Who Are the The Hundred-Handers (Cottus, Briareus, Gyges) (Hecatoncheires)?
Three brothers with a hundred arms each
The Hundred-Handers
The Hundred-Handers are three brothers in Greek mythology born of Gaia and Ouranos: Cottus, Briareus, and Gyes (also called Gyges). They are giants of immeasurable strength, each with a hundred arms and fifty heads growing from his shoulders.
Their father Ouranos, jealous of their strength and size, bound them in chains and imprisoned them beneath the earth. On Gaia's advice, Zeus brought the three brothers back to the surface and revived them with nectar and ambrosia, the food of the gods. Cottus then swore, on behalf of his brothers, to repay the favor. In the final battle of the Titanomachy, the three hurled three hundred rocks one after another, driving the Titans down beneath the earth.
In later times they came to be called the Hecatoncheires ("hundred-handed ones"). In the Theogony, after the war they live in Tartarus and stand guard over the Titans.
Episodes featuring this character3
NEWEpisode 2
Mother Forged a Blade. Who Will Take It?Cronus and Uranus
Ouranos, the starry Sky, has shoved his children deep inside the Earth. Their mother Gaia, groaning under the weight, forges a great gray sickle of adamant from her own body and asks which of them will take it up. The older brothers and sisters stay silent. Only the youngest and slightest of them, Cronus, steps forward.
19 pages
NEWEpisode 8
They Were Forgotten. They Never Forgot.Zeus and the Hundred-Handers (Hecatoncheires)
On a misty mountain, the shepherd Hesiod hears a song from the goddesses of song. Ten years into the war against Cronus, the father who swallowed his own children, the fighting still hasn't ended. Then Zeus hears the voice of Gaia, Mother Earth. He goes down to the depths of the earth and, with his own hands, brings three forgotten hundred-armed brothers back into the light. Cottus swears that now it's their turn to protect him, and Zeus raises his thunderbolt for the first time. But across the divide, in the darkness, a golden eye opens.
20 pages
NEWEpisode 9
The Day Zeus Stopped Holding BackTitanomachy
Cronus feared his children would take his throne. Zeus, the youngest, was the only one who escaped him, and he has fought his father for ten years. This is the war's last day. Zeus finally stops holding back and hurls lightning hot enough to set the world on fire. The three Hundred-Handers bury the sky under three hundred boulders. Together they drive the old gods down into Tartarus, which lies as far below the earth as heaven lies above it.
19 pages