Hekatonkheires - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

The Hecatonchires, or Hekatonkheires , were figures in an archaic stage of Greek mythology

Greek mythology

Greek mythology is the body of myths and legends belonging to the ancient Greeks, concerning their gods and heroes, the nature of the world, and the origins and significance of their own cult and ritual practices. They were a part of religion in ancient Greece...

, three giants of incredible strength and ferocity that surpassed that of all Titans

Titan (mythology)

In Greek mythology, the Titans were a race of powerful deities, descendants of Gaia and Uranus, that ruled during the legendary Golden Age....

whom they helped overthrow. Their name derives from the Greek

Ancient Greek

Ancient Greek is the stage of the Greek language in the periods spanning the times c. 9th–6th centuries BC, , c. 5th–4th centuries BC , and the c. 3rd century BC – 6th century AD of ancient Greece and the ancient world; being predated in the 2nd millennium BC by Mycenaean Greek...

(hekaton; "hundred") and (kheir; "hand"), "each of them having a hundred hands and fifty heads" (Bibliotheca
Bibliotheca (Pseudo-Apollodorus)
The Bibliotheca , in three books, provides a comprehensive summary of traditional Greek mythology and heroic legends, "the most valuable mythographical work that has come down from ancient times," Aubrey Diller observed, whose "stultifying purpose" was neatly expressed in the epigram noted by...

). Hesiod

Hesiod

Hesiod was a Greek oral poet generally thought by scholars to have been active between 750 and 650 BC, around the same time as Homer. His is the first European poetry in which the poet regards himself as a topic, an individual with a distinctive role to play. Ancient authors credited him and...

's Theogony (624, 639, 714, 734–35) reports that the three Hekatonkheires became the guards of the gates of Tartarus

Tartarus

In classic mythology, below Uranus , Gaia , and Pontus is Tartarus, or Tartaros . It is a deep, gloomy place, a pit, or an abyss used as a dungeon of torment and suffering that resides beneath the underworld. In the Gorgias, Plato In classic mythology, below Uranus (sky), Gaia (earth), and Pontus...

.

In Virgil's Aeneid
Aeneid
The Aeneid is a Latin epic poem, written by Virgil between 29 and 19 BC, that tells the legendary story of Aeneas, a Trojan who travelled to Italy, where he became the ancestor of the Romans. It is composed of roughly 10,000 lines in dactylic hexameter...

(10.566-67), in which Aeneas is likened to one of them, Briareus (known here as Aegaeon), they fought on the side of the Titans rather than the Olympians; in this Virgil was following the lost Corinthian epic Titanomachy
Titanomachy (epic poem)
The Titanomachy is a lost epic poem, which is a part of Greek mythology. It deals with the struggle that Zeus and his siblings, the Olympian Gods, had in overthrowing their father Cronus and his divine generation, the Titans....

rather than the more familiar account in Hesiod.

Other accounts make Briareus or Aegaeon one of the assailants of Olympus, who, after his defeat, was buried under Mount Aetna (Callimachus, Hymn to Delos, 141).

Hesiod

According to Hesiod, the Hekatonkheires were children of Gaia

Gaia (mythology)

Gaia was the primordial Earth-goddess in ancient Greek religion. Gaia was the great mother of all: the heavenly gods and Titans were descended from her union with Uranus , the sea-gods from her union with Pontus , the Giants from her mating with Tartarus and mortal creatures were sprung or born...

(Earth) and Uranus (sky). They were thus part of the very beginning of things (Kerenyi 1951:19) in the submerged prehistory of Greek myth, though they played no known part in cult. Their names were Briareus (Βριάρεως) the Vigorous, also called Aigaion (Αἰγαίων), Latinised as Aegaeon, the "sea goat", Cottus (Κόττος) the Striker or the Furious, and Gyges (Γύγης) or Gyes (Γύης) the Big-Limbed. If some natural phenomena are symbolised by the Hekatoncheires then they may represent the gigantic forces of nature that appear in earthquakes and other convulsions or in the motion of sea waves (Mayer, Die Giganten und Titanen, 1887).

Soon after they were born their father Uranus threw them into the depths of Tartarus

Tartarus

because he saw them as hideous monsters. In some versions Uranus saw how ugly the Hekatonkheires were at their birth and pushed them back into Gaia's womb, upsetting Gaia greatly, causing her great pain and setting into motion the overthrow of Uranus by Cronus

Cronus

In Greek mythology, Cronus or Kronos was the leader and the youngest of the first generation of Titans, divine descendants of Gaia, the earth, and Uranus, the sky...

, who later imprisoned them in Tartarus.

The Hekatonkheires remained there, guarded by the dragon Campe

Campe

In Greek mythology, Campe or Kampê is the name of a chthonic female monster .-Mythology:Campe was a dragon with a woman's head and torso and a scorpion-like tail. Nonnus, in Dionysiaca gives the most elaborated description of her...

, until Zeus

Zeus

In the ancient Greek religion, Zeus was the "Father of Gods and men" who ruled the Olympians of Mount Olympus as a father ruled the family. He was the god of sky and thunder in Greek mythology. His Roman counterpart is Jupiter and his Etruscan counterpart is Tinia.Zeus was the child of Cronus...

rescued them, advised by Gaia that they would serve as good allies against Cronus and the Titans

Titan (mythology)

In Greek mythology, the Titans were a race of powerful deities, descendants of Gaia and Uranus, that ruled during the legendary Golden Age....

. During the War of the Titans

Titanomachy

In Greek mythology, the Titanomachy or War of the Titans , was the ten-year series of battles fought in Thessaly between the two camps of deities long before the existence of mankind: the Titans, based on Mount Othrys, and the Olympians, who would come to reign on Mount Olympus...

the Hekatonkheires threw rocks as big as mountains, one hundred at a time, at the Titans, overwhelming them.

Pausanias

In a Corinth

Corinth

Corinth is a city and former municipality in Corinthia, Peloponnese, Greece. Since the 2011 local government reform it is part of the municipality Corinth, of which it is the seat and a municipal unit...

ian myth related in the second century CE to Pausanias

Pausanias (geographer)

Pausanias was a Greek traveler and geographer of the 2nd century AD, who lived in the times of Hadrian, Antoninus Pius and Marcus Aurelius. He is famous for his Description of Greece , a lengthy work that describes ancient Greece from firsthand observations, and is a crucial link between classical...

(Description of Greece ii. 1.6 and 4.7), Briareus was the arbitrator in a dispute between Poseidon and Helios

Helios

Helios was the personification of the Sun in Greek mythology. Homer often calls him simply Titan or Hyperion, while Hesiod and the Homeric Hymn separate him as a son of the Titans Hyperion and Theia or Euryphaessa and brother of the goddesses Selene, the moon, and Eos, the dawn...

, between sea and sun: he adjudged the Isthmus of Corinth

Isthmus of Corinth

The Isthmus of Corinth is the narrow land bridge which connects the Peloponnese peninsula with the rest of the mainland of Greece, near the city of Corinth. The word "isthmus" comes from the Ancient Greek word for "neck" and refers to the narrowness of the land. The Isthmus was known in the ancient...

to belong to Poseidon and the acropolis of Corinth (Acrocorinth

Acrocorinth

Acrocorinth , "Upper Corinth", the acropolis of ancient Corinth, is a monolithic rock overseeing the ancient city of Corinth, Greece. "It is the most impressive of the acropoleis of mainland Greece," in the estimation of George Forrest. Acrocorinth was continuously occupied from archaic times to...

) sacred to Helios.

Others

Scholia on Apollonius of Rhodes

Apollonius of Rhodes

Apollonius Rhodius, also known as Apollonius of Rhodes , early 3rd century BCE – after 246 BCE, was a poet, and a librarian at the Library of Alexandria...

(i. 1165) represent Aegaeon as a son of Gaea and Pontus

Pontus

Pontus or Pontos is a historical Greek designation for a region on the southern coast of the Black Sea, located in modern-day northeastern Turkey. The name was applied to the coastal region in antiquity by the Greeks who colonized the area, and derived from the Greek name of the Black Sea: Πόντος...

, the Sea, ruling the fabulous Aegaea in Euboea, an enemy of Poseidon and the inventor of warships. In Ovid's Metamorphoses
Metamorphoses (poem)
Metamorphoses is a Latin narrative poem in fifteen books by the Roman poet Ovid describing the history of the world from its creation to the deification of Julius Caesar within a loose mythico-historical framework. Completed in AD 8, it is recognized as a masterpiece of Golden Age Latin literature...

(ii. 10) and in Philostratus' Life of Apollonius of Tyana
Apollonius of Tyana
Apollonius of Tyana was a Greek Neopythagorean philosopher from the town of Tyana in the Roman province of Cappadocia in Asia Minor. Little is certainly known about him...

(iv. 6) (Theoi.com) he is a marine deity. Hesiod reconciles the archaic Hekatonkheires with the Olympian pantheon by making Briareos the son-in-law of Poseidon

Poseidon

Poseidon was the god of the sea, and, as "Earth-Shaker," of the earthquakes in Greek mythology. The name of the sea-god Nethuns in Etruscan was adopted in Latin for Neptune in Roman mythology: both were sea gods analogous to Poseidon...

who gave him "Kymopoliea his daughter to wed." (Theogony, 817).

Adaptations

Briareus is mentioned in the Divine Comedy poem Inferno
Inferno (Dante)
Inferno is the first part of Dante Alighieri's 14th-century epic poem Divine Comedy. It is followed by Purgatorio and Paradiso. It is an allegory telling of the journey of Dante through what is largely the medieval concept of Hell, guided by the Roman poet Virgil. In the poem, Hell is depicted as...

as one of the Giants in the Ninth Circle of Hell (Inferno XXXI.99).

The giant is also mentioned in Cervantes'

Miguel de Cervantes

Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra was a Spanish novelist, poet, and playwright. His magnum opus, Don Quixote, considered the first modern novel, is a classic of Western literature, and is regarded amongst the best works of fiction ever written...

Don Quixote, in the famous episode of the windmills.

Briareos is mentioned in Book I of John Milton's

John Milton

John Milton was an English poet, polemicist, a scholarly man of letters, and a civil servant for the Commonwealth of England under Oliver Cromwell...

Paradise Lost

Paradise Lost is an epic poem in blank verse by the 17th-century English poet John Milton. It was originally published in 1667 in ten books, with a total of over ten thousand individual lines of verse...

alongside Typhon as an analogue to the fallen Satan.

Briareus is mentioned in The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling

The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling

The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling, often known simply as Tom Jones, is a comic novel by the English playwright and novelist Henry Fielding. First published on 28 February 1749, Tom Jones is among the earliest English prose works describable as a novel...

, by Henry Fielding

Henry Fielding

Henry Fielding was an English novelist and dramatist known for his rich earthy humour and satirical prowess, and as the author of the novel Tom Jones....

, in a conversation between Tom Jones and Mr. Partridge (Book 8, Chapter IX).

In Don Juan

Don Juan (Byron)

Don Juan is a satiric poem by Lord Byron, based on the legend of Don Juan, which Byron reverses, portraying Juan not as a womanizer but as someone easily seduced by women. It is a variation on the epic form. Byron himself called it an "Epic Satire"...

(Canto VI), Byron makes a slightly crude joke, musing whether "enviable Briareus...with thy hands and heads.. hads't all things multiplied in proportion" (this thought arising from Byron's assertion of his love of all womankind in the previous canto).

Briareos Hecatonchires

Briareos Hecatonchires

is a character from Masamune Shirow's Appleseed manga and its adaptations in anime. He is one of the two protagonists of the series, the other being Deunan Knute. Briareos is a trained ESWAT officer, his point man is Deunan. They met in her father's SWAT unit before World War III broke out....

is also a character in the Anime and Manga Appleseed, where he plays a human who has been transformed into a Hecatonchire cyborg body, which also allows him to remotely control 100 systems. This is one of the many references to Greek mythology in the series, including Cottus (another cyborg) and Gyges (the brand name of a robot-shaped vehicle).

Briares appears in the Percy Jackson & the Olympians

Percy Jackson & the Olympians

Percy Jackson & the Olympians is a pentalogy of adventure and fantasy fiction books authored by Rick Riordan. The series consists of five books, as well as spin-off titles such as The Demigod Files and Demigods and Monsters. Set in the United States, the books are predominantly based on Greek...

novel The Battle of the Labyrinth

The Battle of the Labyrinth

The Battle of the Labyrinth is a 2008 fantasy-adventure novel based on Greek mythology; it is the fourth novel in the Percy Jackson & the Olympians series by Rick Riordan...

. He was imprisoned in a part of the Labyrinth that corresponds to Alcatraz and again guarded by Kampe. His brothers have died when no one remembered them causing him to give up hope and refuse the chance to escape his prison. He eventually overcomes his despair and fights against the Titans again.

A summonable entity (or eidolon) in Final Fantasy XIII
Final Fantasy XIII
is a console role-playing video game developed and published by Square Enix for the PlayStation 3 and the Xbox 360. Released in 2009 in Japan and 2010 in North America and PAL regions, it is the thirteenth major installment in the Final Fantasy series...

is called Hecatoncheir and is summonable by Oerba Dia Vanille. It is the earth element summon, and the last to be obtained.

It is also a monster in Dungeons & Dragons

Dungeons & Dragons

Dungeons & Dragons is a fantasy role-playing game originally designed by Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson, and first published in 1974 by Tactical Studies Rules, Inc. . The game has been published by Wizards of the Coast since 1997...

, that is commonly used by deities to kill other gods, keeping in line with the power of the Hekatonkheires and their strength.

In Ace Combat 6

Ace Combat 6: Fires of Liberation

is the sixth installment developed by Project Aces and published by Namco Bandai Games exclusively for the Xbox 360 as part of the Ace Combat franchise...

, there are three massive airborne weapons systems types named after and based upon the Hekatonkheires. The Aigaion-class airborne aircraft carrier, the Gyges-class electronic combat craft, and the Kottos-class anti-air weapon combat craft.

In Bayonetta

Bayonetta

is a hack and slash action game for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 developed by Platinum Games in cooperation with publisher Sega. Set in a fictional city in Europe, the game centers on its title character, Bayonetta, who uses pistols and magical attacks to defeat enemies...

, she can summon a demon called Hecatoncheir (though only six of the hands ever appear), usually to play volleyball using enemies as the ball, before crushing them between their fists.

The Black/Death metal band Centimani, from Colorado

Colorado

Colorado is a U.S. state that encompasses much of the Rocky Mountains as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the western edge of the Great Plains...

, has taken the latin form of Hekatonkheires as its name.

In the Ghost in the Shell

Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex

is an anime television series produced by Production I.G and based on Masamune Shirow's manga Ghost in the Shell. It was written and directed by Kenji Kamiyama, with original character design by Hajime Shimomura and a soundtrack by Yoko Kanno...

episode, "Decoy," many-handed robots were referenced by Ishikawa using the name, "Hecatoncheires."

In Dan Simmons Olympos

Ilium/Olympos

Ilium/Olympos is a science fiction duology by Dan Simmons. These events are set in motion by beings who have taken on the roles of the Greek gods...

, the god Hephaestos tells Achilles that the monster Setebos was called Briareos by the olympian gods and Aegaeon by the early humans.

In the Video Game Lord of Arcana

Lord of Arcana

is an action game for the PlayStation Portable, developed by Access Games and published by Square Enix.- Gameplay :Lord of Arcana is an action game that allows up to four players to fight monsters and demons some of which make cameo appearances from other Square Enix games.The gameplay is very...

, it is called Hecatonheir, who looks like a Large and Fat Centaur

Centaur

In Greek mythology, a centaur or hippocentaur is a member of a composite race of creatures, part human and part horse...

with Two gigantic arms wielding a Great sword in its right arm and a Shield

Shield

A shield is a type of personal armor, meant to intercept attacks, either by stopping projectiles such as arrows or redirecting a hit from a sword, mace or battle axe to the side of the shield-bearer....

in its left arm.

In Promethean: the Created

Promethean: The Created

Promethean: The Created is a role-playing game published by White Wolf, set in the new World of Darkness.The game is inspired by the classic tales of Frankenstein's monster, the Golem and other such simulacra. The characters are individuals created by first dismembering and reassembling human...

, the name Centimani is applied to Created who choose to forsake the pursuit of humanity and become deliberately monstrous. The names of the three Hekatonkheires are also used as terms for different varieties of related monsters known as Precipitati.

Hesiod

Pausanias

Others

Adaptations

See also