Chapter VIII: The Giants Otus and Ephialtes

There was once a woman who had so great a love for the sea that she was never tired of looking at it. One day, as she was sitting on the shore, the god Poseidon came driving over the waves in his chariot, for the sea was subject to him. When he saw the beautiful woman who was gazing at it so tenderly, a great love for her sprang up in his heart, and he took her to be his wife. Sometime afterwards she had two children, called Otus and Ephialtes, and by the time they were a year old they were two yards in height and a yard in width. Every year the children grew two yards in height and a yard in width, so that when they were nine years old they were so big and strong that they could tear up the largest oak trees and break them in two across their knees. But they were ignorant and foolish, and instead of honouring the gods, they made a silly plan to get up to Mount Olympus, where the gods lived, and overturn everything that they had arranged. They settled that Hera, the queen of the gods, should be the wife of Otus, and that Artemis, the goddess of the woods, should be the wife of Ephialtes, and that the other gods should be loaded with chains and imprisoned in dark caves; and they said they would change everything on the earth, {28} and throw all the mountains into the sea till it was choked up, and then make rivers flow where there had been land before.

The gods could hear this foolish talk, for the giants' voices were as loud as the most tremendous gale, and Ares, the god of war, armed himself and went out to fight them. But the giants were stronger than he, and they fastened him to the ground with two iron rings round his body, attached to chains which they held in their hands and pulled whenever he tried to get up, so that he could not move without great pain. They gave him nothing to eat or drink, and at mid-day the sun beat down upon his face and scorched him with its heat. None of the gods dared to try and free Ares by force, so Zeus commanded Hermes, the Messenger, to get him away by stealth. Hermes was the most cunning of all the gods, and at night, when the giants were asleep, he went and drew Ares out of the iron rings so cautiously that they made no noise, and the giants did not awake. The two gods then ran away, and the next morning the giants saw that their rings were empty, which made them very angry.

They went on for some time in their old way, boasting of all the wonderful things they were going to do, till one day the goddess Artemis changed herself into a little white doe. The giants were lying in the forest side by side, with their great hunting spears in their hands, when the little doe came running out of the wood and passed right between them. They both raised their spears at the same moment and threw them at her, but she was so swift that they did not hit her,--instead of that each giant was stabbed by his brother's spear, and they both bled to death.

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