Titan (lore)  

Information taken from Wikipedia

In Greek mythology, the Titans were a race of powerful deities that ruled during the legendary Golden Age. Their role as Elder Gods that were overthrown by a present race of younger gods, the Olympians, was a Greek borrowing from the Ancient Near East.

There were twelve Titans from their first literary appearance, in Hesiod, Theogony; pseudo-Apollodorus, in Bibliotheke, adds a thirteenth Titan Dione, a double of Theia (a.k.a. Medusa). The six male Titans are known as the Titanes, and the females as the Titanides ("itanesses"). The Titans were associated with various primal concepts, some of which are simply extrapolated from their names: ocean and fruitful earth, sun and moon, memory and natural law. The twelve first-generation Titans were ruled by the youngest, Cronus, who overthrew their father, Uranus ('Sky'), at the urgings of their mother, Gaia ('Earth').

The Titans later gave birth to other Titans, notably the children of Hyperion (Helios, Eos, and Selene), the daughters of Coeus (Leto and Asteria), and the sons of Iapetus — Prometheus, Epimetheus, Atlas, and Menoetius; all of these descendants in the second generation are also known as "Titans".

The Titans preceded the Twelve Olympians, who, led by Zeus, eventually overthrew them in the Titanomachy ('War of the Titans'). The Titans were then imprisoned in Tartarus, the deepest part of the underworld, with a few exceptions.

This page last modified 2008-02-19 03:26:07.