Editing Aloadae (section)

== Mythology ==
The Aloads were strong and aggressive [[Giants (Greek mythology)|giants]], growing by nine fingers every month.  Nine [[fathoms]] tall aged nine, they were only outshone in beauty by [[Orion (mythology)|Orion]].<ref>Homer, ''Odyssey'' [http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Hom.+Od.+11.271&fromdoc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0136:book=:chapter=&highlight=Otus 11.310–312]; [[Gaius Julius Hyginus|Hyginus]], ''Fabulae'' [https://topostext.org/work/206#28 28]; Kerényi, 1951:154</ref><ref name="DGRBM">{{cite encyclopedia |year=1867 |title=Aloeidae |encyclopedia=[[Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology]] |publisher=[[Little, Brown and Company]] |location=Boston |url=http://quod.lib.umich.edu/cgi/t/text/pageviewer-idx?c=moa;cc=moa;idno=acl3129.0001.001;q1=demosthenes;size=l;frm=frameset;seq=147 |last=Schmitz |first=Leonhard |editor=William Smith |editor-link=William Smith (lexicographer) |volume=1 |pages=132–133 |authorlink=Leonhard Schmitz}}</ref>

=== War with the gods ===
The brothers wanted to storm [[Mount Olympus (Mountain) |Mount Olympus]] and gain [[Artemis]] for Otus<ref>[[Callimachus]], ''Hymn to Artemis'' [https://topostext.org/work/122#264 264]</ref> and [[Hera]] for Ephialtes. Their plan - the construction of a pile of mountains atop which they would confront the gods - is described differently by different authors (including [[Homer]], [[Virgil]],<ref>[[Virgil]], ''[[Aeneid]]'' [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Verg.+A.+6.582&fromdoc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.02.0054:book=:chapter=&highlight=Alo%C3%AFdae 6.582]</ref> and [[Ovid]]), and occasionally changed by translators. [[Mount Olympus (Mountain) |Mount Olympus]] is usually said to be the bottom mountain, with Mounts [[Mount Ossa (Greece) |Ossa]] and [[Pelion]] upon Ossa as second and third, either respectively or vice versa.<ref>Homer, ''Odyssey'' [http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Hom.+Od.+11.271&fromdoc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0136:book=:chapter=&highlight=Otus 11.313–318]</ref> Homer says that the Aloadae were killed by [[Apollo]] before they had any beards,<ref>Homer, ''Odyssey'' [http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Hom.+Od.+11.271&fromdoc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0136:book=:chapter=&highlight=Otus 11.319–320] - "[...] the son of Zeus, whom fair-haired Leto bore, slew them both before the down blossomed beneath their temples and covered their chins with a full growth of beard."</ref> consistent with their being bound to columns in the [[Greek underworld| Underworld]] by snakes, with the [[nymph]] of the [[Styx]] in the form of an owl over them.<ref>Hyginus, ''Fabulae'' [https://topostext.org/work/206#28 28]</ref>

According to another version of their struggle against the Olympians, alluded to so briefly<ref>It is related in the ''Iliad'' by the goddess [[Dione (mythology)|Dione]] to her daughter [[Aphrodite]]</ref><ref>[[Philostratus]], ''Lives of the Sophists'' [https://topostext.org/work/224#2.1.1 2.1.1]</ref> that it must have been already familiar to the epic's hearers, they managed to kidnap [[Ares]] and hold him in a bronze jar, a storage ''[[pithos]]'', for thirteen months (a [[lunar year]]). <blockquote>"And that would have been the end of Ares and his appetite for war, if the beautiful [[Eriboea (mythology) | Eriboea]], the young giants' stepmother, had not told [[Hermes]] what they had done", Dione related.<ref>Homer, ''[[Iliad]]'' [http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Hom.+Il.+5.385&fromdoc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0134:book=:chapter=&highlight=Otus 5.385–391]</ref></blockquote>Alerted by Eriboea, Hermes rescued Ares.<ref name=":0">Roman, L., & Roman, M. (2010). {{Google books|tOgWfjNIxoMC|Encyclopedia of Greek and Roman mythology |page=55}}</ref>

The brothers died on the island of [[Naxos]],<ref>[[Pindar]], ''Pythian Odes'' [http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Pind.+P.+4&fromdoc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0162:book=:chapter=&highlight=Otus 4.88–89]</ref> when Artemis changed herself into a [[deer|doe]] and jumped between them. The Aloadae, not wanting her to get away, threw their spears and simultaneously killed each other.<ref>{{cite book|last1= Hamilton|first1= Edith|title= Mythology|date= 1942|publisher= Grand Central Publishing|location= New York|page= 144}}</ref><ref>This [[mytheme]], of the brothers' mutual murder, features in the myth of the mutual killings of [[Eteocles]] and [[Polynices]] that occurs in the war of the [[Seven against Thebes]] (as recounted for example in [[Aeschylus]]' play ''[[Seven Against Thebes]]'').</ref> In another version, either Apollo killed the Aloadae in their attempt to scale the mountains to the heavens, or Otus tried to rape Artemis, and Apollo sent the deer in their midst, provoking their deaths.<ref name=":0" /><ref>[[Apollonius of Rhodes|Apollonius Rhodius]], ''[[Argonautica]]'' [https://topostext.org/work/126#1.472 1.482–484]</ref>

Their two sisters, [[Elate (mythology) |Elate]] and [[Platanus (mythology) |Platanus]], mourned their deaths so much they were changed into trees, a [[fir]] and a [[Platanus |plane]] tree respectively.<ref>
{{cite book | first = Joseph Eddy | last = Fontenrose | author-link = Joseph Fontenrose | title = Orion: The Myth of the Hunter and the Huntress | publisher = [[University of California Press]] | date = 1981 | ISBN = 0-520-09632-0 | page = [https://books.google.com/books?id=tD4lJxC95mEC&pg=PA116 116] | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=tD4lJxC95mEC}}</ref>

=== Other stories ===
According to [[Diodorus Siculus|Diodorus]], the Aloadae are Thessalian heroes who were sent out by their father Aloeus to fetch back their mother Iphimedeia and their sister Pancratis, who had been carried off by [[Thracians]]. After having overtaken and defeated the Thracians in the island of Strongyle (Naxos), they settled there as rulers over the Thracians. But soon after, they killed each other in a dispute which had arisen between them, and the Naxians worshiped them as heroes.<ref>Diodorus Siculus, [https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Diodorus_Siculus/5D*.html#51.1 5.51.1–2]</ref>

In all these traditions, the Aloadae were represented as only remarkable for their gigantic physical strength; but there was another story which placed them in a different light. [[Pausanias (geographer)|Pausanias]] related that they were believed to have been the first of all men who worshiped the [[Muses]] on [[Mount Helicon]], and to have consecrated this mountain to them; but they worshiped only three Muses — [[Melete]], [[Mneme]] and [[Aoede (mythology)|Aoede]].<ref>[[Pausanias (geographer)|Pausanias]], [http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Paus.+9.29.2&fromdoc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0160:book=:chapter=&highlight=Aloeus 9.29.2]</ref> They were bringers of civilization, founding the cities and teaching culture to humanity. They were venerated specifically in [[Naxos (city)|Naxos]] and [[Boeotia]]n [[Ascra]], two cities they founded.<ref>Pausanias, [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text;jsessionid=6608086C6F6B93EB4774A8CCA5723B0C?doc=Paus.+9.29.1&fromdoc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0160:book=:chapter=&highlight=Ephialtes 9.29.1]</ref> Besides these two, the foundation of the town of Aloïum in Thessaly was ascribed to them.<ref>[[Stephanus of Byzantium]], s.v. ''[https://topostext.org/work/241#A79.2 Aloion]''</ref>

''Ephialtes'' (lit. "he who jumps upon") is also the [[Greek language|Greek]] word for "[[nightmare]]",<ref>[[Henry Liddell|Liddel, H.G.]] & [[Robert Scott (philologist)|Scott, R.]] ''[[A Greek–English Lexicon]]'', 9th ed. (Oxford, 1940), [[Sub voce#sub verbo|s.v.]] [http://artflx.uchicago.edu/cgi-bin/philologic/getobject.pl?c.27:9:135.LSJ {{lang|grc|ἐφιάλτης}}] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190605065633/http://artflx.uchicago.edu/cgi-bin/philologic/getobject.pl?c.27:9:135.LSJ |date=2019-06-05 }}</ref> and Ephialtes was sometimes considered the ''[[daimon]]'' of [[nightmare]]s. In the ''[[Inferno (Dante)|Inferno]]'' of [[Dante Alighieri|Dante's]] ''[[Divine Comedy]]'' Ephialtes is one of six giants placed in the great pit that separates the eighth and ninth circles of [[Hell]], Fraud and [[Cocytus]], respectively. He is chained as punishment for challenging [[Jupiter (mythology)|Jupiter]].