Centimani
The Hundred-Handed Ones — Briareus, Cottus, and Gyges — titanic beings of overwhelming force who helped Zeus win the war against the Titans.
The Myth of Centimani
The Centimani (Hekatoncheires in Greek) were three brothers — Briareus, Cottus, and Gyges — each possessing a hundred hands and fifty heads. Their appearance was so monstrous that their own father Ouranos imprisoned them in Tartarus immediately after birth. Kronos kept them confined after overthrowing Ouranos, and it was Zeus who finally freed them during the Titanomachy. Their contribution to the war was decisive: with their three hundred hands, they hurled volleys of boulders at the Titans "like a dark rain," overwhelming the enemy through sheer volume of firepower. After the Titans' defeat, the Centimani served as wardens of Tartarus, guarding the imprisoned Titans for eternity. Briareus also appears in the Iliad: when Hera, Poseidon, and Athena plotted to bind Zeus, Thetis summoned Briareus to Olympus, and his mere presence deterred the conspirators. Their role was purely instrumental — they were living weapons and eternal guards, power without personality.
Parents
Ouranos and Gaia
Symbols
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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.
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.
Giants
🐉 creatureearth-born, warfare
Enormous earth-born warriors who waged the Gigantomachy against the Olympian gods and were defeated only with the help of a mortal hero.
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.
Campe
🐉 creaturemonsters
Campe was the monstrous she-dragon who guarded the Cyclopes in Tartarus — her death gave Zeus the thunderbolt that won the war against the Titans.
Typhon
🐉 creatureFather of all monsters
The most fearsome monster in Greek mythology, who challenged Zeus for supremacy of the cosmos. Typhon was the father of many of mythology's most dangerous creatures.
Aloadae
🐉 creaturewar,giants
Twin giants of enormous strength — Otus and Ephialtes — who attempted to storm Olympus by stacking mountains on top of one another.
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.
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.
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.
Cottus
🏔 titanfurious assault, hundred-handed combat
One of the three Hecatoncheires, the hundred-handed giants, embodying the fury of battle.
Makhai
🐉 creaturepersonifications
Daimones of battle and combat, born from Eris, who haunted every battlefield in the Greek world