Hecatoncheires
The Hecatoncheires were three giants, each with a hundred hands and fifty heads — the most powerful beings born before the Olympians.
The Myth of Hecatoncheires
The Hecatoncheires — Briareus (or Aegaeon), Cottus, and Gyges — were three hundred-handed, fifty-headed giants born to Gaia and Uranus. So terrifying were they that Uranus imprisoned them in Tartarus at birth alongside the Cyclops. During the Titanomachy, Zeus freed them on the counsel of Gaia. They proved decisive: each could hurl three hundred stones simultaneously, overwhelming the Titans led by Kronos and Atlas. After victory, Zeus stationed them as wardens of Tartarus, guarding the imprisoned Titans. When Hera, Poseidon, and Athena conspired to bind Zeus, it was Briareus whom Thetis summoned to Olympus — his mere presence cowed the plotters. They represented raw, primordial force in service to the new divine order.
Parents
Gaia and Uranus
Symbols
Fun Fact
The Hecatoncheires each threw 300 boulders simultaneously during the Titanomachy — making them the original artillery barrage.
Explore Further
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
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.
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.
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.
Aloadae
🐉 creaturewar,giants
Twin giants of enormous strength — Otus and Ephialtes — who attempted to storm Olympus by stacking mountains on top of one another.
Alcyoneus
🐉 creaturegiants
The mightiest of the Gigantes, immortal within his homeland, who stole the cattle of Helios
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.
Gyges
🏔 titanhundred-handed earth-born power
One of the three Hecatoncheires, the hundred-handed giants born of Gaia and Uranus.
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.
Hecatoncheires
🏔 titanHundred-handed giant
Briareus was the mightiest of the three Hundred-Handed Ones who helped Zeus defeat the Titans.
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.