Plato's Lost Dialogue

Buried beneath the rubble of Mount Othrys, the Titans met their Waterloo.  After ten years of warfare the Olympians had victory; a victory made possible thanks to superior weaponry and a determined leader.  But as Zeus hauled his foe from the rubble, he had a problem: what to do with an immortal enemy.  First he found Atlas stumbling around dazed and confused, a large bump on his head after cracking a few too many rocks on his head.  Thanks to his pivotal role in the war, Atlas was given a special punishment of holding up the sky on his shoulders.  There was little chance of escape or rest (just try sitting in a squat for a minute); if he moved, everyone would know about it.  Zeus sent the rest of the Titans who fought against him to Tartarus and appointed the Hecatonchires (his hundred armed uncles who had bombarded the Titans with rocks to earn victory for the Olympians) to guard them.  You could argue that being appointed as prison guards for et...

“Clash of the Titans” and its sequel “Wrath of the Titans” have (in my humble opinion) provided the general public with a very confused and misleading view of the role of the Titans in Greek mythology.  Some might say the films do a disservice to one of the greatest wars ever conjured up; a family war which ravaged on for ten brutal years and led to seismic shifts in the world order. Readers of this blog may recall from “Keeping up with the Greek Deities” that we left it at the point at which Cronus, the leader of the Titans, was poisoned by his son, Zeus, and forced to throw up the rest of his children (I’ll let you read the blog to discover how and why they found themselves inside of Cronus in the first place) and that this sparked the war.  Before we carry on, let’s meet the key players… Fighting for the Titans on Mount Othrys we have: • Cronus – first generation Titan and ruler of the Titans.  Slightly crazy with unusual eating habits. • Coeus – brother to Cr...

If you feel like you have family problems then read on, because they will soon pale into insignificance. Let’s start at the beginning, shall we? There was chaos.  And then there was Gaia (Mother Earth) and her husband Ouranos (Father Sky); they were the Greek primordial deities.  There were other primordial deities (including Tartarus, of whom we shall hear more about later), but we don’t need to get too bogged down with them now.  By some accounts Ouranos was conceived by Gaia alone (a virgin birth), which would make Ouranos both Gaia’s husband and son (it’s a minor taboo in comparison to what’s about to come).  Together they ruled over the world, and every night Ouranos would…attend to Gaia. Gaia gave birth to twelve Titans (other than Cronus and Rhea we don’t need to know their names right now) as well as three Cyclopes (giant one-eyed creatures) and three Hecatoncheires (creatures with one hundred hands).  Quite what Cronus and Rhea were doing the nig...