The New Student's Reference Work/Titans, The

Titans, The, in Greek story, were the sons of Uranus (Heaven) and Gsea (Earth). Urged by their mother, the Titans, headed by Kronos, rose against their father, dethroned him, and set free from Tartarus their brothers the Hekatoncheires (hundred-handed) and the Cyclopes. Kronos made himself king, and for fear he should be dethroned by one of his children as it was foretold he would be, he swallowed each as soon as it was born. The only son to escape was Zeus, who was saved by his mother causing Kronos to swallow a stone wrapped in a cloth, believing it to be his child. Zeus at the end of a ten years’ war conquered the Titans and hurled them into a dungeon below Tartarus, surrounded by a brazen wall and guarded by the hundred-handed.