Titans in Mythology

MYTHOLOGY IN GENERAL
What we call Myth now was a serious attempt to understand the world. Not knowing that the world is round, how the seasons have come to be, or many of the things we know now.

Than there is the BIG one: Where did it come from. We still don't have universal agreement on that one. Some believe in the GOD theory, others the BIG BANG theory. My personal theory is: Humans do not have the mental ability to understand anything that complex. Anyway, in order to make sense of it all, they had gods for everything.

The "Origin" story is this: the universe always had material but it was in a state of disorder, which they called "Chaos". Within the mass called Chaos were a mixture of air, land and water atoms who were always at war with each other. The dry against the wet, the air against the solids an so on. Eventually land collected together, was surrounded by water and engulfed by air.

Now for the leap of faith: The mountains became romantically infatuated with the seas. The mountains and seas mated to produce (Through "Parthenogenesis") The following:

  • Erebus (darkness and the underground)
  • Nyx (Night and negativity)
  • Gaia (Earth).

Erebus and Nyx pop up in mythology as negative forces, causing trouble from time to time, but are not very important to the origin story.

Gaia (Goddess of earth), who in her sleep gave birth to Uranus (God of the sky) and Pontus (God of the sea). The 3 states of matter. Gaia fixed up the world some and mated with her son, Uranus to produce the rest of the gods, called the Titans.

Titans were 12 children of Sky and Earth. Uranus (Sky) and Gaia (Earth). They were also the first children of Gaia and Uranus. They ruled in a time called "Man's Golden Age" where no one stole, and life was perfect.

Trouble in paradise
Some dispute broke out and Cronus castrated his father, Cronus (Gaia encouraged him to do it) for putting the Cyclopes and Hecatoncheires in Tartarus. Zeus became the new king of the gods, they mostly lived on mount Olympus and were called The Olympians.

TABLE OF THE TITANS
Atlas Coeus Crius Cronus Epimetheus
Gaea Hyperion Iapetus Metis Mnemosyne
Oceanus Phoebe Prometheus Rhea Tethys
Thea Themis Uranus ---------- ---------

The War of The Titans

The Battle of the Titans

The Titans, also known as the elder gods, ruled the earth before the Olympians overthrew them.
Gaea is the Earth goddess. She mated with her son Uranus to produce the remaining Titans.
The ruler of the Titans was Cronus who was dethroned by his son Zeus. Most of the Titans
fought with Cronus against Zeus and were punished by being banished to Tartarus.

At that time there were no humans. The gods that won the battle are called The Olympians
and are the vast majority of Greek and Roman Mythology.

Titans Family Tree.


            The Principal Gods Family Tree

            (Heaven) Uranus = Gaea (Earth)
                            |
           ---------------------------------------
           |       |           |       |         |
        Cronus = Rhea        Coeus = Phoebe   Oceanus = Tethys
               |                   |                  |
  ----------------------         Leto = Zeus       Iapetus
  |    |    |     |    |              |               |
Hestia | Poseidon | Demeter=Zeus      |         ----------------
     Hades   Zeus = Hear   |          |         |      |       |
              |   |    Persephone     |         |  Prometheus  |
           Athena |               ---------     |              |
                  |               |       |    Atlas   Epimetheus
          ---------------       Apollo  Artemis |          |
          |     |       |                       |          |
        Ares  Hebe  Hephaestus           Zeus=Maia  Zeus=Dione
                                                |          |
                                              Hermes   Aphrodite


My HomePage

Last Modified on: