Titans (Mythology)

In Greek mythology, the Titans (Ancient Greek: Τιτᾶνες Tītânes; singular: Titán) were the pre-Olympian gods. According to the Theogony of Hesiod, they were the twelve children of the primordial parents Uranus (Sky) and Gaia (Earth). The six male Titans were Oceanus, Coeus, Crius, Hyperion, Iapetus, and Cronus; the six female Titans—called the Titanides (Τιτανίδες) or Titanesses—were Theia, Rhea, Themis, Mnemosyne, Phoebe, and Tethys. After Cronus mated with his older sister Rhea, she bore the first generation of Olympians; the six siblings Zeus, Hades, Poseidon, Hestia, Demeter, and Hera. Certain descendants of the Titans, such as Prometheus, Atlas, Helios, and Leto, are sometimes also called Titans. The Titans were the former gods: the generation of gods preceding the Olympians. They were overthrown as part of the Greek succession myth, which tells how Cronus seized power from his father Uranus and ruled the cosmos with his fellow Titans before being in turn defeated and replaced as the ruling pantheon of gods by Zeus and the Olympians in a ten-year war called the Titanomachy ('battle of the Titans'). As a result of this war, the vanquished Titans were banished from the upper world and held imprisoned under guard in Tartarus. Some Titans were apparently allowed to remain free.