battle between God and giant can also be equated to the constant fight against nature so we did mention a few of the Giants who were slain and I guess we can list some off in a tad more detail Porphyrion was a giant born from Gaia and the blood of Uranus when he was castrated Giants born in this way who took part in the war of the gods were collectively known as the giganta's the earliest accounts regarded Porphyrion as the greatest of giants the closest thing they had to a king according to pin Duras during the battle he attacked both Hera and Heracles Zeus being a bit weird made it so the giant fell in love of his wife and when he tried to rape Hera he was struck by a thunderbolt from Zeus and an arrow from Heracles the cordons of pindaris this arrow may have come from apollo instead Alcon is as we mentioned was the giant who could not be killed whilst in the boundaries of his city and so Heracles had to physically drag him over the border for him to succumb to his wound this story for the most part doesn't have much variation other than the fact that some people believe Heracles killing the giant had nothing to do that again to make-- both events took place at different times the giant cry tears burnt to death by her car taste torches another giant by the name of - was also burnt to death but this time by Zeus and Hephaestus Palace was the giant with impenetrable skin who a thena killed and then flayed using his skin as a cloak and a cover for her shield Agrius was a giant who had the displeasure of being beat to death by the Mariah and their bronze clubs ureters was the giant that we mentioned earlier that Dionysus stabbed with his IV starve according to Homer the king of giants was actually Yuri Medan and this also happens to be the giant who raped Hera and started the war to begin with there are several Giants who had just mentioned by name and it's alluded to that many other unnamed Giants died during this conflict I guess the simplest way to explain the dragon tamaki is that mother Gaia told the Giants the Olympians were evil and they must be stopped the Giants then stormed a limb so wherever this battle took place and they were like hey mom said you guys are being dicks oh we have to kill you now and then they realized they bit off more than they could chew and the Olympians killed them all big shout-out to the row MVPs of this battle with MRI who despite being three elderly women still managed to dust off their clubs and beat the crap out of some Giants with them even after the war there were still numerous accounts and stories that featured Giants and as I'm sure many of you have guessed they normally end with a Giants Lane of some kind the a Lodi were the giant sons of Poseidon or as I like to refer to them the dumb and dumber of Greek mythology one day they decided to storm Olympus and to do this they stacked three mountains on top of each other in order to reach the top when they eventually got there they were met by Ares whom they managed to overpower and imprison in a giant bronze urn for just over a year when the gods finally realized he was missing they sent Artemis to retrieve him the Giants made some demands about wanting Artemis as a bride in exchange for Ares as the two were keen hunters but Artemis had other ideas she transformed herself into a deer and darted in between the two Giants who drew their Spears and lunched away the only thing they managed to impale however was each other and they died shortly after this act of friendly fire because when you're tired of slaying Giants just leave them alone and they'll probably kill each other anyway I did promise some weird giants at the start of the video and there are quite a few garyun was a giant that consisted of three bodies joined together with four pairs of wings not sure how that makes any sense or what that even looks like to be honest he lived on a secluded Island that was surrounded by the river Oceanus geureon was most famed for his prized red cattle when Heracles arrived on the island with the intention of taking the cattle back he ended up killing the herdsmen you ideon the two-headed dog authoress and then geureon himself so I guess that red cattle was kind of symbolic of the bloodshed Tallis of Crete was known as the very last bronze man in some accounts he was part of a race of bronze giants and in others he was a giant automaton built by Hephaestus he would patrol the shores three times a day hurling rocks at pirates and invaders he would eventually be killed when he tried to stop jason and the argonauts landing on the island by the witch Medea who promised to make him immortal but instead she drove him into madness another giant mentioned quite often is argus Penna pitous the one hundred-eyed giant who as his name may suggest had 100 eyes located all over his body argus appears in one of Zeus's many affairs this time with the nymph known as io when hera caught the two together zeus transformed io into a cow to try and hide the affair i guess hera didn't fall for this trick and she demanded he gave for the cow as a gift she then appointed Argos to guard this cow so Zeus couldn't transform her back and continue the affair without her knowing now this is Zeus of course a hundred I giant is never gonna stop him having an affair and so he enlisted the help of Hermes who lowered the giant to sleep with some music and then pulled out he sword and stabbed him to death oddly enough this story was then used to explain a peacock and it's feathers because of his service heretic Argus's eyes and placed them on the tail of a peacock which was her sacred bird some other Giants worth an honourable mention are the two brothers Agrius and aureus the Giants who were half man half bear because of their cannibalism the gods transform them into an owl and a vulture arrastia was one of the few giants who fled the Battle of the Gods and as a result they transformed him into a dung beetle because I guess he pooped himself during the battle kreisau was known as the golden giant and the son of Medusa and Poseidon and lastly Orion was a giant closely linked to Artemis as either a lover or companion to summarize the Giants of Greek mythology at first glance are a bunch of angry destructive antagonists in most stories there are some albeit very few who have a positive or even neutral presence once we dig a bit deeper you can see that this rage and need for revenge stems from their mother Gaia so how much of this can be blamed on the Giants my guess we'll never really know from a symbolic standpoint if the Olympians represent change in some form of unnatural advancement then the Giants our nature itself the adverse reaction to change and progress it's a conflict that symbolizes the ever-present battle between the comfort of where we stand now and what is deemed moral and acceptable in order for us to progress regardless of how hard we try to hold on to what seems familiar to us per Gress and change is always the inevitable outcome or maybe you just look at Giants as nothing more than a bunch of big dumb dumb cavemen who throw rocks and trees at people and who end up being burnt stabbed squash zapped and transformed into something entirely different both are fine with me as always I've been your host mythology and affection explained [Music]

Channel: Mythology & Fiction Explained

Views: 445,253

Keywords: The Giants of Greek Mythology, gigantomachy, giants greek mythology, cyclops, typhon, mythology and fiction explained, giants, greek mythology stories, talos, zeus, ares, artemis

Id: FMoLui1kgPY

Length: 23min 34sec (1414 seconds)

Published: Thu Aug 15 2019