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BRIAREUS, or AEGAEON

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Originally appearing in Volume V04, Page 516 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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BRIAREUS, or AEGAEON , in See also:Greek See also:mythology, one of the three See also:hundred-armed, fifty-headed Hecatoncheires, See also:brother of Cottus and See also:Gyges (or Gyes). According to See also:Homer (Iliad i. 403) he was called Aegaeon by men, and Briareus by the gods. He was the son of See also:Poseidon (or See also:Uranus) and Gaea. The legends regarding him and his See also:brothers' are various and somewhat contradictory. According to the most widely spread myth, Briareus and his brothers were called by See also:Zeus to his assistance when the See also:Titans were making See also:war upon See also:Olympus. The gigantic enemies were defeated and consigned to See also:Tartarus, at the See also:gates of which the three brothers were placed (See also:Hesiod, Theog. 624, 639, 714). Other accounts make Briareus one of the assailants of Olympus, who, after his defeat, was buried under See also:Mount Aetna (See also:Callimachus, Hymn to See also:Delos, 141). Homer mentions him as assisting Zeus when the other Olympian deities were plotting against the See also:king of gods and men (Iliad i. 398). Another tradition makes him a See also:giant of the See also:sea, ruler of the fabulous Aegaea in See also:Euboea, an enemy of Poseidon and the inventor of warships (Schol. on Apoll.

Rhod. 1165). It would be difficult to determine exactly what natural phenomena are symbolized by the Hecatoncheires. They may represent the gigantic forces of nature which appear in earthquakes and other See also:

convulsions, or the multitudinous See also:motion of the sea waves (See also:Mayer, See also:Die Giganten and Titanen, 1887).

End of Article: BRIAREUS, or AEGAEON

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