Titans

Any of the children of Ouranos (the Heavens) and Gaia (Earth).

Ouranos saw the outrageous behavior of his children and gave them the name Titans. The name can be translated as Strainers or Stretchers and essentially means that Ouranos thought that they would eventually pay a heavy price for their indulgences because they Strained and Stretched the bounds of propriety and abused their seemingly limitless powers.

The Titans ruled heaven and earth one generation before Zeus and the other Olympians assumed control of all mortal and Immortal affairs.

The war between the Olympians and the Titans was the decisive event which separated the old gods from the new Olympian hierarchy; the war lasted for ten years before Zeus unleashed all his fury and, with the help of other faithful Immortals, drove the Titans into Tartaros (Tartarus).

The Titans listed in Theogony include:

1. Arges;
2. Briareos;
3. Brontes;
4. Gyes;
5. Hyperion;
6. Iapetos;
7. Koios (Coeus);
8. Kottos (Cottos);
9. Krios (Crios);
10. Kronos (Cronos);
11. Mnemosyne;
12. Okeanos (Ocean);
13. Phoibe (Phoebe);
14. Rheia (Rhea);
15. Steropes;
16. Tethys;
17. Theia; and
18. Themis.

Theogony, lines 208 and 716