TITANS (Lat., from Gk. Terctv, Titan, and Ttravls, Titanis. connected with Lat. titio, fire brand, and perhaps with Lith. titnagas, flint, Skt. titha, fire. glow). The offspring in Greek myth ology of Uranus(heaven)and Glpa (earth). Their names as given by Hesiod were: Oceanus, Cceus, Crius, Ityperion, Iapetus, Cronos, Theia, Rhea, Themis, Pheebe, and Tethys; Dione, Phorcys, and Demeter are added by some writers. As Uranus imprisoned in the earth the Cyclopes and Hekatoncheires (hundred-headed monsters), Otra in anger instigated the Titans to revenge. Cronos alone ventured to act. He surprised and mutilated his father and reigned in his stead. As Uranus had called down a like fate on the Titans, Cronos swallowed his children by Rhea as soon as they were born. Only Zeus es caped, his mother giving Cronos a stone wrapped in swaddling clothes. On growing up, Zeus forced Cronos to disgorge his offspring. and then
began a war, in which he was aided by Thcmis, Mnemosyne, Sty; Prometheus, the Cyclopes and Hekatoneheires, as well as his own brothers and sisters. Iapetus and Cronos are the representa tive Titans. After a long struggle the con quered Titans were east into Tartarus and guarded by the Hekatoncheires. In the Prome theus Unbound, i-Eschylus represented the Titans as released and reconciled to Zeus, now firmly established as King of Heaven. The name Titan is also given to the descendants of the Ti tans, such as Prometheus, Hecate, Helios, Selene, etc. The whole story seems the result of an endeavor to ac count for the obvious signs of natural convulsions so frequent in Greek lands. It is certainly not a tradition of the supplanting of an old Cronos religion by a new Zeus religion.