Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 3.djvu/1168

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page needs to be proofread.
loc cit.
loc cit.

1156 TITAN. manded Agesilaus to withdraw from Asia. To this the Spartan king replied that he thanked the satrap for having, by his perjury, made the gods the allies of Greece. Having then induced his wily and selfish enemy to believe that Caria was the object of his attack, and thus induced him to concentrate his forces in that direction, Agesilaus carried the war successfully into the satrapy of Pharnabazus. In the following year, B. c. 395, he declared his intention of invading the richest por- tion of the enemy's country, and Tissaphernes, imagining that, if this had been his real purpose, he would not have revealed it, and that his opera- tions therefore would now be indeed directed against Caria, again arranged his forces for the defence of that province. Agesilaus then, in accordance with what he had given out, marched into the country about Sardis, ravaged it for three days, and defeated a body of cavalry Avhich Tissaphernes had sent against him. Grievous complaints of selfish neglect and treachery were now made against the satrap by those who had suffered from the Lacedaemonian invasion; and the charges were transmitted to court, wheie they were backed by all the influence of Parysatis, eager for revenge on the enemy of Cj^- rus, her favourite son. The result was that Ti- thraustes was commissioned by the king to put Tissaphernes to death and to succeed him in his government. The disgraced satrap accordingly was surprised and slain in his bath by a minister of execution, and his head was sent to Artaxerxes. (Thucyd. viii. ; Xen. Hell. i. 1, 2, 5, iii..l,2, 4, Anab. passim, Ages.'i. ; Pint. Ale, Art, Ages.; Diod. U. cc. xiv. 23, 26, 27, 80 ; Ath. xi. p. 505, a) [E. E.] TITAN (TtTcJi/). 1. This name commonly ap- pears in the plural Tiraves, from Ttrai/i'Ses, as the name of the sons and daughters of Uranus and Ge, whence they are also called Oupaviwves or Ovpavi- Sat. (Hom. //. V. 898 ; Apollon. Rhod. ii. 1232.) These Titans are Oceanus, Coeus, Crius, Hyperion, lapetus, Cronus, Theia, Rheia, Themis, Mnemosyne, Phoebe, and Tethys, to whom Apollodorus (i. 1. § 3) adds Dione. '(Hes. Tlieog. 133, &c.) Some writers also add Phorcys and Demeter. (Heyne, ac? Apollod. i. 1. § 1 ; Clemens, Homil. vi. 2.) Stepha- nus of Byzantium (s. v. "ASava) has the following as the names of the children of Uranus and Ge : Adanus, Ostasus, Andes, Cronus, Rhea, lapetus, Olymbrus ; and Pausanias (viii. 37. § 3) mentions a Titan Anytus, who was believed to have brought up the Arcadian Despoena. Uranus, the first ruler of the world, threw his sons, the Hecatoncheires, Briareus, Cottys, Gyes (Hes. Theog. 617), and the Cyclopes, Arges, Steropes, and Brontes, into Tar- tarus. Gaea, indignant at this, persuaded the Titans to rise against their father, and gave to Cronus an adamantine sickle (apirrj). They did as their mother bade them, with the exception of Oceanus. Cronus, with his sickle, unmanned his father, and threw tlie part into the sea, and out of the drops of his blood there arose the Erinnyes, Alecto, Tisiphone, and Megaera. The Titans then deposed Uranus, liberated their brothers who had been cast into Tartarus, and raised Cronus to the throne. But he again threw the Cyclopes into Tar- tarus, and married bis sister Rhea (Ovid, Met. ix. 497, calls her Ops). As, however, he had been foretold by Gaea and Uranus, that he should be dethroned by one of his own children, he, after their birth, swallowed successively his children TITHONUS. Hestia, Demeter, Hera, Pluto and Poseidon. Rhea therefore, when she was pregnant with Zeus, went to Crete, gave birth to the child in the Dictaean Cave, and entrusted him to be brought up to the Curetes, and the daughters of Melissus, the nymphs Adrasteia and Ida. The armed Curetes guarded the infant in the cave, and struck their shields with their spears, that Cronus might not hear the voice of the child. Rhea, moreover, deceived Cronus by giving him a stone wrapped up in cloth, which he swallowed, believing it to be his newly-born son. (Apollod. i. §§ 1—5 ; Ov. Fast. iv. 179, &c.) When Zeus had grown up he availed himself of the assistance of Thetis, the daughter of Oceanus who gave to Cronus a potion which caused him to bring up the stone and the children he had swal- lowed. United with his brothers and sisters, Zeus now began the contest .against Cronus and the ruling Titans. This contest (usually called the Ti- tanomachia), which was carried on in Thessaly, the Titans occupying Mount Othrys, and the sons of Cronus Mount Olympus, lasted for ten years, when at length Gaea promised victory to Zeus, if he would deliver the Cyclopes and Hecaton- cheires from Tartarus, Zeus accordingly slew Canipe, who guarded the Cyclopes, and the latter furnished him with thunder and lightning, Pluto eave him a helmet, and Poseidon a trident. The Titans then were overcome, and hurled down inio a cavity below Tartanis (Hom. II. xiv. 279 ; Hes. T/ieog.' 697, 851; Hom. Hj/nm. in Apoll. 335; Paus. viii, 37. § 3), and the Hecatoncheires were set to guard them. (Hom, //, viii. 479 ; Hes. Tlieog. 617, &c, ; Apollod, i, 2. § 1,) It must be observed that the fight of the Titans is sometimes confounded by ancient writers with the fight of the Gigantes. 2. The name Titans is also given to those divine or semi-divine beings who were descended from the Titans, such as Prometheus, Hecate (Hes. Theog. 424; Serv. ad Am. iv. 511), Latona {Ov. Met. vi. 346), Pyrrha (i. 395), and especially Helios and Selene (Mene), as the children of Hyperion and Theia, and even the descendants of Helios, such as Circe. (Serv. ad Ae7i. iv. 1 1 9, vi. 725 ; Schol. ap Apollon. Rhod. iv. 54 ; Ov, Fast. i. 617, iv. 943, Met. iii. 173, xiv. 382 ; Tibull. iv. 1, 50.) 3. The name Titans, lastly, is given to certain tribes of men from whom all mankind is descended. Thus the ancient city of Cnosos in Crete is said to have originally been inhabited by Titans, who J were hostile to Zeus, but were driven away by ■ Pan with the fearful sounds of his shell-trumpet. ■ (Horn. Hymn, in Apoll. 336 ; Diod. iii. 57, v. QQ ; Orph, Hymn. 36 2; comp. Hock, Greta, p. 171, &c, ; Lobeck, Aglaoph. p, 763 ; Volcker, Mi^thol. des lapet. Geschl. p. 280, &c,) [L. S.] TITARE'SIUS (Ttrap^o-ios), a surname of Mopsus, derived, according to some, from the river Titaresius in Thessaly, near which he was born (Hom, II. ii. 751), but according to others, from his grandfather Titaron. (Apollon, Rhod. i, 65 with the Schol.) [L. S.] TITHO'NUS {TidwvSs), a son of Laomedon, and brother of Priam (Hom. II. xx. 237), or accord- ing to others (Serv, ad Virg. Georg. i. 447, iii. 48), a brother of Laoraedon. Others, again, call him a son of Cephalusand Eos. (Apollod. iii. 14. § 3.) By the prayers of Eos who loved him he obtained from the immortal gods immortality, but not eternal youth, in consequence of which he completely shrunk together