| Giant | |
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| Gigantes | |
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| In
Greek mythology, one of a race of human-like yet deformed
monsters of enormous strength and stature. The giants
were born when the blood of Uranus (heaven) fell upon
Gaia (earth). Later, Gaia's other children, the Titans, were slain by the Olympians in a
cosmic battle. Saddened by this, Gaia persuaded the
giants to war against the Olympians, and to reach the
Olympians' abode atop Mount Olympus, she told the Giants
to stack the mountain ranges of Thessaly atop one
another. Gaia was confident that the Giants would succeed
since an oracle had told her that the giants would win as
long as they fought the gods only. However,
Hercules, then still a mortal, was summoned, and he
agreed to fight alongside the Olympians. During the
battle, the giants were routed by the brayins of the
asses the Sileni and Satyrs rode upon, as well as the blowing of
Triton's horn. Hercules finished many of them off as they
were dying by shooting them with his arrows, and the
giants threw many of them beneath various volcanoes. Outside of Greek mythology, the term "giant" refers to large, often malicious humanoid creatures of great stature. |