The Titans

The Titans were six sons of Ouranos. All of them, except Okeanos, participated in the overthrow and castration of Ouranos. According to some, Okeanos or Ophion assumed the throne and ruled briefly before being cast back into his earth-encircling stream by Kronos.

The Golden Age of mankind lived during the rule of Kronos and the Titans. This race of man was created by Prometheus and lived in peace and harmony, blessed with the fruits of the earth which grew freely in a garden of Eden-like paradise.

The Titans were jealous of their privileges and refused to devolve any power to the younger generations of gods. Zeus led these in rebellion and after a violent ten year war the Titans were overthrown and cast into Tartaros. Okeanos and the Titanides who had remained neutral in the war remained free.

Many human generations later, at the end of the Age of Heroes, the Titans were released from their prison by Zeus. He made Kronos king of the Elysian Islands to rule over the shades of the Heroes. The rest of the Titans presumably also settled there.

Many of the sons of the Titans were also called Titanes - such as Atlas, Prometheus, Epimetheus, Helios, Astraios, Perses and Pallas. Some of these sided with their fathers in the war, but others like Helios and Prometheus became allies of Zeus.

Titans, the six sons of Ouranos

Okeanos: Okeanos was the great river that flowed in a circle around the earth and the source of all fresh water - rivers, rain and wells. He was one of the Titans but, unlike his siblings, he was also a cosmological god - as both the massive river Okeanos and its anthropomorphic manifestation. Like his sons, the River gods, he was depicted as a horned god with the tail of a serpentine fish.

Koios: Koios was the Titan of the questioning intellect and the husband of Phoibe, goddess of the answering intellect. Presumably these two complemented each other and acted as the primal font of all knowledge. Their grandchildren, Apollo(n) god of knowledge and Hekate goddess of witchcraft, inherited their supreme intellect At the end of the Titan War, he was cast into Tartaros with the rest of his brothers. Zeus later released them from this prison and made Kronos King of Elysium. Presumably the other Titans settled there as well.

Krios: Krios was the Titan god of lordship and mastery who attained power over sky, sea, earth and underworld. His grand-daughter, Hekate, inherited powers over all of these as her birth-right.

Hyperion: Hyperion was the Titan god of watching and observation, the husband of Theia goddess of sight.

Iapetos: Iapetos was probably the Titan god of spoken voice and thought. His name derives from 'ia' (meaning voice) and 'petos' (winged) - a common poetic epithet for words and thoughts. He was the husband of Klymene, the goddess of fame and infamy (things spread by voice) and the father of the four types of voice - Atlas the daring voice, Menoitios the angry voice, Prometheus the forethought and Epimetheus the afterthought. Iapetos appears to have been Kronos' general in the Titan War.

Kronos: Kronos was youngest of the Titans and the god of time as it affects the course of human life (as opposed to Khronos the ancient god of the ages). He was the king of the gods before Zeus. He castrated and overthrew his own father Ouranos and ruled the world during the golden age of mankind.

In fear of a prophecy that he would be overthrown by his son, he swallowed each of his children as they were born. Rhea saved the youngest, Zeus, hiding him away in Crete and fed Kronos a stone in his place. Zeus grew up and led the gods in a ten year war against Kronos and the Titanes casting them into the pit of Tartaros.