Hundred-Handers

In Greek mythology, the Hecatoncheires ( grc-gre, Ἑκατόγχειρες, , Hundred-Handed Ones), or Hundred-Handers, also called the Centimanes, (; la, Centimani), named Cottus, Briareus (or Aegaeon) and Gyges (or Gyes), were three monstrous giants, of enormous size and strength, each with fifty heads and one hundred arms. In the standard tradition they were the offspring of Uranus (Sky) and of Gaia (Earth), and helped Zeus and the Olympians to overthrow the Titans in the Titanomachy.

Names

The three Hundred-Handers were named Cottus, Briareus and Gyges. Cottus (''Κόττος'') is a common Thracian name, and is perhaps related to the name of the Thracian goddess Kotys. The name Briareus (''Βριάρεως'') was probably formed from the Greek ''βριαρός'' meaning "strong". Hesiod's ''Theogony'' also calls him "Obriareus". The name Gyges is possibly related to the mythical Attic king Ogyges (''Ὠγύγης''). "Gyes", rather than Gyges, is found in some texts.

Homer's ''Iliad'' gives Briareus a second name, saying that Briareus is the name the gods call him, while Aegaeon (''Αἰγαίων'') is the name that men call him. The root ''αἰγ-'' is found in words associated with the sea: ''αἰγιαλός'' "shore", ''αἰγες'' and ''αἰγάδες'' "waves". The name suggests a connection with the Aegean Sea. Poseidon was sometimes called Aegaeon or Aegaeus (''Αἰγαῖος''). Aegaeon could be a patronymic, i.e. "son of Aegaeus", or it could instead mean "the man from Aegae".

The name Hecatoncheires derives from the Greek ''ἑκατόν'' (hekaton, "hundred") and ''χείρ'' (cheir, "hand” or "arm"). Although the ''Theogony'' describes the three brothers as having one hundred hands (''ἑκατὸν μὲν χεῖρες''), the collective name Hecatoncheires (''Ἑκατόγχειρες''), i.e. the Hundred-Handers, is never used. The ''Theogony'' once refers to the brothers collectively as "the gods whom Zeus brought up from the dark", otherwise it simply uses their individual names: Cottus, Briareus (or Obriareus) and Gyges.

The ''Iliad'' does not use the name Hecatoncheires either, although it does use the adjective ''hekatoncheiros'' (''ἑκατόγχειρος''), i.e. "hundred-handed", to describe Briareus. It is possible that Acusilaus used the name, but the first certain usage is found in the works of the mythographers such as Apollodorus.

Mythology

The Hundred-Handers

The Hundred-Handers, Cottus, Briareus and Gyges, were three monstrous giants, of enormous size and strength, with fifty heads and one hundred arms. They were among the eighteen offspring of Uranus (Sky) and Gaia (Earth), which also included the twelve Titans, and the three one-eyed Cyclopes. According to the ''Theogony'' of Hesiod, they were the last of these children of Uranus to be born, while according to the mythographer Apollodorus they were the first. In the Hesiodic tradition, they played a key role in the Greek succession myth, which told how the Titan Cronus overthrew his father Uranus, and how in turn Zeus overthrew Cronus and his fellow Titans, and how Zeus was eventually established as the final and permanent ruler of the cosmos.

According to the standard version of the succession myth, given in the accounts of Hesiod and Apollodorus, the Hundred-Handers, along with their brothers the Cyclopes, were imprisoned by their father Uranus. Gaia induced Cronus to castrate Uranus, and Cronus took over the supremacy of the cosmos. With his sister the Titaness Rhea, Cronus fathered several offspring, but he swallowed each of them at birth. However, Cronus' last child Zeus was saved by Rhea, and Zeus freed his brothers and sisters, and together they (the Olympians) began a great war, the Titanomachy, against the Titans, for control of the cosmos. Gaia had foretold that, with the help of the Hundred-Handers, the Olympians would be victorious, so Zeus released them from their captivity and the Hundred-Handers fought alongside the Olympians against the Titans and were instrumental in the Titans' defeat. The Titans were then imprisoned in Tartarus with the Hundred-Handers as their guards.

The lost epic poem the ''Titanomachy'' (see below), although probably written after Hesiod's ''Theogony'', perhaps preserved an older tradition in which the Hundred-Handers fought on the side of the Titans, rather than the Olympians. According to a euhemeristic rationalized account, given by Palaephatus, Cottus and Briareus, rather than being hundred-handed giants, were instead men, who were called the Hundred-Handers because they lived in a city called Hecatoncheiria ("Hundredarm"). They came to the aid of the residents of the city of Olympia (i.e. the Olympians) in driving away the Titans from their city.

Briareus/Aegaeon

Briareus was the most prominent of the three Hundred-Handers. In Hesiod's ''Theogony'' he is singled out as being "good", and is rewarded by Poseidon, who gives Briareus his daughter Cymopolea (otherwise unknown) for his wife.

In Homer's ''Iliad'', Briareus is given a second name, Aegaeon, saying that Briareus is the name the gods call him, while mortals call him Aegaeon. It is told in the ''Iliad'' how, during a palace revolt by the Olympians Hera, Poseidon and Athena, who wished to chain Zeus, the sea goddess Thetis brought to Olympus:

This second name does not seem to be a Homeric invention. According to the scholiast on Apollonius of Rhodes, the legendary seventh-century BC poet Cinaethon apparently knew both names for the Hundred-Hander. The name also appears in the lost epic poem the ''Titanomachy''.

One of Saturn's moons was named after Aegaeon in 2009.

Titan ally

While in Hesiod and Homer, the powerful Hundred-Hander Briareus was a faithful and rewarded ally of Zeus, the ''Titanomachy'' seems to have reflected a different tradition. Apparently, according to the ''Titanomachy'', Aegaeon was the son of Gaia and Pontus (Sea), rather than Gaia and Uranus, and fought on the side of the Titans, rather than the Olympians. The scholiast on Apollonius of Rhodes, tells us that according to Cinaethon, Aegeaon was defeated by Poseidon. Apollonius of Rhodes mentions the "great tomb of Aegaeon", seen by the Argonauts when "they were passing within sight of the mouth of the Rhyndacus ... a short distance beyond Phrygia". The scholiast on Apollonius, says that the tomb marked the spot where Aegaeon's defeat occurred.

As in the lost ''Titanomachy'', for the Latin poets Virgil and Ovid, Briareus was also an enemy of the gods, rather than an ally. In his ''Aeneid'', Virgil has Aegaeon make war against the gods, "with fifty sounding shields and fifty swords". Ovid, in his poem '' Fasti'', has Briareus on the side of the Titans. As Ovid tells us, after the Titans had been overthrown, apparently in order to restore the Titans to power, Briareus sacrificed a bull, about which it had been prophesied that whoever burned its entrails would be able to conquer the gods. However just when Briareus was about to burn the entrails, birds snatched them away, and were rewarded with a home among the stars.

Association with the sea

In the lost epic ''Titanomachy'', Aegaeon was the son of Pontus (Sea), and lived in the sea. Briareus/Aegaeon's association with the sea can perhaps already be seen in Hesiod and Homer. In the ''Theogony'', Briareus ends up living, apart from his brothers, with Cymopolea the (sea-nymph?) daughter of Poseidon the god of the sea, where it might be supposed the couple dwells, while in the ''Iliad'' one might also suppose that Briareus dwells in the sea, since it was the sea goddess Thetis that fetched him to Olympus. Apparently, this was made explicit by the fifth-century BC poet Ion of Chios, who referring to the Homeric story of the Olympians' revolt against Zeus, said that Aegaeon was the son of Thalassa (Sea) and that Thetis "summoned him from the Ocean". A connection to the sea can also be seen in the name Aegaeon (''Αἰγαίων᾽'') itself. The root ''αἰγ-'' is found in words associated with the sea: ''αἰγιαλός'' 'shore', ''αἰγες'' and ''αἰγάδες'' 'waves'. while Poseidon himself was sometimes called Aegaeon.

Later writers also make Briareus/Aegaeon's association with the sea explicit. According to Aelian, Aristotle said that the Pillars of Heracles (i.e. the Strait of Gibraltar) had been previously named the Pillars of Briareus. Ovid, in his ''Metamorphoses'', describes Aegaeon as a "dark-hued" sea god "whose strong arms can overpower huge whales", while according to Arrian apparently, the Aegean Sea was said to have been named after Aegaeon. As reported by Pliny, according to the Euboean Archemachus, the first man to sail in a "long ship” was Aegaeon.

Oeolyca

According to the sixth-century BC lyric poet Ibycus, the belt that Heracles was sent to fetch in his ninth labour (usually said to have belonged to Hippolyta), belonged to Oeolyca, the daughter of Briareus.

Euboea

Briareus/Aegaeon had a particular connection with the Greek island of Euboea. According to the third-century Latin grammarian Solinus, Briareus was worshipped at Carystus, and Aegaeon at Chalcis. Aegaeon was said to be the name of a ruler of Carystus, which had also been named Aigaie (''Αίγαίη'') after him, while Briareus was said to be the father of Euboea, after whom the island took its name. Aegeaon was perhaps associated with the place name Aegae mentioned by Homer (''Il.'' 13.21, ''Od.'' 5.381) as Poseidon's home, and located by Strabo (8.7.4, 9.2.13) in Euboea north of Chalcis, as a place where Poseidon had a temple.

Poseidon

Briareus/Aegaeon seems also closely connected with Poseidon. The name Aegaeon has associations with Poseidon. As noted above, Homer locates Poseidon's palace in Aegae. Poseidon was sometimes himself called Aegaeon, or Aegaeus (''Αἰγαῖος''), and Aegaeon could mean 'son of Aegaeus'.

Homer says that Briareus/Aegaeon "is mightier than his father", but who Homer is referring to as the father is unclear. It has been sometimes supposed that contrary to Hesiod, who makes Uranus the father of Briareus, Cottus and Gyges, the father being referred to here is Poseidon, although this interpretation of Homer is uncertain at best.

In the ''Theogony'' Briareus becomes the son-in-law of Poseidon, while Poseidon, whether regarded as the father of Briareus/Aegaeon, or not, is a central figure in the story told about the Hundred-Hander in the ‘’Iliad’’. Both are sea-gods with a special connection to Euboea. As noted above Poseidon was sometimes called Aegaeon, and it is possible that Aegaeon was an older cult-title for Poseidon, however according to Lewis Richard Farnell, it is more likely that Poseidon inherited the title of an "older Euboean sea-giant".

As mentioned above, the scholiast on Apollonius of Rhodes, tells us that according to Cinaethon, Aegeaon was defeated by Poseidon. Possibly then, Briareus/Aegaeon was an older (pre-Greek?) sea-god eventually displaced by Poseidon.

According to a Corinthian legend, Briareus was the arbitrator in a dispute between Poseidon and Helios (Sun) over some land, deciding that the Isthmus of Corinth belonged to Poseidon and the acropolis of Corinth ( Acrocorinth) to Helios.

Buried under Etna, inventor of armour

The third-century BC poet Callimachus, apparently confusing Briareus as one of the Giants, says he was buried under Mount Etna in Sicily, making his shift from one shoulder to the other, the cause of earthquakes. Like Callimachus, Philostratus also makes Aegaeon the cause of earthquakes. According to an Oxyrhynchus papyrus, “the first to use metal armour was Briareos, whilst previously men protected their bodies with animal skins.” These stories are perhaps connected to a myth which may have made Briareus, like the Olympian god Hephaestus, a subterranean smith, who used the fires of Mount Etna as a forge for metalworking.

Possible origins

Briareus and Aegean, were perhaps originally, separate entities. Briareus/Aegaeon may have once been a many-armed sea monster, personifying the uncontrolled power of the sea itself. As noted above, Briareus/Aegaeon may have been an older god of the sea, replaced by Poseidon. He was perhaps a Greek reflection of Near-Eastern traditions in which the Sea challenged the storm-god, such as in the Ugaritic tradition of the battle between Yammu (Sea) and the storm-god Baal.

Principal sources

The ''Theogony''

According to the ''Theogony'' of Hesiod, Uranus (Sky) mated with Gaia (Earth) and produced eighteen children. First came the twelve Titans, next the three one-eyed Cyclopes, and finally the three monstrous brothers Cottus, Briareus and Gyges. As the ''Theogony'' describes it:

Uranus hated his children, including the Hundred-Handers, and as soon as each was born, he imprisoned them underground, somewhere deep inside Gaia. As the ''Theogony'' describes it, Uranus bound the Hundred-Handers

Eventually Uranus' son, the Titan Cronus, castrated Uranus, freeing his fellow Titans (but not, apparently, the Hundred-Handers), and Cronus became the new ruler of the cosmos. Cronus married his sister Rhea, and together they produced five children, whom Cronus swallowed as each was born, but the sixth child, Zeus, was saved by Rhea and hidden away to be raised by his grandmother Gaia. When Zeus grew up, he caused Cronus to disgorge his children, and a great war was begun, the Titanomachy, between Zeus and his siblings, and Cronus and the Titans, for control of the cosmos.

Gaia had foretold that Zeus would be victorious with the help of the Hundred-Handers, so Zeus released the Hundred-Handers from their bondage under the earth, and brought them up again into the light. Zeus restored their strength by feeding them nectar and ambrosia, and then asked the Hundred-Handers to "manifest your great strength and your untouchable hands" and join in the war against the Titans.

And Cottus, speaking for the Hundred-Handers, agreed saying:

And so the Hundred-Handers "took up their positions against the Titans ... holding enormous boulders in their massive hands", and a final great battle was fought. Striding forth from Olympus, Zeus unleashed the full fury of his thunderbolt, stunning and blinding the Titans, while the Hundred-handers pelted them with enormous boulders:

Thus the Titans were finally defeated and cast into Tartarus, where they were imprisoned.

As to the fate of the Hundred-Handers, the ''Theogony'' first tells us that they returned to Tartarus, to live nearby the "bronze gates" of the Titans' prison, where presumably, they took up the job of the Titans' warders. However, later in the poem, we are told that Cottus and Gyges "live in mansions upon the foundations of Ocean", while Briareus, "since he was good" became the son-in-law of Poseidon, who gave him " Cymopoliea his daughter to wed".

The ''Iliad''

In a story that survives nowhere else, the ''Iliad'' briefly mentions Briareus (where it is said he was also called Aegaeon), referring to his having been summoned to Zeus' defense when "the other Olympians wished to put eusin bonds, even Hera and Poseidon and Pallas Athene." Achilles, while asking his mother the sea goddess Thetis to intercede with Zeus on his behalf, reminds her of a frequent boast of hers, that, at a time when the other Olympians wished to bind Zeus, she saved him by fetching the hundred-handed Briareus to Olympus:

Who Homer means here as the father of Briareus/Aegaeon is unclear.

The ''Titanomachy''

The lost epic poem the ''Titanomachy'', based on its title, must have told the story of the war between the Olympians and the Titans. Although probably written after Hesiod's ''Theogony'', it perhaps reflected an older version of the story. Only references to it by ancient sources survive, often attributing the poem to Eumelus a semi-legendary poet from Corinth. One mentions Aegaeon, the name identified with the Hundred-Hander Briareus in the ''Iliad''. According to a scholion on Apollonius of Rhodes' ''Argonautica'':

Thus the ''Titanomachy'' apparently followed a different tradition than the more familiar account in the ''Theogony''. Here Briareus/Aegaeon was the son of Earth (Gaia) and Sea ( Pontus) rather than Earth and Sky (Uranus), and he fought against the Olympians, rather than for them.

Ion of Chios

According to the same scholion on Apollonius of Rhodes mentioned above, the fifth-century BC poet Ion of Chios said that Aegaeon (who Thetis summoned in the ''Iliad'' to aid Zeus), lived in the sea and was the son of Thalassa.

Virgil

The first-century BC Latin poet Virgil, in his ''Aeneid'', may have drawn on the same version of the story as that given in the lost ''Titanomachy''. Virgil locates Briareus, as in Hesiod, in the underworld, where the Hundred-Hander dwells among "strange prodigies of bestial kind", which include the Centaurs, Scylla, the Lernaean Hydra, the Chimaera, the Gorgons, the Harpies, and Geryon

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