The Titans: The Greek Gods Before the Olympians

When we think of Greek gods, we call to mind names like Zeus, Poseidon, and Hades, the powerful Olympian gods that each ruled over different aspects of reality and the cosmos. Zeus had dominion over the sky and heavens, Poseidon over the seas and all waters, and Hades over the Underworld and the dead. But before the Olympians took power, there was another generation of gods, the Titans. While the Titans were generally thought of as cruel gods, the era in which they ruled was still considered a Golden Age. An age that ended with the rise of the Olympians.

Before the Olympians, so named because they made their home on Mount Olympus, there were the Titans, the offspring of the primordial gods of the earth and sky, Gaia and Ouranos. It was Ouranos himself who gave his children this name after they had violently usurped him, cursing them and warning them of the inevitable retribution that awaited them.

In Hesiod’s Theogony, the poet gave the title “Titans” as derived from the words “τιταίνω,” meaning “to strain,” and “τίσις,” meaning “vengeance” or “retribution.” Though modern scholars dismiss this as folk etymology, Hesiod’s presentation of these early deities characterizes them in this light and sets up the narrative to follow.

It is now generally accepted that the story of the Titans originated in the Near East, modern-day Turkey, as it has strong parallels with the earlier Hurro-Hittite story of Kumarbi, specifically the succession myths from Ouranos to Kronos, commonly transliterated to the Latinized form Cronus, and then from Kronos to Zeus.

Elder Titans

Hesiod’s Theogony is the earliest reference to the name Titans, and in it, he gives the title to specific children of Ouranos and Gaia. Oceanus, the god of the world-encircling river Oceanus, which is the origin of all fresh waters. The name is used to denote both the god and the place, much like Hades refers to both the god and the underworld. Koios, the god of intelligence and the axis of heaven. Krios, the god of constellations; Iapetus, god of mortality; Hyperion, god of light and the cycles of day and night. Kronos, the youngest son and god of time. Theia, the goddess of light and sight. Rhea, the goddess of female fertility. Themis, the goddess of law, order, and prophecy. Mnemosyne, the goddess of memory and language. Tethys, the goddess of nursing and fresh water. Finally, Phoebe, the goddess of intellect and prophecy.

While later authors add more to this list, Ouranos called his children Titans as a curse rather than a generational distinction. Proof of this lies in the fact that Gaia and Ouranos’ other children, the Cyclopes, the Hundredhanders, the Furies, and even Aphrodite, if Hesiod’s version of her birth is to be believed, are not considered Titans. Once they came into power, the Titans ordered the world as they saw fit, marrying each other and having more divine children.

Later Greek authors added more names to the list of Titans, including the immediate descendants of the twelve laid out in Hesiod’s narrative, consequently changing the meaning of the term to refer to the generation of gods that preceded the Olympians.

Among the most famous younger Titans are the sons of Iapetus and Klymene. Prometheus was the god who created mankind and stole fire from Zeus for them. For this transgression, he was punished by being chained on top of the Caucasus Mountains, and an eagle set on him to eat out his liver every day. His brother Epimetheus became the husband of Pandora. His daughter, Pyrrha, helped to save humanity from a great flood. The third brother, Atlas, held up the heavens.

Other notables are the children of Hyperion and Theia: Helios, Selene, and Eos. Helios was the all-seeing god of the sun and played a role in the myth of Aphrodite’s affair with Ares. Selene was the goddess of the moon and the cycle of months. She was said to have nursed the Nemean Lion, which Herakles killed as one of his labors. Selene also sent the gadfly that caused Ampelos, a lover of Dionysus, to be thrown from the back of a bull and trampled to death. Eos was the goddess of the dawn, whom Aphrodite cursed with a constant passion for sleeping with Ares. Eos once fell in love with Orion and carried him off to Delos, the sacred island of Apollo. There, Orion was killed by Artemis, either because of jealousy or because he challenged her to a discus contest.

Gaia had six more children by Ouranos. These were the Cyclopes, so named because of the singular round eye in the center of their foreheads, and the Hecatoncheires, also called Hundredhanders, Kottos, Gyges, and Briareus. They each had 100 arms and 50 heads sprouting atop their shoulders. Kronos was so disgusted with these children that as soon as they were born, he hid them away deep within Gaia, causing her a great amount of pain. She crafted an adamantine sickle and begged her other children to help her against their father. Only Kronos took up the task; the rest were seized with fear.

Gaia hid Kronos, gave him the sickle, and told him of her plan. Then he waited. The next time Ouranos visited Gaia, Kronos sprung out of his hiding place and sliced off his father’s genitals with the sickle, then threw them into the sea. The blood that spilled into the Earth gave birth to the Furies, avenging gods that specifically punish acts of familial violence, and the Giants, or Gigantes, meaning Earthborn. The castrated genitals formed white foam in the sea and washed ashore on Cyprus. Aphrodite was born from the foam.

While Hesiod wrote that Kronos acted alone, Apollodorus wrote that all the children of Ouranos, except for Oceanus, perpetrated the assault. Regardless, Ouranos blamed all of his children and dubbed them Titans.

Wrestling Control of Heaven

Most versions of the Titan myth have Kronos taking immediate control in the wake of his father’s castration, but other authors have cited another divine couple that ruled before Kronos: Ophion and Eurynome. The story likely comes from the Orphic tradition, a mystery cult centered on the resurrection of Dionysus and the songs of Orpheus.

In the Argonautica by Apollonios of Rhodes, the author tells of a song by Orpheus that Ophion and Eurynome, the daughter of Oceanus, were said to be the first rulers of the world. They had their rule wrestled away by the Kronos and Rhea and were both cast into the waters of Oceanus. At this time, Zeus had been born, but was still a child hiding in the Dictean Cave, meaning that Kronos did not take power immediately after castrating his father. The throne from which Zeus eventually rules is even called Ophion’s throne.

There is debate, however, over whether the name Ophion is being used to refer to a different god. He has been equated with either Ouranos or Oceanus, and Eurynome with either Gaia or Tethys. If they equate with Ouranos and Gaia then the story parallels Hesiod’s narrative, except for when they are cast into Oceanus. Since theogonies and cosmogonies seek to explain the ordering of the world, it makes little sense to have the personifications of earth and sky exiled to the fringes since, metaphorically, that would mean the earth and sky were exiled from the current order of the world. If Ophion and Eurynome equate with Oceanus and Tethys, that would either imply that they were the first rulers of the cosmos and not Ouranos and Gaia, or that they ruled in the immediate aftermath of Ouranos’ castration.

A comparison of Ophion and Eurynome has also been made with Typhoeus and Echidna, two monstrous beings that spawned a family of monsters prevalent in Greek myth like the Hydra, Sphinx, Chimera, and Cerberus. In Pherecydes’ Theogony, the eternal god of time, Chronos, a different deity to Kronos, fought a war against Ophion and his children by Eurynome. The name Ophion suggests a serpentine form, and Eurynome, if she is the same daughter of Oceanus that was worshipped in Phigalia, has the form of a mermaid. It is only natural then that their children would have similar forms.

Kronos had six children with his sister-wife Rhea. They were Hestia, Demeter, Hera, Hades, Poseidon, and finally Zeus. Kronos feared a prophecy told to him by his parents that he would be overthrown by one of his own sons. In order to avoid this prophecy, Kronos swallowed down each of his children the moment they were born. This caused Rhea great distress, and when she was about to give birth to Zeus, she asked her parents, Gaia and Ouranos, to help her devise a plan to save her sons and get vengeance on Kronos. Rhea was whisked away to Crete to give birth in secret, and, in place of the baby Zeus, Kronos was given a swaddled stone, which he promptly gulped down. When Zeus grew into adulthood, he, together with Rhea and Gaia, convinced Kronos to regurgitate his siblings.

Titanomachy

Together with his siblings, Zeus waged a decade-long war against Kronos and the Titans, which was known as the Titanomachy. The most common and complete version of the Titanomachy comes from Hesiod’s Theogony, in which Zeus and his siblings rose up against Kronos over his treatment of his father, Ouranos, and his uncles, the Cyclopes and Hundredhanders.

The first thing Zeus did was free his uncles, the Cyclopes and Hundredhanders, and recruited them to his side. The Hundredhanders hurled massive stones at the Titan army, and the battle that ensued shook the earth from high Olympus down to Tartarus. Zeus then joined the fray, wielding the thunderbolt that had been given to him by the Cyclopes. Together, they cast the Titans into Tartarus and chained them. Zeus set the Hundredhanders to guard them and had Poseidon fix a gate of bronze to keep them contained.

But the divine feuding did not end. Gaia then birthed Typhoeus, a monstrous and serpentine being able to shoot fire from his eyes. He was to avenge the treatment of the Titans by the Olympians. Zeus fought against Typhoeus and smote him with the thunderbolt. With no more contenders to the throne, Zeus took up his place as king of gods and men.