Titanes

Titanes in Greek mythology, were the children of Urtanus and Gaia. There were twenty-two of them namely, Oceanus, Ostasus, Adamus, Ophion, Anytus, Coeus, Andes, Hyperion, Crius, Olymbrus, Japetus, _Egaon, and Kronus (Saturn); Tethys, Rhea, Themis, Mnemosyne, Phoebe, Dione, Thia, Thrace, Euryphaessa. They represented the powers of nature as anciently and still engaged in wild combat. Uranus had thrown his first sons, the Hecatonchires (the fifty-armed), Briareus, Cottus, and Gyas (also Gyges), and the Cyclops Arges, Steropes, and Brontes, into Tartarus. Gaia became angry on this account, and incited the Titans to rebel against their father, and for this purpose gave to Kronus a hook, with which he emasculated him (Uranus). All save Oceanus participated in the rebellion. — Uranus was dethroned, those pining in Tartarus liberated, and Kronus acknowledged as ruler, who, however, subjected again those who had been liberated to the tortures of Tartarus, with the Hecatonchires as their guards. Titanes was also the name of the divine beings descended from the Titanes, sometimes called Titanides, as Prometheus, Hecate, Latona, Pyrrha, Helios, and Selene. The name Titan has become very common to designate the god of the sun. A peculiar saying was that Bacchus was torn asunder by the Titanes. Bacchus is here represented to be the power of vegetation, which is broken by the satanic powers of the infernal region.

⇒See also the International Standard Bible Encyclopedia.