Aloadae
Twin giants of enormous strength — Otus and Ephialtes — who attempted to storm Olympus by stacking mountains on top of one another.
The Myth of Aloadae
Born to Poseidon and Iphimedeia, the Aloadae grew at a rate of nearly a cubit in girth and a fathom in height every year. By their ninth year they were massive enough to attempt war on the gods. Their plan: stack Mount Ossa upon Pelion, and Olympus upon Ossa, to reach the heavens. They captured Ares in a bronze jar for thirteen months before Hermes freed him. Apollo finally destroyed them — in some versions by sending a deer between them so that, hurling their javelins at the same moment, each accidentally struck the other. They died by mutual fratricide, a fate that matched their hubris. Homer records their imprisonment of Ares in the Iliad; Apollodorus expands the myth considerably.
Parents
Poseidon,Iphimedeia
Symbols
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Aloadae
🐉 creaturegiants, rebellion
Twin giants who grew nine fathoms each year and attempted to storm Olympus by stacking mountains, threatening the gods before Artemis or Apollo destroyed them.
Otus
🐉 creaturegigantic, rebellion
One of the Aloadae — twin giants of extraordinary size who attempted to storm Olympus and imprisoned the god Ares in a bronze jar.
Ephialtes
🐉 creaturegigantic, rebellion
Twin brother of Otus among the Aloadae giants, whose combined assault on Olympus was among the most audacious acts of defiance against the gods.
Alcyoneus
🐉 creaturegiants
The mightiest of the Gigantes, immortal within his homeland, who stole the cattle of Helios
Briareos
🐉 creaturegiants,sea
One of the Hecatoncheires (Hundred-Handed Giants), beings of immense power with fifty heads and one hundred arms, allies of Zeus in the Titanomachy.
Gegenees
🐉 creaturegiants
Six-armed earth-born giants who attacked the Argonauts on Bear Mountain
Hecatoncheires
🐉 creatureHundred-handed giants
The Hecatoncheires were three giants, each with a hundred hands and fifty heads — the most powerful beings born before the Olympians.
Cyclops
🐉 creatureOne-eyed giant
Race of one-eyed giants. The original three Cyclopes forged Zeus's thunderbolts; later Cyclopes were savage shepherds, the most famous being Polyphemus.
Polybotes
🐉 creaturegiants,Gigantomachy
One of the Giants who fought the gods in the Gigantomachy, pursued by Poseidon across the sea and finally crushed beneath the island of Nisyros, which Poseidon broke off from the island of Cos.
Cyclopes
🐉 creaturesmithing, monstrous
One-eyed giants who existed in two distinct traditions: divine craftsmen who forged Zeus's thunderbolts, and savage pastoral giants encountered by Odysseus.
Typhon
🐉 creatureMost powerful monster who challenged Zeus
Typhon was the most fearsome monster in Greek mythology — a giant with serpent heads who nearly overthrew Zeus and would have ruled the cosmos.
Centimani
🐉 creaturecosmic warfare, imprisonment
The Hundred-Handed Ones — Briareus, Cottus, and Gyges — titanic beings of overwhelming force who helped Zeus win the war against the Titans.