TITANOMACHY: CHARACTERISTICS AND MAIN CHARACTERS - CULTURE VOCABULARY - 2025

The Titanomachy is the name given to one of the myths of Greek culture in which battles are reported between the Olympian gods and the Titans. It also explains how the gods were given powers over the elements of nature.

Titanomachy is also known by the name of the Battle of the Titans or the Titanic War. According to the myth, these battles lasted 10 years and occurred long before man existed on Earth.

Fragments of an epic called Titanomachia, whose authorship is attributed to Eumelus of Corinth, still survive, but it does not contain many details.

The Titans were the gods who ruled the world by defeating Uranus, encouraged by their mother, Gaia. Cronos was their leader and Mount Othrys their place of residence.

Hesiod, author of the poetic work Theogony, explains that there were twelve titans, but other authors indicate that there were many more.

Those who defend the theory that there were more than twelve titans, divide them into two generations. In the first generation they mention the following characters: Coeus, Crius, Cronos, Dione, Hyperion, Mnemosyne, Oceanus, Phoebe, Rhea, Tethys, Thia or Euryphaessa, and Themis.

The second generation is made up of Asteria, Astraea, Astraeus, Atlas, Eos or Dawn, Eosphorus, Epimetheus, Prometheus, Helio, Hesperus, Leto and Menoetius.

Background

According to Greek mythology, Uranus was the first ruler of the Universe. It is said that Uranus ruled tyrannically and had several Titan children with the goddess Gaia: the Hecatonchires and the Cyclopes.

He locked them all in Tartarus except the youngest, Cronos, who dethroned him with the help of Gaia and then freed his Titan brothers.

The blood of Uranus that fell to Earth gave rise to the Giants, the Erinyes and the Meliae, while that that fell to the sea gave life to Aphrodite.

Then, Uranus cursed Cronos before dying, telling him that he would suffer the same fate: he would be betrayed and dethroned by his children.

As a result of this, Cronos became an evil king who returned to imprison his brothers in Tartarus and did not let his children live, but swallowed them as soon as they were born.

His wife and sister, Rhea, managed to save two of their children: Poseidon and Zeus. She did this by posing them as a horse and a stone, respectively.

It was Zeus who started a rebellion against the Titans years later, already an adult.

Battle of the titans

According to legend, Rhea gave Cronos a potion and he vomited Zeus's brothers, who were known as the Olympians because they reigned on Olympus.

Thus begins the rebellion of a new generation of gods. Only the female goddesses on both sides refrained from fighting. This fight was fierce and almost killed everything in its path: heaven and earth.

It is said that this fight caused earthquakes and other disasters on Earth, due to the clashing force between the gods and the thunder echoes in the confines of the Universe.

On the side of the Olympians, Zeus, Hades, Poseidon, the Hecatonchires, the Cyclopes, Styx and their sons Nike, Cratos, Zelos and Bia participated; and Metis.

On the side of the titans, Cronos, Iapetus, Hyperion, Coeus, Crius, Atlas, Menoetius, the Gorgon Aix (the terrible goat) and Aegaeon fought.

The end of the war of the titans

The liberation of the Hecatonchires and the Cyclopes marked the end of the war. The Hecatonchires threw huge rocks at the Titans with their hundred arms, while the Cyclops gave powers to the Olympians: the lightning bolts to Zeus, the trident to Poseidon and the helmet of invisibility to Hades.

So Zeus launched powerful lightning bolts on his adversaries, while Hades donned the helmet of invisibility and managed to penetrate the space of the Titans to destroy their weapons.

In this way, the Titans were left with no options to fight and the war ended.

When the Olympians were victorious, the kingdoms were divided among themselves: Zeus would rule the sky, Poseidon would rule the sea, and Hades would rule the underworld.

The losers were locked up and chained in Tartarus under the surveillance of the Hecatonchires. However, some Titans were released because they remained neutral, such is the case of Themis and Prometheus.

Zeus's allies were rewarded with powers and a seat within the powers of the new generation of gods.

After the titanomaniac

According to Greek mythology, at the end of the war between the Titans and Olympians, and with Zeus reigning over all, Prometheus and Themis had to create men and animals to populate the Earth.

Themis was so careful with the creation of animals that he left Prometheus with no gift to give to men, so he stole the fire from Zeus and used it for that purpose.

Zeus punished Prometheus by chaining him to a mountain, and created a woman he named Pandora. He gave her a box that he asked her not to open.

After a while, Pandora opened the box together with her husband and evil was released into the world. They finally managed to close the box but they opened it again because the box was whispering to them to do it to release hope.

Influence of the titanomachy

What is striking about these mythological stories is their impact on later stories and on the respective artistic expressions that derive from them.

For example, the titanomachy inspired the myth of the punishment that Zeus imposed on the titan Atlas: to hold the sky over the world for eternity.

This fight is also mentioned in the story of Hera's jealousy against Zeus. It is also a struggle that is reflected in the poems of Orpheus and in several epic poems of which only Hesiod's theogony survives, which is a poem in which the genealogy of the gods is detailed.

Several paintings have been inspired by this fight, such as Juno discovering Jupiter with Io (by Pieter Lastman) and Thetis imploring Zeus (by Auguste Dominique Ingres).

References

1. Bennasar, Toni (2010). The titanomachy. Recovered from: historiadelosmitos.blogspot.com
2. Greek Myths & Greek Mythology (s / f). Titans and titanomachy. Recovered from: greekmyths-greekmythology.com
3. Greek legends and myths (s / f). Titanomachy. Recovered from: greeklegendsandmyths.com
4. Lasso de la Vega, José (1989). The presence of the Greek myth in our time. Recovered from: magazines.ucm.es
5. wikipedia.org