Who are the Titans?
The Titans are a race of giant gods in Greek mythology. They were the twelve gods born to Uranus, god of the sky, and Gaia, goddess of the earth, including Cronus, god of time, Oceanus, god of the ocean, and Mnemosyne, goddess of memory. Their lineage is told in detail in the Theogony of the ancient Greek poet Hesiod.
They became a byword for things huge and powerful, giving their name to the English word “titanic,” the luxury liner Titanic and Titan, Saturn’s largest moon.
Cronus’s revolt
Their father Uranus hated the children born to him and shut them away deep inside the earth. At the request of Gaia, who resented this, the youngest son Cronus wounded his father with a great sickle, drove him out and became king of the world. From the blood shed at that time, the giants called the Gigantes and others are said to have been born.
But Cronus, too, feared a prophecy that “a child of yours will take your throne,” and swallowed his children one after another as they were born. His wife Rhea hid only the youngest, Zeus, and raised him, and when Zeus grew up he made his father spit out his brothers and sisters.
The Titanomachy
Zeus and his siblings, the Olympian gods, fought a great war lasting ten years against the Titans led by Cronus. This is called the “Titanomachy.” Zeus freed the one-eyed giants, the Cyclopes, who had been imprisoned deep in the earth, and won using the thunderbolts they made as his weapon.
The defeated Titans were imprisoned in Tartarus, the prison at the bottom of the earth, and Atlas was punished by having to hold up the sky forever. Also well known is the story of Prometheus, who belonged to the Titan family yet gave fire to humans.
