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Philip Pierotti
Hart
Honors English 9 p.3
9 November 2011
TITANS VS. OLYMPIANS
The Titans vs. The Olympians is an epic battle lost in the ages. What we know of it
however relates much to the creation story of the Titans and their downfall once overruled by
The Gods. The Titans were much like Gods, being in direct relationships also engaging in
marriage, Titans and Gods have uniform rolls in Greek Mythology. However, the myths that the
titans play parts in do very by edition so what is told has minor translation flaws, for example
there is Kronus but is also spelled Kronos, Cronus and Cronos. The point that comes out of the
story is about
In Greek Mythology, right after the creation story there is a chapter of Mythology that
reveals how the transfer of power over the cosmos from the Titans, to the Greek Gods, also
called Olympians. The battle that was fought concluded the Olympians victory and brought the
Titans who fought agains them do eternal pain and suffering.
After creation, when Titans Oranos and Gaia gave birth to their twelve children, six male
and six female who were assigned elements and positions much like the Gods of the Golden
Age did. Cronus, who had beaten his father Oranos in battle as suggested by Gaia because he
was sending her six children monsters (the three Cyclopes and three Hundred-handers) into the
underworld, thus Cronus became ruler of the cosmos. Cronus then ate all of his children he had
with his sister Reah. Like Gaia, Reah did not approve of this at all so she played a trick on
Cronus which saved her son named Zeus. Zeus was raised on the island of Crete until he was
old enough to fight Cronus. Zeus was not a titan, he was a God but married the Titan Metis who
gave Cronus an herb that made him throw up all of his divine children.
What happened right after Cronus threw up his children is unclear, but Zeus became the
leader of the Olympians who consisted of Poseidon, Hades, Hera, Apollo, Artemis, Athena,
Aphrodite, Ares, Heiphaistos, Hermes. Zeus and his brothers and sisters then fought the titans
in what was called the Titanomachy, the war between the Olympians and the Titans.
As the stories of the Titans and the Olympians was originally passed through word of
mouth before written down there are similarities between stores. As the story of the Titanomacy
was said to last 10 years before the Olympians became victorious over the Titans as did the
Trojans fight agains the Greeks. Ten years was a significantly long war as far as stories went.
The Titanomachy lasted for ten years of endless battle. Olympeans that were led by Zeus were
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stationed on the top of Mount Olympus and the Titans that were led by Cronus were stationed
south of Mt. Olympus on a mountain called Mt. Othrys. The Titans were immortal so they could
not be killed by the Olympians, but the Olympians in turn too were immortal so they couldn’t be
killed by the Titans. For the length of the war there were no casualties until Gaia came to Zeus
and told him to free her monster children that Oranos had imprisoned in tartarus. The freeing of
theses beasts would cause a turning point in the battle.
Oranos had locked up 6 of his children in the depths of Tartarus, the underworld. When
Zeus freed them they were more than willing to fight for the Olympians. The three Cyclops
forged the lightning bolt that was given to Zeus who used it as his weapon, the most powerful
weapon ever created. The monsters also gave a trident to Poseidon and a helmet to Hades.
With the of the new powers of the Gods, the Titans that fought against the Olympians
were defeated and sentenced to eternal punishment. Cronus was banished to the depths of
Tartarus and Zeus became the ruler of the Cosmos and the domain of the heavens. Zeus’s
brother Poseidon was the God of the Sea and his other brother Hades became the god of the
underworld. Some titans still existed because they fought along side the Olympians. The Titan
Oceanus was of all watery elements and the other, Helios was of the sun. Others were
punished such as Atlas who was sentenced to hold up the world for eternity.
Some of the names of these Gods and Titans are debatable between references from
Roman, Greek and mixups between copies of the stories they are in. Another fault of early story
tellers is that as time went on and these stories were passed down by word of mouth which
eventually changed the story bit by bit. Some Titans that were not banished to the underworld
stayed with the gods but have different names which are different depending on which story is
told or read. Some things are unclear and some things historians may never know for sure
about early stories in Greek mythology especially older ones.
When Zeus was with intimate relations with the titan Mnemosine, they had 9 daughters
who made a farmer named Hesiod to write a story that is called the “Epic Poem.” The 800 line
poem described the creation myth that poem has not been lost in the ages thus written records
of Greek Mythology from the Golden Age of Titans to the Iron age of Man. He explains that after
the Titans were defeated, the Golden Age ended with the Titanomachy and started the Silver
Age.
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