To Do[edit]

Look at Tiverios, M. A. (1 January 1982). "Observations on the East Metopes of the Parthenon". American Journal of Archaeology. 86 (2): 227–229. doi:10.2307/504834. JSTOR 504834.
Add cites to Seneca:

after he [Heracles] defended the gods and spattered their enemies blood over Phlegra,

HERCULES: What is this? The pestilential Giants are in arms. Tityos has escaped the underworld, and stands so close to heaven, his chest all torn and empty! Cithaeron lurches, high Pallene shakes, and Tempe’s beauty withers. One Giant has seized the peaks of Pindus, another has seized Oeta, and Mimas rages fearfully.

Thyestes 808–809 (pp. 298–299)

Add cite of Statius, Thebaid 4.34–435 (I pp. 546–547), 8.42–44 (II pp. 198–199).

Look at the Warburg Iconogrraphic database [1]
Add Pherec. 3 F 54 for Typhon under Pithecusae
Add Beazley Archive 1269

See [2]

Add cite to b scholia to Iliad 2.783 (also Enceladus): see Kirk, Raven, and Schofield. pp. 59–60 no. 52 for Typhon buried under Etna.

Read Hardie [in Giants folder]

Gygantomachy imagery: pp. 85–97, 103, 201–213, others? (Walde, p. 296 cites pp. 85-156)

Read Yasumura [in Giants folder]

pp. 44-45, 49-57, 59, 75, 91, 100-1, 171, 173-174, plus other pages for notes and bibiography

Asterus: 50, 91, 173 n. 44

GIgantes/Giants: 44-5, 50-57, 171 n. 18, n. 19, 100-1

Gigantomachy: 59, 75, 91, 174 n. 63

Switch links for cites to Strabo, book 5 to Internet archive version

Read Rowell article re Naevius

Nicander cite?

Look at Hammond, "Giants" cite.

Add cite to Durling, p. 495, note to Canto 31.108 "Ephialtes suddenly shook himself"; to Ephialtes?

Add Aristotle cites

Add text about the Olympians and their charachteristic weapons (see VIan and Moore 1988, p. 192)?

Porphyrion = "The purple man, the Phoenician" (king of Athens before Actaeus see Duncker, p. 63

Look at [3]

Consider (and incorporate?) Barber 1991, p. 362 n. 5

Look at The Iconography of Athena in Attic Vase-painting from 440–370 BC [in Giants folder]

Vian and Moore:

Cites for Giant articles

Other cites?

Add Temple of Athena at Priene?

Fix cite for Phlegra located in Thessaly

Get Broken Laughter, re Epicharmus as source for the Giant Pallas as the source Athena's aegis.

Add speculation on the source for Apollodorus' account:

Ogden, p. 82

Review Ogden pp. 84-86 and add cites

Tzetzes on Lycophron, Alexandra 63

Get Kästner 1994 (cited by Ridgway p. 54 n. 35)

Add text on the role of: Zeus, Heracles, Athena, Selene, Nike, Snakes? (Arafat pp. 13-14, 21, 22, 23)?

Athena

See Neils 2001, "Athena, Alter Ego of Zeus" pp. 227 ff.

See Euripides, Ion 1528–1529

Heracles

See Vian and Moore 1988 p. 192

See Neils 2001, "Athena, Alter Ego of Zeus" pp. 230 ff.

Add text about Gaia rising from the ground, and Gaia appealing on behalf of her sons

Arafat, pp. 25, 26:

Berlin F2531

Naples 81521

Moore 1985, p. 21 (re pleading)

Akr 1632

Akr 2134

AKr 2211

Weller p. 268 "Ge rising from the ground"

Ridgway 2000, p. 34: "It should be stressed that many elements attested at Priene recur at Pergamon: Ge rising from the ground ..."

Figure out Pliny Natural History quote

Add Snake blazon frequently found on Giants shields (Arafat, p. 25)

Add cite to "In three early examples, Gaia also appears in the central group, shielded behind Herakles, apparently pleading with Zeus to spare her children." (see Arafat p. 25: )

Berlin F2531

Naples 81521 (Arafat, p. 25)

Siphnian Treasury

Add Ferrara 2892 in note to Apollodorus' account of Porphyrion being killed by Zeus and Heracles?

Add to note for Giants wearing skins and fighting w rocks?
- Arafat, p. 27, Beazley Archive:
  - Louvre MNB810
  - Wurzburg H4729
  - Naples 81521
- BM E 165 (Arafat, p 18, Beazley Archive)
- Met 08.258.21 (Arafat, pp 19, 24 Beazley Archive)
- Ferrara 2892 (Beazley Archive)
- Berlin 2531 (Arafat p. 24, Beazley Archive)
- Louvre G372 Beazley Archive 216791
- See also Aristoph. The Birds 1246-1252; Plato, Soph. 246a-b; Euripides, The Phoenician Women 1130.

Add Nonnus Giant descriptions: "huge serpents flowing over their shoulders equally on both sides" (25.206), "Nine cubits high, equal to Alcyoneus" (36.242), look for others

Nonnus:

Pelorus (= Pelores?), Cthonion?

Replace Hyginus reference

Euryalos and Hyperbios?

Look at Harrison, p.25

Look Google search

Revise when Giants first begin to be depicted not as hoplites wearing animal skins and using rocks as weapons (see British Museum E 47)

Attic Pallene and the Giants?

[4]

[5]

pp.133 ff.

The Giant Rhoetus see:

Horace, Ode 3.4 [6], see also Horace, Ode 2.19)

See Lyne, [7]

Rewrite caption fo Siphnian Treasury detail: Add names of figures:

Siphnian Treasury at Delphi, North frieze, c. 525 BC, detail, left to right: Dionysus, Themis in chariot, Giant with spear, Lion mauling fleeing Giant, Apollo and Artemis, and second fleeing Giant

Athena is called also Athena gigantoleteira, gigantoletis i.e. the slayer of the giants (See [8])

[9]

pages for notes

Suda, s.v. Γιγαντιᾷ

Lane Fox, Robin, Travelling Heroes p. 300

We know of an early poem on the battle of the Titans but we do no happen to know of an early battle of the Giants. No doubt one existed, helping to sort out the details of the war and the catalogue of Gaints, which runs even in modern scholarship to more than fifty names.⁹

9. Waser (1918), 655-759, at 737-59, a remarkable work. So is Vian, LIMC, vol. 4/1 (1988), 191-270, esp. 268-9, partly based on Waser.

Naples 81521 (Fomerly Naples H2883)

Add vase record at Enceladus, Porphyrion, Mimas? (add to those three articles?)

Expand symbolism section with other uses of "Gigantomachy imagery as a positive metaphor for pursuits of scientist", see Green p. 138

Add Christian POV to symbolism section, see Brumble, p. 138

Lead: Rewrite lead to reflect article; expand last paragraph; add motivation.

Incorporate Plato, Republic 378c

Yasumura

pp. 49–58 (see Amazon for page numbers)

Copy text for Schol. Pind. Nem 1.101 (compare w Gantz, p. 449)

Incorporate Schol. Pind. Nem 1.101 for prophecy concerning need for Heracles and Dionysos, and location of the battle at Phlegra.

Asterius/Asterus

Meropis and the Meropes

Incorporate OCD: "The Giants were defeated and believed to be buried under the volcanoes in various parts of Greece and Italy, e.g. Enceladus undet Aetna. Bones of prehistoric animals were occasionally believed to be the bones of giants."

Add the hundred-handers as also being confused with the Giants: Briareus (also called Aigaion/Aegaeon), Cottus and Gyges/Gyes?

Incorporate Lyne, pp. 167–168

Temple of Olympian Zeus, Agrigento

[10]

p. 31

Dowden p. 38

second quarter of the fifth century BC

Diododorus Siculus, 13.82 1-4

Lawrence, p. 102

Temple of Olympian Zeus at Agrigento (ancient Akragas)

begun c. 500

It was left unfinished because of the sack of Akragas in 406, at least eighty or possibly 100 years after the work began.

Find[edit]

Waser, O., RE Suppl. 3, 737-759 (cited by Vian and Moore, for list of Giant names)

Brill’s New Pauly: Encyclopaedia of the Ancient World

Otto Waser: Giganten. In: Paulys Realencyclopädie der classischen Altertumswissenschaft (RE). Supplementband III, Stuttgart 1918, Sp. 655–759 (Nachträge und Berichtigungen: ebenda 1305f.).

Get library books[edit]

Boston College[edit]

Shapiro, H. Alan, Art and Cult under the Tyrants in Athens 1989

Athena's Peplos: pp. 38-40

Bapst Library Art Stacks

BU[edit]

MFA[edit]

Vian, Francis (1951), Répertoire des gigantomachie figurées dans l'art grec et romain (Paris)

Look at

Art of the Ancient World Library

Vian, Francis (1952), La guerre des Géants: Le mythe avant l'epoque hellenistique, (Paris)

pp. 77-79: Polybotes v. Poseidon

pp. 95-97: Zeus, Heracles, Athena

pp. 262ff: Asterius

Art of the Ancient World Library

Tufts[edit]

Look at/Read[edit]

Grummond, From Pergamon to Sperlonga: Sculpture and Context (Hellenistic Culture and Society)

Amazon

Google Books

Re Attalids (see [11])

Beazley, J. D., Attic Red-Figure Vase-Painters 2nd edition (Oxford, 1963) (=ARV ²) (at Tufts)

Burkert mentions

Castriota pp. 139 ff.

Dodd, Morphing Monsters: The Evolution of Anguipede Giants

Fontenrose, Python: A study of delphic myth and its origins [12], in particular: pp. 239 ff.

Frazer's notes to Apollodorus, The Library, with an English Translation by Sir James George Frazer,

1.6.1

1.6.2

1.6.3

Frazer (Vol II), note to Pausanias 1.2.4 "Poseidon on horseback hurling a spear at the giant Polybotes" pp. 48–49

Hard, pp. 86 ff.

Harpers Dictionary "Gigantes"

Hurwit new pages 121-124 (in "Giants" folder)

Lechelt (in Giants folder)

Mayor, Adrienne Mayor, The First Fossil Hunters: Dinosaurs, Mammoths, and Myth in Greek and Roman Times [13]

Mitchell, pp. 573–590

Moore 1977, "The Gigantomachy of the Siphnian Treasury" [in Giants folder]

Moore 1979, "Lydos and the Gigantomachy" [In Giants folder]

Moore 1989, "Giants at the Getty, Again" pp. 33 ff.

Ogden, Daniel, Drakon: Dragon Myth and Serpent Cult in the Greek and Roman Worlds p. 82 ff.

Pollitt 1986, "Art in the Hellenistic Age" [In "Giants" folder)]

Queyrel (in Giants folder)

Ridgway, B.S., Hellenistic Sculpture II [In "Giants" folder)]

Look at works cited p. 48 n. 6

Rose, H.J. A andbook of Greek Mythology pp. 45 ff.

Simon 1975, "Pergamon Und Hesiod" [In "Giants" folder)]

Vian, Guerre (at MFA)

Guerre: Polybotes v. Poseidon pp. 77-79

Vian, Répertoire (at MFA)

Vian & Moore 1988, "Gigantes" [In "Giants" folder)]

Literary sources: 191-196

Pergamon Altar: 202-207, especially 207 (for names of Giants)

Walters pp. 15 ff.

Wilkinson, pp. 141–142

Copy[edit]

Hard

p. 88

p. 89

Finish copying Ogden quotes pp. 84-86

Samelson

p. 329

New Text[edit]

Apollodorus[edit]

When the Giants had been finally overcome Gaia, according to Apolodorus, even more enraged, than she had been after the defeat of the Titans, "had intercourse with Tartarus and brought forth Typhon".

Notes[edit]

Giants[edit]

Enormous and monstrous human-like creatures.

Agrius and Oreius, when a woman was cursed by Aphrodite to fall in love with a bear, the twin giants were born, they look half-man, half-bear.
Chrysaor, a son of Medusa and Poseidon, sometimes said to be a giant, he was born alongside Pegasus by Perseus slashing their mother's head.
Echidna, a giant monstrous women with upper body of a beautiful nymph, while the lower is a giant serpent, she is the wife of Typhon.

Gigas[edit]

The term gigas, used more broadly:

LSJ "gigas"

Γίγας [ι^], αντος, ὁ, mostly in pl., Giants,

A.“ὑπέρθυμοι” Od.7.59; Κύκλωπές τε καὶ ἄγρια φῦλα Γιγάντων ib.206; οὐκ ἄνδρεσσιν ἐοικότες “ἀλλὰ Γίγασιν” 10.120; “γ. γηγενέται” Hes.Th.185, cf. E.Ph.128 (lyr.); of Capaneus, A.Th.424.

II. as Adj., mighty (γίγαντος: μεγάλου, ἰσχυροῦ, ὑπερφυοῦς, Hsch.), “Ζεφύρου γίγαντος αὔρᾳ” Id.Ag.692 (lyr.), cf. Eurytus (PLG3.639).

Vian and Moore 1988, p. 192.

Note finally that the term G. was used in a broad sense to refer to -» Pallantides (Soph. Aigeus, TrGF IV F 24, 6-7), the men of the Golden Age (Télékleides Amphictyons, CAF I frg. 1, 15) or the Zéphyr (-» Zephyros) (Aischyl. Ag. 692). As in Homer (Od. 10, 120), it also serves to characterize arrogant and wicked warriors like -» Kapaneus (Aischyl Septem 423-425; Eur. Phoen 127-130) or -» Pentheus (Eur. Bacchae 538-544).

Pallantides: Sophocles, Aigeus (TrGF IV F 24, 6-7)

pp. 20–21

Lloyd-Jones, pp. 20–21

Zephyrus: Aeschylus, Agamemnon 692

she sailed the sea before the breath of earth-born [γίγαντος] Zephyrus.

Seven Against Thebes 423–436

Yes, may the gods so grant success to this man. Capaneus is stationed at the Electran gates, another giant of a man, greater than the one described before. [425] But his boast is too proud for a mere human, and he makes terrifying threats against our battlements—which, I hope, chance will not fulfil! For he says he will utterly destroy the city with god's will or without it, and that not even conflict with Zeus, though it should fall before him in the plain, will stand in his way. [430] The god's lightning and thunderbolts he compares to midday heat. For his shield's symbol he has a man without armor bearing fire, and the torch, his weapon, blazes in his hands; and in golden letters he says “I will burn the city.” [435] Against such a man make your dispatch—who will meet him in combat, who will stand firm without trembling before his boasts?

Bacchae 537–544

What rage, what rage does the earth-born race show, and Pentheus, [540] once descended from a serpent—Pentheus, whom earth-born Echion bore, a fierce monster, not a mortal man, but like a bloody giant, hostile to the gods.

Named Giants[edit]

Argos: p. 115

Orion: p. 182

Pelorus: Add named by Hyginus, possibly named ([Pel]oreus) on Siphnian Tr. & Nonnus

Add Hyginus' list (or certain mentions)?

as listed in my "Giant Names":

- Abseus
- Agrius
- Astraeus
- Coeus
- Colophomus
- Emphytus
- Enceladus
- Ephialtes
- Eurytus
- Iapetus
- Ienios
- Menephiarus
- Ophion
- Otos
- Palaemon
- Pallas
- Pelorus (= Peloreus?)
- Polybotes
- Rhoecus/Phaecus
- Theodamus
- Theomises
- Typhon

Look at [15]

In art[edit]

Sixth century BC[edit]

Moormann p. 188 also [16]

In art[edit]

Siphnian Treasury at Delphi, North frieze, c. 525 BC, detail showing gods facing right and Giants facing left.

Walters pp. 15 ff.

Wilkinson, p. 142

Hurwit, p. 31

Gigantomachies were thus added constantly to the narrative inventory of the Acropolis. the theme undergoing nearly constant reinterpretation in a variety of media. No better example exists of how a particular theme edures over time — of how the imagery of the Classical Acropolis echoes the magery of the Archaic or the Hellenistic the Classical — or how the same theme could be seen in different versions, in different inflections, at any one time.

Sculpture[edit]

Siphnian Treasury c. 530–525 BC[edit]

Perseus: Delphi, Siphnian Treasury Frieze--North (Sculpture)

[Porphy]rion

LIMC Gigantes 2

The Siphnian Treasury: The North side of the frieze (The Gigantomachy - Hall V)

Arafat

p. 169

The Gigantomachy had long been open to a particular city to put its stamp on, the unorthodox names on the Siphnian treasury at Delphi being a prime example

Brinkmann

p. 128 n. 194

Athena ist durch Gegnerzahl and Komposition vor den übrigen hervorgehoben. Asterias ist ihr Gegner im mythos. Zum Gedenken an seinen Tod wurden in Athen die Panathenaen eingericht (Arist., fr 637 Rose. Vgl. VIAN, Guerre, 262ff., passim. Es wäre zu überlegen, ob die herausragende Rolle der Athena am Fries als Verbeugung vor der Stadt Athen zu verstehen ist. Ubrigens ist Athena auch durch die farbliche Fassung ihres Gewandes hervorgehoben. Dazu werde ich an späterer Stelle Stellung nehmen. Beachte andererseits Bronzereste am Ohr des Astarias, die von I.A Coste-Messeliere als Pfeil der Letoidengruppe gedeutet worden sind, Au Mussee, 313.

[Google translate: Athena is highlighted by opponents number and composition over the other. Asterias is her opponent in the myth. To commemorate his death, the Panathenaen were in Athens arranged (Arist., fr 637 Rose. See. VIAN, Guerre , 262ff., Passim . It could be considered whether the outstanding Note is the role of Athena on the frieze to understand as bowing to the city of Athens. Incidentally Athena is also highlighted by the colored version of her gown. for this I will comment later. on the other hand bronze groups at the ear of the Astarias that of IA Coste-Messeliere have been interpreted as the arrow Letoidengruppe, Au Mussee, 313th

Stewart

p. 128

dated absolutely to c. 525: this is our first fixed date for any archaic sculpture.

Schefold

p. 60 [Can be seen by linking from my laptop]

67–9 Gigantomachy. North frieze of Siphnian Treasury at Delphi, towards 525.

p. 62

In the midst of the Giants is the mysterious Themis group — Themis was the time-honoured mistress of the sanctuary at Delphi (see above, p. 9, and below, p. 203). For the artist she is identified with the mother of the gods (as oppossed to Ge, the mother of the Giants): she appears here in the guise of Kybele, the Asiatic Mistress of Anomals, and her chariot is drawn by a team of lions (fig. 67).

Morford

p. 73

[caption:] Gigantomachy. Detail from the north frieze of the treasury of the Siphnians at Delphi, ca 525 B.C.; marble, height 25 in. From left to right two giants attack two goddesses (not shown); Dionysus, clothed in a leopardskin, attacks a giant; Apollo and Artemis chase a running giant; corpse of a giant protected by three giants. The names of all the figures were inscribed by the artist. The giants are shown as Greek hoplites—a device both for making the battle more immediate for a Greek viewer and for differentiating between the Olympians and the giants.

Temple of Apollo at Delphi c. 513 BC–c. 500 BC[edit]

Perseus: Delphi, Temple of Apollo, West Pediment (Sculpture)

LIMC Gigantes 3

Schefold, p 64

Neer, Richard T., "Delphi, Olympia, and the Art of Politics" in The Cambridge Companion to Archaic Greece Cambridge University Press 2007. ISBN 9781139826990. p. 247

The Splendid pedimental decoration of this building dated circa 510, is in the Delphi Museum

p. 258: References [link viewable from my laptop]

Stewart, pp. 86–89

Euripides, Ion 205–218

Vian and Moore, pp. 198–199 no. 3.

Megarian Treasury[edit]

Megarian Treasury Pediment c.510–500 BC

Post, pp. 148–149

Pollitt 1990, pp. 22–23

Pausanias, 6.19.12–14

Frazer,

note to Pausanias 6.19.12 "The people of Megara — built a treasury" pp 65–67

note to 6.19.13 "In the gable — is wrought in relief the war of the giants" pp 67–69,

ASCA Digital Collections, Megarian Treasury

Temple F at Selinous[edit]

Gardner, pp. 164–165

East pediment of the Peisistratid Temple of Athena on the Acropolis (510/500 BC)[edit]

Schefold, pp. 64–67

Hurwit, p. 30 Archaios Neos

East Metopes of the Parthenon (completed in 438 BC)[edit]

Athena Parthenos^[1][edit]

Pliny, Natural History 36.4

but it is to the shield of this last statue that we shall draw attention; upon the convex face of which he has chased a combat of the Amazons, while, upon the concave side of it, he has represented the battle between the Gods and the Giants.

Arafat 1986

"A Note on the Athena Parthenos"

Arafat 1990

p. 25

The vault of heaven is one feature of the depiction which has led to many attempts to relate this vase [Naples 81521] to the Gigantomachy of the interior of the shield of the Athena Parthenos, mentioned by Pliny (Natural History 36.18).³⁴

³⁴ The most comprehensive discussion is that of von Salis, JdI 55 (1940), 90-169; most recently, K. W. Arafat, BSA 81 (1986). 1-6.

p. 169

A more likely inspiration is the Gigantomachy of the interior of the shield of the Athena Parthenos, which is reflected more closely on 1.82 [Naples 81521] than on any other vase.

Cook, p. 56

Vases (2) [Louvre MNB810] and (3) [Naples 81521] presuppose a famous original, probably the Gigantomachy painted on the inside of the shield of Athena Parthénos. The semicircular band ... which on vase (3) denotes the arch of heaven may well perpetuate the rim of Athena's shield. ...

Dwyer

p. 295

Judging from surviving monuments that reflect the shield of Athena Parthenos, the giants were arrayed within a lower circle (or sphere) against the Olympians in an upper or outer circle. The giants fought with great stones, attempting either to hurl them or pile them atop one another in effort to reach the heavens.

Robertson, pp. 106–107

One of the little copies of the shield of Athena Parthenos has traces of the painted Gigantomachy inside. A group can be faintly made out which recurs on a number of vases with the subject painted in Athens around 400, a time when there is considerable evidence of artistic nostalgia (cf. below, p. 116). The vase-pictures vary a good deal, but a distinctive principle of composition is common and surely derives from the original: the gods, high in the picture, are fighting down towards us, while the Giants tend to have their backs to us or to retreat in our direction (fig. 147 [Louvre MNB810]).

147 Neck-amphora (not, as long believed, from Melos; probably from Italy). Attic red-figure: Gigantomachy. Ascribed to Suessula Painter. About 400 B.C. H., with lid that does not fit.

Louvre MNB810

Temple of Athena at Priene[edit]

LIMC Gigantes 26

Vian and Moore 1988, p. 207 no. 26, p. 208 pl. 1172

Carter, J. C. The Sculpture of the Sanctuary of Athena Polias at Priene London 1983.

Pollitt 1986, Art in the Hellenistic Age, pp. 242-244, figs 258-259.

Perseus Priene, Temple of Athena (Building)

Ridgway, B. S., Hellenistic Sculpture I

p. 164

The Altar of Athena at Priene has been recently studied and redated.¹⁶

p. 202 n. 16

¹⁶ Priene Altar: Carter, Priene [The Sculpture of the Sanctuary of Athena Polias at Priene], 181-209, pls. 29-32. See also J. C. Carter, "The Date of the Altar of Athena at Priene and its Reliefs," in Bonacasa and Di Vita, eds., 3, 748-764, pls. 114-115; although this article appeared after Carter's book, it was obviously written before, and therefore some of the statements are at variance with the text of Priene; this later publication ought to be taken as definitive. For a review in favor of the traditional mid second-century date see, e.g., R. Fleischer, Gnomon 57 (1985) 344-352, esp. 347-348.

Ridgway, B. S., Hellenistic Sculpture II

p. 34

The tradition of anguiped Giants existed well before the Hellenistic period, not only on vases, but also, as it seems assured, on the coffers of the Athenaion at Priene, now seen to predate the Altar [at Pergamon]. It should be stressed here that many elements attested at Priene recur at Pergamon: Ge rising from the ground, a goddess (Kybele) riding side-saddle on a lion, another lion (probably with Dionysos) biting a Giant on the shoulder, Athena's opponent with snaky legs but also with wings.⁴⁵

p. 55 n. 45

⁴⁵ Priene coffers: Carter 1983, 44-180 (cat. 1-67 on pp. 103-80). Coffer with Ge: cat 27; Kybele on lion: cat 14 ... Athena and opponent: cat 31-32. ...

"Morphing Monsters" 2§3

2§3 While snake-legged Giants are produced early in Etruria, the human form Gigantomachy became a popular motif in mainland Greece from the sixth century BCE. It is this motif of a human form Giant that traveled to Anatolia during the fourth century BCE during the expeditions of Alexander the Great. One of the first examples of the Gigantomachy comes from the Temple of Athena at Priene in modern day Turkey, which was dedicated by Alexander in 334 BCE.[18] Most of the Giants here are portrayed as nude savages who are fully human and cowering at the feet of the gods, yet one Giant has snake-legs and wings (see Figure 4). After Priene, Giants are almost always depicted as anguipedes throughout Asia Minor.

"Morphing Monsters" n18

The Ionic architect, Pythius, who also designed the Mausoleum of Halicarnassus, designed innovative coffers carved with the battle between the Gods and the Giants located on the ceiling of the peristyle. Vian and Moore 1988:207, Cook and Spawforth 2003:1209, Richmond et al. 2003:1247.

Pergamon Altar (2nd century BC)[edit]

LIMC Gigantes 24

Arafat

p. 169

The Gigantomachy had long been open to a particular city to put its stamp on, the unorthodox names on the Siphnian treasury at Delphi being a prime example, and the altar of Zeus at Pergamon a later one.

Kleiner

p. 155 FIG. 5-78

5-78 Reconstructed west front of the Altar of Zeus, Pergamon, Turkey, ca. 175 BCE. ... The Gigantomachy frieze of Pergamon's monumental Altar of Zeus is almost 400 feet long.

p. 156 FIG. 5-79

5-79 Athena battling Alkyoneos, detail of the gigantomachy frieze, Altar of Zeus, Pergamon, Turkey, ca. 175 BCE. Marble, 7' 6 high.

Mitchell

pp. 573–590

p. 575

Fig. 235 Reconstruction of the Great Altar at Pergamon by R. Bohn. Temples of Athena Polias and of Augustus in the background.

p. 582

The names of the giants were carved in smaller letters on the cornice below the frieze. Of these only five are preserved complete,—Cthonophylos, Erysichthon, Ochthaios, Obrimos, and Udaios. None of them are properly giants, although the latter is known to have been akin to themfrom his earth-born nature. Of other names, eleven fragments have been found.

p. 584

In the older poetry, sculpture and vase-paintings of the Greeks, we find the giants always represented simply as mortals, fully armed. Thus the appear in the Megara treasury pediment at Olympia (p. 211), dating from the sixth century; and thus down even to metopes of the Parthenon. In vase paintings of the fourth century, however these giants have thrown off their armor, and become wild in appearence, and have shaggy disordered hair, and use for weapons rocks and tree-trunks. By the third century, on certain terra-cottas, these enemies with a human body on snaky coils; but, as far as is known, they are thus represented in sculpture for the first time in these reliefs from Pergamon.

Queyrel 2005, L'Autel de Pergame [in "Giants" folder]

Ridgway, Brunilde Sismondo 2000, Helenistic Sculpture II [Google has the text of this work under a different work by Ridgway]

p. 32

Yet some sculptors' names have come down to us, inscribed on the base molding below the frieze slabs, and clearly distinguished from those naming the Giants, on the same architectural element,³⁴ by their lower level and the added verbs, ethnics, and patronymics, when perserved. The gods' names, in turn, were engraved on the cavetto molding above the dentils, or, in the case of Ge, on the background next to her head.³⁵

p. 33

over one hundred named figures [on the Pergamon Altar]

p. 34

It should be stressed that many elements attested at Priene recur at Pergamon: Ge rising from the ground ..."

p. 54

³⁴ On the walls of the podium flanking the stairs (the German Risalit ... ), where the bottom molding was omitted, the sculptors' names were inscribed on the cornice, and the Giants' on the background of the frieze, between the figures.

³⁵ At current count, 25 gods' names are preserved, although others can be conjectured; a drawing of the Gigantomachy slabs in Pollitt 1986, 96-97, distinguishes among degrees of certainty for various identifications. Fehr 1997, 61 n. 13, mentions that the identification of 33 (= over 50 percent of the ca. 60 fighting deities) is assured or non-cntroversial. He further breaks down the totals to 32 goddesses and 21 gods (cf. Simin 1975, who fills up the gaps and counts 38 goddesses and 24 gods).

To the 17 Giants' names listed by Smith 1991, 164, that of Porphyrion can now be safely added (Kästner 1994) on the basis of a new fragment joining a previously known one; it can be shown to belong to Zeus' opponent with hollow eyes, as previously hypothesized, although Simon 1975 had suggested Typhon; see her chart on rear foldout pl. 1 (approx. p. 69).

pp. 59–60 n. 59 [This link can be viewed from my laptop]

59. The quotation (originally in French) is from LIMC 1, s.v. Alkyoneus, 564 no. 33 (R. Olmos/L. J. Balmaeseda). Identification is provided by a fragmentary inscription, ...]ΝΕΥΣ, that may belong to the scene. Harrison, in her review of Simon 1975 (supra, n. 6), points out that [p. 60] Athena is pulling the Giant toward, rather than away from, his mother; that wings are unusual for Alkyoneus; and that Enkelados, "whose name evokes the sound of rushing winds," would be a better identification. Simon's argument (pp. 22, 44) that both Athena and Zeus are given the two "immortal" Giants as opponents, is rendered invalid by recent integration of Porphyrion's name instead of Typhon's (supra, n. 35). Simon explains Alkyoneus' four wings as an indication that the goddess can overcome her opponent only in the air (p. 22). But the Greek name alkyon means kingfisher, the sea bird who might have inspired Alkyoneus' wings.

Ridgway, Brunilde Sismondo, 2005 Review of François Queyrel, L'Autel de Pergame. Images et pouvoir en Grèce d'Asie. Antiqua vol. 9. in Bryn Mawr Classical Review 2005.08.39

A good portion of the book is taken by superb descriptions of the Gigantomachy and Telephos Friezes, accompanied by new detailed drawings (by Florence André). The outer frieze is more or less established in its general sequence and only individual identities remain controversial. Q. [Queyrel] proposes many new ones, especially on the North side where he locates Hermes and Hephaistos,5 as well as the three Gorgons: Medusa, Euryale, Stheno, and the three Moirai: Lachesis, Clotho, Atropos. This last is the spectacular deity hurling an enigmatic vessel circled by a snake (figs. 67-68). She is traditionally known as Nyx, but Q. believes that Night should be recognized in the velificans female next to Rhea/Cybele on the South (fig. 53). Two "digressions" ("La véritable Nyx," pp. 63-64; and "La pseudo-Nyx," pp. 72-73) convincingly argue both cases. A Table (pp. 76-78) summarizes the main identifications that have been proposed for each figure, with Q.'s new ones highlighted by bold type. The line drawings (fig. 33, pp. 50-51) include new names for both Gods and Giants, as well as the plan of the present display in Berlin. Two more Tables (p. 52) list the few preserved names of divinities inscribed on the upper molding, and those of Giants on the lower molding of the frieze, together with the mason's marks appearing on the relevant blocks.

Several details in the description are either novel or unfamiliar. Added fragments show a Giant flipped into the air by a ketos accompanying Poseidon. Demeter (now positively located) uses two torches against Erysichton. A flaming torch is also used by Eos who rides to the help of Kadmilos (one of the Kabeiroi) in hard combat with a monstrous bull-Giant (figs. 50-52). Athena, in pulling Alkyoneus by the hair not only removes him from his mother Ge but also (p. 54) exposes his body to the arrows of Herakles (now mostly fragmentary) who stands behind Zeus. Another archer is Apollo, on the same East side, who has hit in his left eye the reclining Giant now identified by inscription as Oudaios (not Ephialtes; pp. 55-56). The young Giant grabbed by Doris, albeit beardless, surprisingly wears a mustache (p. 67, fig. 59) -- the only such example of facial hairstyle, to my knowledge.

Simon 1975, Pergamon und Hesiod (in "Giants" folder)

Pergamon Altar Gigantomachy Viewer

Attalid dedication on the Acropolis[edit]

Gardner p. 495

Another series ...

Athena's peplos[edit]

Plato

Euthyphro 6b–c

[6b] ... And so you believe that there was really war between the gods, and fearful enmities and battles and other things of the sort, such as are told of by the poets and represented in varied designs [6c] by the great artists in our sacred places and especially on the robe which is carried up to the Acropolis at the great Panathenaea? for this is covered with such representations. Shall we agree that these things are true, Euthyphro?

The Republic 2.378c

[378c] if we wish our future guardians to deem nothing more shameful than lightly to fall out with one another; still less must we make battles of gods and giants the subject for them of stories and embroideries,¹ and other enmities many and manifold of gods and heroes toward their kith and kin.

1 On the Panathenaic πέπλος of Athena.

Barber 1991, Prehistoric Textiles"

p. 361

Every year the Athenians held a festival of thanksgiving to Athena. their patroness; and every fourth year they held a particularly large version of the festival—the Great Panathenaia. The celebrations included atheletic events, the most unusual of which were a torch race (Parke 1977, 37, 45, 171-72) and the Pyrrhic dance (according to legend the dance done by Athena to celebrate a victory of the gods over the giants: ibid., 36), as well as a huge procession through the city to bring Athena her new dress (see Pfuhl 1900; Deubner 1932; Davidson 1958; Mommsen 1968, 116-205; etc.). ...

p. 362

... So we glean the additional information that one didn't weave just any old giants but specifically the Battle of the Gods and the Giants in which the gods led by Zeus and Athena, put down a terrifying and nearly catastophic insurrection of those awesome monsters who rumble around where they have been chained under the earth, and who occasionally escape and erupt forth to challenge the gentle order of the gods.⁵

p. 380

From the story of "Demetrios the Savior" [see p. 362] we got the impression, strengthened elsewhere, that the subject of the peplos had to do with those who had saved Athens, Athena and Zeus being foremost because of their parts in the Gigantomachies. The peplos would seem to be an offering to the goddess specifically in thanks for saving her people from the terrible threat of the Huge Ones—and a repeated reminder to her never to let them escape again.

p. 381

Those who have worked extensively with myths generated from catastrophe agree that this particular story [Hesiod, Theogony 678-86, 693-705)] is a roughly but rationally decipherable, metaphoric account of a volcanic eruption (cf. Rose 1959, 44-45), and most likely, at least in part, of the cataclysmic destruction of Thera that occurred in the 15th century B.C., which was one of the largest and ludest eruptions the huma race has ever witnessed (cf. Luce 1969, 58-95, esp. 74-84), Surely this eruption above all others would call forth relief at salvation and a desire never to have to go through such cosmic terror again. Athens after all, had a ringside seat. Giants, Titans and such, as metaphors for and personifications of the volcanic forces, are therefore exactly appropriate symbols to commemorate such an awesome event.

The Greeks themselves placed the origins of their festival back in Mydenaean times: some parts were ascribed to Theseus and some to the earlier indigeneous inhabitants, who were said to have set it up in honor of the death of a giant named Asteros ("Bright One" or "Glitterer"), although some of the games were established much later (see Davison 1958, 32-35, for full references).

...

Are we, then, to imagine the ruler of Athens (whether Theseus or another) desperately and solemly vowing to Athena—as the volcano across the way was blowing its heart out in an eruption that would make Mount Saint Helens, Kilaueia, and even Krakatoa look small—that if the devine Protectress would save him and his people from this unimaginably devastating monster, he would provide her with the finest he could offer: huge sacrifices, the most expensive of new dresses, and a grand celebration and victory dance in her honor, every year in perpetuity?

Athens, unlike many an Agean site, survived the disaster. That would have been proof enough that Athena and Zeus had cared about and saved their people. to commemorate the event symbolically in dance, in fire rituals, and through the age-old local craft of weaving—does not seem so strange.

Barber 1992, "The Peplos of Athena"

p. 103

According to ancient authors, one of the central features of the Panathenaic Festival was the presentation to Athena of a woven, rectangular woolen cloth called a peplos, always decorated with the fiery Battle of the Gods and Giants. Presenting a textile seems appropriate enough, for Athena was, among other things, the goddess of weaving. But there clarity stops. Who wove it and how often? Was a new one made every year, or only every four years for the Greater Panathenaia?

...

Bronze Age Background

The Classical Greeks had inherited a 7000-year tradition of weaving, ...

p. 104

By 1500, when the Mycenaean Greeks were constructing citadels, ...

With this tradition in mind, we must tackle the questions surrounding the making of the sacred peplos of Athena. Fancy weaving in the fifth-century was not a late and newly acquired art, for professionals only, but a household craft that had been at the core of Agean culture for millennia. In fact, given how old the tradition of ornate weaving was in the Aegean and how important it had been to the Bronze Age economy, it would be strange if the main religious customs surrounding weaving were not old and deeply rooted.

p. 112

We know that the peplos was a rectangular woolen cloth described as showing the figures of Athena and Zeus leading the Olympian gods to victory in the epic Battle of the Gods and Giants (see for example the lines from Hecuba quoted on p. 103).

p. 117

Select women of Athens wove a normal-sized robe destined to dress the cult statue every year, whereas professional male weavers seem to have woven a cloth every fourth year for pay—a sail-peplos that was much larger, fancier, newer in tradition than the women's, and not intended for the statue. Both textiles, however, seem to have displayed in their threads Athena's part in the Battle of the Gods and Giants, as a renewed thank-offering to the patroness of Athens for saving the city from destruction. ... All this evidence evidence strongly suggests that the entire ritual of presenting Athena with an ornate new dress was a local relic of the Bronze Age.

Regardless of the origins of presenting a robe every year to Athena ... the ritual clearly held an integral place in the lives of the Athenian citizens, ... celebrating Athena and thanking her for one of her most famous deeds, the destruction of the world-threqatening giants.

Simon 1991

p. 23

The festival of the Panathenaia, celbrated in honor of Athena, was surely of Bronze Age origin.⁷⁰ Its main rite, the offering of a garment, is repeatedly represented in Mycenean frescoes, and Homer describes the procession of Trojan women putting a peplos on Athena's knees (Iliad 6.288–304). The unification of Attika by Theseus was the virtual prerequisite for the Panathenaia. but the Athenians ascribed the foundation of their main festival to Erichthonios-Erechtheus. Since that celebration, however, was reorganized several times—for example, in 566—Theseus could be thought to have been its first reorganizer.

Other:

Håland Athena’s Peplos: Weaving as a Core Female Activity in Ancient and Modern Greece

Lefkowitz p. 96 ff., together with: pp. 88–89

Munn, p. 291 (See sources)

Schnusenberg, pp.135–137

Robertson, p. 63

Look at:

[17]

[18]

[19]

Get:

Shapiro, H. Alan, Art and Cult under the Tyrants in Athens pp. 38–40 Boston College

Art: text from Gigantomachy[edit]

A temple at Phanagoreia commemorated Aphrodite's victory over some Giants. She drove them into a cave, where Heracles slaughtered them.

Gigantomachy and the Acropolis[edit]

Hurwit pp. 30–31

In religion, cult[edit]

?

Chronology[edit]

Hansen, p. 178:

"According to Apollodorus, the Gigantomachy took place after the Titanomachy and before the combat of Zeus and Typhon. ("When the gods had overcome the giants, Earth, still more enraged, had intercourse with Tartarus and brought forth Typhon ..." (Apoll. 1.6.3)

Symbolism, meaning and interpretations[edit]

Statius?

Look at/ incorporate Lovatt, pp. 114 ff.

New References[edit]

New Notes[edit]

^ Wilson, p. 559.
^ Cunningham, p. 113; Kleiner, p. 156 FIG. 5-79; Queyrel, pp. 52–53; Ridgway, Brunilde Sismondo 2000, p. 39, pp. 59–60 n. 59. Supporting the identification of this Giant as Alcyoneus, is the fragmentary inscription "neus", that may belong to this scene, for doubts concerning this identification, see Ridgway.

Sources[edit]

Ancient[edit]

Archaic (c. 800 - 500 BC)[edit]

c. 750 - 650 BC Homer[edit]

Iliad

14.250–256

on the day when the glorious son of Zeus [Heracles], high of heart, sailed forth from Ilios, when he had laid waste the city of the Trojans. I, verily, beguiled the mind of Zeus, that beareth the aegis, being shed in sweetness round about him, and thou didst devise evil in thy heart against his son, when thou hadst roused the blasts of cruel winds over the face of the deep, and thereafter didst bear him away unto well-peopled Cos, far from all his kinsfolk.

Odyssey

7.56–63

Nausithous at the first was born from the earth-shaker Poseidon and Periboea, the comeliest of women, youngest daughter of great-hearted [μεγαλήτορος, LSJ: "greathearted"] Eurymedon, who once was king over the insolent [ὑπέρθυμος, LSJ: "overweening"] Giants. [60] But he brought destruction on his froward [ἀτάσθαλος, LSJ: "reckless, presumptuous, wicked"] people, and was himself destroyed. But with Periboea lay Poseidon and begat a son, great-hearted Nausithous, who ruled over the Phaeacians; and Nausithous begat Rhexenor and Alcinous.

7.199–207

"But if he is one of the immortals come down from heaven, [200] then is this some new thing which the gods are planning; for ever heretofore have they been wont to appear to us in manifest form, when we sacrifice to them glorious hecatombs, and they feast among us, sitting even where we sit. Aye, and if one of us as a lone wayfarer meets them, [205] they use no concealment, for we are of near kin to them, as are the Cyclopes and the wild tribes of the Giants.”

10.120

Then he raised a cry throughout the city, and as they heard it the mighty Laestrygonians came thronging from all sides, [120] a host past counting, not like men but like the Giants.

c. 750 - 650 BC Hesiod[edit]

Theogony

50–52

And again, they chant the race of men and strong [κρατερός LSJ: "strong, stout, mighty"] giants, and gladden the heart of Zeus within Olympus,—the Olympian Muses, daughters of Zeus the aegis-holder.

173 ff.

So he said: and vast Earth rejoiced greatly in spirit, and set and hid him in an ambush, and put in his hands [175] a jagged sickle, and revealed to him the whole plot. And Heaven came, bringing on night and longing for love, and he lay about Earth spreading himself full upon her.1Then the son from his ambush stretched forth his left hand and in his right took the great long sickle [180] with jagged teeth, and swiftly lopped off his own father's members and cast them away to fall behind him. And not vainly did they fall from his hand; for all the bloody drops that gushed forth Earth received, and as the seasons moved round [185] she bore the strong Erinyes and the great [μεγάλους] Giants with gleaming armour, holding long spears in their hands and the Nymphs whom they call Meliae² all over the boundless earth. And so soon as he had cut off the members with flint and cast them from the land into the surging sea, [190] they were swept away over the main a long time: and a white foam spread around them from the immortal flesh, and in it there grew a maiden. First she drew near holy Cythera, and from there, afterwards, she came to sea-girt Cyprus, and came forth an awful and lovely goddess, and grass [195] grew up about her beneath her shapely feet. Her gods and men call Aphrodite, and the foam-born goddess and rich-crowned Cytherea, because she grew amid the foam, and Cytherea because she reached Cythera, and Cyprogenes because she was born in billowy Cyprus, [200] and Philommedes³ because she sprang from the members.

820 ff.

But when Zeus had driven the Titans from heaven, huge Earth bore her youngest child Typhoeus of the love of Tartarus, by the aid of golden Aphrodite. Strength was with his hands in all that he did and the feet of the strong god were untiring. From his shoulders [825] grew a hundred heads of a snake, a fearful dragon, with dark, flickering tongues, and from under the brows of his eyes in his marvellous heads flashed fire, and fire burned from his heads as he glared.

853 ff.

But when Zeus had conquered him and lashed him with strokes, Typhoeus was hurled down, a maimed wreck, so that the huge earth groaned. And flame shot forth from the thunderstricken lord [860] in the dim rugged glens of the mount,¹ when he was smitten. A great part of huge earth was scorched by the terrible vapor and melted as tin melts when heated by men's art in channelled² crucibles; or as iron, which is hardest of all things, is shortened [865] by glowing fire in mountain glens and melts in the divine earth through the strength of Hephaestus.³ Even so, then, the earth melted in the glow of the blazing fire. And in the bitterness of his anger Zeus cast him into wide Tartarus.

1 According to Homer Typhoeus was overwhelmed by Zeus amongst the Arimi in Cilicia. Pindar represents him buried under Aetna, and Tzetzes read Aetna in this passage.

954–955

Happy he! For [Heracles] has finished his great work [955] and lives amongst the undying gods, untroubled and unaging all his days.

[Most, p. 79:] happy he, for having finished his great work among the immortals he dwells unharmed and ageless for all his days.

fl. 7th c. BC Alcman[edit]

fr. 1 PMGF (Poetarum melicorum Graecorum fragmenta)

Lines 30-36 [The complete text can be viewed from my laptop]

] of whom one with the arrow

] with marble millstone

] in Hades

] they

] things never to be forgotten

they suffered for the evils they plotted.

There is such a thing as retribution from the gods.

fl. 550-500 BC Ibycus[edit]

S192a (SLG) P.Oxy.2735 fr. 27a [See Wilkinson pp. 141–142]

Classical (c. 500 - 323 BC)[edit]

c. 522 - 443 BC Pindar[edit]

Isthmian 6.31–35

He took Pergamos, and with Telamon's help he slew the tribes of Meropes, and the herdsman Alcyoneus, huge as a mountain, whom he found at Phlegrae, and he did not keep his hands off the deep-voiced bow-string, not [35] Heracles.

Nemean 1.67–72

For he [Teiresias] said that when the gods meet the giants in battle on the plain of Phlegra, the shining hair of the giants will be stained with dirt beneath the rushing arrows of that hero [Heracles]. But he himself [70] will have allotted to him in peace, as an extraordinary reward for his great hardship, continuous peace for all time among the homes of the blessed. He will receive flourishing Hebe as his bride and celebrate the wedding-feast, and in the presence of Zeus the son of Cronus he will praise the sacred law.

Nemean 4.24–30

Heracles, [25] with whom once powerful Telamon destroyed Troy and the Meropes and the great and terrible warrior Alcyoneus, but not before that giant had laid low, by hurling a rock, twelve chariots and twice twelve horse-taming heroes who were riding in them. [30]

Nemean 7.90

Heracles, you who subdued the Giants,

Olympian 4.6–7

Son of Cronus, you who hold Aetna, the wind-swept weight on terrible hundred-headed Typhon,

Pythian 1.15–29

among them is he who lies in dread Tartarus, that enemy of the gods, Typhon with his hundred heads. Once the famous Cilician cave nurtured him, but now the sea-girt cliffs above Cumae, and Sicily too, lie heavy on his shaggy chest. And the pillar of the sky holds him down, [20] snow-covered Aetna, year-round nurse of bitter frost, from whose inmost caves belch forth the purest streams of unapproachable fire. In the daytime her rivers roll out a fiery flood of smoke, while in the darkness of night the crimson flame hurls rocks down to the deep plain of the sea with a crashing roar. [25] That monster shoots up the most terrible jets of fire; it is a marvellous wonder to see, and a marvel even to hear about when men are present. Such a creature is bound beneath the dark and leafy heights of Aetna and beneath the plain, and his bed scratches and goads the whole length of his back stretched out against it.

Pythian 8.12–18

Porphyrion did not know your power, when he provoked you [Hesychia, "the goddess of domestic tranquillity": Gildersleeve, Pythian 8] beyond all measure. Gain is most welcome, when one takes it from the home of a willing giver. [15] Violence trips up even a man of great pride, in time. Cilician Typhon with his hundred heads did not escape you, nor indeed did the king of the Giants.¹ One was subdued by the thunderbolt, the other by the bow of Apollo,

¹ Porphyrion, mentioned above.

c. 525 - 455 BC Aeschylus[edit]

Agamemnon 692

she sailed the sea before the breath of earth-born [γίγαντος] Zephyrus.

Eumenides 294

or whether, like a bold marshal, she [Athena] is surveying the Phlegraean² plain, [295]

2 The scene of the battle of the Gods and Giants, in which Athena slew Enceladus.

Prometheus Bound 353–374

Pity moved me, too, at the sight of the earth-born dweller of the Cilician caves curbed by violence, that destructive monster [355] of a hundred heads, impetuous Typhon. He withstood all the gods, hissing out terror with horrid jaws, while from his eyes lightened a hideous glare, as though he would storm by force the sovereignty of Zeus. [360] But the unsleeping bolt of Zeus came upon him, the swooping lightning brand with breath of flame, which struck him, frightened, from his loud-mouthed boasts; then, stricken to the very heart, he was burnt to ashes and his strength blasted from him by the lightning bolt. [365] And now, a helpless and a sprawling bulk, he lies hard by the narrows of the sea, pressed down beneath the roots of Aetna; while on the topmost summit Hephaestus sits and hammers the molten ore. There, one day, shall burst forth [370] rivers of fire,1with savage jaws devouring the level fields of Sicily, land of fair fruit—such boiling rage shall Typho, although charred by the blazing lightning of Zeus, send spouting forth with hot jets of appalling, fire-breathing surge.

Seven Against Thebes 423–436

Yes, may the gods so grant success to this man. Capaneus is stationed at the Electran gates, another giant of a man, greater than the one described before. [425] But his boast is too proud for a mere human, and he makes terrifying threats against our battlements—which, I hope, chance will not fulfil! For he says he will utterly destroy the city with god's will or without it, and that not even conflict with Zeus, though it should fall before him in the plain, will stand in his way. [430] The god's lightning and thunderbolts he compares to midday heat. For his shield's symbol he has a man without armor bearing fire, and the torch, his weapon, blazes in his hands; and in golden letters he says “I will burn the city.” [435] Against such a man make your dispatch—who will meet him in combat, who will stand firm without trembling before his boasts?

fl. 5th century BC Bacchylides[edit]

15.50 ff. (See also Castriota, pp. 233–234)

“Battle-loving Trojans: Zeus, the ruler on high who sees all, is not to blame for the great woes of mortals; all men have a chance to reach unswerving Justice, the attendant of holy [55] Eunomia and prudent Themis. Prosperous are they whose children take Justice to live with them. But shameless Hybris, flourishing with shifty greed and lawless empty-headedness, who will swiftly bestow on a man someone else's wealth and power, [60] and then send him into deep ruin—Hybris [Ὕβρις] destroyed the arrogant [ὑπερφίαλος] sons of the Earth, the Giants.”

c. 497 - 406 BC Sophocles[edit]

Women of Trachis 1058–1063

Heracles

And yet, no spearman on the battlefield,

no earth-born troop of Giants, no wild beast,

nor Greece, nor any foreign land which I

purged in my wanderings, could do this to me!

A woman - weak, not masculine by nature -

alone, without a sword, has vanquished me!

c. 484 - 425 BC Herodotus[edit]

7.123.1

This country is called Sithonia. The fleet held a straight course from the headland of Ampelus to the Canastraean headland, where Pallene runs farthest out to sea, and received ships and men from the towns of what is now Pallene but was formerly called Phlegra, namely, Potidaea, Aphytis, Neapolis, Aege, Therambus, Scione, Mende, and Sane.

c. 480 - 406 BC Euripides[edit]

Bacchae 537–544

What rage, what rage does the earth-born race show, and Pentheus, [540] once descended from a serpent—Pentheus, whom earth-born Echion bore, a fierce monster, not a mortal man, but like a bloody giant, hostile to the gods.

Cyclops 1–9

Silenus: O Bromius, labors numberless have I had because of you, now and when I was young and able-bodied! First, when Hera drove you mad and you went off leaving behind your nurses, the mountain-nymphs; [5] next, when in the battle with the Earthborn Giants I took my stand protecting your right flank with my shield and, striking Enceladus with my spear in the center of his targe, killed him. (Come, let me see, did I see this in a dream? No, by Zeus, for I also displayed the spoils to Dionysus.）

Hecuba

466–474

Or in the city of Pallas, the home of Athena of the lovely chariot, shall I then upon her saffron robe yoke horses, [470] embroidering them on my web in brilliant varied shades, or the race of Titans, put to sleep by Zeus the son of Cronos with bolt of flashing flame?

Heracles

177–180

I appeal then to the thunder of Zeus, and the chariot in which he rode, when he [Herakles, see Gantz p. 448] pierced the Giants, earth's brood, to the heart with his winged shafts, [180] and with gods uplifted the glorious triumph song;

906–908

Oh, oh! what are you doing, Pallas, child of Zeus, to the house? You are sending hell's confusion against the halls, as once you did on Enceladus.

1192–1194

My son [Heracles], my own enduring son, that marched with gods to Phlegra's plain, there to battle with giants and slay them, warrior that he was.

1271–1273

Heracles

what did I not destroy, whether lions, or triple-bodied Typhons, or giants or the battle against the hosts of four-legged Centaurs?

Ion

205–218

I am glancing around everywhere. See the battle of the giants, on the stone walls.

I am looking at it, my friends.

Do you see the one [210] brandishing her gorgon shield against Enceladus? 565

I see Pallas, my own goddess.

Now what? the mighty thunderbolt, blazing at both ends, in the far-shooting hands of Zeus?

I see it; [215] he is burning the furious Mimas to ashes in the fire.

And Bacchus, the roarer, is killing another of the sons of Earth with his ivy staff, unfit for war.

987–997

Creusa

Listen, then; you know the battle of the giants?

Tutor

Yes, the battle the giants fought against the gods in Phlegra.

Creusa

There the earth brought forth the Gorgon, a dreadful monster.

Tutor

[990] As an ally for her children and trouble for the gods?

Creusa

Yes; and Pallas, the daughter of Zeus, killed it.

Tutor

[What fierce shape did it have?

Creusa

A breastplate armed with coils of a viper.]

Tutor

Is this the story which I have heard before?

Creusa

[995] That Athena wore the hide on her breast.

Tutor

And they call it the aegis, Pallas' armor?

Creusa

It has this name from when she darted to the gods' battle.

1528–1529

Creusa

By Athena Nike, who once raised her shield against the giants, in her chariot beside Zeus,

Iphigenia in Tauris

222–224

embroidering with my shuttle, in the singing loom, the likeness of Athenian Pallas and the Titans;

The Phoenician Women

127–130

Ah, ah! How proud, how fearful to see, like an earth-born giant, with stars engraved on his shield, not resembling [130] mortal race.

1129–1133

At Electra's gate Capaneus brought up his company, bold as Ares for the battle; [1130] this device his shield bore upon its iron back: an earth-born giant carrying on his shoulders a whole city which he had wrenched from its base, a hint to us of the fate in store for Thebes.

c. 446 - 386 BC Aristophanes[edit]

The Birds

553

Oh, Cebriones! oh, Porphyrion! what a terribly strong place!

823–831

Pisthetaerus

No, it's rather the plain of Phlegra, where the gods [825] withered the pride of the sons of the Earth with their shafts.

Leader of the Chorus

Oh! what a splendid city! But what god shall be its patron? for whom shall we weave the peplus?

Euelpides

Why not choose Athena Polias?

Pisthetaerus

Oh! what a well-ordered town it would be [830] to have a female deity armed from head to foot, while Clisthenes was spinning!

1249–1252

I shall send more than six hundred porphyrions [1250] clothed in leopards' skins up to heaven against him [Zeus]; and formerly a single Porphyrion gave him enough to do.

The Knights

565

Let us sing the glory of our forefathers; ever victors, both on land and sea, they merit that Athens, rendered famous by these, her worthy sons, should write their deeds upon the sacred peplus.

c. 425 - 348 BC Plato[edit]

Euthyphro 6b–c

[6b] ... And so you believe that there was really war between the gods, and fearful enmities and battles and other things of the sort, such as are told of by the poets and represented in varied designs [6c] by the great artists in our sacred places and especially on the robe which is carried up to the Acropolis at the great Panathenaea? for this is covered with such representations. Shall we agree that these things are true, Euthyphro?

Republic 2.378c

[378c] if we wish our future guardians to deem nothing more shameful than lightly to fall out with one another; still less must we make battles of gods and giants the subject for them of stories and embroideries,¹ and other enmities many and manifold of gods and heroes toward their kith and kin.

1 On the Panathenaic πέπλος of Athena.

Sophist 246a–c

Stranger: And indeed there seems to be a battle like that of the gods and the giants going on among them, because of their disagreement about existence.

Theaetetus: How so?

Stranger: Some of them¹ drag down everything from heaven and the invisible to earth, actually grasping rocks and trees with their hands; for they lay their hands on all such things and maintain stoutly that that alone exists which can be touched and handled; [246b] for they define existence and body, or matter, as identical, and if anyone says that anything else, which has no body, exists, they despise him utterly, and will not listen to any other theory than their own.

Theaetetus: Terrible men they are of whom you speak. I myself have met with many of them.

Stranger: Therefore those who contend against them defend themselves very cautiously with weapons derived from the invisible world above, maintaining forcibly that real existence consists of certain ideas which are only conceived by the mind and have no body. But the bodies of their opponents, and that which is called by them truth, they break up into small fragments [246c] in their arguments, calling them, not existence, but a kind of generation combined with motion. There is always, Theaetetus, a tremendous battle being fought about these questions between the two parties.

1 The atomists (Leucippus, Democritus, and their followers), who taught that nothing exists except atoms and the void. Possibly there is a covert reference to Aristippus who was, like Plato, a pupil of Socrates.

Symposium

190b

[190b] swiftly round and round. The number and features of these three sexes were owing to the fact that the male was originally the offspring of the sun, and the female of the earth; while that which partook of both sexes was born of the moon, for the moon also partakes of both.1 They were globular in their shape as in their progress, since they took after their parents. Now, they were of surprising strength and vigor, and so lofty in their notions that they even conspired against the gods; and the same story is told of them as Homer relates of

190c

[190c] Ephialtes and Otus¹ that scheming to assault the gods in fight they essayed to mount high heaven.

“Thereat Zeus and the other gods debated what they should do, and were perplexed: for they felt they could not slay them like the Giants, whom they had abolished root and branch with strokes of thunder—it would be only abolishing the honors and observances they had from men; nor yet could they endure such sinful rioting. Then Zeus, putting all his wits together, spoke at length and said: ‘Methinks I can contrive that men, without ceasing to exist, shall give over their iniquity through a lessening of their strength.

1 Hom. Od. 11.305ff.; Hom. Il. 5.385ff.

384 - 322 BC Aristotle[edit]

Meteorology 368b 28–32

Whenever an earthquake of this kind … as we see from Sipylus and the Phlegraean plain and the district in Liguria, which were devastated by this kind of earthquake.

On Marvellous Things Heard 838a 27

Near the promontory of Iapygia is a spot, in which it is alleged, so runs the legend, that the battle between Heracles and the giants took place; from here flows such a stream of ichor that the sea cannot be navigated at the spot owing to the heaviness of the scent. They say that in many parts of Italy there are many memorials of Heracles on the roads over which he travelled. But about Pandosia in Iapygia footprints of the god are shown, upon which no one may walk.

c. 350 BC – 323 BC? Batrachomyomachia[edit]

7 (pp. 542–543)

the Giants, those earth-born [γηγενἑων] men.

277–283 (pp. 560–561)

So said son of Cronus; but Hera answered him: "Son of Cronos, neither the might of Athena nor of Ares can avail to deliver the Frogs from utter destruction. Rather, come and let us all go to help them, or else let loose your weapon, the great and formidable Titan-killer with which you killed Capaneus, that doughty man, and great Enceladus and the wild tribes of Giants;

Hellenistic (323 - 146 BC)[edit]

c. 305 – 240 BC Callimachus[edit]

fragment 117 (382) (pp. 342–343)

The three-forked island^a (that lies) upon deadly Enceladus.

Schol. Pind. : Pindar says that Aetna lies upon Typhon, Callimachus says upon Enceladus

^a Sicily, under which is buried the giant Enceladus

Hymn 4 (to Delos)

141–146 (pp. 96–97)

And even as when the mount of Aetna smoulders with fire and all its secret depths are shaken as the giant under earth, even Briares, shifts to his other shoulder,^a and with the tongs of Hephaestus roar furnaces and handiwork withal;

^a Cf. Frazer, G.B. [Golden Bough]³, Adonis, Attis, Osiris, i. p. 197: "The people of Timor, in the East Indies, think that the earth rests on the shoulders of a mighty giant, and that when he is weary of bearing it on one shoulder he shifts it to the other and so causes the ground to quake." Ibid. p. 200: "The Tongans think that the earth is supported on the prostrate form of the god Móooi. When he is tired of lying in one posture, he tries to turn himself about, and that causes an earthquake."

173 ff. (pp. 98–99)

When Titans of a later day shall rouse up against the Hellenes barbarian sword and Celtic war,^e

^e From 300 B.C. there was a great southward movement of Celts from the Balkan peninsula. In 280/279 they invaded Greece, where they attacked Delphi, but were miraculously routed by Apollo. It was shortly after this that a body of them settled in the district of Asia afterwards known as Galatia (circ. 240 B.C.).

[Here conflating the Titans with the Giants (see Vian and Moore 1988 p. 193; Mineur p. 170)

Hymn 5 (on the Bath of Pallas) 5–12

Never did Athena wash her mighty arms before she drave the dust from the flanks of her horses—not even when she returned from the battle of the lawless Giants; but far first she loosed from the car her horses' necks, and in the springs of Oceanus washed the flecks of sweat and from their mouths that champed the bit cleansed the clotted foam.

Hymn 6 (to Demeter) 25 ff. (pp. 126 ff.)

then the worse counsel took hold of Erysichthon. He hastened with twenty attendants, all in their prime, all men-giants able to lift a whole city, arming them both with double axes and hatchets, and they rushed shameless into the grove of Demeter.

fl. c. 300 - 250 BC Apollonius of Rhodes[edit]

Argonautica

3.232–234 (pp. 210–211)

[Hephaestus] forged a plough of unbending adament, all in one piece, in payment of thanks to Helios, who had taken the god up in his chariot when faint from the Phlegraean fight.

3.1225–7 (pp. 276–277)

Then Aeetes arrayed his breast in the stiff corset which Ares gave him when he had slain Phlegraean Mimas with his own hands;

fl. c. 285 - 247 BC Lycophron[edit]

Alexandra

63 ff. (pp. 498–499)

[Paris] wounded by the giant-slaying arrows of his adversary [Philoctetes]

115, 127 (pp. 504–505)

[115] husband,^a whose spouse is Torone of Phlegra,

[127] he came as a wanderer to Pallenia, nurse of the earth-born

^a Proteus came from his home in Egypt to Pallene (=Phlegra, Herod. viii. 123 in Chacide), the birth-place of the giants, where he married Torone,

688–693 (pp. 550–551)

Thereafter the island^m that crushed the back of the Giants and the fierce form of Typhon, shall receive him journeying alone: an island boiling with flame, wherein the king of the immortals established an ugly race of apes, in mockery of all who raised war against the sons of Cronus.

^m Pithecussa=Aenaria, under which the giant Typhoeus lies buried and where the Cercopes were turned into apes by Zeus to mock the giants (Ovid, M. xiv. 90).

706–709 (pp. 552–553)

Stream of black Styx, where Temieus [Zeus] made the seat of oath-swearing [see Illiad 15.37] for the immortals, drawing the water in golden basins for libation, when he was about to go against the Giants and Titans

1356–1358 (pp. 606–607)

and them^h who drew the root of their race from the blood of the Sithonianⁱ giants.

^h The Pelasgians

ⁱ Sithonia and Pallene, the middle and southern spurs of Chalcidice, are the home of the giants; cf. 1406 f.

1404–1408 (pp. 610–611)

By him all the lands of Phlegra shall be enslaved and the ridge of Thrambus and spur of Titon by the sea and the plains of the Sithonians and the fields of Pallene, which the ox-horned Brychon,^r who served the giants, fattens with his waters.

^r River in Pallene (Hesych.).

c. 270 - 201 BC Naevius[edit]

Bellum Punicum [The Punic War] fragment

[21]

Warmington

p. 66

Priscianus, ap. G.L., II, 198, 6: (p.30) Naevius in carmine Belli Punici I—

Inerant signa expressa quo modo Titani

bicorpores Gigantes magnique Atlantes

Runcus atque Porporeus filii Terras.

Cp. Prisc., G.L., 217,12.

p. 67

From Book I ? Aeneas' ship,^a built by Mercury?:

Priscianus on the genitve singular in '-as.' ... Naevius in The Song of the Punic War, book I (?)—

On it were modeled images in the fashion of Titans and two-bodied Giants and mighty Atlases, and Runcus too and the Crimson-hued, sons of Earth.

Henry T. Rowell, "The Original Form of Naevius' Bellum Punicum", The American Journal of Philology Vol. 68, No. 1 (1947), pp. 21-46. (JSTOR 291058)

p. 34

Fortunately three lines of Bellum Punicum (frg. 19) preserved by Priscian (I, p. 198 Hertz) and assigned expressly to Book I furnish the means oe approach. They read as follows:

Inerant signa expressa / quomodo Titani

bicorpores Gigantes / magnique Atlantes

Runcus ac Purpureus / filii Terras

Translation by Marco Petrolino

[5] There were engraved images [depicting] in what the way the Titans, the two-bodied Giants, and great Atlantis, Rucus and Purpureus, children of Ge...

Vian and Moore 1988, p. 193:

They [Giants] are πολυσώματοι (Diod. 1, 26) or bicorpores (Naevius Bell. Pun. frg. Strzelecki 4), that is to say anguipèdes.

b. c. 275 BC Euphorion[edit]

Fragment 169 (Lightfoot = Powell 166? see Lightfoot, pp. 394–395)

169 Scholiast on Dionysius the Periegete

These pillars were initially called the pillars of Cronos, because the boundary of his kingdom lay in these regions; next they were to belong to Briareus, as Euphorion says; and thirdly they became known as the pillars of Heracles.

cf. Scholiast on Pindar, Nemean Odes

The pillars of Heracles are also known as the pillars of Briareus, according to <Euphorion??>:

And the pillars of Aegaeon, the Giant, lord of the sea.¹⁹⁴

¹⁹⁴ See Parthenius 34.

2nd c. BC Nicander[edit]

Europia fragment 26 (see Gow and Scholfield pp. 140–141, [22])

Athos: a mountain in Thrace, so named after the giant [gigantos] Athos as Nicander in the fifth book of his Europia says:

And one beholding Thracian Athos towering up beneath the stars, heard his voice as he shouted beneath the fathomless lake. So with his voice he hurled two missiles wrenched erewhile from the steep promontory of Canastrum.

late 2nd c. BC Antipater of Sidon[edit]

Paton, pp. 396–397:

748._ANTIPATER OF SIDON

What one-eyed Cyclops built all this vast stone

mound of Assyrian Semiramis, or what giants, sons

of earth, raised it to reach near to the seven Pleiads,

inflexible, unshakable, a mass weighing on the broad

earth like to the peak of Athos ? Ever blessed

people, who to the citizens of Heraclea . . .

Gow, p. 24 XXXV 424–427: [Greek containing Ossa and Pelion] [Cited by Vian and Moore 1988, p. 193: "They pile up mountains to climb the sky and merge more or less with Aloades (-»Aloadai) ... Antipater Sidonius, Gow / Page, Hell. Epigr. v. 410-417. 424-427".]

Roman (146 - 1 BC)[edit]

fl. c. 72 BC. Parthenius[edit]

Fragment 34 (Lightfoot) Lightfoot, p. 525

34 Scholiast on Dionysius the Periegete

... Cádiz, and that is where the pillars of Heracles are. Dionysus' are in the east. Parthenius says the pillars belong to Briareus:

To bear us witness, at Cádiz he left a record (?),

Erasing the old name of ancient Briareus.²⁷

²⁷ One of the hundred-handers or hekatogcheirs who supported Zeus against the Titans in Hesiod's Theogony. For his connection with the Pillars of Heracles, see Aristotle fr. 678 Rose, Plut. Mor. 420 A, and Euphorion 169.

106 - 43 BC Cicero[edit]

De natura deorum 3.59

The fifth [Minerva] is Pallas, who is said to have slain her father when he attempted to violate her maidenhood; she is represented with wings attached to her ankles.

De Senectute 5

Wherefore, if you are accustomed to marvel at my wisdom—and would that it were worthy of your estimate and of my cognomen1 —I am wise because I follow Nature as the best of guides and obey her as a god; and since she has fitly planned the other acts of life's drama, it is not likely that she has [p. 15] neglected the final act as if she were a careless playwright. And yet there had to be something final, and—as in the case of orchard fruits and crops of grain in the process of ripening which comes with time—something shrivelled, as it were, and prone to fall. But this state the wise man should endure with resignation. For what is warring against the gods, as the giants did, other than fighting against Nature?

c. 99 - 55 BC Lucretius[edit]

De Rerum Natura

1.62–79

Whilst human kind

Throughout the lands lay miserably crushed

Before all eyes beneath Religion- who

Would show her head along the region skies,

Glowering on mortals with her hideous face-

A Greek it was who first opposing dared

Raise mortal eyes that terror to withstand,

Whom nor the fame of Gods nor lightning's stroke

Nor threatening thunder of the ominous sky

Abashed; but rather chafed to angry zest

His dauntless heart to be the first to rend

The crossbars at the gates of Nature old.

And thus his will and hardy wisdom won;

And forward thus he fared afar, beyond

The flaming ramparts of the world, until

He wandered the unmeasurable All.

Whence he to us, a conqueror, reports

What things can rise to being, what cannot,

And by what law to each its scope prescribed,

Its boundary stone that clings so deep in Time.

Wherefore Religion now is under foot,

And us his victory now exalts to heaven.

4.134–137

As we behold the clouds grow thick on high

And smirch the serene vision of the world,

Stroking the air with motions. For oft are seen

The giants' faces flying far along

And trailing a spread of shadow;

5.110–125

But ere on this I take a step to utter

Oracles holier and soundlier based

Than ever the Pythian pronounced for men

From out the tripod and the Delphian laurel,

I will unfold for thee with learned words

Many a consolation, lest perchance,

Still bridled by religion, thou suppose

Lands, sun, and sky, sea, constellations, moon,

Must dure forever, as of frame divine-

And so conclude that it is just that those,

(After the manner of the Giants), should all

Pay the huge penalties for monstrous crime,

Who by their reasonings do overshake

The ramparts of the universe and wish

There to put out the splendid sun of heaven,

Branding with mortal talk immortal things-

Though these same things are even so far removed

From any touch of deity and seem

So far unworthy of numbering with the gods,

That well they may be thought to furnish rather

A goodly instance of the sort of things

That lack the living motion, living sense.

fl. c. 60 - 30 BC Diodorus Siculus[edit]

1.26.6–8

Furthermore, the Egyptians relate in their myths that in the time of Isis there were certain creatures of many bodies, who are called by the Greeks Giants,⁵⁴ but by themselves . . ., these being the men who are represented on their temples in monstrous form and as being cudgelled by Osiris. [7] Now some say that they were born of the earth at the time when the genesis of living things from the earth was still recent, while some hold that they were only men of unusual physical strength who achieved many deeds and for this reason were described in the myths as of many bodies. [8] But it is generally agreed that when they stirred up war against Zeus and Osiris they were all destroyed.

⁵⁴ But the Giants of Greek mythology were represented with "huge," not "many," bodies.

3.70.3–6

And according to the myth this goddess [Athena], choosing to spend all her days in maidenhood, excelled in virtue and invented most of the crafts, since she was exceedingly ready of wit; she cultivated also the arts of war, and since she excelled in courage and in bodily strength she performed many other deeds worthy of memory and slew the Aegis, as it was called, a certain frightful monster which was a difficult antagonist to overcome. [4] For it was sprung from the earth and in accordance with its nature breathed forth terrible flames of fire from its mouth, and its first appearance it made about Phrygia and burned up the land, which to this day is called "Burned Phrygia";²⁸ and after that it ravaged unceasingly the lands about the Taurus mountains and burned up the forests extending from that region as far as India. Thereupon, returning again towards the sea round about Phoenicia, it sent up in flames the forests on Mt. Lebanon, and making its way through Egypt it passed over Libya to the regions of the west and at the end of its wanderings [p. 317] fell upon the forests about Ceraunia. [5] And since the country round about was going up in flames and the inhabitants in some cases were being destroyed and in others were leaving their native countries in their terror and removing to distant regions, Athena, they say, overcoming the monster partly through her intelligence and partly through her courage and bodily strength, slew it, and covering her breast with its hide bore this about with her, both as a covering and protection for her body against later dangers, and as a memorial of her valour and of her well-merited fame. [6] Gê (Earth), however, the mother of the monster, was enraged and sent up the Giants, as they are called, to fight against the gods; but they were destroyed at a later time by Zeus, Athena and Dionysus and the rest of the gods taking part in the conflict on the side of Zeus.

²⁸ Strabo (12.8.18‑19) says that this area of Phrygia was occupied by the Lydians and Mysians, and that the cause of the name was the frequent earthquakes.

4.15.1

After this, when the Giants about Pallenê chose to begin the war against the immortals, Heracles fought on the side of the gods, and slaying many of the Sons of Earth he received the highest approbation. For Zeus gave the name of "Olympian" only to those gods who had fought by his side, in order that the courageous, by being adorned by so honourable a title, might be distinguished by this designation from the coward; and of those who were born of mortal women he considered only Dionysus and Heracles worthy of this name, not only because they had Zeus for their father, but also because they had avowed the same plan of life as he and conferred great benefits upon the life of men.

4.21.5–7

Heracles then moved on from the Tiber, and as he passed down the coast of what now bears the name of Italy he came to the Cumaean Plain. Here, the myths relate, there were men of outstanding strength the fame of whom had gone abroad for lawlessness and they were called Giants. This plain was called Phlegraean ("fiery") from the mountain which of old spouted forth a huge fire as Aetna did in Sicily; at this time, however, the mountain is called Vesuvius and shows many signs of the fire which once raged in those ancient times. 6 Now the Giants, according to the account, on learning that Heracles was at hand, gathered in full force and drew themselves up in battle-order against him. The struggle which took place was a wonderful one, in view of both the strength and the courage of the Giants, but Heracles, they say, with the help of the gods who fought on his side, gained the upper hand in the battle, slew most of the Giants, and brought the land under cultivation. p4137 The myths record that the Giants were sons of the earth because of the exceedingly great size of their bodies. With regard, then, to the Giants who were slain in Phlegra, this is the account of certain writers of myths, who have been followed by the historian Timaeus also.

5.71.2–6

He [Zeus] also visited practically the entire inhabited earth, putting to death robbers and impious men and introducing equality and democracy; and it was in this connection, they say, that he slew the Giants and their followers, Mylinus in Crete and Typhon in Phrygia. [3] Before the battle against the Giants in Crete, we are told, Zeus sacrificed a bull to Helius and to Uranus and to Gê; and in connection each of the rites there was revealed to him what was the will of the gods in the affair, the omens [p291] indicating the victory of the gods and a defection to them of the enemy. And the outcome of the war accorded with the omens; for Musaeus deserted to him from the enemy, for which he was accorded peculiar honours, and all who opposed them were cut down by the gods. [4] Zeus also had other wars against the Giants, we are told, in Macedonia near Pallenê and in Italy on the plain which of old was named Phlegraean ("fiery") after the region about it which had been burned,34 but which in later times men called Cumaean. [5] Now the Giants were punished by Zeus because they had treated the rest of mankind in a lawless fashion and, confiding in their bodily superiority and strength, had enslaved their neighbours, and because they were also disobeying the rules of justice which he was laying down and were raising up war against those whom all mankind considered to be gods because of the benefactions they were conferring upon men generally. [6] Zeus, then, we are told, not only totally eradicated the impious and evil-doers from among mankind, but he also distributed honours as they were merited among the noblest of the gods and heroes and men. And because of the magnitude of his benefactions and his superior power all men accorded to him as with one voice both the everlasting kingship which he possesses and his dwelling upon Mount Olympus.

13.82.4

The porticoes [of the Temple of Olympian Zeus, Agrigento] were of enormous size and height, and in the east pediment they portrayed The Battle between the Gods and the Giants in sculptures which excelled in size and beauty,

70 - 19 BC Virgil[edit]

Aeneid

3.570–587

A spreading bay is there, impregnable

to all invading storms; and Aetna's throat

with roar of frightful ruin thunders nigh.

Now to the realm of light it lifts a cloud

of pitch-black, whirling smoke, and fiery dust,

shooting out globes of flame, with monster tongues

that lick the stars; now huge crags of itself,

out of the bowels of the mountain torn,

its maw disgorges, while the molten rock

rolls screaming skyward; from the nether deep

the fathomless abyss makes ebb and flow.

Enceladus, his body lightning-scarred,

lies prisoned under all, so runs the tale:

o'er him gigantic Aetna breathes in fire

from crack and seam; and if he haply turn

to change his wearied side, Trinacria's isle

trembles and moans, and thick fumes mantle heaven.

That night in screen and covert of a grove

we bore the dire convulsion, unaware

whence the loud horror came. For not a star

its lamp allowed, nor burned in upper sky

the constellated fires, but all was gloom,

and frowning night confined the moon in cloud.

9.715–716

steep Prochyta is shaken, and that bed

of cruel stone, Inarime, which lies

heaped o'er Typhoeus by revenge of Jove.

10.565–568

Like old Aegaeon of the hundred arms,

the hundred-handed, from whose mouths and breasts

blazed fifty fiery blasts, as he made war

with fifty sounding shields and fifty swords

against Jove's thunder;

Georgics

1.278 ff.

Earth then in awful labour brought to light

Coeus, Iapetus, and Typhoeus fell,

And those sworn brethren banded to break down

The gates of heaven; thrice, sooth to say, they strove

Ossa on Pelion's top to heave and heap,

Aye, and on Ossa to up-roll amain

Leafy Olympus; thrice with thunderbolt

Their mountain-stair the Sire asunder smote.

65- 8 BC Horace[edit]

Odes

2.19.21–24

Thou [Bacchus], when the giants, threatening wrack,

Were clambering up Jove's citadel,

Didst hurl o'erweening Rhoetus back,

In tooth and claw a lion fell.

3.4.42–80 [See also Kaimowitz, pp. 98–99 and Commager, pp. 196–200]

The nations know

How with descending thunder he

The impious Titans hurl'd below,

Who rules dull earth and stormy seas,

And towns of men, and realms of pain,

And gods, and mortal companies,

Alone, impartial in his reign.

Yet Jove had fear'd the giant rush,

Their upraised arms, their port of pride,

And the twin brethren bent to push

Huge Pelion up Olympus' side.

But Typhon, Mimas, what could these,

Or what Porphyrion's stalwart scorn,

Rhoetus, or he whose spears were trees,

Enceladus, from earth uptorn,

As on they rush'd in mad career

Gainst Pallas' shield? Here met the foe

Fierce Vulcan, queenly Juno here,

And he who ne'er shall quit his bow,

Who laves in clear Castalian flood

His locks, and loves the leafy growth

Of Lycia next his native wood,

The Delian and the Pataran both.

Strength, mindless, falls by its own weight;

Strength, mix'd with mind, is made more strong

By the just gods, who surely hate

The strength whose thoughts are set on wrong.

Let hundred-handed Gyas bear

His witness, and Orion known

Tempter of Dian, chaste and fair,

By Dian's maiden dart o'erthrown.

Hurl'd on the monstrous shapes she bred,

Earth groans, and mourns her children thrust

To Orcus; Aetna's weight of lead

Keeps down the fire that breaks its crust;

Still sits the bird on Tityos' breast,

The warder of Unlawful love;

Still suffers lewd Pirithous, prest

By massive chains no hand may move.

c. 64 BC - AD 24 Strabo[edit]

5.4.4

... In earlier times, then, the city [Cumae] was prosperous, and so was what is called the Phlegraean Plain, [p439] which mythology has made the setting of the story of the Giants

5.4.6

... Next in order come the headlands that are in the neighbourhood of Dicaearchia, and then the city itself. In earlier times it was only a port-town of the Cumaeans, situated on the brow of a hill, but at the time of Hannibal's expedition the Romans settled a colony there, and changed its name to Puteoli from the wells there — though some say that it was from the foul smell³²⁹ of the waters, since the whole district, as far as Baiae and Cumae, has a foul smell, because it is full of sulphur and fire and hot waters. And some believe that it is for this reason that the Cumaean country was called "Phlegra,"³³⁰ and that it is the wounds of the fallen giants, inflicted by the thunderbolts, that pour forth those streams of fire and water.

329 In Latin, "puteo," "stink."

330 That is, "Blazing-land," if the etymologists here referred to by Strabo were right. "Phlegra" was also the old name [p447] of Pallene, the westernmost of the peninsulas of Chalcidice, and a volcanic region. Mythology associates the Giants with both regions (cp. 5.4.4).

5.4.9

The island of Prochyta lies off Cape Misenum, and it is a fragment broken off of Pithecussae. Pithecussae was once settled by Eretrians and also [p457] Chalcidians, who, although they had prospered there on account of the fruitfulness of the soil and on account of the gold mines, forsook the island as the result of a quarrel; later on they were also driven out of the island by earthquakes, and by eruptions of fire, sea, and hot waters; for the island has "fistulas" of this sort, and it was these that caused also the people sent thither by Hiero the tyrant of Syracuse to forsake the island and the fortress they had erected there; and then the Neapolitans came over and took possession. Hence, also, the myth according to which Typhon lies beneath this island, and when he turns his body the flames and the waters, and sometimes even small islands containing boiling water, spout forth. But what Pindar says is more plausible, since he starts with the actual phenomena; for this whole channel, beginning at the Cumaean country and extending as far as Sicily, is full of fire, and has caverns deep down in the earth that form a single whole, connecting not only with one another but also with the mainland; and therefore, not only Aetna clearly has such a character as it is reported by all to have, but also the Lipari Islands, and the districts round about Dicaearchia, Neapolis, and Baiae, and the island of Pithecussae. This, I say, is Pindar's thought when he says that Typhon lies beneath the whole region: "Now, however, both Sicily and the sea-fenced cliffs beyond Cumae press hard upon his shaggy breast."

6.3.5

Thence to Leuca eighty stadia; this, too, is a small town, and in it is to be seen a fountain of malodorous water; the mythical story is told that those of the Giants who survived at the Campanian Phlegra and are called the Leuternian Giants were driven out by Heracles, and on fleeing hither for refuge were shrouded by Mother Earth, and the fountain gets its malodorous stream from the ichor of their bodies; and for this reason, also, the seaboard here is called Leuternia.

7 Fragment 25

After Thessaloniceia come the remaining parts of the Thermaean Gulf as far as Canastraeum; this is a headland which forms a peninsula and rises opposite to Magnetis. The name of the peninsula is Pallene; ... writers say that in earlier times the giants lived here and that the country was named Phlegra; the stories of some are mythical, but the account of others is more plausible, for they tell of a certain barbarous and impious tribe which occupied the place but was broken up by Heracles when, after capturing Troy, be sailed back to his home-land.

7 Fragment 27

The peninsula Pallene, on whose isthmus is situated the city formerly called Ptidaea and now Cassandreia, was called Phlegra in still earlier times. It used to be inhabited by the giants of whom the myths are told, an impious and lawless tribe, whom Heracles destroyed.

10.5.16

They say that Nisyros is a fragment of Cos, and they add the myth that Poseidon, when he was pursuing one of the giants, Polybotes, broke off a fragment of Cos with his trident and hurled it upon him, and the missile became an island, Nisyros, with the giant lying beneath it. But some say that he lies beneath Cos.

11.2.10

There is also in Phanagoreia a notable temple of Aphrodite Apaturus. Critics derive the etymology of the epithet of the goddess by adducing a certain myth, according to which the Giants attacked the goddess there; but she called upon Heracles for help and hid him in a cave, and then, admitting the Giants one by one, gave them over to Heracles to be murdered through "treachery"

c. 64 BC - AD 17 Hyginus[edit]

Fabulae

Preface

Smith 2007, p. 95

From Earth and Tartarus came the Giants: Enceladus, Coeus, <unintelligible>, Ophion, * Astraeus, Pelorus, Pallas, Emphytus, Rhoecus, Ienios, Agrius, Palaemon, * Ephialtes, Eurytus, <unintelligible>, Theomises, Theodamus, Otos, Typhon, Polybotes, Menephiarus, Abseus, Colophomus, and Iapetus.

Mary Grant, 1960 Theoi

From Earth and Tartarus, Giants: Enceladus, Coeus, *elentes, *mophius, Astraeus, Pelorus, Pallas, Emphytus, Rhoecus, *ienios, Agrius, *alemone, Ephialtes, Eurytus, *effracorydon, Themoises, Theodamas, Otus, Typhon, Polybo[e}tes, *menephriarus, *abesus, *colophonus, Iapetus.

H. J. Rose, 1933 [Latin] latin.packhum.org

4.1: Ex Terra et Tartaro Gigantes, Enceladus Coe<us> †elentes †mophius Astraeus Pelorus Pallas Emph<y>tus <Rhoe>cus †ienios Agr<i>us †alemone Ephialtes <Eury>tus †effracorydon <Th>eomis<es> Theodamas O<t>us Typhon Pol<y>bo[e]tes †menephriarus †abesus †colophonus Iapetus.

178

When Cadmus heard the oracle, he did as he was told. While seeking water he came to the fountain of Castalia, which a dragon, the offspring of Mars, was guarding. It killed the comrades of Cadmus, but was killed by Cadmus with a stone. Under Minerva’s instructions he sowed the teeth and ploughed them under. From them sprang the Sparti. These fought themselves, but from them five survived, namely, Chthonius, Udaeus, Hyperenor, Pelorus, and Echion. Moreover, Boeotia was named from the ox Cadmus followed.

c. 50 - c. 15 BC Propertius[edit]

Elegies

2.1.39–40 (pp. 82–83)

But Callimachus, with narrow chest, does not thunder out

the Phlegraean uproars of Jove and Enceladus,

3.9.47–48 (pp. 266–267)

If you gave the lead, I'd sing of Jove's battles and Coeus menacing

heaven, Oromedon [=Eurymedon?] and the Phlegraean heights.

43 BC - AD 17 Ovid[edit]

Amores

2.1.11–18

I had dared, I remember, to sing—nor was my utterance too weak—of the wars of Heaven, and Gyas [Gyen¹] of the hundred hands, when Earth made her ill attempt at vengeance, and steep Ossa, with shelving Pelion on its back, was piled upon Olympus. I had in hand the thunder-clouds, and Jove with the lightning he was to hurl to save his own heaven.

¹ ...?

Fasti

1.307–308

So man may reach the sky: no need that Ossa on Olympus should be piled, and that Pelion's peak should touch the topmost stars.

3.437–442

He is the Young Jupiter: look on his youthful face; look then on his hand, it holds no thunderbolts. Jupiter assumed the thunderbolts after the giants dared attempt to win the sky; at first he was unarmed. Ossa blazed with the new fires (of his thunderbolts); Pelion, too, higher than Ossa, and Olympus, fixed in the solid ground.

3.805

Briareus [here a Titan?] sacrificed ...

4.593

[Jupiter:] What worse wrong could I have suffered if Gyges^a had been victorious and I his captive

^a He confuses the hundred-handed brothers with the giants who tried to storm heaven (see iii.805).

5.35–42

Earth brought forth the Giants, a fierce brood, enormous monsters, who durst assault Jove's mansion; she gave them a thousand hands, and snakes for legs, and said, ' Take arms against the great gods.' They set themselves to pile up the mountains to the topmost stars and to harass great Jupiter in war. From heaven's citadel Jupiter hurled thunderbolts and turned the ponderous weights upon their movers.

Metamorphoses

1.151–162

GIANTS

And lest ethereal heights should long remain

less troubled than the earth, the throne of Heaven

was threatened by the Giants; and they piled

mountain on mountain to the lofty stars.

But Jove, omnipotent, shot thunderbolts

through Mount Olympus, and he overturned

from Ossa huge, enormous Pelion.

And while these dreadful bodies lay overwhelmed

in their tremendous bulk, (so fame reports)

the Earth was reeking with the copious blood

of her gigantic sons; and thus replete

with moisture she infused the steaming gore

with life renewed. So that a monument

of such ferocious stock should be retained,

she made that offspring in the shape of man;

but this new race alike despised the Gods,

and by the greed of savage slaughter proved

a sanguinary birth.

1.182 ff.

[Zeus:] "The time when serpent footed giants strove

to fix their hundred arms on captive Heaven,

not more than this event could cause alarm

for my dominion of the universe.

Although it was a savage enemy,

yet warred we with a single source derived

of one.

5.346 ff.

“Because he dared to covet heavenly thrones

Typhoeus, giant limbs are weighted down

beneath Sicilia's Isle—vast in extent—

how often thence he strains and strives to rise?

But his right hand Pachynus holds; his legs are pressed

by Lilybaeus, Aetna weights his head.

Beneath that ponderous mass Typhoeus lies,

flat on his back; and spues the sands on high;

and vomits flames from his ferocious mouth.

He often strives to push the earth away,

the cities and the mountains from his limbs—

by which the lands are shaken. Even the king,

that rules the silent shades is made to quake,

for fear the earth may open and the ground,

cleft in wide chasms, letting in the day,

may terrify the trembling ghosts. Afraid

of this disaster, that dark despot left

his gloomy habitation; carried forth

by soot-black horses, in his gloomy car.

Roman (AD 1 and later)[edit]

c. 4 BC - AD 65 Seneca[edit]

Hercules Furens

444–445 (pp. 84–85)

after he [Heracles] defended the gods and spattered their enemies blood over Phlegra,

976–981 (pp. 126–127)

HERCULES: What is this? The pestilential Giants are in arms. Tityos has escaped the underworld, and stands so close to heaven, his chest all torn and empty! Cithaeron lurches, high Pallene shakes, and Tempe’s beauty withers. One Giant has seized the peaks of Pindus, another has seized Oeta, and Mimas rages fearfully.

Thyestes

808–809 (pp. 298–299)

Can it be that the prison of Dis is open

and the conquered Giants are venturing war?

Can it be that wounded Tityos renews

his ancient rage in his weary breast?

Can Typhon have thrown

the mountain off and stretched his limbs?

Can it be that a soaring

path is built by Phlegraean foes,³⁶

and that Pelion in Thessaly

is burdened with the weight of Thracian Ossa?

³⁶The Giants, who fought the Olympian gods at Phlegra, and tried to storm heaven by piling up mountains.

fl. 1st century Lucilius Junior[edit]

Aetna (?)

71–73 (pp. 8–9)

In Trinacrian waters Enceladus dies and is buried under Aetna by Jove's decree; with the ponderous mountain above him he tosses restlessly, and defiantly breathes from his throat a penal fire.

c. 28 - c. 103 Silius Italicus[edit]

Punica

8.540–541 (I pp. 432–422)

Prochyte was not absent, nor Inarime, the place appointed for ever burning Typhoeus,^b

^b ...Prochyta (now Procida) and Inarime (now Ischia) are islands on the same coast The volcanic eruptions were attributed to the giants imprisoned below the islands.

12.143–151 (II pp. 156–159)

Men say that the Giants whom the might of Hercules overthrew shake the earth that lies piled above them;^c the distant fields are scorched by their panting breath, and, whenever they threaten to burst the framework of their burden, the gods tremble. They could see Prochyte, the place appointed for savage Mimas, and Inarime in the distance, which stands above Iapetus, while he spouts forth black smoke and flame from his mutinous jaws, and seeks, if he is ever suffered to get free, to renew his war against Jupiter and the gods.

^c The Giants were punished for their revolt against the gods by being placed under mountains; and volcanic action is caused by their struggles: Mimas lies under Prochyte, and Iapetus Inarime: see note to viii. 540.

39 AD - 65 AD Lucan[edit]

Pharsalia

6.662–665

'If I have power the Stygian lakes to show,

The bank that sounds with fire, the fury band,

And giants [Gigantes] fettered, and the hound that shakes

'Bristling with heads of snakes his triple head,

9.654–658

Atlas in his place

Beside the Western columns, by her look

Was turned to granite; and when Phlegra's brood

Gigantic, serpent-tailed, were feared of heaven,

She made them mountains, and the Gorgon head

Borne on Athena's bosom closed the war.

c. 45 - c. 96 Statius[edit]

Thebaid

4.34–435 (I pp. 546–547))

[in Erebus] the Giants' twisted chains of solid adamant.

6.358–359 (II pp. 86– 87)

for oft in duty bound he [Apollo] had sung of Jove and Phlegra and his own victory o'er the serpent and his brothers praises

8.42–44 (II pp. 198–199)

[Pluto:] Mine is the prison-house, now broken, of Giants, and of the Titans, eager to force their way to the world above,

11.8 (II pp. 390–391)

The gods welcome him [Jove], as though he were breathless and weary after Phlegra’s fight, or had piled smoking Aetna upon Enceladus.

c. 1 - 200 Apollodorus[edit]

1.6.1

Such is the legend of Demeter. But Earth, vexed on account of the Titans, brought forth the giants, whom she had by Sky.1 These were matchless in the bulk of their bodies and invincible in their might; terrible of aspect did they appear, with long locks drooping from their head and chin, and with the scales of dragons for feet.2 They were born, as some say, in Phlegrae, but according to others in Pallene.3 And they darted rocks and burning oaks at the sky. Surpassing all the rest were Porphyrion and Alcyoneus, who was even immortal so long as he fought in the land of his birth. He also drove away the cows of the Sun from Erythia. Now the gods had an oracle that none of the giants could perish at the hand of gods, but that with the help of a mortal they would be made an end of. Learning of this, Earth sought for a simple to prevent the giants from being destroyed even by a mortal. But Zeus forbade the Dawn and the Moon and the Sun to shine, and then, before anybody else could get it, he culled the simple himself, and by means of Athena summoned Hercules to his help. Hercules first shot Alcyoneus with an arrow, but when the giant fell on the ground he somewhat revived. However, at Athena's advice Hercules dragged him outside Pallene, and so the giant died.4

1.6.2

But in the battle Porphyrion attacked Hercules and Hera. Nevertheless Zeus inspired him with lust for Hera, and when he tore her robes and would have forced her, she called for help, and Zeus smote him with a thunderbolt, and Hercules shot him dead with an arrow.1 As for the other giants, Ephialtes was shot by Apollo with an arrow in his left eye and by Hercules in his right; Eurytus was killed by Dionysus with a thyrsus, and Clytius by Hecate with torches, and Mimas by Hephaestus with missiles of red-hot metal.2 Enceladus fled, but Athena threw on him in his flight the island of Sicily3; and she flayed Pallas and used his skin to shield her own body in the fight.4 Polybotes was chased through the sea by Poseidon and came to Cos; and Poseidon, breaking off that piece of the island which is called Nisyrum, threw it on him.5 And Hermes, wearing the helmet of Hades,6 slew Hippolytus in the fight, and Artemis slew Gration. And the Fates, fighting with brazer clubs, killed Agrius and Thoas. The other giants Zeus smote and destroyed with thunderbolts and all of them Hercules shot with arrows as they were dying.

1.6.3

When the gods had overcome the giants, Earth, still more enraged, had intercourse with Tartarus and brought forth Typhon in Cilicia,¹ ... And when he [Typhon] started to flee through the Sicilian sea, Zeus cast Mount Etna in Sicily upon him. That is a huge mountain, from which down to this day they say that blasts of fire issue from the thunderbolts that were thrown.⁷

2.7.1

When Hercules was sailing from Troy, Hera sent grievous storms,1 which so vexed Zeus that he hung her from Olympus.2 Hercules sailed to Cos,3 and the Coans, thinking he was leading a piratical squadron, endeavored to prevent his approach by a shower of stones. But he forced his way in and took the city by night, and slew the king, Eurypylus, son of Poseidon by Astypalaea. And Hercules was wounded in the battle by Chalcedon; but Zeus snatched him away, so that he took no harm. And having laid waste Cos, he came through Athena's agency to Phlegra, and sided with the gods in their victorious war on the giants.4

3.4.1

In his indignation Cadmus killed the dragon, and by the advice of Athena sowed its teeth. When they were sown there rose from the ground armed men whom they called Sparti.2 These slew each other, some in a chance brawl, and some in ignorance. But Pherecydes says that when Cadmus saw armed men growing up out of the ground, he flung stones at them, and they, supposing that they were being pelted by each other, came to blows. However, five of them survived, Echion, Udaeus, Chthonius, Hyperenor, and Pelorus.

c. 110 - 180 Pausanias[edit]

1.2.4

Not far from the temple is Poseidon on horseback, hurling a spear against the giant Polybotes, concerning whom is prevalent among the Coans the story about the promontory of Chelone. But the inscription of our time assigns the statue to another, and not to Poseidon.

1.25.2

By the south wall are represented the legendary war with the giants, who once dwelt about Thrace and on the isthmus of Pallene

1.35.6

Before the city of the Milesians is an island called Lade, and from it certain islets are detached. One of these they call the islet of Asterius, and say that Asterius was buried in it, and that Asterius was the son of Anax, and Anax the son of Earth. Now the corpse is not less than ten cubits.

3.18.11

There is also on the throne a band of Phaeacian dancers, and Demodocus singing. Perseus, too, is represented killing Medusa. Passing over the fight of Heracles with the giant Thurius and that of Tyndareus with Eurytus, we have next the rape of the daughters of Leucippus.

6.19.12–13

The Megarians who are neighbors of Attica built a treasury and dedicated in it offerings, small cedar-wood figures inlaid with gold, representing the fight of Heracles with Achelous. The figures include Zeus, Deianeira, Achelous, Heracles, and Ares helping Achelous. There once stood here an image of Athena, as being an ally of Heracles, but it now stands by the Hesperides in the Heraeum.

On the pediment of the treasury is carved the war of the giants and the gods, and above the pediment is dedicated a shield, the inscription declaring that the Megarians dedicated the treasury from spoils taken from the Corinthians. I think that the Megarians won this victory when Phorbas, who held a life office, was archon at Athens. At this time Athenian offices were not yet annual, nor had the Eleans begun to record the Olympiads.

7.2.5

The Milesians themselves give the following account of their earliest history. For two generations, they say, their land was called Anactoria, during the reigns of Anax, an aboriginal, and of Asterius his son; but when Miletus landed with an army of Cretans both the land and the city changed their name to Miletus

8.29.1

After crossing the Alpheius you come to what is called Trapezuntian territory and to the ruins of a city Trapezus. On the left, as you go down again from Trapezus to the Alpheius, there is, not far from the river, a place called Bathos （Depth）, where they celebrate mysteries every other year to the Great Goddesses. Here there is a spring called Olympias which, during every other year, does not flow, and near the spring rises up fire. The Arcadians say that the fabled battle between giants and gods took place here and not at Pellene in Thrace, and at this spot sacrifices are offered to lightnings, hurricanes and thunders.

8.29.2

Homer does not mention giants at all in the Iliad, but in the Odyssey he relates how the Laestrygones attacked the ships of Odysseus in the likeness not of men but of giants, and he makes also the king of the Phaeacians say that the Phaeacians are near to the gods like the Cyclopes and the race of giants. In these places then he indicates that the giants are mortal, and not of divine race, and his words in the following passage are plainer still:—“Who once was king among the haughty giants;But he destroyed the infatuate folk, and was destroyed himself." “Folk” in the poetry of Homer means the common people.

Frazer's translation:

In the Iliad Homer makes no mention of giants, but in the Odyssey he says that Ulysses' ships were attacked by Laestrygones in the likeness, not of men, but of giants, and he represents the king of Phaeacians as saying that the Phaeacians were near akin to the gods, like the Cyclops and the race of the giants. Thus he indicates that the giants are mortals, and not a divine race, and he brings this out more clearly in the following passage:—

Who once reigned over the haughty giants;

But he destroyed the reckless folk and perished himself.

Now in the poems of Homer, 'folk' means a mass of people.

8.29.3

That the giants had serpents for feet is an absurd tale, as many pieces of evidence show, especially the following incident. The Syrian river Orontes does not flow its whole course to the sea on a level, but meets a precipitous ridge with a slope away from it. The Roman emperor wished ships to sail up the river from the sea to Antioch. So with much labour and expense he dug a channel suitable for ships to sail up, and turned the course of the river into this.

8.29.4

But when the old bed had dried up, an earthenware coffin more than eleven cubits long was found in it, and the corpse was proportionately large, and human in all parts of its body. This corpse the god in Clarus, when the Syrians came to his oracle there, declared to be Orontes, and that he was of Indian race. If it was by warming the earth of old when it was still wet and saturated with moisture that the sun made the first men, what other land is likely to have raised men either before India or of greater size, seeing that even to-day it still breeds beasts monstrous in their weird appearance and monstrous in size?

8.32.5

Under this hill there is another sanctuary of Boy Asclepius. His image is upright and about a cubit in height, that of Apollo is seated on a throne and is not less than six feet high. Here are also kept bones, too big for those of a human being, about which the story ran that they were those of one of the giants mustered by Hopladamus to fight for Rhea, as my story will relate hereafter.

8.36.2

There is in Methydrium a temple of Horse Poseidon, standing by the Mylaon. But Mount Thaumasius （Wonderful）lies beyond the river Maloetas, and the Methydrians hold that when Rhea was pregnant with Zeus, she came to this mountain and enlisted as her allies, in case Cronus should attack her, Hopladamus and his few giants:

8.47.1

The present image at Tegea was brought from the parish of Manthurenses, and among them it had the surname of Hippia （Horse Goddess）. According to their account, when the battle of the gods and giants took place the goddess drove the chariot and horses against Enceladus. Yet this goddess too has come to receive the name of Alea among the Greeks generally and the Peloponnesians themselves.

9.5.3

In the time of Cadmus, the greatest power, next after his, was in the hands of the Sparti, namely, Chthonius, Hyperenor, Pelorus and Udaeus; but it was Echion who, for his great valor, was preferred by Cadmus to be his son-in-law. As I was unable to discover anything new about these men, I adopt the story that makes their name result from the way in which they came into being. When Cadnius migrated to the Illyrian tribe of the Encheleans, Polydorus his son got the kingdom.

c. 170 - 250 Philostratus[edit]

Life of Apollonius of Tyana

5.16 (pp. 498– 501)

Perhaps I have done a foolish thing," went on Apollonius, "for it was my intention to recall you to more scientific and truer explanations than the poetical myths given by the vulgar of Etna; and I have let myself be drawn into a eulogy of myths. However, the digression has not been without a charm of its own, for the myth which we repudiate is not one of Aesop's stories, but belongs to the class of dramatic stories which fill the mouths of our poets. For they say that a certain Typho or Enceladus lies bound under the mountain, and in his death agony breathes out this fire that we see.

Now I admit that giants have existed, and that gigantic bodies are revealed all over earth when tombs are broken open; nevertheless I deny that they ever came into conflict with the gods; at the most they violated their temples and statues, and to suppose that they scaled the heaven and chased away the gods therefrom - this it is madness to relate and madness to believe.

Nor can I any more respect that other story, though it is more reverent in its tone, to the effect that Hephaestus attends to his forge in Etna, and that there is there an anvil on which he smites with his hammer; for there are many other mountains all over the earth that are on fire, and yet we should never be done with it if we assigned to them giants and gods like Hephaestus.

On Heroes

8.14 (pp. 13–14)

But do not yet regard as credible what I have said, my guest, until you sail to the island of Cos, where the bones of earth-born men lie, the first descendants of Meropes, they say, ...

8.15–16 (p. 14)

The Neapolitans living in Italy consider the bones of Alkyoneus a marvel. They say that many giants were thrown down there, and Mount Vesuvius smolders over them. Indeed in Pallênê, which the poets call "Phlegra," the earth holds many such bodies of giants encamped there, and rainstorms and earthquakes uncover many others.

c. 190 - 230 Philostratus the Elder (?)[edit]

Imagines 2.17.5 (pp. 198–201)

[199] The neighbouring island, my boy, we may consider a marvel;¹ for fire smoulders under the whole of it, having worked its way into underground passages and cavities of the island, through which as though ducts the flames break forth and produce terrific torrents from which pour mighty rivers of fire² that run in billows to the sea. If one wishes to speculate about such matters, the island provides natural bitumen and sulphur; and when these are mixed by the sea, the island is fanned into flame by many winds, drawing from the sea that which sets the fuel aflame. But the painting, following the accounts given by the poets,³ goes farther and ascribes a myth to the island. A giant, namely, was once struck down there, and upon him as he struggled in the death agony the island was placed as a bond to hold him down, and he doest not yet [201] yield but from beneath the earth renews the fight and breathes forth this fire as he utters threats. Yonder figure, they say, would represent Typho in Sicily or Enceladus here in Italy,¹ giants that both continents and island are pressing down, not yet dead indeed but always dying.² And you, yourself, my boy, will imagine that you have not been left out of the contest, when you look at the peak of the mountain; for what you see there are thunderbolts which Zeus is hurling at the giant, and the giant is already giving up the struggle but still trusts in the earth, but the earth has grown weary because Poseidon does not permit her to remain in place. Poseidon ahs spread a mist over the contest, so that it resembles what has taken place in the past rather than what is taking place now.

c. 370 - 404 Claudian[edit]

Gigantomachia

1–35 (pp. 280–283)

Once upon a time mother Earth, jealous of the heavenly kingdoms and in pity for the ceaseless woes of the Titans, filled all Tartarus with a monster brood, thus giving birth to that which proved a very bane. Her womb swollen with this monstrous birth she opened Phlegra's side and brought forth foes against heaven. With a noise as of thunder they burst forth in profusion and, scarce born, prepare their hands for war, as with twofold trail¹ they writhe their hissing course. Suddenly the stars grow pale, Phoebus turns his rosy steeds and, impelled by fear, retraces his steps. The Bear takes refuge in the Ocean, and the unsetting Triones learned to endure setting. Then their angry mother stirred up her sons to war with words such as these: "Children, ye shall conquer heaven: all that ye see is the prize of victory; win, and the universe is yours. At last shall Saturn's son feel the weight of my wrath; shall recognize Earth's power. What! can any force conquer me? Has Cybele born sons superior to mine? Why has Earth no honour? Why is she ever condemned to bitter loss? Has any form of injury passed me by? There hangs luckless Prometheus in yon Scythian vale, feeding the vulture on his living breast; yonder, Atlas supports the weight of the starry heavens upon his head, and his grey hair is frozen stiff with cruel cold. What need to tell of Tityus whose liver is ever renewed beneath the savage vulture's beak, to contend with his heavy punishment? Up, army of avengers, the hour is come at last, free the Titans from their chains; defend your mother. Here are seas and mountains, limbs of my body, but care not for that. Use them as weapons. Never would I hesitate to be a weapon for the destruction of Jove. Go forth and conquer; throw heaven into confusion, tear down the towers of the sky. Let Typhoeus seize the thunderbolt and the sceptre; Enceladus, rule the sea, and another in place of the sun guide the reins of dawn's coursers. Porphyrion, wreathe thou thy head with Delphi's laurel and take Cirrha for thy sanctuary."

¹They were twiform ; cf. 1.81.

60–73 (pp. 284–287) [see Mayor p. 262]

The clouds echo the blast of heaven's trumpets; on this side Heaven, on that Earth, sounds the attack. Once more Nature is thrown into confusion and fears for her lord. The puissant company of 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. One giant brandishes Thessalian Oeta in his mighty hand, another gathers all his strength and hurls Pangaeus at the foe, Athos with his snows arms another; this one roots up Ossa, that tears out Rhodope and Hebrus' source, dividing the waters that before were one; Enipeus, gathered up with its beetling crags, scatters its waters over yon giant's shoulders: robbed of her mountains Earth sank into level plains, parted among her own sons.

73–84 (pp. 286–287)

On all sides a horrid din resounds and only the air divides the rival armies. First impetuous Mars urges against the horrid band his Thracian steeds that oft have driven in rout Getae or Geloni. Brighter than flame shines his golden shield, high towers the crest of his gleaming helmet. Dashing into the fray he first encounters Pelorus and transfixes him with his sword, where about the groin the two-bodied serpent unites with his own giant form, and thus with one blow puts an end to three lives. Exulting in his victory he drives his chariot over the dying giant's limbs till the wheels ran red with blood.

85–91 (pp. 286–287)

Mimas ran forward to avenge his brother. He had torn Lemnos and with it Vulcan's fiery house from out the foaming main, and was on the point of hurling it when Mars' javelin prevented him, scattering the brain from his shattered skull. What was giant in him died, but the serpent legs still lived, and, hissing vengeance, sought to attack the victor after Mimas' death.

91–103 (pp. 286–289)

Minerva rushed forward presenting her breast whereon glittered the Gorgon's head. The sight of this, she knew, was enough: she needed not use a spear. One look sufficed. Pallas drew no nearer, rage as he might, for he was the first to be changed into a rock. When, at a distance from his foe, without wound, he found himself rooted to the ground, and felt the murderous visage turn him, little by little, to stone (and all but stone he was) he called out, "what is happening to me? What is this ice that creeps o're all my limbs? What is this numbness that holds me prisoner in these marble fetters?" Scare had he uttered these few words when he was what he feared, and savage Damastor, seeking a weapon wherewith to repel the foe, hurled at them in place of a rock his brothers stony corpse.

104–108 (pp. 288–289)

Then Echion, marvelling, all ignorant, at his brother's death, even as he seeks to assail the author of the deed, turned his gage upon thee [Minerva], goddess, whom alone no man may see twice. Beaten audacity well deserved its punishment and in death he learned to know the goddess.

108–113 (pp. 288–289)

But Palleneus, mad with anger, turning his eyes aside, rushed at Minerva, striking at her with undirected sword. Nigh at hand the goddess smote him with her sword, and at the same time the snakes froze at the Gorgon's glance, so that of one body a part was killed by a weapon and a part by a mere look.

114–116 (pp. 288–289)

Impious Porphyrion, carried by his serpents into the middle of the sea. tries to uproot trembling Delos, wishing to hurl it at the sky.

Rape of Proserpine

1.153–159 (pp. 304–305) (see Mayor p. 262)

In the midst of the island rise the charred cliffs of Aetna, eloquent monument of Jove's victory over the Giants, the tomb of Enceladus, whose bound and bruisèd body breathes forth endless sulphur clouds from its burning wounds. Whene'er his rebellious shoulders shift their burden to the right or left, the island is shaken from its foundations and the walls of tottering cities sway this way and that.

2.151–162 (pp. 328–331)

But while the maidens so disport themselves, wandering through the fields, a sudden roar is heard, towers crash and towns, shaken to their foundations, totter and fall. None knows whence comes the tumult; Paphus' goddess alone recognized the sound that set her companions in amaze, and fear mixed with joy fills her heart. For now the king of souls was pricking his way through the dim labyrinth of the underworld and crushing Enceladus, groaning beneath the weight of his massy steeds. His chariot-wheels severed the monstrous limbs, and the giant struggles, bearing Sicily along with Pluto on his burdened neck, and feebly essays to move and entangle the wheels with his weary serpents; still o'er his blazing back passes the smoking chariot.

3.179–191 (pp. 358–359)

Ceres approached her, and when at length her grief allowed her sighs free rein: "What ruin is here?" she said. "Of what enemy am I become the victim? Does my husband yet rule or do the Titans hold heaven? What hand hath dared this, if the Thunderer be still alive? Have Typhon’s shoulders forced up Inarime or does Alcyoneus course on foot through the Etruscan Sea, having burst the bonds of imprisoning Vesuvius? Or has the neighbouring Etna oped her jaws and expelled Enceladus? Perchance Briareus with his hundred arms has attacked my house? Ah, my daughter, where art thou now? Whither are fled my thousand servants, whither Cyane? What violence ahs driven away the winged Sirens? Is this your faith? Is this the way to guard another's treasure?"

3.332–356 (pp. 368–371)

There was a wood, hard by the stream of Acis, which fair Galatea oft chooses in preference to Ocean and cleaves in swimming with her snowy breast – a wood dense with foliage that closed in Etna's summit on all sides with interwoven branches. 'Tis there that Jove is said to have laid down his bloody shield and set his captured spoil after the battle. The grove glories in trophies from the plain of Phlegra and signs of victory clothe its every tree. Here hang the gaping jaws and monstrous skins of the Giants; affixed to trees their faces still threaten horribly, and heaped up on all sides bleach the huge bones of slaughtered serpents. Their stiffening sloughs smoke with the blow of many a thunderbolt, and every tree boasts some illustrious name. This one scarce supports on its down-bended branches the naked swords of hundred-handed Aegaeon; that glories in the murky trophies of Coeus; this bears up the arms of Mimas; spoiled Ophion weighs down those branches. But higher than all the other trees towers a pine, its shady branches spread wide, and bears the reeking arms of Enceladus himself, all powerful king of the Earth-born giants; it would have fallen beneath the heavy burden did not a neighbouring oak-tree support its wearied weight. Therefore the spot winds awe and sanctity; none touches the aged grove, and 'tis accounted a crime to violate the trophies of the gods. No Cyclops dares pasture there his flock nor hew down the trees, Polyphemus himself flies from the hallowed shade.

Late 4th cen. Quintus Smyrnaeus[edit]

Posthomerica (or Fall of Troy),

5.641–643 (pp. 252–253)

as when

Enceladus by Zeus' levin was consumed

Beneath Thrinacia, when from all the isle

Smoke of his burning rose

14.582–585 (pp. 606–607)

As in the old time Pallas heaved on high

Sicily, and on huge Enceladus

Dashed down the isle, which burns with the burning yet

Of that immortal giant, as he breathes

Fire underground;

fl. Late 4th cen. Hesychius of Alexandria[edit]

s.v. Γιγαντια

See Lenormant p. 351

Late 4th or early 5th cen. Nonnus[edit]

Dionysiaca

1.18 (I, pp. 4–5)

the horrid hosts of Giants serpent-haired.

25.85–97 (II, pp. 256–259)

No, Bacchos reaped the stubble of snakehaired giants, a conquering hero with a tiny manbreaking wand, when he cast the battling ivy against Porphyrion, when he buffelted Encelados and drove Alcyoneus with a volley of leaves: then the wands flew in showers, and brought the Gegenees (Earthborn) down in defence of Olympos, when the coiling sons of Earth with two hundred hands, who pressed the starry vault with manynecked heads, bent the knee before a flimsy javelin of vineleaves or a spear of ivy. Not so great a swarm fell to the fiery thunderbolt as fell to the manbreaking thyrsus.

25.206–210 (II, pp. 264–267)

But Euios [Dionysos] wand in hand cut down the snaky sons of Earth alone--that champion of Zeus! attacked them all, with huge serpents flowing over their shoulders equally on both sides much bigger than the Inakhian snake, while they went hissing restlessly about among the stars of heaven, not in the pool of Lerna.

36.242 (III, pp. 18–19)

Nine cubits high, equal to Alcyoneus.

48.7–30 (III, pp. 424–427)

She [Hera] addressed her deceitful prayers to Allmother Earth, crying out upon the doings of Zeus and the valour of Dionysos, who had destroyed that cloud of numberless earthborn Indians; and when the lifebringing mother heard that the son of Semele had wiped out the Indian nation with speedy fate, she groaned still more thinking of her children. Then she armed all around Bacchos the mountainranging tribes of Giants, earth's own brood, and goaded her own sons to battle:

"My sons, make your attack with hightowering rocks against clustergarlanded Dionysos—catch this Indianslayer, this destroyer of my family, this son of Zeus, and let me not see him ruling with Zeus a bastard monarch of Olympos! Bind him, bind Bacchos fast, that he may attend in the chamber when I bestow Hebe on Porphyrion as a wife, and give Cythereia [Aphrodite] to Chthonios, when I sing Brighteyes [Athene] the bedfellow of Encelados, and Artemis of Alcyoneus. Bring Dionysos to me, that I may enrage Cronion [Zeus] when he sees Lyaios [Dionysos] a slave and the captive of my spear. Or wound him with cutting steel and kill him for me like Zagreus, that one may say, god or mortal, that Earth in her anger has twice armed her slayers against the breed of Cronides—the older Titans against the former Dionysos [Zagreus], the younger Giants against Dionysos later born."

48.31–55 (III, pp. 426–429)

With these words she excited all the host of the Giants, and the battalions of the Earthborn set forth to war, one bearing a bulwark of Nysa, one who had sliced off with steel the flank of a cloudhigh precipice, each with these rocks for missiles armed him against Dionysos; one hastened to the conflict bearing the rocky hill of some land with its base in the brine, another with a reef torn from a brinegirt isthmus. Peloreus took up Pelion with hightowering peak as a missile in his innumberable arms, and left the cave Philyra bare: as the rocky roof of his cave was pulled off, old Cheiron quivered and shook, that figure of half a man growing into a comrade horse. But Bacchos held a bunch of giantsbane vine, and ran at Alcyoneus with the mountain upraised in his hands: he wielded no furious lance, no deadly sword, but he struck with this bunch of tendrils and shore off the multitudinous hands of the Giants; the terrible swarms of groundbred serpents were shorn off by those tippling leaves, the Giants' heads with those viper tresses were cut off and the severed necks danced in the dust. Tribes innumerable were destroyed; from the slain Giants ran everflowing rivers of blood, crimson torrents newly poured coloured the ravines red. The swarms of earthbred snakes ran wild with fear before the tresses of Dionysos viperwreathed.

48.56–62 (III, pp. 428–429)

Fire was also a weapon of Bacchos. He cast a torch in the air to destroy his adversaries: through the high paths ran the Bacchic flame leaping and curling over itself and shooting down corrosive sparks on the Giants' limbs; and there was a serpent with a blaze in his threatening mouth, half-burnt and whistling with a firescorched throat, spitting out smoke instead of a spurt of deadly poison.

48.63–86 (III, pp. 428–431)

There was infinite tumult. Bacchos raised himself and lifted his fighting torch over the heads of his adversaries, and roasted the Giants’ bodies with a great conflagration, an image on earth of the thunderbolt cast by Zeus. The torches blazed: fire was rolling all over the head of Encelados and making the air hot, but it did not vanquish him--Encelados bent not his knee in the steam of the earthly fire, since he was reserved for the thunderbolt. Vast Alcyoneus leapt upon Lyaios armed with his Thracian crags; he lifted over Bacchos a cloudhigh peak of wintry Haimos--useless against that mark, Dionysos the invulnerable. He there the cliff, but when the rocks touched the fawnskin of Lyaios, they could not tear it, and burst into splinters themselves. Typhoeus towering high had stript the mountains of Emathia (a younger Typhoeus in all parts like the older, who once had lifted many a rugged strip of his mother earth), and cast the rocky missiles at Dionysos. Lord Bacchos pulled away the sword of one that was gasping on the ground and attacked the Giants' heads, cutting the snaky crop of poison-spitting hair; even without weapon he destroyed the selfmarshalled host, fighting furiously, and using the treeclimbing longleaf ivy to strike the Giants.

48.87–89 (III, pp. 430–431)

Indeed he would have slain all with his manbreaking thyrsos, if he had not retired of his own will out of the fray and left enemies alive for his Father.

Sidonius Apollinaris (c. 430 – August 489 AD)[edit]

Carmen 15.19

[Athena's] left hand is covered by a shield filled with a likeness of the Phlegraean fray. In one part Enceladus brandishes Pindus, torn from its base, and sends it whirling to the stars, while Ossa is the missile of frenzied Typhoeus; Porphyrion snatches up Pangaeus, Damastor lifts up Rhodope along with Strymon’s spring, and when the glowing thunderbolt comes down he hurls the river at it and quenches it. In another part Pallas assails Pallas, but he has seen the Gorgon, and her spear is already too late, and encounters a solid corpse. 1 Elsewhere is seen Mimas flinging Lemnos against the aegis in a brother’s defence, while the island-missile shakes heaven with its impact. In yet another part is the multiple Briareus with his much-peopled body joining in the fray, carrying in his person a whole host all akin; you could see his hands on branching arms sprouting from a single source. To these monsters Vulcan had given by his skill not only forms but frenzy, so that he trembled at the very wrath which his art had counterfeited.

fl. 6th century Stephanus Byzantius[edit]

s.v. Παλλήνη (Hunter p. 81), Φλέγρα

s.v. Άρχάς

See Lenormant p. 351

Scholia[edit]

Aristophanes, The Birds 553, 1252: [See [23]]

Aphrodite, vanguished the giant Porphyrion.

See also Vian and Moore 1988, p. 191: "The scholia to the cited passages of the Birds state that [Porphyrion] was "tamed by Aphrodite", which refers to the episode [told by?] Apollodorus; Aristophanes is not as explicit, but it seems to suggest that the G. has tried to appropriate the goddesses (Aves 1205-1207. 1253-1256. 1633)."

Modern[edit]

Anderson[edit]

p. 170

centum with bracchia 184. Ovid conflates the war of the Giants (cf. 152 ff.) with that of the Titans and their monstrous allies. Horace in C. 2.17.14 calls one of them Gyges, centimanus. anguipedum 184: Ovid's invention for effect; only appears here.

Andrews[edit]

p. 81

Giants probably originated as personifications of gigantic landforms, earthquakes and volcanoes, glaciers, and violent storms andy cyclones.

Arafat[edit]

1990 Classical Zeus: A Study in Art and Literature

p. 12

There are only three late Archaic red-figured vases showing the Gigantomachy on which Zeus definitely appears, and of these, only 1.24 [Berlin F2293] is complete. This is the Brygos Painter's Berlin cup on which the Gigantomachy covers the exterior; one side shows three duels, involving Hephaistos, Poseidon, and Hermes, the other Zeus in a chariot, Herakles on the far side of the horses, and Athena at their head. Zeus' left hand grips the reins and a sceptre, and his raised right holds a large thunderbolt. ...

p. 13

This cup [Berlin F2293] has been dated to between Marathon [490] and Salamis [480] by Schefold,⁷ who sees it as prompted by the Persian wars and the victory of the Greeks over the barbarians, here represented by the giants. ...

⁷ Göttersage, 93.

p. 15

On 1.7 [Akr 2.211] the names of Zeus, Hephaistos, and Apollo are preserved (at least in part), and Poseidon's presense is assured by the inscription [P]olybot[es];

1.7 [Akr 2.211] raises the interesting question of the giants' names. The opponent of Zeus is named Phro-, a misspelling of the first letters of Porphyrion, Zeus' most common opponent, as we know from several vases and literary sources

p. 16

One such is 1.23 [BM E 47] where the name Ph[or]phyrio[n] is inscribed, and Zeus is the presumed opponent, although he is lost. In passage 1 [Apoll. 1.6.1] Porphryrion and Enkelados [Alcyones!?] are the supreme giants. Enkelados is also named as Zeus' opponent (passage 6 [should be passage 7 Batrachomyomachia?] , although in passage 1 Athena kills him as she does on, for example, several black-figured amphoras¹⁸ and on the sacred Peplos presented in the Panatheniac procession to the ancient wooden image of Athena.¹⁹ In Euripides' Cyclops 5–8 a satyr claims to have killed Enkelados, which Carpenter is probably right to see as a detail added for 'the humour of its obvious untruth', ²⁰ although satys do assist Dionysos in the Gigantomachy (cf. 1.61, reverse). The Caeretan vase noted above [Louvre E732] has names for all three opponents of Zeus which we do not hear of elsewhere in that role (Hyperbios, Ephialtes, and Agasthenes), whereas Athena fights her usual opponent, Enkelados. The tradition regarding Athena's opponent was stronger than that of Zeus'. In fact the only absolutely consistent feature in art and literature is that Poseidon's opponent is Polybotes (e.g. passage 1 [Apoll. 1.6] and Strabo 10.5.16), although his use of Nisyros is not invariable. As for Zeus' other opponents he kills Mimas in passage 2 [Eurip. Ion], whereas in passage 1 [Apoll. 1.6] Hephaistos kills him, and in passage 11 [Ap. Rh. Arg] Ares. This last reference is particularly interesting, as the late fifth-century vase-painter Aristophanes also uses the name for Ares' opponent on 1.75 [Berlin F2531] although he spells the name Mimon. Many centuries later, the Roman writer Claudian has Mars kill Mimas (Carmina Minora 37 (52). 75-91). Another variant is given [on Akr 607] in the mid-sixth century by the vase painter Lydos, who names Aphrodite as Mimas' opponent.²¹ The name is spelled Mimos, but must be meant for Mimas.²² The giant on an Etruscan gem of c.400-375 is named MEAS which Vian reasonably suggests may be a variant of Mimas.²³

²¹Athens NM Acr. 607 (above, n. 11); Carpenter, DI (cf. ibid. 73). On 1.23 [BM E 47] Hephaistos fights Euryalos, whereas on 1.7 [Akr 2.211] Euryalos is named and his opponent is certainly not Hephaistos, who is named and fighting elsewhere.

²² Cf. Development, 43

²³ Boston 98. 733; Vian, Répertoire, no. 485 pl.58.

p. 18

[On Petit Palais 868 Zeus'] opponent is impressive in defeat, still pointing at Zeus two long spears and holding a large shield in front of him; he also has a helmet and corselet. He is named Porphyrion, and Zeus is also named: he is then the leader of the giants, and his defiance matches his status.

1.44 [BM E165] is one of four vases by the Tyszkiewicz Painter showing the Gigantomachy, ... [Zeus'] left hand has grasped the right shoulder of a giant (who wears an animal skin and brandishes a rock above his head)

p. 19

1.68 [Met 08.258.21] is a kalyx-krater showing an extract from a Gigantomachy on part of the lower tier. There are three figures: from the feft, Hermes, Zeus, and a giant. Both Hermes and the giant have stones in their raised right hands; a rock was noted on 1.44 [BM E 165], and there are more on later vases (e.g. 1.82 [Naples 81521]), but not in the hands of a god. This is the only example of a god throwing a rock (excluding Poseidon's use of Nisyros and Athena's of Sicily).

p. 20

1.61 (Pl. 4b) [Mulgrave Castle] is a volute-krater showing gods fighting giants on both sides, in separate compositions. On the obverse Herakles is at the left, aiming an arrow; then Zeus' four-horse chariot, driven by a young woman (probably Nike, although she is wingless). Zeus is on the far side of the chariot, raising a thunderbolt against a fully-armed giant who stands next to him and brandishes his sword. It is against this giant also that Herakles must be aiming an arrow, an example of the co-operation between Zeus and Herakles noted on 1.24 [Berlin F2293] (cf. 1.71 [Ferrara 2892] Pl. 5b). On the right is Athena, thrusting a spear into a giant; we have, therefore, the familiar trio of Zeus, Herakles, and Athena. Also is Dionysos, on the reverse with satyrs and a maenad: he attacks a giant with a thyrsos.

p. 22

Above the opponent of Zeus and Herakles on 1.71 (PL. 5b) are written the first three letters of 'Porphyrion', usually the opponent of Zeus, as on 1.7 [Akr 2.221] and 1.23 [BM E 47] (above, pp. 15-16); in passage 1 Apollodorus speaks of him as being destroyed by Zeus and Herakles together, with thunderbolt and arrow respectively. This krater provides fifth century evidence for exactly this detail.

p. 24

1.75 [Berlin F2531] (Pl. 6b), the well-known cup in Berlin by Aristophanes, is a rare example of that shape in the last quarter of the fifth century,

The exterior duels [on Berlin F2531] are symmetrically arranged in threes: on one side, from left, Artemis fights Gaion, Zeus Porphyrion and Athena Enkelados; on the other Ares fights Mimon (cf. p. 16 above), Apollo Ephialtes and Hera Phoitos.

[Zeus'] opponent [Porphyrion] is naked but for a helmet and shield, and is aiming a stone at Zeus; although there are several vases which show giants attacking gods with rocks, there is only one other example of a giant attacking Zeus with a stone, 1.68 [Met 08.258.21] (Pl. 6a), and there Hermes, behind Zeus, is responding in kind.

However, Poseidon is made prominent by his position in the tondo [of Berlin F2531] where he is about to drive his trident into Polybotes. Both are named, as is Ge, rising from the ground behind Poseidon.

p. 25

It is an indication of the consistency of the tradition of Poseidon's role in the Gigantomachy that in all the literary accounts and on all the vases where he is named his opponent is Polybotes, even where, as here [Berlin F2531], he does not use Nisyros against him.

Ge, or Gaia, is an appropriate figure as she is the mother of the gods (passages 1, 8; Hesiod, Theogony 184-6 and other sources); she appears in this capacity in the Archaic period (Lydos, the Siphnian treasury) and long after this vase [Berlin F2531] (Priene, Pergamon). Her upraised hands show her upraised hands show her concern at the slaughter of the giants. She also appears on 1.82 [Naples 81521] in a very similar pose, again emerging from the ground.

The vault of heaven is one feature of the depiction which has led to many attempts to relate this vase [Naples 81521] to the Gigantomachy of the interior of the shield of the Athena Parthenos, mentioned by Pliny (Natural History 36.18).³⁴

³⁴ The most comprehensive discussion is that of von Salis, JdI 55 (1940), 90-169; most recently, K. W. Arafat, BSA 81 (1986). 1-6.

pp. 25–26

The one on the left-hand corner [of Naples 81521] with the shield is named Enkeledos and the [p. 26] one between the two rock-holding giants is named Porphyrion. These names are by now long familiar, and suggest that the divine opponents would have been Athena and Zeus respectively. The presence of Zeus would confirm the idea suggested by the chariot-team. These two giants are worthy of such divine opponents, a rank emphasized by their shields which both have relief bosses; that of Enkelados has a painted battle scene on the interior. Enkelados also has a helmet.

p. 26

Ge rises from the ground here, as on 1.75 [Berlin F2531]. There she rises behind Poseidon and is appealing to him on behalf of her sons; here [on Naples 81521] she looks up and to the left of the scene, to exactly where we believe Zeus to have been depicted. This further emphasizes the significance of Zeus, and is another motif inherited from the Archaic period.³⁵ A similar vase is 1.83 [Naples 2664], one fragment showing part of Athena and En[kelados]; the rest is speculative.

p. 27

On the South Italian vases, as on 1.79 [Louvre MNB810], 1.80 [Würzburg H4729], and 1.82 [Naples 8152], there are rocks being used by the giants, and dropped shields.

pp. 168-169

The ideas I have just discussed would account for the pattern of depictions of the Gigantomachy until c.420, as detailed above. There follows a revival of the Gigantomachy on Attic vases in the last two decades of the fifth century, when there are twelve examples. This may well have been due to the metaphorical value of the scene at a time when the Athenians were fighting the Peloponnesian war, a possibility supported by the fact that there are no later examples, suggesting that depictions of victory, even by allusion, were by then no longer appropriate. But the revival may have been due to the depictions of the scene associated with the Acropolis of Athens. The scene was woven on the peplos of the ancient wooden image of Athena; but we know nothing of its form, and it had been used on the peplos before. A possible inspiration are the metopes of the Parthenon, themselves surely alluding in some degree to the Persian wars. However, the revival is long delayed for that to be the case as the metopes are datable to the 440s, and I think their appearance is more likely connected with the loss of popularity of the scene on vases of c.450-420, as noted above. A more likely inspiration is the Gigantomachy of the interior of the shield of the Athena Parthenos, which is reflected more closely on 1.82 [Naples 81521] than on any other vase.

The Gigantomachy had long been open to a particular city to put its stamp on, the unorthodox names on the Siphnian treasury at Delphi being a prime example, and the altar of Zeus at Pergamon a later one. To that extent, it was something of an 'international scene' for the Athenians to turn to their own purposes as much as any other people. They found a particular value in its allusive use, most clearly on the Parthenon where it is combined with similarly allusive subjects on the other metopes. Thus its special popularity with Athenian artists in this period.

Barber[edit]

1991, Prehistoric Textiles"

p. 361

Every year the Athenians held a festival of thanksgiving to Athena. their patroness; and every fourth year they held a particularly large version of the festival—the Great Panathenaia. The celebrations included atheletic events, the most unusual of which were a torch race (Parke 1977, 37, 45, 171-72) and the Pyrrhic dance (according to legend the dance done by Athena to celebrate a victory of the gods over the giants: ibid., 36), as well as a huge procession through the city to bring Athena her new dress (see Pfuhl 1900; Deubner 1932; Davidson 1958; Mommsen 1968, 116-205; etc.). ...

p. 362

... So we glean the additional information that one didn't weave just any old giants but specifically the Battle of the Gods and the Giants in which the gods led by Zeus and Athena, put down a terrifying and nearly catastophic insurrection of those awesome monsters who rumble around where they have been chained under the earth, and who occasionally escape and erupt forth to challenge the gentle order of the gods.⁵

p. 380

From the story of "Demetrios the Savior" [see p. 362] we got the impression, strengthened elsewhere, that the subject of the peplos had to do with those who had saved Athens, Athena and Zeus being foremost because of their parts in the Gigantomachies. The peplos would seem to be an offering to the goddess specifically in thanks for saving her people from the terrible threat of the Huge Ones—and a repeated reminder to her never to let them escape again.

p. 381

Those who have worked extensively with myths generated from catastrophe agree that this particular story [Hesiod, Theogony 678-86, 693-705)] is a roughly but rationally decipherable, metaphoric account of a volcanic eruption (cf. Rose 1959, 44-45), and most likely, at least in part, of the cataclysmic destruction of Thera that occurred in the 15th century B.C., which was one of the largest and ludest eruptions the huma race has ever witnessed (cf. Luce 1969, 58-95, esp. 74-84), Surely this eruption above all others would call forth relief at salvation and a desire never to have to go through such cosmic terror again. Athens after all, had a ringside seat. Giants, Titans and such, as metaphors for and personifications of the volcanic forces, are therefore exactly appropriate symbols to commemorate such an awesome event.

The Greeks themselves placed the origins of their festival back in Mydenaean times: some parts were ascribed to Theseus and some to the earlier indigeneous inhabitants, who were said to have set it up in honor of the death of a giant named Asteros ("Bright One" or "Glitterer"), although some of the games were established much later (see Davison 1958, 32-35, for full references).

...

Are we, then, to imagine the ruler of Athens (whether Theseus or another) desperately and solemly vowing to Athena—as the volcano across the way was blowing its heart out in an eruption that would make Mount Saint Helens, Kilaueia, and even Krakatoa look small—that if the devine Protectress would save him and his people from this unimaginably devastating monster, he would provide her with the finest he could offer: huge sacrifices, the most expensive of new dresses, and a grand celebration and victory dance in her honor, every year in perpetuity?

Athens, unlike many an Agean site, survived the disaster. That would have been proof enough that Athena and Zeus had cared about and saved their people. to commemorate the event symbolically in dance, in fire rituals, and through the age-old local craft of weaving—does not seem so strange.

1992, "The Peplos of Athena"

p. 103

According to ancient authors, one of the central features of the Panathenaic Festival was the presentation to Athena of a woven, rectangular woolen cloth called a peplos, always decorated with the fiery Battle of the Gods and Giants. Presenting a textile seems appropriate enough, for Athena was, among other things, the goddess of weaving. But there clarity stops. Who wove it and how often? Was a new one made every year, or only every four years for the Greater Panathenaia?

...

Bronze Age Background

The Classical Greeks had inherited a 7000-year tradition of weaving, ...

p. 104

By 1500, when the Mycenaean Greeks were constructing citadels, ...

With this tradition in mind, we must tackle the questions surrounding the making of the sacred peplos of Athena. Fancy weaving in the fifth-century was not a late and newly acquired art, for professionals only, but a household craft that had been at the core of Agean culture for millennia. In fact, given how old the tradition of ornate weaving was in the Aegean and how important it had been to the Bronze Age economy, it would be strange if the main religious customs surrounding weaving were not old and deeply rooted.

p. 112

We know that the peplos was a rectangular woolen cloth described as showing the figures of Athena and Zeus leading the Olympian gods to victory in the epic Battle of the Gods and Giants (see for example the lines from Hecuba quoted on p. 103).

p. 117

Select women of Athens wove a normal-sized robe destined to dress the cult statue every year, whereas professional male weavers seem to have woven a cloth every fourth year for pay—a sail-peplos that was much larger, fancier, newer in tradition than the women's, and not intended for the statue. Both textiles, however, seem to have displayed in their threads Athena's part in the Battle of the Gods and Giants, as a renewed thank-offering to the patroness of Athens for saving the city from destruction. ... All this evidence evidence strongly suggests that the entire ritual of presenting Athena with an ornate new dress was a local relic of the Bronze Age.

Regardless of the origins of presenting a robe every year to Athena ... the ritual clearly held an integral place in the lives of the Athenian citizens, ... celebrating Athena and thanking her for one of her most famous deeds, the destruction of the world-threqatening giants.

Brinkmann[edit]

p. 98

An der nach rechts abschließenden vertikalen Randleiste ist auf der Lange des Unterschenkels des âußersten Giganten die rechtsläufige Beischrift Mimon angebracht. Die einzelnen Buchstaben heben sich nicht sehr deutlich ab, da der Marmor an dieser ausgesetzten Stelle stark verwittert ist. Das Ο ist mit dem Zirkel vorgeritzt, dessen Einstichloch sich im Zentrum des Buchstabens erhalten hat. Auf das Ο folgen zwei dachförmig angeordnete Schenkel, ihre Neigung verraten m.E., daß sie zu einem Ν zu ergänzen sind.

[Google translate: At the final right vertical edge of the bar Clockwise Mimon inscription is placed on the length of the lower leg of the outermost giants. The individual letters stand out not very clear, since the marble is heavily weathered at this exposed location. The Ο is pre-scored with a pair of compasses, whose piercing hole has been preserved in the center of the letter. On the Ο follow two roof-shaped legs arranged, their Inclination betray my opinion that they are a supplement to Ν.]

pp. 124–125

Der Anführer der Vorhuttruppe und damit des gesamten göttlichen Feldzuges, der wie Achilleus in Hoplitentracht dargestellt ist, kann in diesem Sinne nur als Kriegsgott Ares angesprochen werden, der schon bei Homer das Appellativ « Schnellster der Gôtter » erhalten hatte¹⁷⁴. Die Deutung findet durch die Namensbeischrift Mimon (N14) fur seinen aufrechten Gegner eine Bestàtigung. Der Gigant Mimon-Mimas ist sowohl aus den Quellen als auch aus der Vasenmalerei als Gegner des Ares bekannt¹⁷⁵.

[Google translate: The leader of the vanguard troops, and thus the entire divine campaign, like Achilles is shown in costume hoplites, can be addressed in this sense only as a war god Ares, who had already received the appellative in Homer "fastest of the gods"¹⁷⁴. The interpretation is by the name inscription Mimon (N14) for his upright opponent a Confirmation. The giant Mimon-Mimas is both from the sources and from the vase painting as an opponent Ares known¹⁷⁵.

p. 128 n. 194

Athena ist durch Gegnerzahl and Komposition vor den übrigen hervorgehoben. Asterias ist ihr Gegner im mythos. Zum Gedenken an seinen Tod wurden in Athen die Panathenaen eingericht (Arist., fr 637 Rose. Vgl. VIAN, Guerre, 262ff., passim. Es wäre zu überlegen, ob die herausragende Rolle der Athena am Fries als Verbeugung vor der Stadt Athen zu verstehen ist. Ubrigens ist Athena auch durch die farbliche Fassung ihres Gewandes hervorgehoben. Dazu werde ich an späterer Stelle Stellung nehmen. Beachte andererseits Bronzereste am Ohr des Astarias, die von I.A Coste-Messeliere als Pfeil der Letoidengruppe gedeutet worden sind, Au Mussee, 313.

[Google translate: Athena is highlighted by opponents number and composition over the other. Asterias is her opponent in the myth. To commemorate his death, the Panathenaen were in Athens arranged (Arist., fr 637 Rose. See. VIAN, Guerre , 262ff., Passim . It could be considered whether the outstanding Note is the role of Athena on the frieze to understand as bowing to the city of Athens. Incidentally Athena is also highlighted by the colored version of her gown. for this I will comment later. on the other hand bronze groups at the ear of the Astarias that of IA Coste-Messeliere have been interpreted as the arrow Letoidengruppe, Au Mussee, 313th

Castriota[edit]

p. 139

Pheidias had a number of reasons for including this theme, since it was already closely associated with Athena and the monuments of the Akropolis. The Gigantomachy was traditionally embroidered on the new peplos offered to the goddess in the Panathenaia, and it had been the subject of the late Archaic pediment of the Old Temple of Athena, the Archaios Naos, located on the north side of the Akropolis before the Persian sack¹⁸ But to a great extent Pheidias' choice seems to have centered on the myth's capacity to underscore the ethical or religious implications of the accompanying metopes. In his brief but insightful discussion of the Parthenon sculptures, Herington suggested that the Gigantomachy was included to symbolize the victory of the universal moral laws established by Zeus and his extension or surrogate Athena. This was the greatest of battles, the symbolic struggle between the cosmic order of the Olympians and the nether forces of chaos. Here was the ultimate mythic paradigm for the defense of law and sophrosyne and the punishment of hybris, in which the gods themselves suppressed the presumptuos annd irreverent affront to their authority. As such it imposed a unifying ethical matrix upon the program of the metopes as a whole¹⁹

The moralizing interpretation of the Gigantomachy among fith century Greeks and its use as a reinforcing paradigm or analogue for other mythic exploits can in fact be verified in the poetry of this period. In Bakchylides' First Dithyramb, as we have seen, Menelaos lectures the assembled people of Troy on the dangers of opposing Zeus—the principles of Justice, order, and rectitude fundamental to the good order of the polis. He concludes his sermon with the object lesson of the arrogant Giants, whose hybris, he emphasizes, had brought their own destruction (see Appendix, lines 50–60). Here the myth ...

pp. 140–143

Commager[edit]

p. 119

... but behind it loom shadows of the Gigantomachia, a hubristic assertion of the irrational.

p. 199

Of the varios rebels against the rule of Zeus the Giants were the most notorious, and it is the Gigantomachia that furnishes Horace with his most elaborate version of ὕβρις. Vis consili expers mole ruit sua: the line is at once the poem's official moral and epitaph for the Giants, rushing (ruentes,58) upon the goddess of wisdom to their own destruction. They lack the consilium (65) that the Muses endorse (41), which we may liken to the vis temperata approved by the gods (66). Where the Olympians affirm a stable order (45–49), their opponents threaten an unnatural confusion.⁷³ Uprooting mountains in their struggle (51–56), they represent the same disruptive force as did the rain, hail, and floods of C. 1.2. ...

In turning to so familiar a myth Horace took over the traditionally public connotations it bore. During his student days at Athens he could hardly have avoided seeing the Gigantomachias inscribed upon the east metopes of the Parthenon and emblazoned upon the shield of the goddess Athene within. Though the Olympians' triumph over the sons of earth may at first have signified simply the conquest of a lower order by a higher, or the consolidation of the devine πόλις, subsequent generations read into the image more parochial meanings. It became a contest between civilization and barbarism, and as such could offer the Greeks a tempting analogue for their struggles with the Persians.⁷⁴ ...

73. Thus the emphasis on the Giants' shapeless (immanen turbam, 43) and chaotic (horrida brachiis, 50) aspect. Horace does not keep the Giants strictly separated from various other rebels against Zeus; thus Typhoes' revolt was traditionally supposed to have come later.

74. See Aristophanes, Eq. 566 ...

Connelly[edit]

p. 47 [see Amazon [24], search for "Aster"]

It is against this backdrop that we should understand an alternative tradition in which Athena destroys a giant named Aster, or "Star." We are told that a festival "was held during the reign of Erichthonios because of the murder of Asterios the Giant."⁹ The sixth-century tyrant Peisistratos is said to have transformed this local feast into the great festival known as the Panathenaia, and Aristotle reports that the games associated with it were held "on account of the Giant Aster who was killed by Athena."¹⁰

p. 475

9. Scholia on Aelius Aristides, Panathenaic Oration 362 (Lenz and Behr) = Dindorf 3.323 = Jebb 189, 4.

10. Aristotle, frag. 637 Rose; scholia to Aelius Aristides, Panathenaic Oration 189.

Cook[edit]

p. 56

(2) An amphora [Louvre MNB810] with twisted handles, found in Melos and now in the Louvre (no. S 1677 ... (3) Fragments of a krater or amphora from Ruvo, now at Naples [Naples 81521] ... Vases (2) and (3) presuppose a famous original, probably the Gigantomachy painted on the inside of the shield of Athena Parthénos. The semicircular band ... which on vase (3) denotes the arch of heaven may well perpetuate the rim of Athena's shield. ...

Day[edit]

p. 163

From the second quarter of the sixth century comes a series of Athenian vases depicting the Gigantomachy,¹⁴³ exemplified by Lydos' dinos, ca. 550.¹⁴⁴ The crowded battle scene highlights Zeus driving his chariot, Herakles shooting from it, and Athena striding beside its horses.¹⁴⁵ Significantly, all such early versions of this scene (and many subsequent ones on plaques and vases) were dedicated on the Akropolis. The synchronization of their appearance there with the reorganization of the festival points to a Panathenaic meaning. This conclusion is supported by a general similarity to Gigantomachies of the peplos and the Old Temple pediment. Most important, the Athena of these vases is a Promachos.

¹⁴³ Hurwit 1999: 30-1, Neils 2001a: 226-30, Shear 2001: 35-6; LIMC 4 s.v. Gigantes, nos. 104-6, 108, 110, 112-13 (F. Vian and M. B. Moore), respectively Athens NM Akropolis 2211, 607, 2134, 648, 1632, 2403, 2553; Shapiro 1989: 38-9, with pls. 18d (Athens, NM Akropolis 682, ABV 83, 3), 19a (Bremen, private collection), and 19b (Rome, American Academy). For the theme's continuing popularity in Akropolis dedications, see Vian 1952: 38-88, nos. 104-404.

Durling[edit]

p. 495, note to Canto 31.108 "Ephialtes suddenly shook himself"

108. Ephialtes suddenly shook himself: Confirming Virgil's judgment on his ferocity, Ephialtes produces a metaphorical earthquake: ancient mythology attributed earthquakes and volcanic eruptions to giants, bound in Tartarus or under Mount Aetna after their defeat (cf. lines 91–95). The giants have so far in this canto received historical (they truly existed), euhemerist (they signify powerful violent men), and physical explanations (they signify earthquakes).

Dwyer[edit]

p. 295

The Greeks and Romans thought that excess was characteristic not only of nature but also of the marginal peoples of the world, who often portrayed as giants or as having more offspring than civilized peoples ...

The giants who sought to capture Olympus and overturn the order of the world embodied excessive violence. Their failed attempt, born of hybris, and their defeat by the Olympians, is the subject of the Gigantomachy, or Battle of the Gods and Giants, shown most notably in metopes of the east facade of the Parthenon (circa 445 B.C.), on the interior surface of the shield of Athena Parthenos as sculpted by Phidias, and later in the sculptured frieze of the Altar of Zeus, at Pergamum (second century B.C.). In the earlier archaic representations of the Gigantomachy (e.g., the north frieze of the Siphnian Treasury at Delphi, Greece, circa 525 B.C.), the giants were depicted as an organized military force (i.e., combat a outrance). Later, with Phidias, they were shown as antirational, chthonic, terrestrial forces deployed against the heavens (Vian, pp. 149—150, passim). This change to a moral allegorical interpretation resulted in changes in the depictions of the giants. With Phidias, the giants begin to carry animal skins or fight entirely nude (Vian, p. 148). Judging from surviving monuments that reflect the shield of Athena Parthenos, the giants were arrayed within a lower circle (or sphere) against the Olympians in an upper or outer circle. The giants fought with great stones, attempting either to hurl them or pile them atop one another in effort to reach the heavens. Thus, their defeat is, from the time of Phidias, charachterized as the victory of order an rationality over discord and excess.

Frazer[edit]

Note 3 to Apollodorus 1.6.1

Phlegra is said to have been the old name of Pallene Stephanus Byzantius, s.v. Φλέγρα. The scene of the battle of the gods and giants was laid in various places. See Diod. 5.71; Strab. 5.4.4, 6, Strab. 6.3.5, Strab. 7 Fr. 25, 27, Strab. 10.5.16, Strab. 11.2.10; Paus. 8.29.1, with my note. Volcanic phenomena and the discovery of the fossil bones of large extinct animals seem to have been the principal sources of these tales.

Pausanias's Description of Greece (1898)

note to Pausanias 1.2.4 "Poseidon on horseback hurling a spear at the giant Polybotes" pp. 48–49

On vase-paintings the combat of Poseidon with a giant is often depicted. Poseidon is always represented on foot, not, as in the statue described by Pausanias, on horseback. In his right hand he weilds a trident, and in his left he holds a rock ready to hurl at his adversary. On red-figured vases the rock is sometimes depicted as an island (Nisyrus) with plants and animals on it. In two of these vase-paintings Poseidon wields a spear instead of a trident. Poseidon's adversary is always represented in full human form;l on two of the vases he is named Polybotes, on one he is called Ephialtes, on the rest he is nameless. See Overbeck, Griech. Kunstmythologie, 3. pp. 328-331; M. Mayer, Die Giganten und Titanen, pp. 316-319; Baumeister's Denkmaläler, p. 595, fig. 637; Ἐφημερὶς ἀρχαιογική, 1886, p. 86 sqq., with pl. 7 No. 2.

note to 6.19.12 "The people of Megara — built a treasury" pp 65–67

This is the eleventh treasury from the west ...

note to 6.19.13 "In the gable — is wrought in relief the war of the giants" pp 67–69

Fragments, more or less incomplete, ...

note to 8.29.1 "the legendary battle of the gods and the giants" pp. 314–315

The scene of this battle, as Pausanias intimates, was commonly laid at Pallene, under its mythical name of Phlegra. Cp. Herodotus, vii, 123; Stephanus Byz, s.v.Φλέγρα ; ... The localization of the legend in the plain of Megalopolis may have been due to the prevalence of earthquakes, the burning earth, and the finding of mammoth bones. Many such bones are still found by the peasants in this neighbourhood, and some of them are now preserved in the museum at Dimitsana. It was probably some of these bones that Pausanias saw in the sanctuary of the Boy Aesculapius at Megalopis (viii, 32. 5). ...

note to 8.29.3 "That the giants have serpents instead of feet" pp. 315–316.

In the earlier works of Greek art the giants are regularly represented in full human form. The earliest monument on which a giant is represented with serpent-feet is a bronze relief of the Museum Kircherianum dating from the end of the fourth or the begininning of the third century B.C. On the now famous reliefs from the great altar of Pergamus, erected in the beginning of the second century B.C., some of the giants are represented with serpent-feet ; and from that time onward the serpent-footed type prevailed.

Gale[edit]

p. 120

... the sixth book of DNR, where Lucretius' main objective is to demonstrate that frightening phenomena such as earthquakes, lightning, volcaninc eruptions and plagues are not minifestations of divine displeasure, but perfectly natural occurrences which are subject to a rational, mechanistic explanation.¹³

p. 121

Lucretius reverses the traditional moral drawn from the myth throughout antiquity: rather than representing hybris, disorder and barbarity, the 'giants' have become heroic figures, challenging and overthrowing the tyranny of religio.

p. 140

... the Giants' bold assault on Olympus also functions as a symbol of the philosopher's defiant stand against religious tradition.

Gantz[edit]

p. 446

This passage from Odyssey 10, and the exceptional stature of Alkyoneus in art (if he really is a Gigas), constitutes our only evidence that the Gigantes were ever giants in our sense of the word. In Archaic representations of them in the battle with the gods (their only myth), they are always normal-sized hoplites in armor (see below).

Gardner[edit]

p. 242

The struggle between light and darkness, between freedom and tyranny, between Europe and Asia, is the true theme of all battles between gods and giants, or Greeks and Amazons, or Lapiths and Centaurs, and all are regarded as antitypes of the great struggle [with the Persians] from which the Greeks themselves had just emerged victorious.

Green[edit]

p. 142

307–8 The Gigantomachic imagery here provides a forceful means of distinguishing between right and wrong ways of approaching heaven: one should approach mentally by study of the stars, rather than phsically like the barbarous Giants. In doing so, Ovid takes a traditional (largely Stoic) line that the Giants are far removed from the world of the devine and the intellectual; cf. Hor. Carm. 3.4.42-80, esp. 65-8 vis consili expers [...] F, Vian (1952), "La guerre des géants devant les penseurs de l'antiquite", REG 65, 22ff. For Ovid blurring of the distinction between Giant and philosopher elsewhere, however, see 298n.

The Gigantomachic imagery here may also be interpreted on a generic level. Gigantomachy is popularly identified as a topic appropriate only for epic; cf. Am. 2.1.11-16, Prop. 2.1.19-20, 3.9.47-8. As such Ovid's rejection of the Giants in favour of the astronomer might be read as a generic code for his rejection of epic and embracing of a peacful theme which is compatible with elegiac ideals: this, for Ovid, is the right way to 'reach the heavens' (i,e, achieve everlasting poetic fame).

p. 143

307–8 ferat Ossan Olympus/summaque Peliacus sidera tangat apex: Ovid suggests that, in their attempt on heaven, the Giants piled Ossa on top on Olympus, and then Pelion on Ossa. Ovid follows this order elsewhere (3.441–2, Am. 2.1.13–14)

Hanfmann[edit]

p. 475

The belief in giants is a common one among men, and it is equally natural for men to believe that giants are buried under volcanoes. The peculiar feature of the Greek Gigantomachy lies in the combination of these giant myths with the folk-lore theme of a terrestrial tribe who attempt to storm the sky. It seems that the Greeks had already known the myth of the Gigantomachy when they settled Greece. Homer refers to the fight of the gods and the giants, but his references are mere hints; Hesiod discusses the origins of the giants, but also fails to give any detailed account of them, apparently assuming that the myth was a familiar one to his readers. It was a fact of great significance for the Gigantomachy legend that the two earliest Greek poets neglected to describe it in detail. Left apparently to oral tradition in the early centuries of the first millenium B.C. the myth took varying shapes in various regions of Greece. Three factors influenced its development during this period: the local mythologies which altered not only the place of the battle⁵² but also the number and persons of the fighters and even the details of the appearence of the giants; similar legends about sky-storming tribes of families such as the Titans and the Aloadai which always tended to become fused with the Gigantomachy; and finally the various stories about the single combats of Zeus and Herakles with giants and monsters.

The local differences appear already in Homer if we compare him to Hesiod. In Homer the giants are huge. They are akin to gods but mortal. They are savages, for they use stones as weapons. In Hesiod, on the other hand, the giants are valiant Hoplites, warriors of great fame, not savage primitives; here for the first time Ge, the Earth, is mentioned as their mother. The two descriptions are so conflicting that I think we are justified in recognizing two different local traditions.

52. O. Waser (Real-Encyclopädie der Altertumswft., Suppl., III, p. 661) lists the following places of the fights or burials of giants: in continental Greece, Pallene and Arcadia; in Ionia, Lydia, Miletus, and Lycia, sometimes even called "Gigantia", in Italy, Campania, Lipara, and Aetna. Mayer (op. cit., pp. 24, 31 ff., 44 ff.) would add to these Attica, Corinth, Cos, Cyzicus, Rhodes, and Crete.

p. 476

It has furthermore been deduced from the words "with a mill stone" that Alcman described how Poseidon crushed the giant Polybotes with a rock torn from the island of Cos, which thereafter became the island of Nisyros

Hard[edit]

p. 86

THE REVOLT OF THE GIANTS

The other major revolt against Zeus and the Olympian order was launched by the GIANTS (Gigantes), who were defeated by the gods with the aid of Herakles in the mighty conflict known as the Gigantomachy (Gigantomachia). The Giants were earthborn as thei Greek name implies; according to the Theogony, they were con ceived by Gaia in the very earliest times from drops of blood that fell to the ground from the severed genitals of Ouranous.¹¹⁶ Hesiod describes them as powerfull warriors who wore gleaming armour and carried long spears in their hands, an account that conforms with the usual potrayal of them in archaic works of art. It is not clear whether the poet meant to suggest that they sprang up from the ground fully armed (like the Spartoi at Thebes, see p. 206); Claudian, Roman poet of the fourth century AD, is the first author to state this explicitly.¹¹⁷ Even though the Giants are presented as martial beings, there is no indication in the Theogony that they ever revolted against the gods (except perhaps in a late section of the poem probably added after Hesiod's time, which seems to refer to the contibution that Herakles was supposed to have made in helping to defeat the Giants).¹¹⁸ There is indeed no proper evidence at all for the revolt until the first artistic representations appear in the second half of the sixth century BC.

p. 88

[Need to copy]

p. 89

[Need to copy]

p. 90

The Giants were pictured in different ways at different periods. In the earliest images from the sixth century BC, they are generally portrayed as handsome hoplite warriors who wear armour and a helmet and fight with a lance or sword (or occasionally wield rocks when necessity demands, as do Homeric warriors). Although they must obviously have been very large and powerful if they were to match themselves against the gods, they were not originally imagined as giants in the full modern sense of the word. It is significant in this respect that when an ordinary mortal is called a gigas in early Greek literature, as in the brutal Kapaneus (see p. 320) in Aeschylus' Seven Against Thebes, the word is sggestive of reckless or impious violence rather than exceptional size.¹³⁴ In the fifth century, an alternative representation appears in which the Giants are depicted as wild and primitive beings who dress in animal skins or simple tunics (or are even naked) and use rocks and boulders as their usual weapons. And finally, from the Hellenistic period onwards, the Giants are often depicted with serpent's coils for legs, as would be appropriate for earth-born beings, and wholly gigantic in stature.¹³⁵

p. 608

134 Aesch. Seven 424, cf. Ag. 692 (Zephyros).

135 Snake-legged, Apollod. 1.6.1 (a late feature of this account), Ov. Met. I.184, Claudian Gigantomachy 80-1; Paus 8.29.3 regards the notion as absurd.

Hardie[edit]

p. 116

Lucretius uses the imagery of gigantomachy (the battle between the Olympian gods and their chthonic enemies) in inverted form, to celebrate philosophy's destruction of the power of the sky-gods of traditional religion (esp. at 5.110–25). Virgil restores gigantomachy as a recurrent image of the successful struggle of Jupiter and his vicars on earth against their impious enemies. Virgil's epic world is once more full of gods, and religio overthrown by Lucretius (1.62–79) is reinstalled at the heart of Rome (Aen. 8.349–50 religio ... dira loc 'the fearful religion of the place', the sign of Jupiter's presence on the Capital), but this is an indelibly post-Lucretian Rome.

Hunter[edit]

p. 81

Hurwit[edit]

p. 30

Although the myth would be a popular subject everywhere in Greece, nowhere was it more popular (or more important) than on the Athenian Acropolis. Indeed the city's greatest festival, the Panathenaia, which culminated in the presentation of the new peplos to the ancient olivewood statue of Athena Polias, may have celebrated not Athena's birth (as is usually assumed) but the gods' victory over the giants: the Gigantomachy, again was woven into the peplos as its principal decoration. It was also in this battle, in which Athena played so important a role, that she earned the epithet "Nike."⁹⁶ The earliest indisputable representations of the Gigantomachy, in fact decorate a series of large black-figure vases dedicated on the Acropolis begining around 560-550 [Fig. 31], ⁹⁷ not far from the tarditional date of a major reorganization of the Panathenaia (566).

p. 31

Gigantomachies were thus added constantly to the narrative inventory of the Acropolis. the theme undergoing nearly constant reinterpretation in a variety of media. No better example exists of how a particular theme edures over time — of how the imagery of the Classical Acropolis echoes the magery of the Archaic or the Hellenistic the Classical — or how the same theme could be seen in different versions, in different inflections, at any one time.

p. 330

96. See Pinney 1988; Euripides, Ion 1528-29.

97. See Vian and Moore 1988, nos. 104-6, 108, 110, 112-3; Shapiro 1989, 38.

Janko[edit]

pp. 191–192

In fact there were giants on Kos itself, as we learn from Apollodorus of Athens' On the Gods (P. Köln III 126). He quotes an anonymous local epic Meropis, clearly of seventh- or sixth-century date; he judges it 'post-Homeric' (νεωτέρου τινός). This told how Herakles, fighting the Meropes, would have been slain had not Athena killed his foe Asteros and flayed his impenetrable skin to use as protection in future battles; likewise she flays the giant Pallas in 'Apollodorus' 1.6.2 or the monster Aigis in Diod. 3.70 (whence her aegis). Philostratus (Her. 289) confirms that the Meropes were giants; Asteros must be the same as Aster(ios), a giant slain by Athena (Aristotle frag. 637). In 'Apollodorus' (1.6.1f.), Herakles is the mortal ally vital to Zeus' defeat of the giants, who were linked with Kos; cf. Zeus's foes Coeum et Phlegraeis Oromedonta iugis (Propertius 3.9.48) — Kois was linked with Kos (250-5n.), and Oromedon is the local mountain. Before the Greeks settled Cumae, did they identify Phlegre with the nearby volcano Nisyros, where Poseidon buried the giant Polubotes and which had a toponym Gigantea? Our tale, an aition for how the Dorians took Kos (E. M. Craik, The Dorian Aegean, London 1980, 164-6), is one of the several myths of challenges to Zeus's power alluded to by Homer in this episode (153-353n.). See further 295-6n.

Kleiner[edit]

p. 118

The gigantomachy (battle of the gods and giants) was a popular theme in Greek art from the Archaic through Hellenistic times and was a metaphor for the triumph of reason and order over chaos.

p. 136

Each of these mythological contests [centauromachy, Amazonomachy and Gigantomachy] was a metaphor for the triumph of order over chaos, of civilization over barbarism, and of Athens over Persia.

p. 137

In other metopes, the Greeks have the upper hand, but the full set suggests that the battle was a difficult one against a dangerous enemy and that losses as well as victories occurred. The same was true of the war against the Persians, and the centaurmachy metopes—and also the gigantomachy, Amazonomachy, and Trojan War metopes—are allegories for the Greek-Persian conflict of the early fifth century BCE.

p. 155 FIG. 5-78

5-78 Reconstructed west front of the Altar of Zeus, Pergamon, Turkey, ca. 175 BCE. ... The gigantomachy frieze of Pergamon's monumental Altar of Zeus is almost 400 feet long.

p. 156 FIG. 5-79

5-79 Athena battling Alkyoneos, detail of the gigantomachy frieze, Altar of Zeus, Pergamon, Turkey, ca. 175 BCE. Marble, 7' 6 high.

p. 156

The gigantomachy also appeared on the shield of Phidias' Athena Parthenos and on some of the Parthenon metopes, because the Athenians wished to draw a parallel between the defeat of the giants and the defeat of the Persians. In the third century BCE, King Attalos I (r. 241–197 BCE) had successfully turned back an invasion of the Gauls in Asia Minor. The gigantomachy of the Altar of Zeus alluded to that Attalid victory over barbarians.

Knox[edit]

p. 209

The attack of the Giants on the Gods was also an extremely popular theme in Greek literature and art (Vian 1952), which may also have been handled by Ovid in another lost work. The only testimonium is Ovid's own declaration in the Amores (2.1.11–16):

Ausus eram, memini, caelestia dicere bella

Centimanumque Gygen (et satis oris erat),

Cum male se Tellus ulta est, ingestaque Olympo

Ardua devexum Pelion Ossa tulit.

In manibus nimbos et cum Iove fulmen habebam,

Quod bene pro caelo mitteret ille suo.

I had dared, I remember, to tell of the waters of heaven—and I had the voice for it—and Gyas of the hundred hands, when Earth botched her attempt at revenge and steep Ossa bore sloping Pelion and was piled on Olympus. I had the thunder clouds in my hands, and Jupiter with his lightning bolt, which he would fire on target in defense of his own heaven.

Leigh[edit]

p. 122

one tradition (Serv. at Aen. 3.578) located the field of Phlegra in Thessaly,

Lemprière[edit]

p. 456

MYCŎNOS, ... It remained long unihabited on account of the frequent earthquakes to which it was subject. Some suppose the giants whom Hercules killed were buried under the island, whence arose the proverb of every thing is under Mycone, applied to those who treat of different subjects under one and the same title, as if none of the defeated giants had been burried under any other island or mountain about Mycone.

LSJ[edit]

μεγαλήτωρ

"greathearted".

ὑπερθύμοισι

"overweening".

ἀτάσθαλος

"reckless, presumptuous, wicked".

κρατερός

"strong, stout, mighty"

μεγάλους

A.I "big"

A.II "great, mighty"

Φλέγρα

an ancient name for Pallene in Thrace, prob. from its volcanic nature

Lyne[edit]

p. 49

In Pindar Pythnian 1 the strategy of the poem associates the military successes of the tyrant Hiero and his family (46–57) with Zeus' mythical victory over Typhos (15–28). Pindar expends time and space on the picture of the

p. 50

defeated monster, imprisoned under Aetna; vividly he suggests Typhos' horrific contained violence.²⁹ The myth, associated with but not directly compared to the king's victories,³⁰... the Olympians' victory over the Giants and related monsters is already [in Pindar's time] seen as a classic and prototypical example, a symbol, of the defeat of barbarism by civilization, and Zeus' defeat of Typhos with which Hiero is here associated is part of that myth.³¹

29. Pindar's description, ambiguous between the fires of Aetna as a natural volcanic phenomenon and as the product of the imprisoned monster (cf. Burton Pindar's Pythian Odes 97f.), offered a creative ambiguity which was picked up by Vergil in his description of Atlas at Aen. 2.247–51.

30. One mechanism of association is to depict the buried Typhos as extending from Aetna to Cumae (18) ... Note Fraenkel 280: 'For Pindar ... there was no need to "rub in" what was so clearly implied: just as the monsters whom Zeus defeated threatened the world with chaos, so did the barbarions whom hiero defeated.'

31. For the symbolism of Gigantomachy (the defeat of barbarism by civilization) see n. 38 below. For Typhoeus/Typhos included among the defeated Giants, cf Pind. Pyth. 8.1–20. Pindar probably means to exploit the symbolism in Pyth. 8 too: the defeat of the Giants may mirror the uncivilized Athenians' defeat at Coronea in 447 B.C.; cf. Burton Pindar;s Pythian Odes 174 and 176.

In Hesiod ... Thyphoes/Typhos is earthborn like the Giants, but not a Giant ... Typhoeus (Typhos, etc.) is explicitly a Giant in later mythology (Roscher V. 1440. 20ff.), and implicitly in Pyth. 8.1–20 (see above).

No Gigantomachy figures in Hesiod ... We may see Hesiod's Titanomachy as occupying the stage filled by the Gigantomachy in later writers and iconography. This may have assisted the confusion of Titans and Giants that later occurs; see below n. 34.

p. 51

There then follows a vivid evocation of the defeat of the Giants by the Olympians, which (I think) Horace conflates with the defeat of the Titans.³⁴

34. I understand Horace to be not rigidly distingguishing Titans and Giants — to be presenting them as equivalently monstrous — and to be envisioning one assault by this monstrous band, one 'Gigantomachy', in lines 42-64; ... It is difficult to divorce illa ... iuuentus, the Hundred-handers of 49f., from impios Titanas immanemque turbam in 42f. — and the Aloidae (51) from the iuuentus, and Typhoeus and co. (53ff.) froma all these — and to imagine that Horace is surveying a series of distinct monstrous assaults on heaven; in particular, illa iuuentus must surely be the same as the turba'; and one of Horace's sources, Pind. Pyth. 8 1ff., suggests that Typhoeus and Porphyrion (lines 53f. in Horace) are part and parcel of the main Gigantomachy — and Horace is certainly talking of Giants from line 49 on.

pp. 52–53

Since the fifth century B.C. (as we have seen in Pindar Pythian 1) the victory of the Olympians over the Giants and related monsters had been used to symbolize the defeat of barbarism by civilization, for example Persians by Greeks;³⁸ this symbolism probably operates in Pindar Pythian 8 as well as Pythian 1 (see n. 31 above). Augustus has lately won the battle of Actium, represented in subsequent propaganda as the victory of the civilized West over the barbarous East. Noticeably, his recent military activity is referred to in line 38. This battle and victory of Actium, is what is imaged in the myth of the Olympians' battle with, and victory over, the Giants.

38. See Hardie Cosmos and Imperium, passim, esp. 85ff., Frenkel Horace 282, Commager The Odes of Horace 199f., all referring inter alia to the use of the myth on the Parthenon and on the Great Altar of Zeus at Pergamum to symboloize Greek victories over, respectively, Persians and Gauls; for earlier material se J. Boardman Greek Sculpture, the Archaic Period 159, and Athenian Black Figure Vases 220. See further Nisbet — Hubbard 1.289ff., 326ff. ...

pp. 167–168

Mayor[edit]

p. 195

Even in antiquity, however, the war between the gods and the giants was seen by some writers, such as Claudian (b, ca A.D. 370), as a metaphor for geomorphic change over eons. During the Gigantomachy, he wrote, "islands emerged from the deep and mountains lay hidden in the sea; rivers were left dry or changes course," and mountains collapsed as the earth sank.

Merry, W. Walter, James Riddell, D, B, Monro[edit]

Homer's Odyssey 7.59:

Γιγάντεσσιν, according to some from “γίς”=“γῆ”, and “γα”, as in “γεγαώς”, and so identical with “γηγενής”. Curtius supposes “γίγας” to be only a reduplication of the root “γα”. Cp. Pausan. 8. 29. 2 “Γιγάντων οὐδεμίαν ἐν Ἰλιάδι ἐποιήσατο Ὅμηρος μνήμην, ἐν Ὀδυσσείᾳ δὲ” (10. 129) “ἔγραψε μὲν ὡς ταῖς Ὀδυσσέως ναυσὶ Λαιστρυγόνες ἐπέλθοιεν Γίγασι καὶ οὐκ ἀνδράσιν εἰκασμένοι: ἐποίησε δὲ καὶ τὸν βασιλέα τῶν Φαιάκων λέγοντα” ( Od.7. 205, 206) “εἶναι τοὺς Φαίακας θεῶν ἐγγὺς, ὥσπερ Κύκλωπας καὶ τὸ Γιγάντων ἔθνος. ἔν τε οὖν τούτοις δηλοῖ θνητοὺς ὄντας καὶ οὐ θεῖον γένος τοὺς Γίγαντας, καὶ σαφέστερον ἐν τῷδε ἔτι: ὅς ποθ̓ ὑπερθύμοισι . . αὐτός. ἐθέλουσι δὲ αὐτῷ λαὸς ἐν τοῖς ἔπεσιν ἄνθρωποι οἱ πολλοὶ καλεῖσθαι”. Homer then knows nothing of the Gigantomachia of later legend, nor does he regard the Gigantes as Hesiod did, as monsters with serpent-feet, sprung from Uranus and Gaea, who thought to storm Olympus, but were hurled back by the thunderbolts of Zeus ( Apollod.1. 6. 1). Here we have no means of ascertaining whether (1) the Gigantes and their king were destroyed in some foolhardy expedition against another tribe; or (2) whether an insurrection of the people against their king ended in mutual disaster; or (3) whether the guilt of Eurymedon brought destruction on himself and his people. The actual words are susceptible of any one of these three interpretations, of which (1) is perhaps the most likely, on the strength of the epithets ὑπερθύμοισι and ἀτάσθαλον.

Mineur[edit]

p. 153

142 f. γίγαντος / ... Βριαρήος: in Il. 1, 403 f. and Hes. Th. 149, Briareus is a Hundred-Hander, whereas later tradition made him a Giant. See Tümpel, RE III, 833 f.; Preller-Robert, GM I, 623 f.; F. Vian, La guerre des Géants (Paris 1952), 173 and n. 9. In placing Briareus under Etna instead of Typhoeus/Typhon, Call. perhaps follows the Titanomachia, if Schol. Pi. N. 3, 40 indeed refers to that poem: see J. Dörig-O. Gigon, Der Kampf der Götter und Titanen (Olten-Lausanne 1961), 10. The fact that in Il. 2, 782 f. Typhoeus is said to have his abode εὶν Ὰρίμοις may be involved here. For a third version, in which Enceladus lies under Sicily, cf. Call. Aet. fr. 1, 36 and Verg. Aen. 3, 578 ff. with Williams' note.

p. 170

174. ὸψίγονοι Τιτήνες

It is generally supposed that Call. is confusing Titans and Giants here for the following reasons ...

Moore[edit]

1977, "The Gigantomachy of the Siphnian Treasury"

p. 324 n. 70

The question wether Demeter appeared in the Pergamene Gigantomachy or not must remain open [now confirmed]. Vian (La guerre, p. 92) assumes that she did, because an inscription (AvP VIII, P. 65, NO. 114) found southeast of the altar bears the name of Erysichthon, the adversary of Demeter who, with attendents, chopped down the tall popar in Dotium sacred to the goddess. For this transgression he was condemned to a life of insatiable hunger. This Thessalian saga is not known in the literature before the early Hellenistic period (Kern in RE VI, col. 571), when it was narrated by Callimachus in Hymn VI. The literary sources do not specifically say that Erysichthon is a giant, but his attendants who assisted in the tree-felling incident are called "men-giants" (ανδργιγαντας, by Callimachos (Hymn VI, 34).

1985, "Giants at the Getty"

p. 21

In Greek art the earliest representations appear on Attic vases during the latter part of the second quarter of the sixth century B.C.⁴ Though all surviving early examples are fragmentary, they depict large battles with most Olympians present and share certain features. Most notable are the following: Zeus, thunderbolt raised in right hand, mounting his chariot drawn by four horses who gallop to right over a fallen giant; Herakles in the chariot leaning forward, his left foot on the chariot pole, about to finish off the fallen giant with one of his arrows; Athena striding alonside the team toward one or two opponents. In three scenes, Gaia begs Zeus to spare her sons.⁵ The rest of the gods and their giants are arranged to the right and left of the central group. These early examples have enough in common to suggest that they were based on a single prototype. They were all dedicated on the Athenian Akropolis shortly after the Panathenaic Games were reorganized in 566 B.C. Part of the ceremonies of this festival in honor of Athena, which took place every four years, was to drape the cult statue of the goddess with a new peplos. Woven into this garment was a composition showing the gods fighting giants., and it is tempting to think that these early examples from the Akropolis reflect this composition.

4. Akropolis 1632 c-d ... Akropolis 2134, Akropolis 2211 ...

5. Supra n. 4.

p. 28

Clad in a short white chiton under his lionskin, a quiver full of arrows projecting above his right shoulder, Herakles strides to the right, a large sword with a red blade in his right hand, his left seizing his opponent by the wrist. The name of this giant is inscribed ΠΑΜΚΡΑΤΕΣ. retrograde.

p. 31

Hopladamas, a name suggested by Beazley for the giant being speared by Apollo on fragment c of the big dinos by Lydos, Akropolis 607.¹⁴ [p. 30: 14. Beazley, Development, 43; ABV 107, 1. Pausanius VIII, 32, 5 and 36, 2 mentions a giant by this name who was friendly with Rhea when she was pregnant with Zeus and feared that Kronos would attack her.]

Morford[edit]

p. 72

The most popular subjects for Greek artists were the Gigantomachy and related scenes, in which the forces of order (Zeus and the Olympians) triumph over thoes of disorder and violence (the Titans, the Giants, and Typhoeus). Such scenes often carry a political message, most commonly focusing on the superiority of Greek civilization over the barbarians, especially in the period after the Greek victory over the Persians in 480–479 B.C. (for example the metopes on the east side of the Parthenon at Athens and the painting on the inside of the shield of Athena Parthenos in the same temple: see chapter 8, pp. 166–170). At Delphi, the Gigantomachy was represented in the west pediment of the temple of Apollo (ca.520 B.C.) and on the north frieze of the treasury of the Siphnians (ca. 505 B.C., p. 73). It was the principal subject of the sculptures on the great altar of Zeus at Pergamum (ca 150 B.C), where it glorified Telephus, ancestor of the reigning dynasty and son of Heracles, whose help was crucial in the victory of Zeus over the Giants. One of the most complex programs, which included the Gigantomachy and the creation of woman (Pandora), was that of the Parthenon (see Chapter 8, pp. 166–169).

p. 73

[caption:] Gigantomachy. Detail from the north frieze of the treasury of the Siphnians at Delphi, ca 525 B.C.; marble, height 25 in. From left to right two giants attack two goddesses (not shown); Dionysus, clothed in a leopardskin, attacks a giant; Apollo and Artemis chase a running giant; corpse of a giant protected by three giants. The names of all the figures were inscribed by the artist. The giants are shown as Greek hoplites—a device both for making the battle more immediate for a Greek viewer and for differentiating between the Olympians and the giants.

pp. 82–83

Both conflicts [the Gigantomachy and the Titanomachy] may be interpreted as reflecting the triumph of the more benign powers of nature over the more wild powers or of civilization over savagery. Historically, it is likely that they represent the fact of conquest and amalgamation when, in about 2000 B.C., the Greek-speaking invaders brought with them their own gods, with Zeus as their chief, and triumphed over the deities of the existing peoples in the peninsula of Greece.

Neils[edit]

p. 227

The Greater Panathenaea, held every four years from 566 on. involved presenting a new peplos to the cult statue of the goddess; woven into it was a scene of the gods fighting the giants, which may well have inspired the long frieze-like gigantomachies found on Attic black-figure kraters and dinoi, many of which were dedicated on the Acropolis.

Newlands[edit]

p. 81

183 Centum modifies bracchia (184).

183–84 quisque ... anguipedum anguipes (here partitive gen.) is a grand Ovidian coinage, a substantive for the Giants who were "snakefooted" with a hundred arms that they sought to thrust on heaven.

Ogden[edit]

p. 71

If an image on an Etruscan hydria of c.520-510 BC does indeed represent Typhon raising a rock aloft, it gives him four anguipede legs, each terminating in a rampant serpent-head (it also gives him an additional two tiny pairs of wings in addition to his main set).⁸

⁸ LIMC Typhon 30.

p. 82

It is difficult to reconstruct the Giants mythical tradition, since the extant literary sources for it, which effectively begin with the Theogony's observation that they were sired in Earth by the drops of blood that fell upon her when Zeus [No Cronus!] castrateted Uranus, typically refer to the Gigantomachy glancingly or focus only upon monomachies whithin it.⁷⁴ No synopic account survives prior to that of Diodorus of the first century BC; our summary is based upon Apollodorus', which may, however, derive from a fourth-century BC model.⁷⁵

By contrast the theme of the Gigantomachy flourished in art from the mid sixth century BC until the end of the imperial age: over six hundred images of it survive.⁷⁶ It is in the iconographic record of the fourth century BC that the Giants first aquire their serpent feet: thereafter serpent feet become more common in their representation throughtout the Hellenistic period, with some particularly fine examples on the frieze of the Great Altar of Pergamum,⁷⁷ untill they become all but universal in the imperial period, and indeed the principal means of identifying ... [p. 83]

⁷⁴ Hesiod Theogony 183-6. The Odyssey's Giants stand a little outside the remainder of the tradition, in so far as they are ethnologized into a wild, arrogant, and doomed race, formerly presided over by a king Eurymedon (7. 56-60). However, they are explicitly compared to the rock-throwing Laestrygonians (10.120-2) and possibly to the montrous Cyclops (7.205-6); cf, Gantz 1993: i. 445-6.

⁷⁵The complex and centrifigal literary sources for the Giants tradition are listed and reviewed at Vian and Moore 1988: 191-6.

⁷⁶ LIMC Gigantes offers no fewer than 613 entries.

⁷⁷ LIMC Gigantes 24.

p. 83

[p. 82] ... Giants as such in more isolated depictions.⁷⁸ (Prior to this, and otherwise, Giants are often distinguished by nudity or the wearing of animal skins, or by their weapons of choice, rocks and logs.)⁷⁹

The earliest anguipede Giant is to be found on a red-figure vase of c.400-375 BC, in a battle with Dionysus, and already he is fully in the form that will be the most typical for the remainder of antiquity: his two legs each merge in serpents and end in serpent-heads.⁸⁰ Thereafter, anguiform Giants are occasionally found in other configurations too:⁸¹

With a single or a double serpent-tail proper (i.e. no serpent heads on the end)., from the fourth century BC.⁸²
With each of their two serpent legs bifurcating to end in a total of four serpent heads, from the third century BC.⁸³
With two fish-tails, from the third century BC (for which see Ch. 3).⁸⁴
With serpents sprouting from the hips or shoulders, from the third century BC. ⁸⁵
With serpents mixed into their hair, from c. AD 150.⁸⁶

The proliferation of the Giants' iconography allows us to tell beyond doubt that it was in Magna Graecia that the anguipede variant was first developed; it is from here that that all fourth-century BC examples of anguipede Giants derive.⁸⁷ We are also able to tell that the Giants took their anguipede form over quite directly from thei half-brother Typhon, with whom they are so closely assimilated in narrative as monstrous children produced by Earth in a spirit of revenge, with the mission to attack and overthrow the gods in heaven, and whose fate they share, blasted by thunderbolts and, in Enceladus' case buried under Sicily. In archaic iconography Typhon was normally depicted as multiply anguipede, as we have seen, and had long been a popular figure on Etruscan pots from the sixth century BC.⁸⁸ It was no doubt due to the influence of Typhon too that anguiped Giants were also given wings, first in the later fourth century.⁸⁹ in some puzzling [p. 84] ...

⁷⁸ A deracinated use of Giants that became particularly popular in the imperial period was their deployment as 'atlantes', roof supports, actual or decorative, male equivalents of caryatids: LIMC Gigantes 590-607; cf. Vian and Moore 1988: 269-70.

⁷⁹ C.f. Vian and Moore 1988: 251-2, 254.

⁸⁰ LIMC Gigantes 389; cf Vian and Moore 1988: 253. Mention of the Giants' serpent elements does not manifest itself directly in the literary record actually until the 3rd century BC (if we discount speculation about Apollodorus' source): Naevius F4 Strzelecki refers to bicorpores Gigantes; on the Greek side we have to wait to Didorus 1. 26, polysomatoi. At the end of antiquity Claudian's Gigantomachia makes repeated reference to the Giants' serpents, lines 8, 80-1, 111-13.

⁸¹ C.f. Vian and Moore 1988: 253.

⁸² e.g. LIMC Gigantes 402.

⁸³ e.g. LIMC Gigantes 91, 492-3.

⁸⁴ e.g. LIMC Gigantes 433-5, 593-4

⁸⁵ e.g. LIMC Gigantes 61

⁸⁶ e.g. LIMC Gigantes 486. Cf. Nonnus, Dionysiaca 1. 18, where the Giants are drakontomoi.

⁸⁷ LIMC Gigantes 58-60, 77-8, 389, 398, 400-2; cf. Vian and Moore 1988: 253.

⁸⁸ Vian and Moore 1988: 253. The confusion between Typhon and Giant seems to be particularly marked in the case of the later 4th-century BC Apilian crater, LIMC Gigantes 398.

⁸⁹ e.g. LIMC Gigantes 24, 26, 58, 60-1, 483; cf. Vian and Moore 1988: 253.

p. 84

... [p. 83] imperial images anguipede Giants appear to wield Zeus' thunderbot. This notion too may have been influenced by the myth of Typhon, who succeeded in stealing Zeus' thunderbolt from him.⁹⁰

⁹⁰ e.g. LIMC Gigantes 505 (AD 189); cf. Vian and Moore 1988: 254.

O'Hara[edit]

p. 99

Vergil follows an unusual variant: while in Hesiod the Hundred-handers help Zeus fight the Titans, Vergil has him [Aegaeon] fighting on the side of the Titans against Jupiter (567), as in the Titanomachia.⁵⁸

⁵⁸ Hardie (1986) 155, whom I paraphrase closely: cf. Mack (1978) 115, O'Hara (1994) 218—19, Williams (1983) 179—80, Harrison (1991) 215, Horsfall (1995) 114, ...

Parker, Robert[edit]

2006, Polytheism and Society at Athens [Available online with BU login]

p. 255

According to a third explanation, found in a work ascribed to Aristotle, the festival was celebrated ‘for the death of Aster, the giant killed by Athena’. There may be a whiff of scholasticism here, in the attempt to give the Panathenaea, like so many other Greek games, an origin as funeral games celebrated ‘for’ (ὲπί) an identifiable dead person. We cannot be quite certain that this aition was current in Attica; the choice of the obscure Aster as Athena’s victim in place of the obvious Enceladus might derive from a now submerged Athenian tradition— or ignorance. The question arises how the third aition relates to the others. One source combines it with the first, having the festival founded in the time of Erichthonius son of Amphictyon ‘for the death of Asterios’ (as he is here called).¹¹ The combined version is chronologically strange, since Asterios must have died long before Erichthonius was born. Possibly it represents an attempt to reconcile discrepant versions by a late source ignorant of Athenian traditions. In that event all talk of ‘the’ aition of the Panathenaea becomes illicit, since we have more than one. But perhaps Erichthonius was indeed imagined by the Athenians as having founded the festival to celebrate, in retrospect, his foster-mother’s ancient feat.¹² On any view, such an aition could not have been proposed but for the symbolic importance at the festival of Athena’s victorious role in the battle against the Giants.

¹¹ So Σ alt. Aristid. Panath. 189, p. 323 Dindorf; the first Σ there (which quotes Aristotle and appears as fr. 637 Rose) is the only other passage to associate Panathenaea with the death of ‘Aster’, but does not mention Erichthonius. On Aster/Asterios see Vian, Guerre, 262-5; the importance of the aitiological link with the gigantomachy is stressed by Vian, Guerre, 246-64, Pinney, ‘Pallas and Panathenaea’, 471, and Shear, Polis and Panathenaia, 31-7.

¹² Some chronological oddity was unavoidable if the festival, an institution of men, was to be linked aitiologically to the gigantomachy, an event in the world of gods.

2011, On Greek Religion

p. 201

The victory of the gods over the giants was woven on the Panathenaic robe, probably with special emphasis on Athena's slaying of Enceladus (or Asterius), prototype of victories to be achieved by her citizens, but the festival was not a reenactment of her victory.¹⁰⁴

104. See Parker, Polytheism, 256 (birthday); ibid., 255 for the etiological association with the killing of the giant Asterius. Decoration of the peplos: Eur. Hec. 466-74, IT 222-24.

Pollitt[edit]

1986, Art in the Hellenistic Age

P. 105

lion-headed Giants wrestle with gods [105]. Amazon

p. 109

Before leaving the question of the program of the great frieze, a word should be said about the Giants. Although there are 16 names of Giants partly or fully preserved in the inscriptions from the base of the frieze, it has not been proved possible to ascribe any of these names to particular figures with complete certainty. (There is a separate set of positioning marks for the blocks on which the Giants' names were inscribed, but its code has yet to be deciphered.) The one useful source for determining which Giants is most likely to have fought which god is Apollodoros's relatvely brief description of the battle in the Bibliotheke (1.6.1–3). On the basis of Apollodoros, Hekate's opponent has been identified as Klytios, the fallen Giant next to Apollo as Ephialtes, the Giant whose hair is grasped by Athena as Alkyoneus or Enkelados, and the snaky-tailed Giant who opposes Xeus as Porphrion or Typhon.²⁷ Each of these identifications is disputable. As was the case for the gods, the size of the frieze called for many more Giants than there were models for in earlier Greek art. Once again Hellenistic scholarship was probably called upon for inspiration. Some details in the representation of the Giants may have been inspired by Hesiod and other early authors, but it seems likely that the main inspiration was a Hellenistic work, very probably the Περὶ γιγάντων On the Giants, of the Stic Kleanthes of Assos. Nothing survives of the work, but one may guess that, in keeping with other Stoic writings on literature and mythology, it ascribed allegorical significance to the Giants. At any rate, the variety of form in which the Giants are cast has no precedent in Greek art and must be a reflection of contemporary scholarly research and speculation. Some of the Giants have purely human forms and wear armor (e.g. the opponent of Artemis), which is the way Hesiod (Theogony 185-6) describes them. Others have snaky legs which end in serpents heads, not tails. This form has a few precedents in vase painting, but the altar of Zeus represents the first extensive use of it.²⁸ Its inspiration may come from Hesiod's description of Typhoeus or Typhon (Theogony 821-7), the monstous offspring of Earth and Tartaros. Properly speaking Typhon was not one of the Giants. Nor apparently were the bull-headed and lion-headed monsters on the frieze, who are probably Hellenistic inventions".

Queyrel[edit]

p. 49

La frise principale du Grand Autel, haute de 2,30 m, déroule sur 113 m de long les épisodes simultanés de la bataille des dieux contre les géants, sculptée en haut relief (fig. 33). De toutes les frises grecques conservées, elle occupe ľespace le plus grand, disposant les figures, au nombre de 111 au moins, sur plus de 250 m².

[Google translate: La frise principale du Grand Autel, haute de 2,30 m, déroule sur 113 m de long les épisodes simultanés de la bataille des dieux contre les géants, sculptée en haut relief (fig. 33). De toutes les frises grecques conservées, elle occupe ľespace le plus grand, disposant les figures, au nombre de 111 au moins, sur plus de 250 m².

pp. 52–53

S'élancent vers la droite, Athéna, désignée par une inscription, est casquée, vetue d'une tunique à rabat, protégée par une égide*, bien reconnaissable au gorgonéion* et aux serpenteaux qui se tordent sur ses bords, et par le bouclier rond passé au bras gauche; elle saisit de la main droite l'abondante chevelure d'un jeune géant tout empreint d'humanite (pi. XI; fig. 36). Le fils de la Terre ici vaincu est le geant Alcyonne, d'une force prodigieuse, qui, d'apres la legende, restait [p. 53] immortel tant qu'il gardait contact avec la Terre. La double paire d'ailes qui, sortant de son dos, le transforme en un monstre mi-homme mi-oiseau fait sans doute allusion a sa legende: apres la mort d'Alcyonee ses filles, de desespoir, se jeterent dans la mer et furent changees en oiseaux marins, les alcyons. Il ne va pas tarder a rejoindre dans la mort un geant cuirasse qui git derriere lui: c'est Tartaros, qui passe pour etre le pere de geants, dont on restitue le nom sur la moulure inferieure. Alcyonne, a bout de forces, qui tente en vain d'arreter le geste de la deesse, est mordu sur le cote droit par le grand serpent d'Athena qui enserre son bras gauche et s'enroule autour de sa jambe droite en prenant dans son etreinte son bras gauche et sa jambe droite : le geant est ainsi prive de toute possibililite de resister en s'arc-boutant sur la terre. Pres de la fin, il gemit, la bouche entr'ouverte, son regard noye dirige vers Athena. Du pied, il garde encore conatct avec sa mere, Ge, la Terre, designee par son nom inscrit dans le champ du relief, qui retient une corne d'abondance regorgeant de fruits, grenade, pomme et grappe de raisin ; vetu d'un chiton, son torse matronal emerge a moitie du sol et, dans un geste de supplication, elle touche un pan de la robe d'Athena, regardant la deesse dont la victoire est assuree : Nike ailee, la deesse de la victoire, arrive dans les airs par la droit en tenant une couronne metallique maintenant disparue.

[Google translate: Rush to the right, Athena, designated by an inscription is helmeted, clothed in a tunic flap, protected by an aegis gorgoneion well recognizable and serpents writhing on its edges, and the shield round past the left arm; she seized the right hand abundant hair of a young giant all imbued with humanity (pi XI. fig. 36). The son of the Earth is here defeated the giant Alcyonne, of prodigious strength, which, after the legend, remained immortal as he kept contact with Earth. Two pair of wings coming out of his back, turns into a monster half-man, half-bird is probably a reference to his legend: after the death of his daughters Alcyoneus of despair, threw themselves into the sea and were turned into seabirds, kingfishers. He will soon join him in death was a giant armor that lies behind it: it is Tartarus, which happens to be the father of giants, whose name is restored on the lower molding. Alcyonne, was exhausted, which tried in vain to stop the wave of the goddess, was bitten on the right side by the great serpent of Athena that encircles his left arm wraps around his right leg taking in Embrace her his left arm and his right leg: the giant is thus deprived of any possibililite to resist by bracing himself on earth. Near the end, he moaned, his mouth open, his eyes drowned towards Athena. Foot, he still keeps conatct with his mother, Ge, Earth, designated by the part of the field terrain name, which holds a cornucopia overflowing with fruits, pomegranate, apple and bunch of grapes; dressed in a chiton, his chest was half matronly emerge from the ground and, in a gesture of supplication, it touches a piece of the robe of Athena, the goddess looking whose victory is assured: ailee Nike, the goddess of victory arrives in the air by the law by holding a metal crown now disappeared.]

pp. 53–54

A gauche, l'autre groupe principal presente Zeus, le pere d'Athena, qui, dans une enjambee majestueuse, domine la melee de trois adversaires monstrueux (pi. XII; fig. 37). Le plus grand des Olympiens, son torse puissant denude, les jambes drapees dans un ample manteau, brandit de tout son elan un grand foudre metallique, rapporte dans sa main droite, et attaque aussi en protegeant son bras gauche avec l'egide a ecailles et bordee de petits serpents. Sans tenir compte de la vaine protection d'un bouclier leche par les flammes, il a deja transperce la cuisse du geant tombe assis devant lui, a gauche, sur un element moulure qui ressemble au tabouret d'un trone et il va lancer l'eclair sur un autre geant, a droite, vu de dos, aux jambes serpentines et aux oreilles caprines, qui le defie en tentant vainement de se proteger le visage de son bras gauche enroule dans une peau de lion d'ou pendent une patte griffue et une tete pantelante (fig. 38-39). Ce geant, dont l'oeil gauche rapporte, de couleur pourpre, reflechissait l'eclat de la foudre qui l'aveugle avant de l'aneantir, est Porphyrion, d'apres l'inscription retrouvee sur un bloc de la moulure inferieure⁷ : il est qualifie par Pindare de « roi des Geants » (VTII Pythique, v. 23-24) et son nom signifie le Porteur de pourpre, le [p. 54] Roi; on ne doit pas reconnaitre ici Typhon⁸, qui a connu la meme fin que lui, precipite par Zeus dans le Tartare. Sur la frise le corps de Tartaros, etendu derriere Porphyrion, rappelle cet episode de la legende. Brandissant une arme dans sa main droite, Porphyrion affronte le roi des dieux dont l'aigle, en partie disparu, fond sur la jambe serpentine du monstre qui darde une tete menacante a l'arrièreplan.

[Google translate: On the left, the other main group presents Zeus, the father of Athena, who, in a majestic stride, dominates the melee of three monstrous opponents (pi XII. Fig. 37). The greatest Olympians, powerful torso denude the legs draped in a loose coat, brandishing his whole elan large metal lightning, reports in his right hand, and also attacks by protecting his left arm with the aegis and has scales bordered small snakes. Regardless of the vain protection of a shield leche in flames, he already pierced the thigh of the giant tomb sitting before him, has left on a ledge element resembling a throne stool and it will launch the eclair on another giant, right, seen from behind, with serpentine legs and goat ears, which defies vainly trying to protect his face with his left arm wrapped in a lion's skin or hang on a clawed paw and a panting head (fig. 38-39). This giant, whose left eye relates, purple, reflected the brilliance of lightning that blinds before annihilate is Porphyrion, for after the inscription found on a block of the lower trim⁷: it qualifies by Pindar "King of the giants" (VTII Pythian, v 23-24.) and its name means purple Bearer, King; should not recognize here Typhon⁸, which had the same end as he, precipitated by Zeus in Tartarus. On the frieze body Tartaros, extended behind Porphyrion recalls this episode of the legend. Brandishing a weapon in his right hand, Porphyrion confronts the king of the gods whose eagle, partly disappeared, bottom leg of the serpentine monster darts a menacing head to the background.

pp. 54–55

Au cote de Zeus, son pere divin, apparaissait Heracles, dont il ne reste plus que le nom sur la moulure superieure et l'extremite d'une parte de la peau de lion qui est l'attribut du heros ainsi qu'une main gauche qui tenait l'arc⁹. D'apres la legende, l'inter- vention de ce mortel etait indispensable pour apporter la victoire aux dieux; il criblait les geants de ses fleches, visant Alcyonee avant d'achever Porphyrion: ainsi s'explique le geste d'Athena, qui saisit le jeune geant par la chevelure; non seulement elle l'eloigne de Ge, dont le contact garantissait le salut de ce fils de la Terre, mais elle offre aussi cette victime au trait fatal d'Heracles. Tout le tiers droit [p. 55] de la frise orientale depend ainsi formellement de la figure du heros, maintenant perdue. Pour reconstituer son attitude, on peut s'aider d'un fragment de vase a relief de la fin du IV siecle av. J.-C, ou le heros brandit l'arc et la massue pour affronter un geant 10. Sur la frise de Pergame, Heracles ne peut qu'affronter de loin les geants en decochant ses fleches vers Porphyrion et, plus loin, Alcyonee qu'Athena expose a ses traits.

[Google translate: To the side of Zeus, his divine father, appeared Heracles, he remains only the name on the upper trim and the extremity of a leg of the lion skin which is the attribute of the hero and a left hand holding the bow⁹. On after the legend, the intervention of this deadly was essential to bring victory to the gods; he riddled the giants of his arrows aimed Alcyoneus before completing Porphyrion: this explains the gesture of Athena, which captures the young giant by the hair; it not only the distant Ge, whose contact ensured the salvation of the son of the Earth, but it also offers this feature fatal victim of Heracles. All the right third of the eastern frieze and depends formally the figure of the hero, now lost. To reconstitute his attitude, we can help a vase fragment relief of the late fourth century BC. AD, or the hero wields the bow and club to face a giant 10. On the frieze of Pergamon, Heracles can that facing by far the Giants by clearing his arrows to Porphyrion and, further, that Alcyoneus Athena has exhibited his features.

p. 55

Puis, dans cette partie malheureusement tres lacunaire, on restitute le figures d'Iris, a laquelle appartient un fragment d'aile¹¹, et de Demeter, qui brulait de sa torche enflammee le visage du geant Erysichton, nom d'un prince thessalien impie qui coupa un bois sacre de la deesse¹² (fig. 30).

[Google translate: Then, in this part unfortunately very incomplete, the figures we restitute Iris, to which belongs a wing fragment and Demeter, who burned her torch inflamed the face of giant Erysichton, name of a Thessalian prince Unholy cut a sacred wood of the goddess.]

pp. 55–58

Le dieu de la lumière vient d'abattre un jeune géant casqué qui expire à ses pieds en tentant d'arracher une flèche de son œil gauche, près du cadavre d'un de ses compagnons anguipède ; on l'identifie traditionnellement comme Ephialtes, tue par le dieu d'une fleche decochee dans l'oeil gauche, mais c'est Oudaios, dont le nom a ete lu sur la moulure inferieure¹³ (fig. 42). Le nom d'Oudaios est peut-etre choisi pour evoquer son descendant le devin Tiresias, aveugle et inspire d'Apollon. Derrière Apollon, sa mère Léto, comme l'indique l'inscription, en chiton sans manches et manteau roulé à la taille, eblouit avec une torche enflammee un geant bestial perce au flanc gauche qui, tombant a la renverse sur une eminence de rocher, essaie de l'eloigner avec son pied gauche, tandis qu'il agrippe la torche de la main droit (fig. 43). Avec ses doigts qui se terminent par des serres, aussi bien aux pieds qu'aux mains, l'ergot qui pointe près du poignet, sa petite queue serpentine qui sort de son dos et ses ailes courtes et trapues, le monstre serait Tityos qui, d'apres la legende, avait poursuivi Leto ... À gauche, la fille de Léto, Artémis, s'elance en sens opposé, pietinant le cadavre du geant nomme [Sty]phel[os]¹⁴ (fig. 44): vêtue d'une tunique courte, un manteau roule au-dessus de la taille, chaussee de brodequins ornes et armee du carquois et de l'arc, elle decoche une fleche a un geant casque, a gauche, qui s'apprete a soutenir l'assaut en brandissant le glaive nu et en se protegeant du bouclier, dont l'attache est ornee d'une petite egide avec gorgoneion. Ce jeune geant, qui est le seul sur cette portion de la frise a toiser a son niveau une divinite de l'Olympe, ne peut etre surement identifie (fig. 134) : on a pense a l'Aloade Otos, qui declara son amour a Artemis, ou a Gration, tue par Artemis dans certaines versions de la legende. Otos, était en effet célèbre pour sa beauté, comme sa frere Ephialtes, que l'on a souvent reconnu dans le geant tue par Apollon, qui est en fait Oudaios. Entre les deux adversaires, le molosse de la deesse chasseresse dechire la nuque d'un geant barbu et anguipede, qui s'affale en tentant d'arracher un ceil du chien (fig . 45). Derrière, à gauche, se dresse enfin la triple Hecate, la déesse des carrefours, divinité infernale invoquée dans les rites magiques, [p. 58] vetue d'une tunique sous L'ample manteau a rabat et armee du bouclier (fig. 46); elle est dotee de trois tetes, la premiere, au premier plan, ceinte d'une bandelette, la deuxieme autrefois casquee et la troisieme dont on apercoit seulement les cheveux noues en chignon sur la nuque; dans ses trois mains droites, elle tient la lance, L'epee, dont une de ses mains gauches presente le fourreau, et bran- dit, derriere ses trois tetes, une torche contre un geant barbu, aux jambes serpentines, qui porte a deux mains un bloc rocheux; la legende donne a cet adversaire de la deesse le nom de Clytios. Le chien associe a Hecate prend part a la bataille en surgissant par derriere pour dechirer le haut de la cuisse du geant, dont les tetes de serpent se dressent, l'une mordant le bouclier d'Hecate, l'autre prete a cracher son venin (fig. 115).

[Google translate: The god of light [Apollo] just killed a young giant helmet expiring at his feet trying to pull an arrow from his left eye, near the corpse of one of his companions Anguiped; it is traditionally identified as Ephialtes, god kills a cleared arrow in the left eye, but it is Oudaios, whose name was read on the lower molding¹³ (fig. 42). The name, Oudaios may be chosen to evoke the seer Tiresias his descendant, blind and inspired by Apollo. Behind Apollo, his mother Leto, as indicated by the inscription in chiton sleeveless coat and rolls the size, dazzles with a torch inflamed brutish giant pierces the left flank that was falling backwards on an eminence of rock, try to stay strictly with his left foot as he grabbed the torch of right hand (Fig. 43). With his fingers ending in [claws], as well as hands feet, the pin that points near the wrist, small serpentine tail sticking out of his back and short and stubby wings, the monster would Tityos which and after the legend, sued Leto ... On the left, the daughter of Leto, Artemis rushes in the opposite direction, trampling the corpse of the giant named [Sty]phel[os]¹⁴ (fig. 44): wearing a short tunic, a coat rolls over the size of floor and army boots adorn the quiver and bow, she fired an arrow a giant helmet, left, who is preparing to support the assault, brandishing the naked sword and shield protecting themselves, whose attachment is adorned with a small aegis Gorgon. This young giant, which is the only on that portion of the frieze level toiser has a deity of Olympus, surely can not be identified (Fig. 134): we think of the Aloade Otos, who declared his love Artemis has, or has Gration, killed by Artemis in some versions of the legend. Otos was indeed famous for his beauty, like his brother Ephialtes, who is often identified as the giant killed by Apollo, who is actually Oudaios. Between the two adversaries, the Hound of the huntress goddess torn neck of a bearded giant Anguiped who collapses while trying to pull a dog's eye (fig. 45). Behind, left, finally draws the triple Hecate, the goddess of the crossroads, infernal deity invoked in magical rites, clothed in a tunic The large coat flap and army shield (fig. 46); is endowed with three heads, the first in the foreground, surrounded by a strip, the second and third once helmeted whose hair valleys is only perceives in a bun at the nape; in its three right hands she holds the spear, the sword, one of his left hands presents the sheath, and connect said, behind his three heads, torch against a giant bearded, with serpentine legs, bringing two hands boulder; the legend gives the opponent has the name of the goddess Clytius. The dog associates Hecate has taken part in the battle for tearing arising from behind the top of the thigh of the giant, the snake heads stand, one biting the shield of Hecate, the other ready to spit its venom (Fig. 115).]

Ridgway, Brunilde Sismondo[edit]

2000 Helenistic Sculpture II

[Google has the text of this work under a different work by Ridgway]

p. 32

Yet some sculptors' names have come down to us, inscribed on the base molding below the frieze slabs, and clearly distinguished from those naming the Giants, on the same architectural element,³⁴ by their lower level and the added verbs, ethnics, and patronymics, when perserved. The gods' names, in turn, were engraved on the cavetto molding above the dentils, or, in the case of Ge, on the background next to her head.³⁵

p. 33

over one hundred named figures [on the Pergamon Altar]

p. 34

It should be stressed that many elements attested at Priene recur at Pergamon: Ge rising from the ground ..."

p. 39

Two more iconographic comments must conclude this section, potentially endless given the richness of the frieze. The first concerns the famous scene of Athena, her opponent, and Ge on the east side (cf. Pl. 11). It is usually stateted that the Giant is Alkyoneus, a son of Ge who derived immortality from contact with Mother earth. At first glance, it looks in fact as if Athena is trying to break his hold on his mother's arm by interposing her thigh between the two and by lifting him up by the hair; yet several peculiarites remain. First of all, it is surprising that a Giant who needed such earthly contact should be given not single but double wings, as if for powerful flight. In addition, the Giant is still in touch with the ground (and even with Ge), at least with both feet, although Athena's snake is inflicting the fatal wound. It has been noted that "paradoxically, it is in the air, domain of immortality, that A. will find death, killed by a serpent, which elsewhere on the frieze (Hesperides, N frieze) appears as a guardian of life."⁵⁹ Paradoxes, of course, can be quite intentional. The snake, as Athena's familiar, is an excellent, almost Dantesque contrapposto for the serpentine legs of most Giants. Moreover the goddess herself is covered with snakes: one for her scaly belt, others for the fringes of her feathered aigis, and a few more around the gorgoneion in its center—fighting fire with fire. The Giant's wings can also be explained as needed balance for Nike's, who is crowning Athena, as in the Parthenon metope E 4. But Ge's rendering is peculier on all counts. Her expression is one of deep sorrow, and her raised right hand is begging Athena for mercy, but her left hand (enormous) appears, palm out, at the bottom edge of the slab, supporting an undisterbed, overflowing cornucopia that seems incongruous, even ironic, as a symbol of her bounty and fertility, an uneccessary attribute given her clear iconography and engraved label.

p. 54

³⁴ On the walls of the podium flanking the stairs (the German Risalit ... ), where the bottom molding was omitted, the sculptors' names were inscribed on the cornice, and the Giants' on the background of the frieze, between the figures.

³⁵ At current count, 25 gods' names are preserved, although others can be conjectured; a drawing of the Gigantomachy slabs in Pollitt 1986, 96-97, distinguishes among degrees of certainty for various identifications. Fehr 1997, 61 n. 13, mentions that the identification of 33 (= over 50 percent of the ca. 60 fighting deities) is assured or non-cntroversial. He further breaks down the totals to 32 goddesses and 21 gods (cf. Simin 1975, who fills up the gaps and counts 38 goddesses and 24 gods).

To the 17 Giants' names listed by Smith 1991, 164, that of Porphyrion can now be safely added (Kästner 1994) on the basis of a new fragment joining a previously known one; it can be shown to belong to Zeus' opponent with hollow eyes, as previously hypothesized, although Simon 1975 had suggested Typhon; see her chart on rear foldout pl. 1 (approx. p. 69).

pp. 59–60 n. 59 [This link can be viewed from my laptop]

59. The quotation (originally in French) is from LIMC 1, s.v. Alkyoneus, 564 no. 33 (R. Olmos/L. J. Balmaeseda). Identification is provided by a fragmentary inscription, ...]ΝΕΥΣ, that may belong to the scene. Harrison, in her review of Simon 1975 (supra, n. 6), points out that [p. 60] Athena is pulling the Giant toward, rather than away from, his mother; that wings are unusual for Alkyoneus; and that Enkelados, "whose name evokes the sound of rushing winds," would be a better identification. Simon's argument (pp. 22, 44) that both Athena and Zeus are given the two "immortal" Giants as opponents, is rendered invalid by recent integration of Porphyrion's name instead of Typhon's (supra, n. 35). Simon explains Alkyoneus' four wings as an indication that the goddess can overcome her opponent only in the air (p. 22). But the Greek name alkyon means kingfisher, the sea bird who might have inspired Alkyoneus' wings.

2005 Review of François Queyrel, L'Autel de Pergame. Images et pouvoir en Grèce d'Asie. Antiqua vol. 9. in Bryn Mawr Classical Review, 2005.08.39

A good portion of the book is taken by superb descriptions of the Gigantomachy and Telephos Friezes, accompanied by new detailed drawings (by Florence André). The outer frieze is more or less established in its general sequence and only individual identities remain controversial. Q. [Queyrel] proposes many new ones, especially on the North side where he locates Hermes and Hephaistos,5 as well as the three Gorgons: Medusa, Euryale, Stheno, and the three Moirai: Lachesis, Clotho, Atropos. This last is the spectacular deity hurling an enigmatic vessel circled by a snake (figs. 67-68). She is traditionally known as Nyx, but Q. believes that Night should be recognized in the velificans female next to Rhea/Cybele on the South (fig. 53). Two "digressions" ("La véritable Nyx," pp. 63-64; and "La pseudo-Nyx," pp. 72-73) convincingly argue both cases. A Table (pp. 76-78) summarizes the main identifications that have been proposed for each figure, with Q.'s new ones highlighted by bold type. The line drawings (fig. 33, pp. 50-51) include new names for both Gods and Giants, as well as the plan of the present display in Berlin. Two more Tables (p. 52) list the few preserved names of divinities inscribed on the upper molding, and those of Giants on the lower molding of the frieze, together with the mason's marks appearing on the relevant blocks.

Several details in the description are either novel or unfamiliar. Added fragments show a Giant flipped into the air by a ketos accompanying Poseidon. Demeter (now positively located) uses two torches against Erysichton. A flaming torch is also used by Eos who rides to the help of Kadmilos (one of the Kabeiroi) in hard combat with a monstrous bull-Giant (figs. 50-52). Athena, in pulling Alkyoneus by the hair not only removes him from his mother Ge but also (p. 54) exposes his body to the arrows of Herakles (now mostly fragmentary) who stands behind Zeus. Another archer is Apollo, on the same East side, who has hit in his left eye the reclining Giant now identified by inscription as Oudaios (not Ephialtes; pp. 55-56). The young Giant grabbed by Doris, albeit beardless, surprisingly wears a mustache (p. 67, fig. 59) -- the only such example of facial hairstyle, to my knowledge.

Ridgway, David[edit]

Robertson, Martin[edit]

p. 17

In the other groups the figure with the thunderbolt can only be Zeus though he lacks a beard. The one enthroned has been thought Priam in Troy, and if so there are two subjects: Gigantomachy [Battle of Gods and Giants] and Iliupersis [Sack of Troy]. There are arguments, however, for making the seated figure Rhea, Mother of the Gods, and then both scenes could belong to the Titanomachy [Battle of the Gods and Titans] which would suit a young Zeus; a more economical theory, though there are difficulties.

pp. 106–107

One of the little copies of the shield of Athena Parthenos has traces of the painted Gigantomachy inside. A group can be faintly made out which recurs on a number of vases with the subject painted in Athens around 400, a time when there is considerable evidence of artistic nostalgia (cf. below, p. 116). The vase-pictures vary a good deal, but a distinctive principle of composition is common and surely derives from the original: the gods, high in the picture, are fighting down towards us, while the Giants tend to have their backs to us or to retreat in our direction (fig. 147 [Louvre MNB810]).

147 Neck-amphora (not, as long believed, from Melos; probably from Italy). Attic red-figure: Gigantomachy. Ascribed to Suessula Painter. About 400 B.C. H., with lid that does not fit.

Robertson, Noel[edit]

p. 42

There is a larger class of stories in which Athena acquires the Aigis as she plunges into battle against an adversary variously named, a giant or a monster or an invulnerable warrior: Pallas, Aegis, also Aster, Asterius, even Gorgon.³¹ she kills him (or her, Gorgon) and flays the hide to make the aigis, then wares it in further fighting. Such stories go back to Euripides and Epicharmus and to the Meropis as a local epic of Cos. The Meropis indeed suggests that the pattern is much older, as old as a story that Homer knows, of Heracles blown by storm to Cos (Il. 14.250–256). For it is in aid of Heracles that Athena fights a Coan champion, and we shall see below that the details are true to ancient ritual.

³⁰ Cic. Nat. D. 3.59; Clem. Al. Protr. 2.28.2; Ampelius 9.10; Arn. Adv. nat. 4.14; Firm. Mat. Err. prof. rel. 16.2; Tzetz. Lycoph. Alex 255.

³¹ Pallas a giant: Epicharm. (note 28 above); Apollod, Bibl, 1.37. Aegis a fiery monster: Dionysius Scytobrachion FGrH 32 F 8 (at Diod. Sic. 3.70.3-5). Asterus, an invulnerable warrior of Cos: anon. Meropis P. Colon. 5604 = H. Llyod-Jones and P. Parsons, Supplementum Hellenisticum (Berlin and New York: W. de Gruyter, 1983), 903 A. Aster, a giant of ?Attica: Arist. [Peplus] fr. 637 Rose³. Gorgon, here counted among the giants, and equated with the agis: Eur. Ion 987-997.

pp. 43–44

As Heracles returns from Troy, his ship is driven to the island by an autumn storm, and a fierce battle follows against the natives, and Heracles and his men are almost defeated — until Athena intervenes. In the recently discovered Meropis, Athena creates the aigis by killing and flaying the invulnerable warrior Asterus.

Scheid[edit]

pp. 18–19

A gigantomachy, a strugle between gods and giants, is woven into the peplos⁴⁷—in particular, one might imagine, the struggle between Athena and the giant Asterius, whose death is sometimes considered to be the aition of the (Small) Panathenaea.⁴⁸

p. 178

48, The Scholia to Aristides, p. 323 Dindorf: the Small Panathenaeas were celebrated "to commemorate the elimination of the giant Asterius by Athena," epi Asteri toi giganti hupo Athẽnaias anairethenti; scholium cited by R. Eisler, Weltmantel und Himmelszelt, vol. 1 (Munich: C. H. Beck, 1910), p. 178, which, however, questions the existence of a giant by this name. In the gigantomachy recounted by Apollodorus, it is the giants Enkelados and Pallas who are killed by the goddess, (Bibliotheca 1.6.2). In Troy, Athena received a peplos that "shone like a star [aster]" (Il. 6.295); could such a comparison have "given birth" to Asterius?

Schefold[edit]

p 34 [Can be seen by linking from my laptop]

Such a high value is placed on Herakles' prowess that he is even needed by the gods for them to succeed in defeating the Giants. The myth of the gods and the Giants must have been put into verse about the same time as the introduction of Herakles to Olympos, for the friezes showing Herakles to Olympos, for the friezes showing Herakles and the gods fighting the Giants begin to appear soon after the reorganization of the Panathenaia in 566, inspired by the fact that this theme was embroidered on the new peplos which was brought to the goddess Athena in solem procession at her great festival.⁹³

p. 50

The fourth great theme is provided by the struggles of the gods against the enemies of their divine order. For the Greeks, the development of a cosmos out of chaos, of form from confusion, was perceived as one of the elemental features of life, alongside love, birth and human society. ...

the Greeks ... imagined the terrible Typhon as lying imprisoned beneath various volcanoes, especially Etna ...

p. 51

One particular indication that the battles of the gods correspond to a situation as old as life itself is the subject's concern with the polar opposition of male and female. Mother Earth, Gaia or Ge, brought forth an endless and amazing profusion of creature.¹¹⁸ ... The consort of Mother Earth, Ouranos — the Heavens, god of the universe, or whatever name we like to give him — attempted to creat order out of this chaotic confusion of progeny. He threatened to subjugate Ge and she rose up angrily against him. ...

... from the reorganization of the Panathenaic Games in 566, battles between the Giants and other challengers of divine order became, in accordance with the spirit of Solon, a favourite theme (figs. 59–73). Athena and Herakles, figures who were most frequently celebrated in the art of time in other contexts too, guarenteed the victory of the gods over the Giants in mythology. It is also characteristic of these pictures that the Giants are heavily armed warriors, and thereby closer to the archaic present than the primeval monsters of mythology."

p. 52 [Can be seen by linking from my laptop]

Of all the other archaic pictures ... The frieze on the plaque is the oldest known certain representation of a battle against the Giants. On the left the feet of a fallen Giant can be seen, above him, fighting towards the left, the figure of Ephialtes, whose name, frequently attested as one of the Giants, is inscribed beside him. On the right are Ares and a Giant whose name has been lost.

p. 55

The victories of Zeus over Typhon and the Titans were momentous events, but it was the triumph of the gods over the Giants (figs. 59–73) which, from the renewal of the Panathenaic festival in 566 onwards, became the principal symbol of the divine guidance of Athens' fortunes. As early as the time of Solon we find the Giants being given human stature and portrayed as heavily armed hoplites, clearly distinguished from the hideous monster Typhon or the colossal Titans (figs. 54–8). After 566 the image of the battle with the Giants was refashioned in such a radical way that the basic elements of the composition continued to influence all later representations of the Giants right up to the time of the altar at Pergamon: Zeus with his chariot, near him the warrior pair Athena and Herakles revealed in the fullness of their mysterious power. The Panathenaic festival was conceived as a celebration of the victory over the Giants, but it also marked Athena's birthday.¹²⁹ We shall identify new subjects when we look at pictures in detail. For the first time artists begin to characterize individual gods through their different actions. The model for the new pictorial creation must have been the frieze that was embroidered on the robe presented to Athena during the Panathenaic festival.¹³⁰

p. 56

The pictorial composition that we have assigned to the time of the first Panathenaia probably followed this epic, for it depicts individually characterized gods fighting against particular Giants who are identified by name. ... The Giants are not individually characterized like the gods ... but certain features remain so consistent that they prove the existence of a common source — in this case an Attic poem, which must have followed the battle of the Titans in the complete epic cycle.

p. 57

Above these [on Akr 607] we can make out the familiar group — Zeus in his chariot, accompanied by Athena and Herakles. Behind the chariot, facing left, is Ge, Mother Earth and mother of the Giants. On another Akropolis fragment, her white hand is touching Zeus' beard in supplication, her other hand apparently touching his forehead.¹³⁵ Here Zeus is also accompanied by a lion and wears a conspicuously magnificent embroidered red cloak over his white chiton. The colourful effect of the design and the overlapping of the figures echo the bright pattern of the peplos on which the painting was modelled.

p. 59

Of all the three-dimensional representations of this theme, the frieze from the Siphnian Treasury is the most comprehensive and displays the greatest variety of different motifs.

p. 60 [Can be seen by linking from my laptop]

67–9 Gigantomachy. North frieze of Siphnian Treasury at Delphi, towards 525.

p. 64

Not long after the Siphnian Treasury, two of Greece's most important Doric temples were built and decorated with pediment-scenes of the battle against the Giants. One was the new temple of Apollo at Delphi (fig. 70), and the other the temple of Athena on the Akropolis, which can be dated from its architectural and sculptural style to around 520 and will have been commissioned by the sons of Peistratos (fig. 71)¹⁴³ Thus we see the Giants' bodies reflected in the works of the Andokides Painter, for example (figs 111, 191). On the Apollo temple we see a rougher composition of simple, powerful limbs and wide-spread arms, and on the Athena temple a more elastic combination of swelling, elegantly differentiated forms. The choice of the Gigantomachy for both pediments reveals just how significant contemporary thought found this myth of the victory of the Olympian gods with the help of Athena. ...

p. 67

Characteristic od such early red-figure treatment as there was is a cup by Oltos, dating from around 510 and now in London (fig. 73). Dionysos, with a panther-skin over his left arm, is attacking a young Giant who is already bleeding from his wounds, and is so handsome that Oltos has painted a cock as a love token on his shield to show admiration.

Simon[edit]

1991

p. 23

The festival of the Panathenaia, celbrated in honor of Athena, was surely of Bronze Age origin.⁷⁰ Its main rite, the offering of a garment, is repeatedly represented in Mycenean frescoes, and Homer describes the procession of Trojan women putting a peplos on Athena's knees (Iliad 6.288–304). The unification of Attika by Theseus was the virtual prerequisite for the Panathenaia. but the Athenians ascribed the foundation of their main festival to Erichthonios-Erechtheus. Since that celebration, however, was reorganized several times—for example, in 566—Theseus could be thought to have been its first reorganizer.

Singleton[edit]

p. 235

In various versions of the story, Phlegra (literally "the place of burning") was always localized in volcanic regions. At first it was located on the Macedonian penisula of Pallene; later it sometimes was placed on the Phlegraean Fields (Campi Flegrei), a volcanic region west of Naples and east of Cumae.

Smith, R. R. R.[edit]

1991, Hellenistic Sculpture

p. 159

The frieze was 2.30 m high and 110 m long. It was carved in narrow panels of varying width (70—100 cm), about 30 per side and about 120 panels in all. The panels were originally blocks about 50 cm deep of which 30 cm is used for the depth of the relief, enabling the sculptors to make the figures stand out as though independent of the background. The frieze originally comprised some 100 figures in all, in addition to various animals.

p. 162

The Giants are single-sex (male) and not sufficiently civilized to wear drapery. They are varied chiefly by age and leg type. Mostly, but not exclusively, younger Giants have human legs, while older (= bearded) Giants are snake-legged. Snakes were the regular animal symbol for the subterranean and are attached to Giants to evoke their origin as sons of Ge (Earth). Ge appears herself in order to plead for her sons on the east side, as usually in Greek art, sunk up to her waist in the ground. A few Giants have helmets and proper weapons, but mostly they fight with clubs, rocks, and their hands and snake-legs. They protect themselves with a variety of animal-skins (goat, lion, bear). A few Giants have special anatomical forms: Leto's opponent on the east has wings and bird-claw hands, and on the south side, one Giant is bull-headed, another lion-headed. These probably illustrate very specific parts of a Gigantomachy whose mythology is lost to us. Several Giants on the north side have clear fish elements in their snake-legs, and we may guess the mythology used by the frieze incorporated a Giant attack from the depths of the sea as well as the earth.

The east frieze, which was encountered first by the visitor, was also the 'easiest'. It featured the main Olympians: (from right to left) Ares, Athena, Zeus, Herakles, Hera, and then Apollo, Lcto, Artemis, and their family.

pp. 163–164

Difficulties in interpreting the frieze as fully and precisely as its details seem to demand suggest that we are missing some key, surely a literary text on which it was based. The frieze is impressively learned, and that text would most easily be a Hellenistic epic, perhaps an Attalid court epic. The fifty or so gods could have been taken from Hesiod's Theogony, the original source of most Greek divine genealogy. But Hesiod was not concerned with Gigantomachy. Indeed, the Giants are important evidence for the nature of the frieze's source. The surviving blocks of the footing course preserve seventeen inscribed Giants' names, whole or in part (these blocks do not have setting marks and cannot be positioned so as to identify any of the Giants). They are as follows:

Allektos Bro[nteas] Erysichthon Eurybias Mimas Molodros Obrimos Olyktor Oudaios Octhaios Palamneus [Char]adreus Peloreus Chthonophylos [Sthe]naros [Stu]phelos [Pha]rrangeus

The names are for the most part unfamiliar, even exotic, and only one, Mimas, is found in our fullest surviving literary account of the Gigantomachy (Apollo- doros 1.6). This strongly suggests an independent source now lost almost without echo. This would suit very well an Attalid court Gigantomachy epic. Behind the stunning frieze may lie a quite unmemorable poem. The 'abnormal' nature of the Giants' names also indicates that it is vain to attach names from the Apollodoran Gigantomachy to unnamed Giants in the frieze.

Vian and Moore[edit]

p. 192

Parmi les Olympiens qui prennent part au combat sont mentionnes Zeus (Eur. Here. 177; Hec. 473; Ion 212-21 5. 1529; Aristoph. Aves 1242-1252), Athena (Aischyl. Eum. 295-297; Eur. Here. 906-909; Ion 209-211. 987-997. 1528-1529; Iph. T. 222-224), Apollon (Pind. P. 8, 18) et Dionysos (Eur. Ion 216-218); ils combattent respectivement avec le foudre, la lance, l'arc et le thyrse.

... Alcman (Page PMG frg. 1. 31) pourrait faire allusion à Poseidon portant l'île de Nisyros. Les poètes se plaisent surtout à glorifier Héraclès qui apparaît parfois comme le vainqueur par excellence des G.: outre Hes. frg. 43a 65 Merkelbach/West, cf. Pind. N. 1, 67-69; 7, 90; Soph. Trach. 1058-1059; Eur. Herc. 177-179. 1192-1194. 1272; cf. aussi la Meropide citée ci-dessus. Après la bataille, le héros participait aux fêtes de la victoire chez les dieux (Eur. Herc. 180) et Pindare associe étroitement à la Gig. son apothéose et son mariage avec Hebe (I) (N. 1, 69-72). II n'est pas impossible qu'Aristophane se souvienne de ce thème dans les Oiseaux qui s'achèvent sur le cortège nuptial de Pisthétairos et de Basileia au cri de τήνελλα χαλλίνιχος (Aves 1763-1765): cf. Vian, GG 210-214.

Quand Euripide, Aristophane et Platon mentionnent la Gig., ils font le plus souvent référence à des oeuvres l'art, en particulier au péplos des Panathénées (cf. 32 avec les références); voir aussi Eur. Ion 205-218 (cf. 3); Phoen. 127-130 (έν γρφαίσιν: allusion au péplos?). 1130-1133 (G. figuré en épisème sur un bouclier). Comme il est naturel, ils s'inspirent de l'art contemporain: G. couverts d'une pardalide, armés de rochers ou d'arbres et montant à l'assaut du ciel (Aristoph. Aves 1246-1252; Plat. symp. 190b-c; soph. 246a-b) ou portant sur l'épaule une ville entière (Eur. Phoen. 1130-1133; cf. 387). Mais Euripide, à deux reprises, évoque le schéma caractéristique des vases archaïques de l'Acropole (Herc. 177-179; Ion 1528-1529), sans doute parce que celui-ci avait été conservé sur le péplos panathénaïque (cf. p. 265).

...

On notera enfin que le terme de G. s'est employé au sens large pour désigner les -» Pallantides (Soph. Aigeus, TrGF IV F 24, 6-7), les hommes de l'âge d'or (Télékleides Amphictyons, CAF l frg. 1, 15) ou le Zéphyr (-» Zephyros) (Aischyl. Ag. 692). Comme dans Homère (Od. 10, 120), il sert aussi à caractériser des guerriers arrogants et impies comme -» Kapaneus (Aischyl. Septem 423-425; Eur. Phoen. 127-130) ou -» Pentheus (Eur. Bacchae 538-544).

...

Epoque hellénistique: env. 300-50 av. J.-C.

Les rares allusions dues aux poètes hellénistiques confirment cette tendance. Si Apoll. Rhod. garde le [p. 193]

[Google translate] Among the Olympians taking part in combat are mentioned Zeus (Eur Here 177;.. Hec 473;. 212-21 5. Ion 1529;. Aristoph Aves 1242-1252), Athena (Aischyl Eum 295-297;.. Eur. here 906-909;. Ion 209-211 987-997 1528-1529;.. Iph T. 222-224), Apollo (Pind P. 8, 18) and Dionysus (Eur Ion 216-218)...; respectively, they fight with the lightning, spear, bow and thyrsus.

... Alcman (Page PMG frg. 1. 31) could refer to Poseidon carrying the island of Nisyros. Poets especially like to glorify Heracles sometimes appears as the victor par excellence over the G .: Also Hes. frg. 43a 65 Merkelbach / West, cf. Pind. N. 1, 67-69; 7, 90; Soph. Trach. 1058-1059; Eur. Herc. 177-179. 1192-1194. 1272; cf. also Meropide cited above. After the battle, the hero took part in the celebrations of victory among the gods (Eur. Herc. 180) and Pindar closely links to the Gig. his apotheosis and marriage to Hebe (I) (N. 1, 69-72). It is not impossible to remember what Aristophanes in the Birds theme which end on the wedding procession of Pisthétairos Basileia and the cry of τήνελλα χαλλίνιχος (Aves 1763-1765): see Vian, GG 210-214.

When Euripides, Aristophanes and Plato mention the Gig., they are usually referring to works of art, especially the Panathenaic peplos (see 32 with references); see also Eur. Ion 205-218 (see 3); Phoen. 127-130 (έν γρφαίσιν: referring to the peplos?). 1130-1133 (G. episema featured on a shield). As is natural, they are inspired by contemporary art: G. covered with leopard skins armed with rocks and trees and up to the attack from the sky (Aristoph. Aves 1246-1252; Plat., Symp. 190b-c; Soph. 246a-b) or on the shoulder an entire city (Eur Phoen. 1130-1133; see 387). But Euripides twice mentions the characteristic pattern of archaic Acropolis vases (Herc 177-179;. Ion 1528-1529), probably because it had been kept on the Panathenaic peplos (p. 265).

...

Note finally that the term G. was used in a broad sense to refer to -» Pallantides (Soph. Aigeus, TrGF IV F 24, 6-7), the men of the Golden Age (Télékleides Amphictyons, CAF I frg. 1, 15) or the Zéphyr (-»Zephyros) (Aischyl. Ag. 692). As in Homer (Od. 10, 120), it also serves to characterize arrogant and wicked warriors like -»Kapaneus (Aischyl Septem 423-425; Eur. Phoen 127-130) or -»Pentheus (Eur. Bacchae 538-544).

...

Hellenistic Period: approx. 300-50 BC. J.C.

The few allusions due to Hellenistic poets confirm this trend. If Apoll. Rhod. preserves [p. 193]

p. 193

[p. 192] souvenir d'un Mimas cuirassé (3, 1225-1227), les G. se confondent avec les Titans chez Kall. h. 4, 174; frg. 119, 1-3 Pf.; ils accueillent dans leurs rangs l'eponyme du mont Athos que Nik. frg. 26 Gow/Scholfield représente en train de lancer des rochers, ainsi qu'Aigaion-Briaree (Kall. h. 4, 141-147; vers anonyme attribué à Euphorion [frg. 166 Powell] ou à Parthénios). Ils sont πολυσώματοι (Diod. 1, 26) ou bicorpores (Naevius Bell. Pun. [Bellum Punicum] frg. 4 Strzelecki), c'est-à-dire anguipèdes. lls amoncellent des montagnes pour escalader le ciel et se confondent plus ou moins avec les Aloades (-»Aloadai): Archimélos, Lloyd-Jones/Parsons, Suppl. Hell. frg. 207, 7; Antipater Sidonius, Gow/Page, Hell. Epigr. v. 410-417. 424-427; Lucr. 4, 138-140; 5, 117-121. La bataille a des dimensions cosmiques: Kall. h. 5, 5-12 (Athéna baignant ses chevaux dans l'Ocean [-»Okeanos] après la victoire); Apoll. Rhod. 3, 232-234 (Hélios combattant sur son char et recueillant Héphaistos épuisé). C'est sous la Sicle ou l'Etna que sont ensevelis Encelade et Briarée: Kall. h. 4, 141-147; frg. I, 35-36 Pf.

[Google translate] [p. 192] the memory of an armored Mimas (3, 1225-1227), G. merge with the Titans in Kall. h. 4, 174; frg. 119, 1-3 Pf.; they welcome into their ranks the eponymous Mount Athos that Nik. frg. 26 Gow / Scholfield has throwing rocks, and Aigaion-Briareus (Kall. h. 4, 141-147; anonymously attributed to Euphorion [frg. 166 Powell.] or Parthenius). They [Giants] are πολυσώματοι (Diod. 1, 26) or bicorpores (Naevius Bell. Pun. frg. Strzelecki 4), that is to say anguipèdes. They pile up mountains to climb the sky and merge more or less with Aloades (-»Aloadai) Archimélos, Lloyd-Jones / Parsons, Suppl. Hell. frg. 207, 7; Antipater Sidonius, Gow / Page, Hell. Epigr. v. 410-417. 424-427; Lucr. 4, 138-140; 5, 117-121. The battle of cosmic dimensions Kall. h. 5, 5-12 (Athena bathing his horses in the Ocean [-»Okeanos] after the victory); Apoll. Rhod. 3, 232-234 (The warrior Helios in his chariot gathering up the exhausted Hephaestus). It is under Sicily or Etna that are buried Enceladus and Briareus: Kall. h. 4, 141-147; frg. I, 35-36 Pf.

p. 210

32. Peplos des Panathenees. - Rep. n° 409. - Le peplos offert a Athena pendant les Panathénées figurait la Gig. L'usage remonte sans doute à l'institution du festival pentétérique par Pisistrate en 566/5. Mais les premières attestations ne sont pas antérieures au dernier quart du V s., ou elles sont frequentes: Aristoph. Equ. 566; Aves 823-831; Eur. Hec. 466-474; Iph.T. 222-224 (et peut-etre Phoen. 127-130); Strattis, CAF I frg. 69; Plat. Euthyphron 6b-c; pol. 3, 378a-c; Aristot. frg. 637 Rose; Apollod. Athenaios, FGrH 244 F 105. On peut penser que le sujet a été alors renouvelé, peutétre sous l'infiuence de la Gig. peinte sur le Bouclier d'Athena Parthénos (40). Le péplos du VI^e s. comportait sans doute une frise analogue à celle que conservent les vases archaïques de l'Acropole (104-110) ou, moins probablement, une succession de métopes comme celle que présente l'Athena de Dresde 478; on a pu par la suite figurer, comme sur les vases de la fin du V^e s., un combat dans les hauteurs qui occupait la totalité du péplos: cf. Plat. Euthyphron 6c. En tout cas, les protagonistes étaient naturellement Zeus et Athéna (Eur. Hec. 473-474; Iph. T. 223); parmi leurs advesaires, auxquels Euripide donne le nom de Titans, figurait Encelade qui s'opposait a Athena (schol. Aritoph. Equ. 566a). - Cf. Willemsen, F., Fruhe griechische Kultbilder (1939) 1-17; Vian, F., dans Mél. Ch. Picard, RA 1949, 1060-1064; GG 246-253; Walter, H., AM 69-70, 1954-1955, 103; Schauenburg, K., AntK 5, 1962, 57 n. 68; Simon, o. c. 24, 41 n. 191; Schefold, SB II 54 n. 1 30.

[Google translate] 32. Panathenaic peplos. - Rep. No. 409. - The peplos offered during the Panathenaic Athena has included the Gig. The use probably goes back to the institution of [quadrennial] festival by Pisistratus in 566/5. But the first certifications are not earlier than the last quarter of [the 5th c.], where they are common. Aristoph. Equ. 566; The Birds 823-831; Eur. Hec. 466-474; Iph.T. 222-224 (and perhaps Phoen. 127-130); Strattis, CAF I frg. 69; Plat. Euthyphro 6b-c; pol. 3, 378a-c; Aristot. frg. 637 Rose; Apollod. Athenaios, FGrH 244 F 105. One may think that the subject was then repeated, perhaps under the infiuence of the Gig. painted on the shield of Athena Parthenos (40). The 6th c. peplos probably contained a similar frieze to that preserved on archaic Acropolis vases (104-110) or, less likely, a metopes succession like that this Athena Dresden 478; we could eventually appear as the end of the 5th c. vases, a fight in the hills which occupied the entire peplos. cf. . Plat. Euthyphro 6c. In any case, the protagonists were naturally Zeus and Athena (Eur. Hec. 473-474; Iph. T. 223); among their advesaires, which gives the name of Euripides Titans, Enceladus appeared that opposed to Athena (schol. Aritoph. Equ. 566a). - Cf. Willemsen, F., Fruhe griechische Kultbilder (1939) 1-17; Vian, F., in Mél. Ch. Picard, RA 1949, 1060-1064; GG 246-253; Walter, H., AM 69-70, 1954-1955, 103; Schauenburg, K., AntK 5, 1962, 57 n. 68; Simon, o. c. 24, 41 n. 191; Schefold, SB II 54 n. 1 30.

p. 253

L'anguipède entre en concurrence avec le G. anthropomorphe au 4th c. et il finit par le supplanter a l'époque impériale. Le document le plus ancien (389, vers 400-375) réunit les deux types de G. contre Dionysos. Mais, en dehors de la Gig., l'anguipède apparait dès le 6th c., notamment sur des documents corinthiens, «chalcidiens» et étrusques. Figuré le plus souvent seul, comme élément «décoratif», il combat parfois contre Zeus ou, dans l'art étrusque, contre des guerriers juveniles anonymes. Pour les scenes de combat, cf. Rep. nos 1 -10 (rectifier la date des nos 9-10, qui appartiennent au courant du 5th c.); pour les figurations isolées dans l'art étrusque antérieures au 4th c., cf. LIMC Suppl. (cf. ci-dessus p. 239). À cette époque, le monstre doit sûrement étre identifié à Typhée: cf. GG p. 12-16. Plus tard, une confusion s'est produite entre les mythes de Typhée et des G., sans doute en Grande Grèce, et c'est apparemment là qu'a été conçu le G. anguipède. En effet Typhée est localisé sous l'Etna au moins depuis Pindare et Eschyle et le G. anguipède n'est attesté au 4th c. qu'en Italie méridionale: 58-60. 77-78. 389. 398. 400-402 (cependant, selon Simon, o.c. 24, 42 n. 200, 389 serait attique). Cette contamination est bien illustrée par 398, ou l'adversaire de Zeus, barbu, hirsute et anguipède, s'oppose à ses congénères, anthropomorphes et juvéniles.

Du point de vue iconographique, le G. anguipede procède du Typhèe archaique, comme il ressort du tableau comparatif suivant [un numéro du type R 1 renvoie au Répertoire pour les Typhonomachies archaiques; un numéro du type A 492 renvoie au présent catalogue et se réfère à un anguipède étrusque ou d'epoque romaine qui n'est pas impliqué dans une Gig.]:

[Google translate] The anguiped competes with anthropomorphic G. in the 4th c. and eventually supplants it in the imperial era. The oldest document (389 to 400-375) combines the two types of G. against Dionysus. But outside the Gig., the anguiped appears from the 6th c., Including Corinthian documents, "chalcidoid" and Etruscan. Appeared most often alone, as "decorative" element, sometimes fighting against Zeus, or in Etruscan art, against unnamed juvenile warriors. For combat scenes, see Rep. nos. 1 -10 (correct date of our 9-10, which belong to the current 5th c.); for isolated figurations in Etruscan art prior to the 4th c., see LIMC Suppl. (see above p. 239). At that time, the monster must surely be identified with Typhon: cf. GG p. 12-16. Later, confusion occurred between the myths of Typhon and G., probably in Great Greece, and this is apparently was conceived G. Anguiped. Indeed Typhon is located under Mount Etna at least since Pindar and Aeschylus and G. Anguiped is attested in the 4th c. than in southern Italy: 58-60. 77-78. 389. 398. 400-402 (however, according to Simon, OC 24, 42 n. 200, 389 would attic). This contamination is well illustrated by 398, or the enemy of Zeus, bearded, shaggy Anguiped, opposes its congeners, anthropomorphic and juveniles.

Iconographic point of view, G. Anguiped proceeds from Typhon archaic, as shown in the following table [a type number R 1 refers to the Répertoire for Typhonomachies archaic; a type number A 492 refers to this catalog and refers to a Anguiped Etruscan or Roman times, which is not involved in Gig].:

p. 268

Un catalogue complet est donné par Waser, O., RE Suppl. 3, 737-759. Nous nous limitons aux noms cites par Apollod. bibl. 1 (35-38) 6, 1-2, ou attestés sur les monuments figurés, a l'exclusion des inscriptions par trop fragmentaires. Le dieu auquel le G. est opposé est indique entre parenthèses. L'astérisque signale que le nom est atteste par un texte relatif à un monument figuré.

[Google translate] A complete catalog is given by Waser, O., RE Suppl. 3, 737-759. We limit ourselves to the names cited by Apollod. bibl. 1 (35-38) 6, 1-2, or certified on figured monuments, to the exclusion of entries too fragmentary. The god whom the G. objected is indicated in brackets. The asterisk indicates that the name is attested by a text on a figurative monument.

p. 269

La variete de l'onomastique incite à la prudence. On ne saurait appeler Akrathe tous les G. étrusques auxquels Athéna arrache un bras. Les artistes de Pergame donnent aux G. des noms parlants qui expriment leurs traits caractéristiques (y compris Erysichthon), alors qu'on ne relève avec certitude aucun des noms mythiques attestés dans les textes; il parait donc arbitraire d'attribuer à certains G. les noms de Typhon, Alkyoneus, Porphyrion, Ephialtès, Klytios et, à plus forte raison, ceux d'Otos et de Tityos, qui ne sont pas des G.

[Google translate] The variety of onomastics calls for caution. We can not call Akrathe all Etruscan G. which Athena pulls an arm. Pergamon artists give G. meaningful names that express their characteristics (including Erysichthon), then we do note with no certainty of legendary names attested in texts; So it seems arbitrary to attribute some G. names as Typhon, Alkyoneus, Porphyrion, Ephialtes, Klytios and, more so, those of Otos and Tityos, not G.

Wheeler[edit]

pp.23 ff..

Yasumura[edit]

pp. 49–58 (see Amazon )

p. 50

The Catalogue of Ships (Il. 2,676-9) records that Cos was the city of Euryalus. ...

A recently discovered papyrus fragment of the epic poem called the Meropis⁴⁰ has revealed more about Heracles' expedition to Cos. The papyrus, from the first century BC, contains 24 lines of a local heroic epic with a commentary by the Hellenistic writer Apollodorus of Athens, the follower of Aristarchus, c, 150-125 BC. A Hellenistic date has been suggested for the epic,⁴¹ but it seems more likely to date from the seventh of sixth century BC.⁴²

In this poem, Heracles is nearly killed by Asterus, one of the Meropes (vv. 1-7); Apollodorus explains in his commentary that Asterus is invulnerable (άτρωτος, 25). However, Athena comes to Heracles' aid and kills Asterus with her spear (vv. 8-17) and, after stripping and drying it, uses Asterus' strong skin for her aegis (vv. 18-24). According to Apollodorus, she considers the skin will be useful for other dangerous situations (35).

As is suggested by the episode in which Asterus' skin forms Athena's aegis, the Meropes are not ordinary humans but Gigantes.⁴³ Philostratus (Heroicus 8.14) writes of the Meropes that ... - the same height as Otus and Ephialtes (Od. 11.311-12). Fragment 637 of Aristotle (schol. to Aristides Panathenaicus 189.4) records that Asterius — as he is referred to here — was a giant who was killed by Athena.⁴⁴

p. 91

In the fragment of the Meropis discussed in Chapter II, the aegis is made by Athena from the skin of the Giant Asterus whom she killed in the Gigantomachy.

p. 173

43 For the Meropes as Gigantes, see Janko (1992) ad 14.250-61.

44. Janko (1992) ad 14.250-61 holds that Asterus must be the same as Asterius.

Confusion with Titans and others[edit]

Gantz, p. 447

Hellenistic and later writers commonly confuse Titans and Gigantes, merging them together into one set of opponents for the Olympians.

Hansen p. 178

Being similar to one another the Titanomchy and the Gigantomachy were not always distinguished. Another mythic assualt on the gods, that made by the huge brothers Otos ans Ephialtes, or Aloads, added to the confusion. Ovid seems to mix the Giants with the Aloads [Metamorphoses 1.151–162].

Grimal, p. 171

Later traditions name even more Giants, but these are generally Titans wrongly included in the category of Giants, or other monsters such as TYPHON, BRIAREUS and ALODAE who were not true Giants, though their immense size and prodigious strength entitled them to be called 'giants'.

Tripp, p. 250

The Giants and, before them, their half-brothers the Titans warred with the gods of Olympus. These two conflicts are often confused—as is the Gigantomachy (War of the Giants) with the later siege of Olympus by Otus and Ephialtes.

Smith, "Gigantes"

Later poets and mythographers frequently confound them with the Titans (Serv. ad Aen. 8.698, Georg. 1.166, 278; Hor. Carm. 3.4.42)

Morford, pp. 82–83

The attempt of the giants Otus and Epphialtes to storm heaven by piling the mountains Olympus, Ossa, and Pelion upon one another is sometimes linked to the battle of the giants or treated as a separate attack upon the power of Zeus. In fact there is considerable confusion in the tradition concerning details and characters in the battle of the giants (Gigantomachy) and the battle of the Titans (Titanomachy).

On Alcman fr 1 PMGF (Poetarum melicorum Graecorum fragmenta)[edit]

Cairns, p. 310

Alcman fr. 1 PMGF inevitably looms larger than it should. Hence it is hard to evaluate the true significance of the resemblences between it and Odes 3.1, i.e. wether they are due to direct imitation, generic content, or both. The beginning lines seem to deal with the sins and punishments of offenders against the gods. Then follow precepts: men must know their place and not aspire to the status and marriages of the gods (16–21). Some subsequent lines (22–34) probably described a Gigantomachy. A conclusion: 'they suffered unforgetatble punishments for the evil they did' (34–5) is followed by the asyndetic summarising line ... ('the vengence of the gods exists', 36).

Ferrari

p. 28

p. 109

p. 151 [The complete text can be viewed from my laptop]

Wilkinson, p. 142

In lyric poetry, it seems that Alcman mentions the giants at 1.31f, using them as an example of hybris.

Vases[edit]

Athens Akropolis 2.211 Red-Figure Cup Fragments (by Leagros Group)[edit]

Beazley Archive 200125

-550 to -475

Named: PHOR[PHYRION], EURYALOS, [EU]RYBOTOS, [or POLYBOTES?] ECHSOR

CAVI Inscriptions: Int: [Λε]αγρο[ς ---]. A-B: above Zeus' head: Δευς, for Ζευς; so listed in Threatte (1996). To right of a giant's face: Φορ[φυριον]. To left of Apollo, above a giant's shield: Απολλ{ο}ον, retr. To left of a giant's face: Ευρυαλο[ς], retr. Between an outstretched giant and Poseidon: [Ευ]ρ̣υβοτος? To Hephaestus' left, at height of forehead: hεφ[αιστος], retr. Above a helmet and lance: Εχσορ{1}.

CAVI Footnotes: {1} see Peek: a new giant name.

LIMC Gigantes 299

Arafat,

p. 15

On 1.7 [Akr 2.211] the names of Zeus, Hephaistos, and Apollo are preserved (at least in part), and Poseidon's presense is assured by the inscription [P]olybot[es];

1.7 [Akr 2.211] raises the interesting question of the giants' names. The opponent of Zeus is named Phro-, a misspelling of the first letters of Porphyrion, Zeus' most common opponent, as we know from several vases and literary sources

p. 16

On 1.23 [BM E 47] Hephaistos fights Euryalos, whereas on 1.7 [Akr 2.211] Euryalos is named and his opponent is certainly not Hephaistos, who is named and fighting elsewhere.

p. 183

c.520–500

Athens Akropolis 607 Black-Figure Dinos (by Lydos)[edit]

Beazley Archive 310147

-575 to -525

Named: ARISTA[IOS], HEPH[AISTOS], APHRODITE, MIMOS, DIONYSOS, HERMES

LIMC Gigantes 105

Arafat

p. 16

Another variant is given [on Akr 607] in the mid-sixth century by the vase painter Lydos, who names Aphrodite as Mimas' opponent.²¹ The name is spelled Mimos, but must be meant for Mimas.²²

²¹Athens NM Acr. 607 (above, n. 11); Carpenter, DI (cf. ibid. 73).

²² Cf. Development, 43

Beazley, p. 39 (also see p. 39)

Aphrodite is seldom seen to take part in the Gigantomachy (although she fights in the Iliad, if without success), but on fragment r, crowned with myrtle, she wields spear and shield against the giant Mimos[*] (perhaps written by error for Mimas), whose device is a large bee (pl. 34, 2). [See LIMC Gigantes 105: image 1/14]

In fragment s the giant Aristaios attacks Hephaistos. [See LIMC Gigantes 105: image 13/14]

Hurwit, pp. 30—31

Gantz, p. 451

Aphrodite v. Mimos

Hephaistos w tongs and spear v. Aristaios

Schefold, p. 57

fig 64 Artemis and Apollo, LIMC Gigantes 105: image 2/14

Moore 1979, "Lydos and the Gigantomachy" in American Journal of Archaeology 83 (1979) 79–99

Moore 1985, p. 31

Hopladamas, a name suggested by Beazley for the giant being speared by Apollo on fragment c of the big dinos by Lydos, Akropolis 607.¹⁴ [p. 30: 14. Beazley, Development, 43; ABV 107, 1. Pausanius VIII, 32, 5 and 36, 2 mensions a giant by this name who was friendly with Rhea when she was pregnant with Zeus and feared that Kronos would attack her.]

Athens Akropolis 1632 Black-Figure Cup[edit]

Beazley Archive 15673 [No images]

Named: ERCHO[...], POL[...], LEEON, [HER]MES, EUOENS, EUROPE[US], ZEUS

Decoration: A: GIGANTOMACHY, ROCK (?, POSEIDON AND NISYROS ?), DIONYSOS IN PANTHER SKIN, HERMES, ZEUS (BOTH NAMED), HERAKLES IN CHARIOT, LIONS (ONE NAMED, LEEON), PANTHER, GIANTS (SOME NAMED), SHIELD DEVICES, FLORAL, TRIPOD, WING

CAVI Inscriptions: A: (fr. c, left to right): above the shield of a fallen giant(?): Επχο[---], retr.{1}. Above a giant: Πολ[υβοτες?], retr.{2}. Behind hindquarters of a lion: λhεον. Above the head of Hermes: [hερ]μες, retr. Between heads of Hermes and a giant, facing the latter: ΕΥΟΕN(Σ) retr.{3}. To giant's lower right, referring to a missing fallen giant: Ευροπε[υς], retr. To right of Zeus' head: Ζευς.

CAVI Footnotes: {1} miswritten? Graef gives no explanation. {2} see CB. {3} Graef reads ΕΛΟΕ(N)], not retr., with the nu upside down, and has no explanation. Mayer [[Meyer?]] had read [Π]ελο[ρ]ε(υ)ς, but G. rejects it. Should be read retr. Peek rightly read ΕΥΘΕN] and suggested Ευθεν[ο](ς).

LIMC Gigantes 110

Gantz, p. 451

Athens Akr 1632, for example, shows clearly Hermes (with petasos) and Dionysos (again with animals) to the left of Zeus; beyond is probably Poseidon crushing a Gigas with Nisyros.

Vian, Répertoire pl. 23, no. 111

Graef, pl. 84

Athens Akropolis 2134 Black-Figure Fragment[edit]

Beazley Archive 9922 [No images]

LIMC Gigantes 106

Gantz, p. 451

[Eury]medon, Ephialtes

Athens Akropolis 2211 Black-Figure Amphora[edit]

Beazley Archive 3363 [No images]

-575 to -525

LIMC Gigantes 104

Berlin F2293 Red-Figure Cup (by the Brygos Painter)[edit]

Beazley Archive 203909

-500 to -450

LIMC Gigantes 303

Arafat

pp. 12–15

p. 12

There are only three late Archaic red-figured vases showing the Gigantomachy on which Zeus definitely appears, and of these, only 1.24 [Berlin F2293] is complete. This is the Brygos Painter's Berlin cup on which the Gigantomachy covers the exterior; one side shows three duels, involving Hephaistos, Poseidon, and Hermes, the other Zeus in a chariot, Herakles on the far side of the horses, and Athena at their head. Zeus' left hand grips the reins and a sceptre, and his raised right holds a large thunderbolt. ...

p. 13

This cup [Berlin F2293] has been dated to between Marathon [490] and Salamis [480] by Schefold,⁷ who sees it as prompted by the Persian wars and the victory of the Greeks over the barbarians, here represented by the giants. ...

⁷ Göttersage, 93.

p.20

1.61 (Pl. 4b) [Mulgrave Castle] is a volute-krater showing gods fighting giants on both sides, in separate compositions. On the obverse Herakles is at the left, aiming an arrow; then Zeus' four-horse chariot, driven by a young woman (probably Nike, although she is wingless). Zeus is on the far side of the chariot, raising a thunderbolt against a fully-armed giant who stands next to him and brandishes his sword. It is against this giant also that Herakles must be aiming an arrow, an example of the co-operation between Zeus and Herakles noted on 1.24 [Berlin F2293] (cf. 1.71 [Ferrara 2892] Pl. 5b).

Gantz, p. 452

No Giants named

Cohen, pp. 177–178

c. 490–485 BC

Berlin F2531 Red-Figure Cup (from Vulci) (by Aristophanes)[edit]

Beazley Archive 220533

-450 to -400

Named: Ephialtes, Enceladus, Gaion, Phoitos, Polybotes, Porphyrion, Mimon

LIMC Gigantes 318

= LIMC Ephialtes II 6

Gaia, Posidon and Polybotes: LIMC Gigantes 318: Image 3/4

Ares attacking fallen Mimon with spear: LIMC Gigantes 318: Image 2/4

Ares v. Mimon, Apollo v. Ephialtes, Hera v. Phoitos: LIMC Gigantes 318: Image 4/4

Arafat

p. 16

As for Zeus' other opponents he kills Mimas in passage 2 [Eurip. Ion], whereas in passage 1 [Apoll. 1.6] Hephaistos kills him, and in passage 11 [Ap. Rh. Arg] Ares. This last reference is particularly interesting, as the late fifth-century vase-painter Aristophanes also uses the name for Ares' opponent on 1.75 [Berlin F2531] although he spells the name Mimon.

p. 24

1.75 [Berlin F2531] (Pl. 6b), the well-known cup in Berlin by Aristophanes, is a rare example of that shape in the last quarter of the fifth century,

The exterior duels [on Berlin F2531] are symmetrically arranged in threes: on one side, from left, Artemis fights Gaion, Zeus Porphyrion and Athena Enkelados; on the other Ares fights Mimon (cf. p. 16 above), Apollo Ephialtes and Hera Phoitos.

[Zeus'] opponent [Porphyrion] is naked but for a helmet and shield, and is aiming a stone at Zeus; although there are several vases which show giants attacking gods with rocks, there is only one other example of a giant attacking Zeus with a stone, 1.68 [Met 08.258.21] (Pl. 6a), and there Hermes, behind Zeus, is responding in kind.

However, Poseidon is made prominent by his position in the tondo where he is about to drive his trident into Polybotes. Both are named, as is Ge, rising from the ground behind Poseidon.

p. 25

It is an indication of the consistency of the tradition of Poseidon's role in the Gigantomachy that in all the literary accounts and on all the vases where he is named his opponent is Polybotes, even where, as here, he does not use Nisyros against him.

Ge, or Gaia, is an appropriate figure as she is the mother of the gods (passages 1, 8; Hesiod, Theogony 184-6 and other sources); she appears in this capacity in the Archaic period (Lydos, the Siphnian treasury) and long after this vase [Berlin F2531] (Priene, Pergamon). Her upraised hands show her upraised hands show her concern at the slaughter of the giants. She also appears on 1.82 [Naples 81521] in a very similar pose, again emerging from the ground.

p. 26

Ge rises from the ground here, as on 1.75 [Berlin F2531]. There she rises behind Poseidon and is appealing to him on behalf of her sons;

p. 186

c.420-400

Cook

p. 55

Representations of the Gigantomachy from the close of the fifth century onwards [cont.

p. 56

make Porphyrion the main antagonist of Zeus: (1) a kylix by the potter Erginos and the painter Aristophanes, found at Vulci and now at Berlin ...

Plate VI

(A) Poseidon attacks Polybotes in the presence of Ge [showing inscriptions]

(B) Ares v. Mimon, Apollo v. Ephialtes, Hera v. Phoitos

(C) Artemis v. Gaion, Zeus v. Porphyrion, Athena v. Enkelados.

Weller,

pp. 268–269

Fig. 168 Ge rising from the ground, contest of Poseidon and Polybotes; vase of Erginus and Aristophanes [Image showing inscriptions]

the form of a matronly woman. the personification of Earth, rising from the gorund with arms uplifted, as in various ancient representations (fig. 168).

Perseus Berlin F 2531 (Vase)

Collection: Berlin, Antikenmuseen

Summary: Interior: Poseidon and giant. Sides A and B: gigantomachy.

Ware: Attic Red Figure

Painter: Signed by Aristophanes

Potter: Signed by Erginos

Context: From Vulci

Date: ca. 410 BC - ca. 405 BC

Dimensions: H. 13.0 cm., d. 35.0 cm., tondo 20.5 cm.

Primary Citation: ARV2, 1318.1, 1690; Para., 478; Beazley Addenda 2, 363

Shape: Cup

Beazley Number: 220533

Region: Etruria

Period: Classical

Interior: Poseidon and giant. Poseidon battles with Polybotes, who has fallen onto one knee. Poseidon threatens him with his raised trident and grabs hold of his neck. Polybotes responds by holding onto Poseidon's left arm, the one around his neck. Ge, rising from the ground on the left, gazes up at Poseidon, her hands held up, palms outward. Poseidon is naked but for a mantle draped over one arm. He also wears a wreath. Polybotes wears a chiton, cuirass and a crested helmet, and carries a shield and spear. Both men are bearded. Ge wears a chiton and a diadem.

Sides A and B: gigantomachy. Six figures battle on side A, six on side B. Zeus and Porphyrion are the central pair of combatants on side A. Zeus, on the left, holds a lightning bolt in his raised right hand, his staff held in his left hand. Porphyrion flees to the right but turns to look back at Zeus as he prepares to throw a large stone. His shield is raised protectively. Zeus wears only a wreath, his mantle draped over one arm. Athena battles Enkelados on the right. He has fallen onto one knee, his sword still sheathed and his shield on the wrong side. His head is turned toward Athena as she advances toward him, spear raised. Her left arm, covered by her aegis, is extended. She wears a chiton, bracelets and a crested helmet as well as the aegis. On the left, Artemis fights with two torches against Gaion. He has fallen onto his knee and is trying to push away the torches. He wears a panther skin, she a chiton and bracelets, her hair in a bun. In the center of side B Apollo battles the fleeing Ephialtes. Apollo, on the right, raises his sword over his head as he prepares to strike, his bow held in his other hand. His drapery flies behind him, wrapped around one arm and leg. Ephialtes flees to the left but looks back at Apollo, his spear raised in defense, his shield held on his left shoulder. Apollo wears only a wreath. On the left the helmeted, bearded Ares stabs his fallen opponent, Mimon, with a spear. Both men hold shields. On the right, Hera fights with Phoitos, who is down on one knee. He turns his head toward Hera and raises his sword, his shield over one shoulder. She, dressed in chiton, diadem, bracelets and flowing scarf, is ready to strike with her spear. All the giants, with the exception of Gaion, wear crested helmets. The shield device on all the shields is a snake.

Theoi

^ Beazley Archive 220533; Arafat, pp. 24, 25, 186; Cook, p. 56, Plate VI; LIMC Gigantes 318: Image 3/4; Perseus Berlin F 2531 (Vase)

Berlin V.I. 3375 Red-Figure Squat Lekythos[edit]

Beazley Archive 6987 [No images]

-400 to -300

GIANT WITH SNAKE LEGS

LIMC Gigantes 389

Gigantes 389: image 1/2

Ogden, p. 83

The earliest anguipede Giant is to be found on a red-figure vase of c.400–375 BC, in battle with Dionysus, and already he is fully in the form that will be the most typical for the remainder of antiquity: his two legs each merge into serpents and end in serpent-heads.⁸⁰ Thereafter, anguiform Giants are occasionally found in other configurations too:⁸¹ ...

Gantz, p. 453

Noteworthy too is a squat lekythos of about 380 in Berlin, for here for the first time we see Olympians (Dionysos and Herakles) battling a Gigas with snakes in place of legs.

British Museum B62 Black-Figure Hydria (from Vulci)[edit]

LIMC Typhon 30

British Museum 1842,0407.18

De Grummond, pp. 258–259

Ogden, p. 71

If an image on an Etruscan hydria of c.520-510 BC does indeed represent Typhon raising a rock aloft, it gives him four anguipede legs, each terminating in a rampant serpent-head (it also gives him an additional two tiny pairs of wings in addition to his main set).⁸

⁸ LIMC Typhon 30.

British Museum B208 Black-Figure Amphora[edit]

Beazley Archive 302261

-550 to -500

Schefold, p. 67

530-520 BC

LIMC Gigantes 120

Arafat, p. 14

all three [Zeus, Athena and Heracles] are together on several late sisth-century black-figure vases.¹²

¹² London B208; .... Rome, Vatican 422; ... Rome, Vatican 365

British Museum E 8 Red-Figure Cup[edit]

Beazley Archive 200524

-525 to -475

LIMC Gigantes 365

Schefold, p. 67

"handsome" Giant with cock on shield: LIMC Gigantes 365 image 1/2

British Museum E 47 Red-Figure Cup Fragments (by Onesimos)[edit]

Beazley Archive 203256

-525 to -475

[Ε]υρυα[λος]

Φ[ορ]φυριο[ν]

HEPHAISTOS (NAMED) WITH TONGS

LIMC Gigantes 301

Arafat,

p. 16

One such is 1.23 [BM E 47] where the name Ph[or]phyrio[n] is inscribed, and Zeus is the presumed opponent, although he is lost.

On 1.23 [BM E 47] Hephaistos fights Euryalos, whereas on 1.7 [Akr 211] Euryalos is named and his opponent is certainly not Hephaistos, who is named and fighting elsewhere.

p. 184

c.490–480

Sparks, "Aspects of Onesimos" in Greek Art: Archaic Into Classical : a Symposium Held at the University of Cincinnati April 2-3, 1982 p. 27

The cup (pl. 30)⁶⁷ which is fragmentary, ... The less well preserved side gives the right edge of the composition which concerned the struggle of Porphyrion who is named, against a god, no doubt his usual adversary Zeus, whom we must imagine advancing from the left. Porphyrion is decked out in helmet, cuirass, short chiton and mantle, and thrusts out his shield, as he strides past a bearded giant collapsing beneath the handle of the cup. ... The better preserved side shows a hoplite Hephaisotos who is wounding the named Euryalos with his incendiary bombs. Euryalos averts his head from the attack and raises his leg and arm in an expressive gesture of pain. Further right, in the centre of this side, another giant retreats leftwards pursued by the figure to whom the shield belongs and who is named Ares. The retreating giant is ready to hurl a rock, and he and his companion are both clad in splendid panther skins, a favourite material with Onesimos; they have no hoplite outfit. The contrast between giants conceived as hoplites on one side and those seen as savage cavemen on the other is consciously chosen, and to see the giants as naked savages is new at this time. Onesimos again seems to have been one of the first to adopt this novel view, and it is one to be paramount in the later fifth century versions.

Get BU ?

Valters, pp. 72–73

Hephaestos (face and body wanting) strides forward in helmet, cuirass, short chiton, and greaves; in each hand he holds a pair of tongs, which grip a piece of red-hot and flaming metal (?); the one in his l. he plunges into the groin of a giant Euryalos, who has fallen backwards to r, with averted head; his l. knee and l. arm are raised as if to express the pain of his wound. Beside each is inscribed his name, ... [E]urya[los] ...

[p. 73] Porphryrion (bearded) strides to l. brandishing some weapon in his r., as if to protect his comrad; he wears a short chiton, a mantle over his shoulders, helmet, cuirass, and greaves; over him is his name P[or]phyrio[n]

British Museum E 165 Red-Figure Hydria (by the Tyszkiewicz Painter)[edit]

Beazley Archive 203036

-500 to -450

Decoration: SH: GIGANTOMACHY, ATHENA AND ZEUS FIGHTING GIANTS, ONE FALLEN, ONE FALLING WITH ROCK AND BEAR SKIN

Detail Giant w animal skin and rock v. Zeus

Arafat

p. 18

1.44 [BM E165] is one of four vases by the Tyszkiewicz Painter showing the Gigantomachy, ... [Zeus'] left hand has grasped the right shoulder of a giant (who wears an animal skin and brandishes a rock above his head)

Eleusis 349 Black Figure Pinax Fragment[edit]

Beazley Archive 1409

-600 to -550

Named: EPHIALTES

Gantz, p. 450

Eleusis 1398 (?)

Schefold, p. 52 [Can be seen by linking from my laptop]

c. 570

... The frieze on the plaque is the oldest known certain representation of a battle against the Giants. On the left the feet of a fallen Giant can be seen, above him, fighting towards the left, the figure of Ephialtes, whose name, frequently attested as one of the Giants, is inscribed beside him. On the right are Ares and a Giant whose name has been lost.

Ferrara 2892 (T300) Red Figure Calyx Krater[edit]

Beazley Archive 213529

-475 to -425

Named: ZEUS POR[PHYRION], [POSEI]DON, PO[LYBOTES]

GIANTS, SOME FALLING, ONE WITH SWORD, SHIELD AND ROCK (SOME NAMED)

LIMC Gigantes 315

Arafat

p.20

1.61 (Pl. 4b) [Mulgrave Castle] is a volute-krater showing gods fighting giants on both sides, in separate compositions. On the obverse Herakles is at the left, aiming an arrow; then Zeus' four-horse chariot, driven by a young woman (probably Nike, although she is wingless). Zeus is on the far side of the chariot, raising a thunderbolt against a fully-armed giant who stands next to him and brandishes his sword. It is against this giant also that Herakles must be aiming an arrow, an example of the co-operation between Zeus and Herakles noted on 1.24 [Berlin F2293] (cf. 1.71 [Ferrara 2892] Pl. 5b).

p. 22

Above the opponent of Zeus and Herakles on 1.71 (PL. 5b) are written the first three letters of 'Porphyrion', usually the opponent of Zeus, as on 1.7 [Akr 2.221] and 1.23 [BM E 47] (above, pp. 15-16); in passage 1 Apollodorus speaks of him as being destroyed by Zeus and Herakles together, with thunderbolt and arrow respectively. This krater provides fifth century evidence for exactly this detail.

p. 186

c.450-440

Harrison

p. 130

Next to the group of Zeus and Porphyrion on the krater [Ferrara 2892] is Poseidon pushing Nisyros down on a giant, while between them flies the eagle of Zeus.

Getty 81.AE.211 Black-Figure Dinos Fragment[edit]

Beazley Archive 10047

-575 to -525

Named: PANKRATES, POLYBOTES, ORANION, EPHIALTES, EUPHORBOS, EUBOIOS

LIMC Gigantes 171

Moore 1985, pp. 21–40

p. 31

a fallen giant; to the left of Polybotes' legs are the last three letters of his name ]MAS ... his name may have been Hopladamas

p. 34

Ephialtes v. Apollo & Artemis

Moore 1989

pp. 33 ff.

[...]AON v. Hera? (p. 37)

Gantz p. 451

Named: Ephialtes, Euboios, Euphorbos, Pankrates v. Heracles, Polybotes v. Zeus, Oranion v. Dionysus

Getty 82.AE.26 Black-figure Pyxis Fragments[edit]

Beazley Archive 10148

-575 to -525

Named: ENKELADOS, PORPHYRION

Fragment: Heracles, Athena, horses of Zeus' chariot, Porphyrion and Enceladus

Lourve CA3662 Red Figure Dish[edit]

Beazley Archive 200059

-550 to -500

Named: ATH]ENAAS, ENKELADOS

SHIELD DEVICE, SATYR

LIMC Gigantes 342

Louvre E732 Black-Figure Neck Amphora (from Caere)[edit]

Beazley Archive 14590 [No images]

-575 to -525

Named: HYPERBIOS, EPHIALTES, AGASTHENES, ENKELADOS, POLYBOTES

LIMC Gigantes 170

LIMC Gigantes 170 image 4/4 [Athena and Enceladus, Poisidon and Polybotes]

Arafat

P. 16

The Caeretan vase noted above [Louvre E732] has names for all three opponents of Zeus which we do not hear of elsewhere in that role (Hyperbios, Ephialtes, and Agasthenes), whereas Athena fights her usual opponent, Enkelados.

Gantz, p. 451

from Caere

Zeus v. Hyperbios, Ephialtes and Agasthenes

Hera v. Harpolykos

Athena v. Enceladus

Poseidon with Nisyros v. Polybotes

Louvre G434 Red-Figure Pelike[edit]

Beazley Archive 207774

-475 to -425

DIONYSOS WITH THYRSOS, GIANT FALLING

Louvre MNB810 (S1677) Red-Figure Neck Amphora[edit]

Beazley Archive 217568

-425 to -375

LIMC Gigantes 322

Cook, p. 56

(2) An amphora [Louvre MNB810] with twisted handles, found in Melos and now in the Louvre (no. S 1677 ... (3) Fragments of a krater or amphora from Ruvo, now at Naples [Naples 81521] ... Vases (2) and (3) presuppose a famous original, probably the Gigantomachy painted on the inside of the shield of Athena Parthénos. The semicircular band ... which on vase (3) denotes the arch of heaven may well perpetuate the rim of Athena's shield. ...

Robertson, pp. 106–107

One of the little copies of the shield of Athena Parthenos has traces of the painted Gigantomachy inside. A group can be faintly made out which recurs on a number of vases with the subject painted in Athens around 400, a time when there is considerable evidence of artistic nostalgia (cf. below, p. 116). The vase-pictures vary a good deal, but a distinctive principle of composition is common and surely derives from the original: the gods, high in the picture, are fighting down towards us, while the Giants tend to have their backs to us or to retreat in our direction (fig. 147 [Louvre MNB810]).

147 Neck-amphora (not, as long believed, from Melos; probably from Italy). Attic red-figure: Gigantomachy. Ascribed to Suessula Painter. About 400 B.C. H., with lid that does not fit.

Arafat

p. 27

On the South Italian vases, as on 1.79 [Louvre MNB810], 1.80 [Würzburg H4729], and 1.82 [Naples 8152], there are rocks being used by the giants, and dropped shields.

Louvre

A distinguished model: the shield of Athena Parthenos

In parallel with the "Rich" style that dominated late fifth-century Attic ceramics there was also a return to large-scale mythological compositions, with the Gigantomachy, Amazonomachy and Centauromachy becoming favorite subjects. This seems to have been the result of the influence of the sculptural decoration of the Parthenon, and particularly of the shield of Athena Parthenos (sculpted by Phidias in 438), which was embellished with a painted Gigantomachy on the inside and a carved Amazonomachy on the outside.

Some scholars have concluded that the A side of this vase, far superior in composition to the B side, is a reproduction of the Gigantomachy painted on the inside of Athena's shield. Certainly it contains the chief features of the great painting: an ambitious composition combining numerous figures placed at different levels, the extensive use of white to lend a polychrome feel to the decoration, and the expressive treatment of the figures, here the Giants, whose faces, twisted in fear and suffering, prefigure those that would later, in the Hellenistic period, be seen on the frieze of the Great Altar of Zeus at Pergamon.

Perseus

Wesleyan

Female (Amazon?) LIMC Gigantes 322: image 13/23

Metropolitan Museum, 08.258.21[edit]

Beazley Archive 214585

-475 to -425

Decoration:B2: ZEUS AND GIANT (GIGANTOMACHY ?), WITH STONE, HERMES WITH STONE

Arafat, p. 19

1.68 [Met 08.258.21] is a kalyx-krater showing an extract from a Gigantomachy on part of the lower tier. There are three figures: from the feft, Hermes, Zeus, and a giant. Both Hermes and the giant have stones in their raised right hands; a rock was noted on 1.44 [BM E 165], and there are more on later vases (e.g. 1.82 [Naples 81521]), but not in the hands of a god. This is the only example of a god throwing a rock (excluding Poseidon's use of Nisyros and Athena's of Sicily).

Munich 1612 Black-Figure Neck Amphora[edit]

Beazley Archive 303466 [No images]

-550 to -500

Munich 1437 Black-Figure Neck Amphora[edit]

Beazley Archive 745

-575 to -525

Decoration: A: GIGANTOMACHY, ARES AND GODDESS IN CHARIOT, ATHENA, GIANTS B: GIGANTOMACHY, POSEIDON WITH NISYROS, ATHENA, GIANTS

LIMC Gigantes 126

Perseus

c. 540 BC

Munich 1485 Black-Figure Neck Amphora[edit]

Beazley Archive 302287

-550 to -500

Decoration: A: GIGANTOMACHY, ZEUS WITH THUNDERBOLT, HERAKLES, BOTH IN CHARIOT, ATHENA, GIANTS, SOME FALLING, DEVICE, BUKRANION B: GIGANTOMACHY, POSEIDON WITH NISYROS, GIANTS, SOME FALLING, SHIELD DEVICES, IVY WREATH, DISCS

Moore 1979

p. 83

Naples 2664 Red-Figure Krater fragment[edit]

Beazley Arcive 201791 [No images]

-425 to -375

LIMC Gigantes 354

Arafat

p.26

A similar vase is 1.83 [Naples 2664], one fragment showing part of Athena and En[kelados]; the rest is speculative.

p. 186

Naples 81521 (H2883) Red-Figure Calyx Krater[edit]

Beazley Archive 217517

-425 to -375

Named: Enceladus, [Porphyr]ion

Previously Naples H2883

LIMC Gigantes 316

Cook, p. 56

(2) An amphora [Louvre MNB810] with twisted handles, found in Melos and now in the Louvre (no. S 1677 ... (3) Fragments of a krater or amphora from Ruvo, now at Naples [Naples 81521] ... Vases (2) and (3) presuppose a famous original, probably the Gigantomachy painted on the inside of the shield of Athena Parthénos. The semicircular band ... which on vase (3) denotes the arch of heaven may well perpetuate the rim of Athena's shield. ...

Stewart, Andrew, Greek Sculpture: An Exploratio Volume II:Plates [25]

368. Attic red-figured calyx-krater from Ruvo, ca, 400: Gigantomachy, Naples, Museo Nationale 2883. Original ht. ca. 31 cm.

Arafat

P. 19

Both Hermes and the giant have stones in their raised right hands [on Met 08.258.21]; a rock was noted on 1.44 [BM E 165], and there are more on later vases (e.g. 1.82 [Naples 81521]), but not in the hands of a god.

p. 25

[on Berlin F2531 Gaia's] upraised hands show her concern concern at the slaughter of the giants. She also appears on 1.82 [Naples 81521] in a very similar pose, again emerging from the ground.

The vault of heaven is one feature of the depiction which has led to many attempts to relate this vase to the Gigantomachy of the interior of the shield of the Athena Parthenos, mentioned by Pliny (Natural History 36.18).³⁴

pp. 25–26

The one on the left-hand corner [of Naples 81521] with the shield is named Enkeledos and the [p. 26] one between the two rock-holding giants is named Porphyrion. These names are by now long familiar, and suggest that the divine opponents would have been Athena and Zeus respectively. The presence of Zeus would confirm the idea suggested by the chariot-team. These two giants are worthy of such divine opponents, a rank emphasized by their shields which both have relief bosses; that of Enkelados has a painted battle scene on the interior. Enkelados also has a helmet.

p. 26

Ge rises from the ground here, as on 1.75 [Berlin F2531]. There she rises behind Poseidon and is appealing to him on behalf of her sons; here [on Naples 81521] she looks up and to the left of the scene, to exactly where we believe Zeus to have been depicted. This further emphasizes the significance of Zeus, and is another motif inherited from the Archaic period.³⁵

p. 27

On the South Italian vases, as on 1.79 [Louvre MNB810], 1.80 [Würzburg H4729], and 1.82 [Naples 8152], there are rocks being used by the giants, and dropped shields.

p. 169

A more likely inspiration is the Gigantomachy of the interior of the shield of the Athena Parthenos, which is reflected more closely on 1.82 [Naples 81521] than on any other vase.

p. 186

c. 420-400

Perseus: Naples 81521 (Vase)

Named: Enceladus, Mimas

ca. 410 BC - ca. 400 BC

A (Gigantomachy): Enkelados (labelled above his head), crouched profile to the right, both legs bent, wearing an Attic helmet, and a shield shown in 3/4-inside-view on his bent left arm; Mimas (labelled in red wash, below his rock), leaning 3/4-view to the right, with his head frontal, both legs bent, holding a large rock (shaped like a wine skin!) in both arms, wearing a nebris on his left arm; above him, two nude men, of whom only the legs are preserved; a giant (labelled above his head), lunging 3/4-back-view to the right, both legs bent, with weight on his left leg, wearing a nebris over his left arm, and holding an unidentifiable object in his right hand, extended to the right; another male figure above him, crouching near profile to the right, with his bent, left leg raised on a rock, holds a short spear in his lowered right hand, and raises his left hand on top of a rock; another male figure, standing 3/4-view to the left, with his weight on his bent, right leg, wearing a nebris over his left arm, raises a large rock in both arms; a female figure, probably Attika or Ge, shown only above her hips, standing 3/4-view to the left, wearing a belted peplos, and long hair, raises both bent arms, and looks up; Helios (shown from his hips up; the tops of the four horses also shown) riding a quadriga 3/4-view to the left; another quadriga (?).

Paris, Cabinet des Medailles, 573 Red Figure Cup Vulci[edit]

Beazley Archive 204546

-500 to -450

Cook, p. 14

(3) a kylix from Vulci, now at Paris, assigned by Hoppin to 'the Brygos paniter' ...

Plate III, A

Paris, Petit Palais 868 Red-Figure Bell Krater (by Altamura)[edit]

Beazley Archive 206859

-475 to -425

Named: PORPHYRION

LIMC Zeus ADD.52 [No images]

Arafat

p. 18

[On Petit Palais 868 Zeus'] opponent is impressive in defeat, still pointing at Zeus two long spears and holding a large shield in front of him; he also has a helmet and corselet. He is named Porphyrion, and Zeus is also named: he is then the leader of the giants, and his defiance matches his status.

P. 184

c.480-470

Tarquinia 623 Black-Figure Neck Amphora[edit]

Beazley Archive 310411

-575 to -525

A,B: GIGANTOMACHY, HERAKLES IN CHARIOT, ATHENA, ZEUS, DIONYSOS WITH SPEAR, LIONS AND DOG, GIANTS, SOME FALLEN, DEVICES, EAGLE FLYING, OCTOPUS, DOLPHINS

LIMC Gigantes 114

Vatican 422 Black-Figure Hydria[edit]

Beazley Archive 302040

-550 to -500

BD: GIGANTOMACHY, ZEUS WITH THUNDERBOLT MOUNTING CHARIOT WITH HERAKLES WITH BOW, ATHENA, GIANTS, ONE FALLEN, DEVICES, DISCS

LIMC Gigantes 123 [No images]

Arafat, p. 14

all three [Zeus, Athena and Heracles] are together on several late sisth-century black-figure vases.¹²

¹² London B208; .... Rome, Vatican 422; ... Rome, Vatican 365

Vatican 16445 (A365) Black-Figure Amphora[edit]

Beazley Archive 301601

-550 to -500

Arafat, p. 14

all three [Zeus, Athena and Heracles] are together on several late sisth-century black-figure vases.¹²

¹² London B208; .... Rome, Vatican 422; ... Rome, Vatican 365

Vienna 688 Attic Red-Figure Column Krater[edit]

Beazley Archive 202916

-500 to -450

(POSEIDON) WITH ROCK AND GIANT (EPHIALTES)

LIMC Gigantes 361

Cook, pp. 14–18

Only one of the red-figured vases names the Giant, and this calls him not Polybotes but Ephialtes ...

Cook, p. 17 fig. 5 [image]

Theoi [image]

Whitby, Mulgrave Castle, Lord Normanby Red-Figure Volute Krater[edit]

Beazley archive [Beazley archive 217584 276082] [No images]

-475 to -425

LIMC Gigantes 314 [No images]

Arafat

p. 20

1.61 (Pl. 4b) [Mulgrave Castle] is a volute-krater showing gods fighting giants on both sides, in separate compositions. On the obverse Herakles is at the left, aiming an arrow; then Zeus' four-horse chariot, driven by a young woman (probably Nike, although she is wingless). Zeus is on the far side of the chariot, raising a thunderbolt against a fully-armed giant who stands next to him and brandishes his sword. It is against this giant also that Herakles must be aiming an arrow, an example of the co-operation between Zeus and Herakles noted on 1.24 [Berlin F2293] (cf. 1.71 [Ferrara 2892] Pl. 5b). On the right is Athena, thrusting a spear into a giant; we have, therefore, the familiar trio of Zeus, Herakles, and Athena. Also is Dionysos, on the reverse with satyrs and a maenad: he attacks a giant with a thyrsos.

Wurzburg H4729 Red-Figure Volute Krater Fragments[edit]

Beazley archive 217584

Date: -425 to -375

Decoration: A: GIGANTOMACHY, GIANTS, ONE WITH LEOPARD SKIN AND STONE, ONE WITH CLUB (?), DIONYSOS IN BIGA DRAWN BY PANTHERS, APOLLO WITH TORCHES, ZEUS AND NIKE IN CHARIOT, ATHENA, ARTEMIS WITH SPEAR OR ARROW

Arafat

p. 27

On the South Italian vases, as on 1.79 [Louvre MNB810], 1.80 [Würzburg H4729], and 1.82 [Naples 8152], there are rocks being used by the giants, and dropped shields.

Named Giants[edit]

Literature[edit]

Homer

Eurymedon

Apollodorus

Agrius v. Moirai
Alcyoneus v. Heracles
Clytius v. Hecate
Enceladus v. Athena
Ephialtes v. Apollo & Heracles
Eurytus v. Dionysus
Gration, v. Artemis
Hippolytus v. Hermes
Mimas v. Hephaestus
Pallas v. Athena
Polybotes v. Poseidon
Porphyrion v. Zeus & Hercules
Thoas v. Moirai

Claudian

Aegaeon (only in Rape)
Damastor
Echion v. Minerva
Enceladus
Mimas v. Mars
Ophion (only in Rape)
Pallas v. Minerva
Palleneus v. Minerva
Pelorus (= Peloreus?) v. Mars
Porphyrion

Sidonius

Enceladus (Pindus)
Typhoeus (Ossa)
Porphyrion (Pangaeus)
Damastor (Rhodope)
Pallas
Mimas (Lemnos)
Briareus

Vases[edit]

Akr 607 (Gantz, p. 451, Beazley, p. 39)

Aristaios v. Hephaistos
Mimos v. Aphrodite
[Hapla]adamas (Beazley; v. Apollo: Moore 1985, p. 31)

Akr 2134 (Gantz, p. 451)

[Eury]medon
Ephialtes

Berlin F2531

Enceladus v. Athena
Ephialtes v. Apollo
Gaion v. Artemis
Mimon v. Ares
Phoitos v. Hera
Polybotes v. Poseidon
Porphyrion v. Zeus

Getty 81.AE.211 (Gantz, p. 451; Moore 1985)

Ephialtes (v. Apollo & Artemis: Moore 1985, p. 34)
Euboios
Euphorbos
Oranion v. Dionysus
Pankrates v. Heracles
Polybotes v. Zeus

Louvre E732 Caere amphora (Gantz, p. 451)

Agasthenes v. Zeus
Enceladus v. Athena
Ephialtes v. Zeus
Harpolykos v. Hera
Hyperbios v. Zeus
Polybotes v. Poseidon

Siphnian Treasury[edit]

Per Brinkmann (see Perseus: Delphi, Siphnian Treasury Frieze--North (Sculpture))

Alektos
Astarias (previously Astartas e.g. Gantz)
Biatas
Ephialtes
Eriktypos (previously Berektas e.g. Gantz)
Mimon (= Mimas?)
Hyperphas (previously Hypertas e.g. Gantz)
Tharos (Brinkmann) (Ka[n]tharos? e.g. Gantz)
[Porphy]rion

Others not seen by Brinkmann

Enaphas (e.g. Gantz)
Laertas (e.g. Gantz)

Pergamon Altar[edit]

Queyrel 2005, L'Autel de Pergame (in "Giants" folder) p. 52[edit]

Names of Giants inscribed on lower molding:

[Agri]os
[Alkyo ?]neus
Allektos (= Alektos from Siphnian treasury?)
Bro[nteas] or Bro[ntios]
[Char]adreus
Chtonophylos
Erysichton
Eurybias
Maima[ches]
Mim[as]
Molodros
Obrimos
Ochtaios
Olyktor
Oudaios
[Pa]lamneus
[Pel]oreus
[Phar]angeus
Porphryion
[Sche]naros
[Sty]phel[os]
Ta[rtaros]
-chton- ?

Smith, R. R. R., Hellenistic Sculpture[edit]

Allektos
Bro[nteas]
[Char]adreus
Chthonophylos
Erysichthon
Eurybias
Mimas
Molodros
Obrimos
Olyktor
Oudaios
Octhaios
Palamneus
Peloreus
[Pha]rrangeus
[Sthe]naros
[Stu]phelos

Simon 1975, Pergamon und Hesiod (in "Giants" folder)[edit]

Allekto(s)
Chthonophylos
Erysichthon
Eurybias
Mim(as)
Molodros
Obrimos
Ochthaio(s)
Olyktor
(Pa)lamneus
(Pel)oreus
Udaios

Pergamon Altar Gigantomachy Viewer[edit]

East Frieze:

Klytios
Otos
Udaios
Erysichton
Porphryion
Alkyoneus

North Frieze:

Agrios
Thoas

Pergamon Museum photographs date unknown with descriptions by Michael Lahanas[edit]

East Frieze

Klytios v. Hecate

Otos v. Artemis ?

Aigaion v. Artemis ? [Hundred-hander = Aegeon = Briareus]

Tityos v. Leto

Ephialtes v. Apollo [now Udaeus]

Erysichthon v. Demeter

Porphyrion v. Zeus

Alkyoneous v. Athena

North Frieze

Chthonios ("one of the 12 sons of Aigyptos and Kaliadne")

Lynkeus

Idas

Aster

South Frieze

Leon

Giants known only by inscription include[edit]

Agasthenes v. Zeus (Louvre E732)
Euboios (Getty 81.AE.211)
Euphorbos (Getty 81.AE.211)
Euryalus (Akropolis 2.211, British Museum E 47, Arafat, p. 16)
Gaion v. Artemis (Berlin F2531) (Arafat, p. 25: "It is probable that the name of Artemis' opponent, Gaion, reflects his earthly origins.)
Hyperbios v. Zeus (Louvre E732)
Harpolykos v. Hera (Louvre E732)
Pankrates v. Heracles (Getty 81.AE.211)
Phoitos v. Hera (Berlin F2531)
Oranion v. Dionysus (Getty 81.AE.211)

Those on Siphnian Treasury

Those of Pergamon Altar

Notes[edit]

^ Schefold, p. 56; Beazley Archive 302261; LIMC Gigantes 120.
^ Beazley Archive 200059, LIMC Gigantes 342.
^ Beazley Archive 207774.
^ Beazley Archive 303466.
^ Beazley Archive 204546; Cook, Plate III, A.

[1] Wilson, p. 559.

[2] Cunningham, p. 113; Kleiner, p. 156 FIG. 5-79; Queyrel, pp. 52–53; Ridgway, Brunilde Sismondo 2000, p. 39, pp. 59–60 n. 59. Supporting the identification of this Giant as Alcyoneus, is the fragmentary inscription "neus", that may belong to this scene, for doubts concerning this identification, see Ridgway.

[3] Beazley Archive 220533; Arafat, pp. 24, 25, 186; Cook, p. 56, Plate VI; LIMC Gigantes 318: Image 3/4; Perseus Berlin F 2531 (Vase)

[4] Schefold, p. 56; Beazley Archive 302261; LIMC Gigantes 120.

[5] Beazley Archive 200059, LIMC Gigantes 342.

[6] Beazley Archive 207774.

[7] Beazley Archive 303466.

[8] Beazley Archive 204546; Cook, Plate III, A.

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Athena Parthenos^[1][edit]