Titans
in Greek mythology, were six sons and six daughters of Uranos and Gaia, named Okeanos, Koios, Kreios, Hyperion, Iapetos, and Kronos; Theia, Rhea, Themis, Mnēmosnynē, Phoibē, and Tethys. Uranos having banished to Tartarus the Hekatoncheires ("the hundredhanded") and the Cyclopes, Gaia called the Titans to avenge their brothers. They rose and freed them, deposed Uranos, and set Kronos in his place. Kronos and the Titans were in their turns put down by the sons of Kronos and Rhea, named the Olympioi, with Zeus at their head, but not till after a long struggle, in which Zeus brought to his aid the Cyclopes and Hekatoncheires, whom Kronos had again imprisoned in Tartarus. Zeus quelled the Titans with the lightning given him by the Cyclopes, hurled them to Tartarus, placing them under the care of the Hekatoncheires. This struggle, called the Titanomachia, was regarded as sym bolic of the conflict of reason and order with the rude forces of nature.