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CHAP. IX.

WAR OF THE GIANTS.

Their Origin.-Tellus excites them to make War upon Jupiter. Their Figure.-Typhon.-Tityus.-Othus and Ephialtes. Enceladus and Briareus.-Their Manner of Fighting:-The Gods betake themselves to Flight-are assisted by Hercules-are finally victorious.-Punishment of the Giants.

As under the reign of Saturn there was a rebellion of the Titans, so under the reign of Jupiter happened the war of the Giants.

When Saturn deposed his father Coelus from the government of heaven, in the scuffle he gave Coelus a wound, and cut away a part of his flesh: the part which was separated Saturn threw into. the sea, and from it, as from a seed, sprung the Goddess Venus: the drops of blood from the wound, fell on the earth, and were the parent source of the Giants".

There is some degree of puzzle and contradiction (as frequently happens in the Grecian mythology), about the parentage of the Giants: if what I have just said is to be taken literally, they are then entitled to the appellation commonly given them, of Sons of the Earth: but, if we recollect that the wife of Coelus their father was called Tellus, Terra, or the Earth, and take the story that way, we may then consider them as

d Hesiod. The. 174 et seqq.

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WAR OF THE GIANTS.

full brothers to the Titans both by father and mother, only later as to the period of their birth: they were a sort of second brood.

Tellus did not look with a favourable eye upon the usurpation of Jupiter: she saw him first op. pressing the whole body of her sons, under pretence of vindicating the cause of one of them, Saturn, and afterwards deposing Saturn himself: at length she excited the Giants to revenge upon Jupiter the cause of their brothers the Titans.

The Giants are described as terrible monsters: like the former brood, they had fifty heads and a hundred hands a piece: their stature was enormous, and, instead of two feet, their lower extremities were two amazing serpents' tails, that writhed, and folded, and beat the ground as they passed along.

Though the Giants are spoken of collectively as Sons of the Earth, yet, when the Greeks come to describe them separately, they ascribe to some of them a different origin: Typhoeus, or Typhon, the most terrible of them, is said by some to be the son of Juno without a father he was so tall that he touched the East with his right hand, and the West with his left, and as he stood upright, his front knocked against the stars: a hundred dragons' head grew from his shoulders: his body was covered with feathers, scales, ragged hair, and adders: the ends of his fingers were snakes his eyes sparkled with fire, and his mouth belched out flames: his voice was particularly terrible, and when he pleased, he could make it like the roaring of a wild bull, the angry cries of

Hes. The. 670.

WEAPONS OF THE GIANTS.

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a lion, and the yell of a lion's whelp: the loftiest mountains trembled at the sound.

Another of the Giants was Tityus, the son of Jupiter and Elara: he was of so vast a size, that his mother died at his birth, and as she was brought to bed of him in a cavern, the earth was rent to give him way before he could see the light of the sun: when he lay down, his bulk covered nine acres of ground: he was guilty of some affront to Latona, the mother of Apollo, and Jupiter sentenced him for it to hell, where a vulture continually feeds upon his liver, which grows again as fast as it is devoured.

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Two more of the Giants were Othus and Ephialtes they grew nine inches every month, and were nine years old when they entered into the war against Jupiter.

Others of the Giants, were Enceladus, by some thought the same as Typhon; Ægeon, sometimes taken for Briareus: and Porphyrion: such were the enemies that conspired against the throne of Jupiter.

The Greeks always transfer the geography of the fabulous personages they received into their creed, to their own country; they therefore represent the Giants as dwelling in the peninsula of Phlegra, or Pallene, at no great distance from Olympus, the habitation of the Gods.

The weapons of the Giants in this war were no less terrible than their persons: they tore up mountains by the roots, and cast them at the Gods: they heaped Ossa on Pelion, that by this means they might scale Heaven, or Olympus;

f Hom. Od. 2. 575. Hom. Od. λ. 306. Virg. G. i. 278,

Ov. Met. i. 151.

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they tossed about flaming forests, in the room of darts and hurled massy stones and solid rocks against Heaven, some of which fell upon the earth, and became mountains, and others into the sea, where they became islands.

The Gods themselves were terrified at the strangeness of this assault, and flying before the enemy, took refuge in Egypt, where they hid themselves in the forms of different animals, Jupiter as a ram, Juno as a cow, Mercury in the form of a bird called the ibis, Apollo in the form of a crow, Diana as a cat, Venus as a fish, and Bacchus as a goat'.

In all this there is some allusion to the religion of the Egyptians, who worshipped their Gods under the figures of different animals, a bull, a dog, a cat, a crocodile, and even of leeks, onions, and beans: Jupiter Ammon in particular, who had a famous oracle in the Egyptian province of Lybia, was worshipped under the form of a ram.

At length the Gods resumed courage, and determined to renew the war: there was a rumour in heaven, that Jupiter could not succeed in this war, unless he called up a mortal to his as sistance by the advice of Minerva therefore, he sent for Hercules, of whom more will be said hereafter it was perhaps on this occasion that the Cyclops, Brontes, Arges, and Steropes, first forged for Jupiter his thunderbolts.

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All the Gods now contributed their strength for restoring the tranquillity of heaven, and, male and female, each killed a Giant: Typhoeus however wounded Jupiter, and taking him pri

i Ov. Met. v. 327.

PEACE RESTORED.

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soner, hid him in a cave in Cilicia: here Mercury found the Father of the Gods, and set him at liberty in the conclusion all the Giants were overwhelmed with the thunderbolts of heaven: some were buried under mountains, others flayed alive, and others subjected to various other pu nishments: Typhoeus was buried under the island of Sicily, which being terminated in its extremities by three promontories, Pelorus was placed upon his right arm, Pachynus upon his left, and Lilybæum upon his feet: Etna is his breathing hole, and as the monster turns from side to side, the mountain vomits up flames of fire*.

k Ov. Met. v. 346.

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