Editing Titans (section)

===Hesiod===
[[File:The Mutilation of Uranus by Saturn.jpg|thumb|300px|''The Mutilation of Uranus by Saturn'': fresco by [[Giorgio Vasari]] and [[Cristofano Gherardi]], c. 1560 (Sala di Cosimo I, [[Palazzo Vecchio]])]]

According to the standard version of the succession myth, given in Hesiod's ''Theogony'', Uranus initially produced eighteen children with Gaia: the twelve Titans, the three [[Cyclopes]], and the three [[Hecatoncheires]] (Hundred-Handers),<ref>[[Hesiod]], ''[[Theogony]]'' [http://data.perseus.org/citations/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0020.tlg001.perseus-eng1:104-138 132&ndash;153].</ref> but hating them,<ref>[[Hesiod]], ''[[Theogony]]'' [http://data.perseus.org/citations/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0020.tlg001.perseus-eng1:139-172 154&ndash;155]. Exactly which of these eighteen children Hesiod meant that Uranus hated is not entirely clear, all eighteen, or perhaps just the Cyclopes and the Hundred-Handers. Hard,
[https://books.google.com/books?id=r1Y3xZWVlnIC&pg=PA67 p. 67]; West 1988, p. 7, and Caldwell, p. 37 on lines 154&ndash;160, make it all eighteen; while Gantz, p. 10, says "likely all eighteen"; and Most, [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/hesiod-theogony/2018/pb_LCL057.15.xml p. 15 n. 8], says "apparently only the ... Cyclopes and Hundred-Handers are meant" and not the twelve Titans. See also West 1966, p. 206 on lines 139&ndash;53, p. 213 line 154 '''γὰρ'''. Why Uranus hated his children is also not clear. Gantz, p. 10 says: "The reason for [Uranus'] hatred may be [his children's] horrible appearance, though Hesiod does not quite say this"; while Hard, [https://books.google.com/books?id=r1Y3xZWVlnIC&pg=PA67 p. 67] says: "Although Hesiod is vague about the cause of his hatred, it would seem that he took a dislike to them because they were terrible to behold". However, West 1966, p. 213 on line 155, says that Uranus hated his children because of their "fearsome nature".</ref> he hid them away somewhere inside Gaia.<ref>[[Hesiod]], ''[[Theogony]]'' [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Hes.+Th.+156 156&ndash;158]. The hiding place inside Gaia is presumably her womb, see West 1966, p. 214 on line 158; Caldwell, p. 37 on lines 154&ndash;160; Gantz, p. 10. This place seems also to be the same place as [[Tartarus]], see West 1966, p. 338 on line 618, and Caldwell, p. 37 on lines 154&ndash;160.</ref> Angry and in distress, Gaia fashioned a [[sickle]] made of [[adamant]] and urged her children to punish their father. Only her son Cronus was willing.<ref>[[Hesiod]], ''[[Theogony]]'' [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Hes.+Th.+159 159&ndash;172].</ref> So Gaia hid Cronus in "ambush", gave him an adamantine sickle, and when Uranus came to lie with Gaia, Cronus reached out and castrated his father.<ref>[[Hesiod]], ''[[Theogony]]'' [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Hes.+Th.+173 173&ndash;182]; according to Gantz, p. 10, Cronus waited in ambush, and reached out to castrate Uranus, from "inside [Gaia's] body, we will understand, if he too is a prisoner".</ref> This enabled the Titans to be born and Cronus to assume supreme command of the cosmos, with the Titans as his subordinates.<ref>Hard, p. 67; West 1966, p. 19. As Hard notes, in the ''Theogony'', although the Titans were freed as a result of Uranus' castration, apparently the Cyclopes and Hundred-Handers remain imprisoned (see below), see also West 1966, p. 214 on line 158.</ref>

[[File:Rhéa présentant une pierre emmaillotée à Cronos dessin du bas-relief d'un autel romain.jpg|thumb|175px|left| Rhea presenting Cronus the stone wrapped in cloth]]

Cronus, having now taken over control of the cosmos from Uranus, wanted to ensure that he maintained control. [[Uranus (mythology)|Uranus]] and [[Gaia (mythology)|Gaia]] had prophesied to Cronus that one of Cronus' own children would overthrow him, so when Cronus married Rhea, he made sure to swallow each of the children she birthed. This he did with the first five: [[Hestia]], [[Demeter]], [[Hera]], [[Hades]], [[Poseidon]] (in that order), to Rhea's great sorrow.<ref>[[Hesiod]], ''[[Theogony]]'' [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Hes.+Th.+453 453&ndash;467].</ref> However, when Rhea was  pregnant with Zeus, Rhea begged her parents Gaia and Uranus to help her save Zeus. So they sent Rhea to [[Lyctus]] on Crete to bear Zeus, and Gaia took the newborn Zeus to raise, hiding him deep in a cave beneath Mount Aigaion.<ref>[[Hesiod]], ''[[Theogony]]'' [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Hes.+Th.+453 468&ndash;484]. Mount Aigaion is otherwise unknown, and Lyctus is nowhere else associated with Zeus' birth, later tradition located the cave on [[Mount Ida (Crete)|Mount Ida]], or sometimes [[Dikti|Mount Dikte]], see Hard, pp. 74&ndash;75; West 1966, pp. 297&ndash;298 on line 477, p. 300 on line 484.</ref> Meanwhile, Rhea gave Cronus a huge stone wrapped in baby's clothes which he swallowed thinking that it was another of Rhea's children.<ref>[[Hesiod]], ''[[Theogony]]'' [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Hes.+Th.+453 485&ndash;491].</ref>

[[File:Jacob Jordaens - La caída de los Gigantes, 1636-1638.jpg|thumb|right|"Fall of the Titans". Oil on canvas by Jacob Jordaens, 1638.]]

Zeus, now grown, forced Cronus (using some unspecified trickery of Gaia) to disgorge his other five children.<ref>Gantz, p. 44; [[Hesiod]], ''[[Theogony]]'' [http://data.perseus.org/citations/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0020.tlg001.perseus-eng1:492-506 492&ndash;500].</ref> Zeus then released his uncles the Cyclopes (apparently still imprisoned beneath the earth, along with the Hundred-Handers, where Uranus had originally confined them) who then provide Zeus with his great weapon, the thunderbolt, which had been hidden by Gaia.<ref>[[Hesiod]], ''[[Theogony]]'' [http://data.perseus.org/citations/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0020.tlg001.perseus-eng1:492-506 501&ndash;506]; Hard, pp. 68&ndash;69; West 1966, p. 206 on lines 139&ndash;153, pp. 303&ndash;305 on lines 501&ndash;506. According to [[Bibliotheca (Pseudo-Apollodorus)|Apollodorus]], [http://data.perseus.org/citations/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0548.tlg001.perseus-eng1:1.1.4 1.1.4-5], after the overthrow of Uranus, the Cyclopes (as well as the Hundred-Handers) were rescued from [[Tartarus]] by the Titans, but reimprisoned by Cronus.</ref> A great war was begun, the [[Titanomachy]], for control of the cosmos. The Titans fought from [[Mount Othrys]], while the Olympians fought from [[Mount Olympus]].<ref>Gantz, p. 45; West 1966, p. 340 on line 632; [[Hesiod]], ''[[Theogony]]'' [http://data.perseus.org/citations/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0020.tlg001.perseus-eng1:617-653 630&ndash;634]. As noted by West, locating the Titan's on Othrys was "presumably  ... simply because it was the principal mountain on the opposite side of the [Thessalian] plain: There is no evidence that it was really a seat of gods as Olympus was. Elsewhere it is said that the Titans formerly occupied Olympus itself". For Titans on Olympus, see [[Hesiod]], ''[[Works and Days]]'' [http://data.perseus.org/citations/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0020.tlg002.perseus-eng1:109-139 110&ndash;111]; [[Aeschylus]] (?), ''[[Prometheus Bound]]'' [http://data.perseus.org/citations/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0085.tlg003.perseus-eng1:144-151 148]; [[Apollonius of Rhodes|Apollonius Rhodius]], ''[[Argonautica]]'' [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/apollonius_rhodes-argonautica/2009/pb_LCL001.45.xml 1.503&ndash;508], [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/apollonius_rhodes-argonautica/2009/pb_LCL001.211.xml 2.1232&ndash;1233].</ref> In the tenth year of that great war, following Gaia's counsel, Zeus released the Hundred-Handers, who joined the war against the Titans, helping Zeus to gain the upper hand. Zeus cast the fury of his thunderbolt at the Titans, defeating them and throwing them into [[Tartarus]],<ref>[[Hesiod]], ''[[Theogony]]'' [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Hes.+Th.+624 624&ndash;721]. This is the sequence of events understood to be implied in the ''Theogony'' by, for example, Hard, p. 68; Caldwell, p. 65 on line 636; and West 1966, p. 19. However according to Gantz, p. 45, "Hesiod's account does not quite say whether the Hundred-Handers were freed before the conflict or only in the tenth year. ... Eventually, if not at the beginning, the Hundred-Handers are fighting".</ref> with the Hundred-Handers as their guards.<ref>This is the usual interpretation of ''Theogony'' [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/hesiod-theogony/2018/pb_LCL057.63.xml 734&ndash;735] (e.g. Hard, [https://books.google.com/books?id=r1Y3xZWVlnIC&pg=PA68  p. 68]; Hansen, pp. 25, 159, adding the caveat "presumably"; Gantz, p. 45). However according to West 1966, p. 363 on lines 734&ndash;5: "It is usually assumed that the Hundred-Handers are acting as prison guards (so Tz. ''Th.'' 277 ''τοὺς Ἑκατόγχειρας αὺτοῖς φύλακας ἐπιστήσας''). The poet does not say this&mdash;''πιστοὶ φύλακες Διὸς'' probably refers to their help in battle, cf. 815 ''κλειτοὶ ἐπίκουροι''". Compare with ''Theogony'' [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/hesiod-theogony/2018/pb_LCL057.69.xml 817&ndash;819].</ref>