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ALOTDAE, or ALOADAE

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Originally appearing in Volume V01, Page 720 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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ALOTDAE, or ALOADAE , i.e. Otus and Ephialtes, in See also:ancient See also:Greek See also:legend, the twin-sons of See also:Poseidon by Iphimedeia, wife of Aloeus. They were celebrated for their extraordinary stature and strength. According to See also:Homer (Od. xi. 305), they made See also:war upon the Olympian gods and endeavoured to See also:pile See also:Pelion upon See also:Ossa in See also:order to See also:storm See also:heaven itself; had they reached the See also:age of manhood, their See also:attempt would have been successful, but See also:Apollo destroyed them before their beards began to grow. In the Iliad (v. 365) See also:Ares is imprisoned by them, but delivered by See also:Hermes. See also:Apollodorus says that they succeeded in piling Pelion upon Ossa. Another See also:story is that they were presumptuous enough to seek See also:Artemis and See also:Hera in See also:marriage, and that Artemis caused themto slay each other unintentionally on the See also:island of See also:Naxos, where they were afterwards worshipped as heroes. In See also:punishment for their offences they were See also:bound back to back with See also:snakes to a See also:pillar in the See also:lower See also:world (See also:Hyginus, Fab. 28). The Aloidae (here connected with aXc, threshing-See also:floor) represent the See also:spirits of the fertile See also:earth and See also:agriculture, conceived of by the Greeks as engaged in combat with the Olympian gods.

In contrast to these legends, See also:

Pausanias tells us that they were regarded as the first to See also:worship the See also:Muses on Mt. See also:Helicon, while Diodorus represents them as See also:historical personages, princes of See also:Thessaly, who defeated the Thracians in Strongyle, i.e. Naxos, where they made themselves rulers, and subsequently slew one another in a See also:quarrel.

End of Article: ALOTDAE, or ALOADAE

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