ght. Nyx again, on her side was also doubly united, having been
married at some indefinite period to Erebus.

In addition to those children of heaven and earth already enumerated,
Uranus and Gaea produced two distinctly different races of beings called
Giants and Titans. The Giants personified brute strength alone, but the
Titans united to their great physical power intellectual qualifications
variously developed. There were three Giants, Briareus, Cottus, and Gyges,
who each possessed a hundred hands and fifty heads, and were known
collectively by the name of the Hecatoncheires, which signified
hundred-handed. These mighty Giants could shake the universe and produce
earthquakes; it is therefore evident that they represented those active
subterranean forces to which allusion has been made in the opening chapter.
The Titans were twelve in number; their names were: Oceanus, Ceos, Crios,
Hyperion, Iapetus, Cronus, Theia, Rhea, Themis, Mnemosyne, Phoebe, and
Tethys.

Now Uranus, the chaste light of heaven, the essence of all that is bright
and pleasing, held in abhorrence his {14} crude, rough, and turbulent
offspring, the Giants, and moreover feared that their great power might
eventually prove hurtful to himself. He therefore hurled them into
Tartarus, that portion of the lower world which served as the subterranean
dungeon of the gods. In order to avenge the oppression of her children, the
Giants, Gaea instigated a conspiracy on the part of the Titans against
Uranus, which was carried to a successful issue by her son Cronus. He
wounded his father, and from the blood of the wound which fell upon the
earth sprang a race of monstrous beings also called Giants. Assisted by his
brother-Titans, Cronus succeeded in dethroning his father, who, enraged at
his defeat, cursed his rebellious son, and foretold to him a similar fate.
Cronus now became invested with supreme power, and assigned to his brothers
offices of distinction, subordinate only to himself. Subsequently, however,
when, secure of his position, he no longer needed their assistance, he
basely repaid their former services with treachery, made war upon his
brothers and faithful allies, and, assisted by the Giants, completely
defeated them, sending such as resisted his all-conquering arm down into
the lowest depths of Tartarus.

* * * * *

SECOND DYNASTY.

CRONUS (SATURN).

Cronus was the god of time in its sense of eternal duration.