He went down into the deep parts of the Earth where the giants Cottus,
Briareus, and Gyes had been hidden by their father. Cronos had bound
them, weighing them down with chains. But now Zeus loosed them and the
hundred-armed giants in their gratitude gave him the lightning and
showed him how to use the thunderbolt.
Zeus would have the giants fight against the Titan gods. But although
they had mighty strength Cottus, Briareus, and Gyes had no fire of
courage in their hearts. Zeus thought of a way to give them this
courage; he brought the food and drink of the gods to them, ambrosia
and nectar, and when they had eaten and drunk their spirits grew within
the giants, and they were ready to make war upon the Titan gods.
"Sons of Earth and Heaven," said Zeus to the hundred-armed giants, "a
long time now have the Dwellers on Olympus been striving with the Titan
gods. Do you lend your unconquerable might to the gods and help them to
overthrow the Titans."
Cottus, the eldest of the giants, answered, "Divine One, through your
devising we are come back again from the murky gloom of the mid Earth
and we have escaped from the hard bonds that Cronos laid upon us. Our
minds are fixed to aid you in the war against the Titan gods."
So the hundred-armed giants said, and thereupon Zeus went and he
gathered around him all who were born of Cronos and Rhea. Cronos
himself hid from Zeus. Then the giants, with their fifty heads growing
from their shoulders and their hundred hands, went forth against the
Titan gods. The boundless sea rang terribly and the earth crashed
loudly; wide Heaven was shaken and groaned, and high Olympus reeled
from its foundation. Holding huge rocks in their hands the giants
attacked the Titan gods.
Then Zeus entered the war. He hurled the lightning; the bolts flew
thick and fast from his strong hand, with thunder and lightning and
flame. The earth crashed around in burning, the forests crackled with
fire, the ocean seethed. And hot flames wrapped the earth-born Titans
all around. Three hundred rocks, one upon another, did Cottus,
Briareus, and Gyes hurl upon the Titans. And when their ranks were
broken the giants seized upon them and held them for Zeus.
But some of the Titan gods, seeing that the strife for them was vain,
went over to the side of Zeus. These Zeus became friendly with. But the
other Titans he bound in chains and he hurled them down to Tartarus.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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