Giants in the ancient sources

Ancient Sources / Figures / Giants

9 passages from 7 ancient authors that tell of Giants, in the original with English translation, author by author in the order the Greeks read them. The Giants or Gigantes were a race of great strength, but not necessarily of great size, that were born out of the blood that fell onto the earth (the... For the story in one place, read our article on Giants.

Hesiod (1)

Hesiod, Theogony 175–209Cronus castrates Uranus; the birth of Aphrodite (175-209)Uranus comes to lie with Gaia, and Cronus, waiting in ambush, cuts off his father's genitals with the sickle. From the drops of blood come the Erinyes, the Giants and the ash-tree nymphs, and from the foam round the severed flesh Aphrodite rises and is carried to Cythera and Cyprus, with Eros and Desire as her companions. Uranus calls his sons Titans, because they strained and acted presumptuously.

Apollodorus (1)

Apollodorus, The Library (Bibliotheca), with the Epitome 1.6.1–3The Giants and TyphonEarth bears the Giants, led by Alcyoneus and Porphyrion, and because an oracle says no god can kill them, Zeus summons Heracles; the section lists which god kills which Giant. Earth then bears Typhon, who drives the gods to Egypt, takes Zeus's sinews and hides them in a Cilician cave until Hermes and Aegipan steal them back. Zeus pursues him through Thrace and Sicily and buries him under Mount Etna.

Diodorus Siculus (3)

Diodorus Siculus, Library of History, Books 4 to 6 (the Greek myths) 4.17.1–4.21.7Heracles and the cattle of GeryonesFor his tenth labour Heracles gathers an army and sails from Crete, which he first clears of wild beasts. In Libya he kills Antaeus, in Egypt Busiris, and he sets up the Pillars at the western ocean. He then crosses Celtica, where he founds Alesia, and the Alps, passes the Ligurians, and camps on the Tiber where Rome later stands.
Diodorus Siculus, Library of History, Books 4 to 6 (the Greek myths) 5.68.1–5.72.5Zeus and the children of Cronus in CreteAccording to the Cretans the children of Cronus and Rhea discovered or introduced many arts, and the sea, the hearth and the corn belong to Poseidon, Hestia and Demeter. The historian gives the conflicting accounts of how Zeus became king, the places in Crete tied to his infancy, his benefactions to mankind and the punishment of the Giants.
Diodorus Siculus, Library of History, Books 4 to 6 (the Greek myths) 4.14.1–4.16.4Heracles: the Olympic Games, the Giants and the AmazonsAfter the stables Heracles founds the Olympic Games and receives gifts from the gods. He fights on the side of the gods against the Giants at Pallene, frees Prometheus by shooting the eagle, and brings Eurystheus the man-eating horses of Diomedes. He then sails to the Pontus for the girdle of Hippolyte and defeats the Amazons.

Ovid (1)

Ovid, Metamorphoses 1.89–162The Four AgesThe Golden Age had no law, no punishment and no ships, and the earth gave all things of its own accord. The Silver Age brought seasons, the first houses and ploughing, the Bronze Age a fiercer temper, and the Iron Age all kinds of crime and greed, with Justice fleeing the earth. The Giants then pile up mountains to storm heaven, and Zeus (Jupiter, 'Jove' in More's translation) strikes them down, and from their blood Earth makes a race that despises the gods.

Pausanias (1)

Pausanias, Description of Greece 1.25.1–8Athens Acropolis: statues of Pericles and Anacreon; the Lamian War and the tyrantsStatues on the Acropolis include Xanthippus, Pericles and Anacreon, Io and Callisto, and the small groups dedicated by Attalus showing the Giants, Amazons, Marathon and the Gauls. Pausanias then recounts the aftermath of Chaeronea and the Lamian War under Leosthenes, the Macedonian garrisons, Cassander’s tyrants Demetrius of Phalerum and Lachares, and Demetrius son of Antigonus fortifying the Museum hill.

Nonnus of Panopolis (1)

Nonnus of Panopolis, Dionysiaca 48.0–181Book 48: The Giants attack Dionysos; he wrestles PalleneHera, still angry over Argos, stirs Earth to arm the Giants against Dionysos. He drives them off with his thyrsus and ivy, but leaves them alive for his father to deal with. He then turns to Pallene, whose father Sithon has killed all her suitors, and wins her in a wrestling-match on the Thracian isthmus when Sithon stops the bout.

Lycophron (1)

Lycophron, Alexandra 541–693Alexandra 541–693: Quarrelling cousins, the leaders' settlements in the West, and one man's wanderingsThe men at the banquet first tear at each other with jeers and then, as cousins, take up the spear, and two pairs fall, Hades receiving one pair while the other brothers are welcomed to Olympos on alternate days, undying and dead. Cassandra foretells the wanderings of many other leaders, among them Cepheus and Praxandrus, a leader who founds Argyrippa while his comrades are turned into birds, men who sail to the Gymnesian rocks as slingers, and others who reach Iberia and Libya. One man, the sole survivor of his friends, is carried past the one-eyed lion, Charybdis, enchanting nightingales and a dragoness who turns men into swine, and at last goes down to the dark plain of the dead to consult the ancient seer.