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Figures in the ancient sources

Hecatoncheires in the ancient sources

Ancient Sources / Figures / Hecatoncheires

5 passages from 2 ancient authors that tell of Hecatoncheires, in the original with English translation, author by author in the order the Greeks read them. The Hecatoncheires were giant creatures in Greek mythology. Their name means "hundred - handed ones", and apart from a hundred hands of unfathomable s... For the story in one place, read our article on Hecatoncheires.

Hesiod (4)

  1. Hesiod, Theogony 700–739The Titans buried; the approach to Tartarus (700-739)The heat of battle seems to bring heaven and earth together, and the Hundred-Handers hurl three hundred rocks at a time at the Titans, overwhelm them and bind them beneath the earth. Hesiod then describes Tartarus, as far beneath the earth as heaven is above it, with its bronze fence and gates, where the Titans lie hidden and the Hundred-Handers stand guard.
  2. Hesiod, Theogony 130–174Gaia and Uranus: the Titans, Cyclopes and Hundred-Handers (130-174)Gaia bears Pontus, the sea, and then lies with Uranus and bears the twelve Titans, among them Oceanus and Cronus, followed by the three Cyclopes and the three Hundred-Handers. Uranus hates his children and hides them in Gaia's depths, so she groans, plots against him and makes a sickle of grey flint. Only Cronus has the courage to answer her, and she sets him in ambush with the sickle.
  3. Hesiod, Theogony 615–649Zeus releases the Hundred-Handers (615-649)Zeus and the gods, at Gaia's advice, bring the Hundred-Handers, Obriareus, Cottus and Gyes, up from the gloom beneath the earth where their father Uranus had bound them. The ten-year war between the Titans on Othrys and the gods on Olympus is evenly balanced, and Zeus feeds the three nectar and ambrosia and asks them to stand with the younger gods against the Titans.
  4. Hesiod, Theogony 650–699The Titanomachy: Zeus's thunderbolts (650-699)Cottus answers for the Hundred-Handers and the war begins, the sea, earth and heaven shaking at the clash. Then Zeus holds back his might no longer and comes from Olympus hurling lightning and thunderbolts, so that the earth burns, the sea and Ocean seethe, and the Titans are blinded by the glare.

Apollodorus (1)

  1. Apollodorus, The Library (Bibliotheca), with the Epitome 1.1.1–7Uranus, the Titans and the birth of ZeusSky (Uranus) and Earth have the Hundred-handers, the Cyclopes and the Titans, and Sky casts the Cyclopes into Tartarus. At Earth's urging the Titans attack their father, and Cronus mutilates him with an adamantine sickle, so that the Furies are born from the blood. Cronus takes the sovereignty, binds his brothers again, marries Rhea and swallows his children at birth, until Rhea hides the infant Zeus in a cave in Crete among the Curetes and nymphs and gives Cronus a stone to swallow.