Titan
The collective name for the twelve children of Gaia and Uranus who ruled the cosmos before the Olympian gods.
The Myth of Titan
The Titans were the twelve children of Gaia and Uranus — six male and six female — who ruled the cosmos during the Golden Age before Zeus led his generation in the Titanomachy. The six male Titans were Oceanus, Coeus, Crius, Hyperion, Iapetus, and Kronos; the six female (Titanides) were Theia, Rhea, Themis, Mnemosyne, Phoebe, and Tethys. Hesiod's Theogony provides their genealogy and the story of their overthrow. The etymology of "Titan" is debated: some ancient sources connected it to the Greek verb "titaino" (to strain or stretch) or to a word meaning "white earth." Their defeat and imprisonment established the Olympian world order but also preserved them as figures of immense, unchained power.
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Words We Inherited
English words and phrases that trace back to this myth. See our full guide to English words from Greek mythology.
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Hyperion
🏔 titanTitan of heavenly light, observation
Titan of light and father of the sun, moon, and dawn. Hyperion was one of the original twelve Titans, embodying the celestial light that preceded the Olympians.
Kronos
🏔 titanTitan, father of the Olympians
King of the Titans who ruled during the mythological Golden Age. Kronos overthrew his father Ouranos and was in turn overthrown by his son Zeus.
Crius
🏔 titanTitan of constellations
Crius was the Titan associated with the constellations — one of four brothers who held Uranus at the corners of the earth during his castration.
Kronos
🏔 titanTitan king of the Golden Age
The king of the Titans who ruled during the Golden Age and devoured his children to prevent prophecy of his overthrow.
Eurynome
🏔 titanPastures, Wide Rule
A Titaness who in some traditions ruled Olympus alongside her husband Ophion before being overthrown by Cronus and Rhea in a divine coup.
Kreios
🏔 titanTitan of constellations
A Titan associated with the heavenly constellations, father of Astraeus, Pallas, and Perses through his union with Eurybia.
Iapetus
🏔 titanTitan father of Prometheus and Atlas
Iapetus was the Titan whose sons shaped humanity's relationship with the gods more than any other divine family.
Coeus
🏔 titanTitan of intellect
Coeus was the Titan of rational intelligence and the celestial axis — grandfather of Apollo and Artemis through his daughter Leto.
Gyges
🏔 titanhundred-handed earth-born power
One of the three Hecatoncheires, the hundred-handed giants born of Gaia and Uranus.
Megamedes
🏔 titanGreat Cunning
A barely attested Titan known only as the father of certain nymphs, representing the vast, anonymous background of divine genealogy in Greek religion.
Rhea
🏔 titanTitaness of fertility, motherhood, the mountain wilds
Mother of the Olympian gods and wife of Kronos. Rhea saved the infant Zeus from being devoured by his father, enabling the rise of the Olympians.
Eurynome
🏔 titanPre-Olympian queen of the cosmos
In the Pelasgian creation myth, Eurynome ruled the universe with Ophion before the rise of the Titans.