The most important divine struggle in Greek mythology was the Gigantomachy, the battle fought between the Giants and the Olympian gods for supremacy of the cosmos. It is primarily for this battle that the Giants are known, and its importance to Greek culture is attested by the frequent depiction of the Gigantomachy in Greek art.
Early sources (left) fighting the Giant
Enceladus (inscribed retrograde) on an
Attic red-figure dish, c. 550–500 BC (
Louvre CA3662). The references to the Gigantomachy in archaic sources are sparse. Neither Homer nor Hesiod mention anything explicit about the Giants battling the gods. Homer's remark that Eurymedon "brought destruction on his froward people" might possibly be a reference to the Gigantomachy and Hesiod's remark that
Heracles performed a "great work among the immortals" is probably a reference to Heracles' crucial role in the gods' victory over the Giants. The Hesiodic
Catalogue of Women (also called
Ehoiai), following mentions of Heracles' sacks of
Troy and of
Kos, refers to his having slain "presumptuous Giants". Another probable reference to the Gigantomachy in the
Catalogue has Zeus produce Heracles to be "a protector against ruin for gods and men". There are indications that there might have been a lost epic poem, a
Gigantomachia, which gave an account of the war: Hesiod's
Theogony says that the
Muses sing of the Giants, and the sixth century BC poet
Xenophanes mentions the Gigantomachy as a subject to be avoided at table. The
Apollonius scholia refers to a "
Gigantomachia" in which the Titan
Cronus (as a horse) sires the
centaur Chiron by mating with
Philyra (the daughter of two Titans), but the scholiast may be confusing the Titans and Giants. Other possible archaic sources include the lyric poets Alcman (mentioned above) and the sixth-century
Ibycus. The late sixth early fifth century BC lyric poet
Pindar provides some of the earliest details of the battle between the Giants and the Olympians. He locates it "on the plain of
Phlegra" and has
Teiresias foretell Heracles killing Giants "beneath [his] rushing arrows". He calls Heracles "you who subdued the Giants", and has
Porphyrion, whom he calls "the king of the Giants", being overcome by the bow of
Apollo.
Euripides'
Heracles has its hero shooting Giants with arrows, and his
Ion has the chorus describe seeing a depiction of the Gigantomachy on the late sixth century
Temple of Apollo at Delphi, with
Athena fighting the Giant
Enceladus with her "gorgon shield",
Zeus burning the Giant
Mimas with his "mighty thunderbolt, blazing at both ends", and
Dionysus killing an unnamed Giant with his "ivy staff". The early 3rd century BC author
Apollonius of Rhodes briefly describes an incident where the sun god
Helios takes up
Hephaestus, exhausted from the fight in Phlegra, on his chariot.
Apollodorus (left) with ivy crown, and
thyrsus attacking a Giant,
Attic red-figure pelike, c. 475–425 BC (
Louvre G434). The most detailed account of the Gigantomachy is that of the (first or second-century AD) mythographer
Apollodorus. None of the early sources give any reasons for the war. Scholia to the
Iliad mention the rape of
Hera by the Giant Eurymedon, while according to the scholia to
Pindar's
Isthmian 6, it was the theft of the cattle of
Helios by the Giant
Alcyoneus that started the war. Apollodorus, who also mentions the theft of Helios' cattle by Alcyoneus, suggests a mother's revenge as the motive for the war, saying that
Gaia bore the Giants because of her anger over the Titans (who had been vanquished and imprisoned by the Olympians). Seemingly, as soon as the Giants are born they begin hurling "rocks and burning oaks at the sky". There was a prophecy that the Giants could not be killed by the gods alone, but they could be killed with the help of a mortal. Hearing this, Gaia sought for a certain plant (
pharmakon) that would protect the Giants. Before Gaia or anyone else could find this plant, Zeus forbade
Eos (Dawn),
Selene (Moon) and
Helios (Sun) to shine, harvested all of the plant himself and then he had
Athena summon
Heracles. According to Apollodorus, Alcyoneus and
Porphyrion were the two strongest Giants. Heracles shot Alcyoneus, who fell to the ground but then revived, for Alcyoneus was immortal within his native land. So Heracles, on Athena's advice, dragged him beyond the borders of that land, where Alcyoneus then died (compare with
Antaeus). Porphyrion attacked Heracles and Hera, but Zeus caused Porphyrion to become enamoured of Hera, whom Porphyrion then tried to rape, but Zeus struck Porphyrion with his thunderbolt and Heracles killed him with an arrow. Other Giants and their fates are mentioned by Apollodorus. Ephialtes was blinded by an arrow from Apollo in his left eye, and another arrow from Heracles in his right.
Eurytus was killed by
Dionysus with his
thyrsus,
Clytius by
Hecate with her torches, and
Mimas by
Hephaestus with "missiles of red-hot metal" from his forge. Athena crushed Enceladus under the Island of Sicily and flayed
Pallas, using his skin as a shield.
Poseidon broke off a piece of the island of
Kos called
Nisyros, and threw it on top of
Polybotes (
Strabo also relates the story of Polybotes buried under Nisyros but adds that some say Polybotes lies under Kos instead).
Hermes, wearing
Hades' helmet, killed
Hippolytus,
Artemis killed Gration with her bow and arrows, and the
Moirai killed Agrius and Thoas with bronze clubs. The rest of the giants were "destroyed" by thunderbolts thrown by Zeus, with each Giant being shot with arrows by Heracles (as the prophecy seemingly required).
Ovid The Latin poet
Ovid gives a brief account of the Gigantomachy in his poem
Metamorphoses. Ovid, apparently including the
Aloadae's attack upon Olympus as part of the Gigantomachy, has the Giants attempt to seize "the throne of Heaven" by piling "mountain on mountain to the lofty stars" but Jove (i.e.
Jupiter, the Roman Zeus) overwhelms the Giants with his thunderbolts, overturning "from
Ossa huge, enormous
Pelion". Ovid says that (as "fame reports") from the blood of the Giants came a new race of beings in human form. According to Ovid, Earth (Gaia) did not want the Giants to perish without a trace, so "reeking with the copious blood of her gigantic sons", she gave life to the "steaming gore" of the blood soaked battleground. These new offspring, like their fathers the Giants, also hated the gods and possessed a bloodthirsty desire for "savage slaughter". Later in the
Metamorphoses, Ovid refers to the Gigantomachy as: "The time when serpent footed giants strove / to fix their hundred arms on captive Heaven". Here Ovid apparently conflates the Giants with the
Hundred-Handers, who, though in Hesiod fought alongside Zeus and the Olympians, in some traditions fought against them.
Other late sources Eratosthenes records that Dionysus, Hephaestus and several satyrs mounted on donkeys and charged against the Giants. As they drew closer and before the Giants had spotted them, the donkeys brayed, scaring off some Giants who ran away in terror of the unseen enemies, for they had never heard a donkey's bray before. Dionysus placed the donkeys in the skies in gratitude, and in vase paintings from the classical period, satyrs and
Maenads can sometimes be seen confronting their gigantic opponents. A late Latin grammarian of the fifth century AD,
Servius, mentions that during the battle, the
eagle of Zeus (who once had been the boy
Aëtos before his metamorphosis) assisted his master by placing the lightning bolts on his hands.
Location Various places have been associated with the Giants and the Gigantomachy. As noted above Pindar has the battle occur at Phlegra ("the place of burning"), as do other early sources. Phlegra was said to be an ancient name for
Pallene (modern
Kassandra) and Phlegra/Pallene was the usual birthplace of the Giants and site of the battle. Apollodorus, who placed the battle at Pallene, says the Giants were born "as some say, in Phlegrae, but according to others in Pallene". The name Phlegra and the Gigantomachy were also often associated, by later writers, with a volcanic plain in Italy, west of
Naples and east of
Cumae, called the
Phlegraean Fields. The third century BC poet
Lycophron, apparently locates a battle of gods and Giants in the vicinity of the volcanic island of
Ischia, the largest of the
Phlegraean Islands off the coast of Naples, where he says the Giants (along with Typhon) were "crushed" under the island. At least one tradition placed Phlegra in
Thessaly. . According to the geographer
Pausanias, the
Arcadians claimed that battle took place "not at
Pellene in
Thrace" but in the plain of
Megalopolis in the central Peloponnese where "rises up fire". The tradition of the battle being in Megalopolis may have been inspired by the presence of numerous gigantic bones around Megalopolis as noted by Pausanias, which in Ancient Greek times were attributed to giants, but which in modern times are known to be those of fossil
Pleistocene mammals such as
straight-tusked elephants, an enormous extinct elephant species formerly native to the region. Another tradition apparently placed the battle at
Tartessus in Spain.
Diodorus Siculus presents a war with multiple battles, with one at Pallene, one on the Phlegraean Fields, and one on
Crete. Strabo mentions an account of Heracles battling Giants at
Phanagoria, a Greek colony on the shores of the
Black Sea. Even when, as in Apollodorus, the battle starts at one place. Individual battles between a Giant and a god might range farther afield, with Enceladus buried beneath Sicily, and Polybotes under the island of
Nisyros (or
Kos). Other locales associated with Giants include
Attica,
Corinth,
Cyzicus,
Lipara,
Lycia,
Lydia,
Miletus, and
Rhodes. The presence of volcanic phenomena, and the frequent unearthing of the fossilized bones of large prehistoric animals throughout these locations may explain why such sites became associated with the Giants.
In art Sixth century BC amphora in the style of the
Lysippides Painter, c. 530-520 BC (
British Museum B208). From the sixth century BC onwards, the Gigantomachy was a popular and important theme in Greek art, with over six hundred representations cataloged in the
Lexicon Iconographicum Mythologiae Classicae (
LIMC). The Gigantomachy was depicted on the new
peplos (robe) presented to
Athena on the
Acropolis of Athens as part of the
Panathenaic festival celebrating her victory over the Giants, a practice dating from perhaps as early as the second millennium BC. The earliest extant indisputable representations of Gigantes are found on votive
pinakes from
Corinth and
Eleusis, and
Attic black-figure pots, dating from the second quarter of the sixth century BC (this excludes early depictions of Zeus battling single snake-footed creatures, which probably represent his battle with
Typhon, as well as Zeus' opponent on the west pediment of the
Temple of Artemis on Kerkyra (modern
Corfu) which is probably not a Giant). Though all these early Attic vases are fragmentary, the many common features in their depictions of the Gigantomachy suggest that a common model or template was used as a prototype, possibly Athena's
peplos. These vases depict large battles, including most of the Olympians, and contain a central group which appears to consist of Zeus, Heracles, Athena, and sometimes Gaia. Zeus, Heracles and Athena are attacking Giants to the right. Zeus mounts a chariot brandishing his thunderbolt in his right hand, Heracles, in the chariot, bends forward with drawn bow and left foot on the chariot pole, Athena, beside the chariot, strides forward toward one or two Giants, and the four chariot horses trample a fallen Giant. When present, Gaia is shielded behind Herakles, apparently pleading with Zeus to spare her children. On either side of the central group are the rest of the gods engaged in combat with particular Giants. While the gods can be identified by characteristic features, for example
Hermes with his hat (
petasos) and
Dionysus his ivy crown, the Giants are not individually characterized and can only be identified by inscriptions which sometimes name the Giant. The fragments of one vase from this same period (Getty 81.AE.211) name five Giants: Pankrates against Heracles,
Polybotes against Zeus, Oranion against Dionysus, Euboios and Euphorbus fallen and Ephialtes. Also named, on two other of these early vases, are
Aristaeus battling
Hephaestus (Akropolis 607),
Eurymedon and (again)
Ephialtes (Akropolis 2134). An
amphora from
Caere from later in the sixth century, gives the names of more Giants:
Hyperbios and
Agasthenes (along with Ephialtes) fighting Zeus, Harpolykos against
Hera, Enceladus against Athena and (again) Polybotes, who in this case battles Poseidon with his trident holding the island of Nisyros on his shoulder (Louvre E732). This motif of Poseidon holding the island of Nisyros, ready to hurl it at his opponent, is another frequent feature of these early Gigantomachies. at
Delphi, North frieze (c. 525 BC). Detail showing gods facing right and Giants facing left. The Gigantomachy was also a popular theme in late sixth century sculpture. The most comprehensive treatment is found on the north frieze of the
Siphnian Treasury at
Delphi (c. 525 BC), with more than thirty figures, named by inscription. From left to right, these include Hephaestus (with bellows), two females fighting two Giants; Dionysus striding toward an advancing Giant;
Themis in a chariot drawn by a team of lions which are attacking a fleeing Giant; the archers Apollo and Artemis; another fleeing Giant (Tharos or possibly Kantharos); the Giant Ephialtes lying on the ground; and a group of three Giants, which include
Hyperphas and Alektos, opposing Apollo and Artemis. Next comes a missing central section presumably containing Zeus, and possibly Heracles, with chariot (only parts of a team of horses remain). To the right of this comes a female stabbing her spear at a fallen Giant (probably Porphyrion); Athena fighting Eriktypos and a second Giant; a male stepping over the fallen Astarias to attack Biatas. and another Giant; and Hermes against two Giants. Then follows a gap which probably contained Poseidon and finally, on the far right, a male fighting two Giants, one fallen, the other the Giant Mimon (possibly the same as the Giant Mimas mentioned by Apollodorus). The Gigantomachy also appeared on several other late sixth century buildings, including the west pediment of the Alkmeonid
Temple of Apollo at Delphi, the pediment of the
Megarian Treasury at
Olympia, the east pediment of the
Old Temple of Athena on the Acropolis of Athens, and the metopes of
Temple F at
Selinous.
Fifth century BC The theme continued to be popular in the fifth century BC. A particularly fine example is found on a
red-figure cup (c. 490–485 BC) by the
Brygos Painter (Berlin F2293). On one side of the cup is the same central group of gods (minus Gaia) as described above: Zeus wielding his thunderbolt, stepping into a quadriga, Heracles with lion skin (behind the chariot rather than on it) drawing his (unseen) bow and, ahead, Athena thrusting her spear into a fallen Giant. On the other side are Hephaestus flinging flaming missiles of red-hot metal from two pairs of tongs, Poseidon, with Nisyros on his shoulder, stabbing a fallen Giant with his trident and Hermes with his
petasos hanging in back of his head, attacking another fallen Giant. None of the Giants are named.
Phidias used the theme for the
metopes of the east façade of the
Parthenon (c. 445 BC) and for the interior of the shield of
Athena Parthenos. Phidias' work perhaps marks the beginning of a change in the way the Giants are presented. While previously the Giants had been portrayed as typical
hoplite warriors armed with the usual helmets, shields, spears and swords, in the fifth century the Giants begin to be depicted as less handsome in appearance, primitive and wild, clothed in animal skins or naked, often without armor and using boulders as weapons. A series of red-figure pots from c. 400 BC, which may have used Phidas' shield of Athena Parthenos as their model, show the Olympians fighting from above and the Giants fighting with large stones from below.
Fourth century BC and later , the Giants are depicted with scaly coils, like
Typhon ),
Athena,
Gaia (rising from the ground), and
Nike, detail of the Gigantomachy frieze,
Pergamon Altar,
Pergamon museum, Berlin With the beginning of the fourth century BC probably comes the first portrayal of the Giants in Greek art as anything other than fully human in form, with legs that become coiled serpents having snake heads at the ends in place of feet. Such depictions were perhaps borrowed from Typhon, the monstrous son of Gaia and
Tartarus, described by Hesiod as having a hundred snake heads growing from his shoulders. This snake-legged motif becomes the standard for the rest of antiquity, culminating in the monumental Gigantomachy frieze of the second century BC
Pergamon Altar. Measuring nearly 400 feet long and over seven feet high, here the Gigantomachy receives its most extensive treatment, with over one hundred figures. Although fragmentary, much of the Gigantomachy frieze has been restored. The general sequence of the figures and the identifications of most of the approximately sixty gods and goddesses have been more or less established. The names and positions of most Giants remain uncertain. Some of the names of the Giants have been determined by inscription, while their positions are often conjectured on the basis of which gods fought which Giants in
Apollodorus' account. The same central group of Zeus, Athena, Heracles and Gaia, found on many early Attic vases, also featured prominently on the Pergamon Altar. On the right side of the East frieze, the first encountered by a visitor, a winged Giant, usually identified as
Alcyoneus, fights
Athena. Below and to the right of Athena, Gaia rises from the ground, touching Athena's robe in supplication. Flying above Gaia, a winged
Nike crowns the victorious Athena. To the left of this grouping a snake-legged Porphyrion battles Zeus and to the left of Zeus is Heracles. On the far left side of the East frieze, a triple
Hecate with torch battles a snake-legged Giant usually identified (following Apollodorus) as Clytius. To the right lays the fallen Udaeus, shot in his left eye by an arrow from Apollo, along with Demeter who wields a pair of torches against Erysichthon. The Giants are depicted in a variety of ways. Some Giants are fully human in form, while others are a combination of human and animal forms. Some are snake-legged, some have wings, one has bird claws, one is lion-headed, and another is bull-headed. Some Giants wear helmets, carry shields and fight with swords. Others are naked or clothed in animal skins and fight with clubs or rocks. The large size of the frieze probably necessitated the addition of many more Giants than had been previously known. Some, like Typhon and Tityus, who were not strictly speaking Giants, were perhaps included. Others were probably invented. The partial inscription "Mim" may mean that the Giant Mimas was also depicted. Other less-familiar or otherwise unknown Giant names include Allektos, Chthonophylos, Eurybias, Molodros, Obrimos, Ochthaios and Olyktor.
In post-classical art '' in the
Palazzo del Te,
Mantua, c. 1530,
Giulio Romano The subject was revived in the Renaissance, most famously in the frescos of the
Sala dei Giganti in the
Palazzo del Te,
Mantua. These were painted around 1530 by
Giulio Romano and his workshop, and aimed to give the viewer the unsettling idea that the large hall was in the process of collapsing. The subject was also popular in
Northern Mannerism around 1600, especially among the
Haarlem Mannerists, and continued to be painted into the 18th century. ==Symbolism, meaning and interpretations==