Giantess

A giantess is a female giant: either a mythical being, such as the Amazons of Greek mythology, resembling a woman of superhuman size and strength or a human woman of exceptional stature, often the result of some medical or genetic abnormality (see gigantism).

Polytheism and mythology

Baltic mythology

According to the folk etymology for the name of Neringa Municipality, there was a giantess girl named Neringa on the seashore formed the Curonian Spit, who helped fishermen.

Greek mythology

The Titanides, sisters and children of Titans, may not have originally been seen as giants, but later Hellenistic poets and Latin ones tended to blur Titans and Giants. In a surviving fragment of Naevius' poem on the Punic war, he describes the Gigantes Runcus and Purpureus (Porphyrion):
:''Inerant signa expressa, quo modo Titani''
:''bicorpores Gigantes, magnique Atlantes''
:''Runcus ac Purpureus filii Terras''.
Eduard Fraenkel remarks of these lines, with their highly unusual plural ''Atlantes'', "It does not surprise us to find the names ''Titani'' and ''Gigantes'' employed indiscriminately to denote the same mythological creatures, for we are used to the identification, or confusion, of these two types of monsters which, though not original, had probably become fairly common by the time of Naevius".
Other giantesses in Greek myth include Periboea, the princess of the giants that participated in the Gigantomachy, and the queen and princess of the Laestrygonians who participated in the attacking and devouring of Odysseus' crew.

Norse mythology

Female jötnar have a prominent role in Nordic mythology, where they are referred to as , and . While these terms are often glossed as "giantess", in texts containing the oldest traditions, they are often not notably large and the terms are often left untranslated.Some translators of the ''Poetic Edda'' do not render the word to ''giant''. For example, in the Foreword to Jeramy Dodds's translation of the ''Poetic Edda'', Terry Gunnell says that is "sometimes wrongly translated as 'giants and instead uses ''jötunns''. (Dodds 2014:9).

Notable include:
* Gríðr - a gýgr who saved Thor's life. She was aware of the jötunn Geirrod's plans to get Thor killed and sets out to help him by supplying him with a belt of strength, a pair of magical iron gloves, and a magical wand.
* Gerd - A beautiful gýgr with whom Freyr fell in love at first sight, as told in Skirnismál. After marrying him, she became the mother of the mythic Swedish king Fjölnir.
* Skaði - The daughter of Þjazi, whom the gods had killed. After journeying to Ásgard, she agreed that she would renounce her vengeance on two conditions: that they allow her to choose a husband from among them, and that they succeed in making her laugh. The gods allowed her to choose a husband, but she had to choose him only from his feet; she choose Njord because his feet were so beautiful that she thought he was Baldr. Then Loki succeeded in making her laugh, so peace was made, and Odin made two stars from Þjazi's eyes. After a while, she and her husband separated, because she loved the mountains (Þrymheimr), while he wanted to live near the sea ( Noatun).
* Hyrrokin - A gýgr who came riding on a wolf to Baldr's funeral and gave the ship he had been lain upon such a push that fire flashed from the rollers and all the earth shook.
* Thokk - The only being who refused to weep upon Baldr's death, resulting in Hel not releasing the god from the underworld until after Ragnarok. According to Snorri Sturluson, Thokk was Loki in disguise.

Hinduism

Giantesses are fairly common in the Hindu religion. The demoness Putana (who attempted to kill the baby Krishna with poisoned milk from her breasts) is usually drawn as a giantess.

Celtic mythology

Giantesses are common in the folklore of Britain and Ireland, particularly Scotland and Wales. They were often depicted as loving and beautiful people and, in later versions of myths, seemed to resemble Vikings, who had raided the coasts, in appearance. A notable giantess in Irish mythology is Bébinn.

Turkish folklore

In Turkish folklore, a man sucking milk of a "giant mother" () is a common narrative. In this theme, a man is supposed to drink the milk of a giantess without being noticed. Thus, he will become an adoptive child of her and the giantess will not attack him. Those motives are encountered in stories (Golden Nightingale), (Eighty Eyes).

Modern art and literature

Books

In Lewis Carroll's story ''Alice's Adventures in Wonderland'', there are several scenes where the heroine Alice grows to giant size by means of eating something (like a cake or a mushroom). Similarly Arthur C. Clarke's story ''Cosmic Casanova'' describes an astronaut's revulsion at discovering that an extraterrestrial female he adored on a video screen is in fact thirty feet tall.

Comics

Size-changing heroines have appeared in such comics as ''Doom Patrol'', ''Mighty Avengers'', ''Marvel Adventures Avengers'', '' Team Youngblood'', and ''Femforce''. In the latter series, the giantess-superheroines Tara and Garganta combine immense size and strength with beauty and femininity, and have a cult following among both men and women. Conversely, size-changing villainesses, such as Wonder Woman foe Giganta, use their strength and beauty for less altruistic purposes as a weapon to crush their foes. Giantesses are also common in the manga and anime mediums of Japan. She-Hulk's nickname is "The Jade Giantess", due to the main character growing in size and more powerful when becoming She-Hulk.

The giantess also appears in modern-day art, illustration and fashion. UK based illustrator Emma Melton has used the giantess as a symbol in her illustrated fashion line 'Blessed by a Giantess', which aims to promote healthy body image in young girls and spread the message that 'We are all beautiful.

Motion pictures

The giantess theme has also appeared in motion pictures, often as a metaphor for female empowerment or played for absurd humor. The 1958 B-movie ''Attack of the 50 Foot Woman'' formed part of a series of size-changing films of the era which also included ''The Incredible Shrinking Man'', ''The 30 Foot Bride of Candy Rock'', and ''Village of the Giants''. The 1993 remake of ''Attack of the 50 Foot Woman'', starring Daryl Hannah in the title role, was advertised as a comedy; many scenes did parody earlier size-changing movies (most notably ''The Amazing Colossal Man)'', although the central theme was feminist. The heroine Nancy, formerly a cipher to her domineering father and husband, is empowered by her new-found size and starts to take control of her destiny, and encourages other women to do the same. Both versions of the movie enjoy a cult following.

More recent movies with giantess themes are ''Honey, I Blew Up the Kid'' (1992), '' Malèna'' (2000), ''Dude, Where's My Car?'' (2000), ''Hable con ella'' a.k.a. ''Talk to Her'' (2002), ''Ella Enchanted'' (2006), Igor (2008), '' Monsters vs. Aliens'' (2009) and '' Roger Corman's Attack of the 50 Foot Cheerleader'' (2012). In ''Malèna'', there is a scene where the young protagonist, Renato Amoroso, fantasizes about being a few inches tall and having Monica Bellucci (Malena), pick him up and take him to her bosom. In ''Honey, I Blew Up the Kid'', after Adam grew 112 feet tall and had been wandering through Las Vegas, Diane Szalinski, who was the wife of Wayne Szalinski and mother of Adam, asked her husband to enlarge her so she can hug Adam and prevent Hendrickson from harming her son. As she was exposed to electrical waves, Diane became a 120 foot tall giantess, but later returns to her normal size with her son Adam at her side.

In ''Dude, Where's My Car?'', five nubile female characters morph into an extraterrestrial 20 foot tall giantess played by Jodi Ann Paterson (Playboy Playmate of the Year 2000) who picks up one of the characters and eats him. ''Talk to Her'' features a sequence in the style of early silent cinema called 'The Shrinking Lover,' where an accidentally shrunken scientist is rescued from his mother's clutches by his lover, who carries him home in her handbag. The shrunken scientist then roams his lover's body while she lies in bed. '' Monsters vs. Aliens'' features a satirization of ''Attack of the 50 Foot Woman'' in which the main protagonist, Susan Murphy, is clobbered by a radioactive meteor that causes her to grow up to 49 feet, 11½ inches, becoming Ginormica. In '' Roger Corman's Attack of the 50 Foot Cheerleader'', Cassie Stradford, a college student of Iron Coast University, steals the drug and injects herself with it to make her very pretty. However, the drug had a really big side effect when she starts to grow taller and taller until she is a 50 foot tall giantess. When Brittany discovers this, she tried to seduce Kyle into giving it to her. Even when Kyle was trying to prevent her from knowing, she was accidentally injected with more of the drug than Cassie and growing into a 75 foot tall giantess. After a brief catfight, Cassie injected the antidote into Brittany, making her shrink into a dwarf.

Outside of Hollywood, giantesses have also appeared in special interest films. AC Comics giantess Garganta is featured in a live action DVD movie available from accomics.com entitled ''Gargantarama'', which also includes giantess scenes from many movies as well as the feature length 1958 B-movie ''Attack of the 50 Foot Woman''. Embracing the use of the giantess in popular culture, AC has made it a frequently recurring theme in their products.

Giantesses have also appeared in advertisement campaigns, with similar erotic/humorous intent. In 2003, a commercial for the Italian company Puma featured the theme. The giantess, played by model/actress Valentina Biancospino, stomps around town causing havoc and swallowing a man whole before finally picking up a man (played by Italian footballer Gianluigi Buffon) and kissing him. The following year, Lee Dungarees commercials used the giantess theme alongside the slogan "Whatever Happens, Don't Flinch," hiring model Natalia Adarvez to play a 90 foot tall giantess. Also that same year, Victoria Silvstedt (1997 Playboy Playmate of the Year) posed as a giantess for an advertisement for Max Power London, a car show held in London in November 2004. In the February 12th, 2005 edition of the UK newspaper, ''The Sun'', Miss Silvstedt again posed as a giantess of Godzilla height next to various London landmarks. In a CSL ad, model Polly Brindle appeared as a 98 foot tall giantess walking around New York, where she meets a giant of the same height.

Giantesses have also appeared in some television series such as ''Genie in the House'', ''Snorks'', ''Schoolhouse Rock'', ''Jackie Chan Adventures'', ''Braceface'', ''The Electric Company'', ''The Muppet Show'', ''Dexter's Laboratory'', ''Futurama'', ''Justice League Unlimited'', ''Animaniacs'', ''Toonsylvania'', '' Kids Next Door'', ''Archie's Weird Mysteries'', ''Harley Quinn'', ''The Powerpuff Girls'' in ''Attack of the Fifty Footed Woman'', ''Totally Spies!'' episode in ''Attack Of The 50 Ft Mandy'', ''Phineas and Ferb'', and ''The 7D''. The ''Snorks'' episode "The Littlest Mermaid" features a scene where a mermaid grows into a giantess caused by a machine. The ''Schoolhouse Rock'' episode "Unpack Your Adjectives" includes a scene where a tall girl grows into a 34-foot giantess, causing only her legs and sandals to be seen. She then stomps on a small boy who wouldn't stop laughing at how tall she grew. In the first episode of ''The Electric Company'', Judy Graubart grows into a giantess while holding up a sign for the kid audience to read that says "giant".

Music videos

Pamela Anderson features as a giantess in the video " Miserable" for the rock group Lit. In the video, the band members perform on Anderson's body and are eventually devoured by her at the end, a metaphor for women as "maneaters".

Kylie Minogue appears as a giantess in the music video for the single "Giving You Up".

See also

* Macrophilia

References

{{reflist

*
Female legendary creatures