Editing Alcyoneus (section)

===Literature===

The earliest mentions of Alcyoneus in literature, are by the fifth century BC poet [[Pindar]]. According to Pindar, Heracles and [[Telamon]] were traveling  through [[Phlegra (mythology)|Phlegra]], where they encountered Alcyoneus, whom Pindar describes as a "herdsman ... huge as a mountain",<ref>[[Pindar]], ''Isthmian'' [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0162%3Abook%3DI.%3Apoem%3D6 6.30&ndash;35].</ref> and a "great and terrible warrior".<ref>[[Pindar]], ''Nemean'' [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0162%3Abook%3DN.%3Apoem%3D4 4.24&ndash;30].</ref> A battle occurs in which Alcyoneus "laid low, by hurling a rock, twelve chariots and twice twelve horse-taming heroes who were riding in them", before finally being "destroyed" by the two heroes.

The participation of Telamon and other mortals in the battle, and the lack of mention of any of the gods, or other Giants, seem to imply that for Pindar, unlike apparently Apollodorus, the battle between Heracles and Alcyoneus was a separate event from the Gigantomachy. And in fact Pindar never actually calls Alcyoneus a Giant, although the description of him as "huge as a mountain", his use of a rock as a weapon, and the location of the battle at Phlegra, the usual site of the Gigantomachy, all suggest that he was.<ref>Gantz, pp. 419, 445, 447. Pindar knew of  the larger battle between the gods and Giants which he also located "on the plain of Phlegra", ''Nemean'' [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0162%3Abook%3DN.%3Apoem%3D1 1.67&ndash;69]; [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0162%3Abook%3DN.%3Apoem%3D7 7.90]; ''Pythian'' [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0162%3Abook%3DP.%3Apoem%3D8 8.12&ndash;18].</ref>

Scholia to Pindar tell us that Alcyoneus lived on the isthmus of Thrace and that he had stolen his cattle from [[Helios]], causing the Gigantomachy, (Schol. Pindar ''Isthmian'' 6.47) and that Alcyoneus, one of the Giants, attacked Heracles, not in Thrace but at the [[Isthmus of Corinth]], while the hero was returning with the cattle of [[Geryon]], and that this was according to Zeus' plan because the Giants were his enemies (Schol. Pindar ''Nemean'' 4.43). The cattle shown on the sixth century pots, might thus represent either Alcyoneus' cattle stolen from Helios, or Heracles' cattle taken from Geryon.<ref>Gantz, pp. 419, 448.</ref> Apollodorus mentions the theft of Helios' cattle as an event of the Gigantomachy, but not the cause of it.