Description
Probably no legendary creature was as horrifying as the
Kraken, a giant sea monster. According to stories this huge, many armed, creature looked like an island when motionless and could reach as high as the top of a sailing ship's main mast with its arms deployed. When the
Kraken attacked a ship, it wrapped its arms around the hull and capsize it. The crew would drown or be eaten by the monster.
Kraken were mostly noticed in the seas of Scandinavia. Fishermen said that huge amounts of fishs gravitate around
Kraken and the boat that succeeds to fish around the monster without awaking it will take more than possible to carry aboard.
Origin
The
Kraken of legend is probably what we know today as
the giant squid or cephalopod. Though they are considerably less then a mile and a half across, they are large enough to wrestle with a sperm whale.
Stories
Early stories about
Kraken, from Norway in the twelfth century, refer to a creature the size of an island. Even in 1752, when the Bishop of Bergen, Erik Ludvigsen Pontoppidan, wrote his Natural History of Norway he described the
Kraken as a "floating island" one and a half miles across. He also noted: "It seems these are the creatures's arms, and, it is said, if they were to lay hold of the largest man-of-war, they would pull it down to the bottom." Later
Kraken stories bring the creature down to a smaller, but still monstrous size and assimilated it as a giant octopus. On at least three occasions in the thirties they attacked a ship. While the squids got the worst of these encounters when they slid into the ship's propellers, the fact that they attacked at all shows that it is possible for these creatures to mistake a vessel for a whale.
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| Description The Titans were called the elder gods; they were of enormous size, and beared incredible strength. Origins The Titans ruled the earth before the Olympians overthrew them. The ruler of the Titans was Cronus who was de-throned by his son Zeus. Most of the Titans fought with Cronus against Zeus and were punished by being banished to Tartarus. During their rule the Titans were associated with the various planets. |
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| Description Hecatonchires come from the Greek Hecatoncheires which means "hundred handed". They were gigantic and had fifty heads and one hundred arms each of great strength. There were three of them: Briareus also called Aegaeon, Cottus, and Gyges also called Gyes. They were of the same parents as the Titans and the Cyclopes, Uranus and Gaea (the Earth). Role They were associated with the crashing of waves and earthquakes. Story They participated in Gaia's rebellion against Uranus. When Cronus came to power he imprisoned the Cyclopes in Tartarus. Later, Zeus released both the Hecatonchires and the Cyclopes from the Underworld, where their father Uranus had imprisoned them. For this reason they fought with Zeus against the Titans. With their hundred hands and tremendous strength and dexterity, they were able to hurl three hundred stones at one time at the Titans. Being unable to overcome such a barrage, the Titans soon surrendered to Zeus. Zeus assigned the Hecatonchires to guard the Titans in Tartarus. One of them, Briareus, served as Zeus's bodygard. |
Origin
Not to be confused with
the Titans, the Giants were born together with the Furies from Gaia, the Earth and Ouranos when he was castrated.
Description
The Giants were as tall as mountains and so strong as to be unbeatable. According to Apollodorus, their shaggy hair drooped from their heads and chins, and they had dragon scales on their feet. The mightiest Giants were Porphyrion and Alkyoneus. Alkyoneus could remain immortal as long as he fought in the land of his birth, Pallene, in the region of Thrace. A bold troublemaker, Alkyoneus dared to steal some cows owned by the Sun.
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