BRIAREUS or AEGAEON, in Greek mythology, one of the three hundred-armed, fifty-headed Hecatoncheires (Gr. karov, hundred, xeipes, hands, arms), the sons of Ouranos and Gaia (Heaven and Earth). According to one legend, Briareus and his brothers were called by Zeus to his assistance, when Olympus was attacked by the Titans. The latter were defeated and thrown into Tartarus, the three brothers being set to guard them. Other accounts make Briareus an opponent of Zeus and one of the assailants of Olympus, who, after his defeat, was buried under Mount Aetna. Another tradition makes him a giant of the sea, an enemy of Poseidon and the inventor of warships. The Hecatoncheires may represent the gigantic forces of nature which appear in earthquakes and other convulsions, or the multitudinous motion of the sea waves, while Roscher sees in them a reference to the polypus, which often attained a great size.