In Greek mythology, the Titans (Greek: Τιτάν Titán; plural: Τiτᾶνες Titânes) and Titanesses (or Titanides; Greek: Τιτανίς Titanís; plural: Τιτανίδες Titanídes) were members of the second generation of divine beings, descending from the primordial deities and preceding the Olympian deities. Based on Mount Othrys, the Titans most famously included the first twelve children of the primordial Gaia (Mother Earth) and Uranus (Father Sky). They were giant deities of incredible strength, who ruled during the legendary Golden Age, and also comprised the first pantheon of Greek deities.
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The first twelve Titans comprised the females Mnemosyne, Tethys, Theia, Phoebe, Rhea, and Themis and the males Oceanus, Hyperion, Coeus, Cronus, Crius, and Iapetus.
A second set of Titans consisted of Hyperion's children Helios, Selene, and Eos; Coeus' children Lelantos, Leto, and Asteria; Iapetus' sons Atlas, Prometheus, Epimetheus, and Menoetius; Oceanus' daughter Metis; and Crius' sons Astraeus, Pallas, and Perses.
Like Cronus overthrowing his father Uranus, the Titans were overthrown by Cronus' children (Zeus, Hades, Poseidon, Hestia, Hera and Demeter), in the Titanomachy (or "War of the Titans"). The Greeks may have borrowed this mytheme from the Ancient Near East.
Titanomachy
Greeks of the classical age knew of several poems about the war between the Olympians and Titans. The dominant one, and the only one that has survived, was in the Theogony attributed to Hesiod. A lost epic, Titanomachia (attributed to the legendary blind Thracian bard Thamyris) was mentioned in passing in an essay On Music that was once attributed to Plutarch. The Titans also played a prominent role in the poems attributed to Orpheus. Although only scraps of the Orphic narratives survive, they show interesting differences with the Hesiodic tradition.
The classical Greek myths of the Titanomachy fall into a class of similar myths throughout Europe and the Near East concerning a war in heaven, where one generation or group of gods largely opposes the dominant one. Sometimes the elders are supplanted, and sometimes the rebels lose and are either cast out of power entirely or incorporated into the pantheon. Other examples might include the wars of the Æsir with the Vanir in Scandinavian mythology, the Babylonian epic Enuma Elish, the Hittite "Kingship in Heaven" narrative, the obscure generational conflict in Ugaritic fragments, Virabhadra's conquest of the early Vedic Gods, and the rebellion of Lucifer in Christianity. The Titanomachy lasted for ten years. The Titans were imprisoned in Tartarus after the war had ended. Tartarus is the deepest spot known in the Underworld, where the most evil beings would be cast into to be tortured for all eternity.
Modern interpretations
Some 19th- and 20th-century scholars, including Jane Ellen Harrison, have argued that an initiatory or shamanic ritual underlies the myth of the dismemberment and cannibalism of Dionysus by the Titans. She also asserts that the word "Titan" comes from the Greek τίτανος, signifying white "earth, clay or gypsum," and that the Titans were "white clay men", or men covered by white clay or gypsum dust in their rituals. Martin Litchfield West also asserts this in relation to shamanistic initiatory rites of early Greek religious practices.
Other scholars connect the word to the Greek verb τείνω ("teino", to stretch), through an epic variation τιταίνω ("titaino"), and τίσις ("tisis", retribution, vengeance), a view Hesiod appears to share when he narrates: "But their father, great Ouranos, called them Titans by surname, rebuking his sons, whom he had begotten himself; for he said they had strained (τιταίνοντας, "titainontas") in their wickedness to perform a mighty deed, and at some later time there would be vengeance (τίσιν, "tisin") for this." Beekes connects the word with τιτώ (an obscure word for "day").