Titans
According to Hesiod, the word Titan (Τιτησι) seemed to mean "Strainer", because they strained and performed some presumptuous, fearful deeds and vengeance would come after it. Whereas the Olympians lived on Olympus, the home of the Titans was Othrys (Οθρυος), their stronghold.
The exact number of the Titans varied from author to author, and they often included some of the children of the Titans. So there were at least two generations of Titans to be considered.
For a generation, the Titans shared the world with Cronus as their leader. It was the Titans who created mankind. A number of the male Titans were imprisoned in Tartarus when they chose to fight a war against the younger gods, known as the Olympians.
According to Orphic myth, Zeus destroyed the Titans with his thunderbolts because the Titans had murdered and devoured his son Zagreus (Dionysus). From the smouldering ashes, mankind was created.
See the Creation about the war between the Titans and the Olympians.
I have divided the Titans into two groups. The first group were the children of Gaea and Uranus. The other group of articles is about the second generation of Titans.
Children of Uranus & Gaea
The Titans can be used to strictly apply to the firstborn children of Gaea (Earth) and Uranus (Heaven).
According to Hesiod, Cronus was the youngest and boldest of the Titans, and was their leader. Cronus became the supreme ruler of the universe when he deposed his father Uranus. His own sons would later overthrow him and some of his brothers, confining them in Tartarus. (See Creation.)
According to Hesiod, the Titans were twelve in number, six sons and six daughters, though the numbers may vary from one author to another. In the Orphic cosmogony, there are 14 in number - 7 Titans and 7 Titanesses. These don't count the third or even second generation Titans.
| Hesiod | Apollodorus | Diodorus Siculus | Orphic | Hyginus |
Titans | Cronus | Cronus | Cronus | Cronus | Saturn |
Titaness | Rhea | Rhea | Rhea | Rhea | Ops |
Quite a few authors listed Dione among the Titanesses, though she was sometimes called an Oceanid.
According to the Orphic genealogy, Uranus and Gaea had seven sons and seven daughters, where they included Phorcys and Dione in the listing of the Titans.
Second Generation Titans
The second generation Titans or the Younger Titans were children of the elder Titans (children of Uranus and Gaea).
So what made the younger generation, Titans? Perhaps if either his or her parents were Titans?
There are no given prerequisites which would make them Titans, because not all of the children of the elder Titans were also known as Titans.
If the rule of both parents being Titans held, then technically the children of Cronus and Rhea (ie the Olympians) were also Titans. Also the Titans Oceanus and Tethys had thousands of children - 3000 river gods and 3000 Oceanid nymphs. The children of Oceanus could not be Titans. The Oceanids Styx and perhaps her sister Metis were the only exception - they were considered to be both Oceanids and Titans. Styx was the first to change sides to Zeus in the war between the Titans and Olympians, while Metis happened to be Zeus' first wife.
Some would say that Helius and his sisters were Titans, while other writers said they weren't. I am uncertain with Helius, Eos and Selene, which is why you will find them in Minor Greek Deities (under Sky Deities) instead of on this page.
Some even believed that the goddess Hecate was a Titaness. If this was true, then she would be a third generation Titaness.
Below are the names of the second generation that I am sure were themselves Titans or Titanesses.
Genealogy
Related Pages
By Jimmy Joe
