Titan

The Titans are a race of powerful primordial deities who ruled the cosmos during the Golden Age, before being overthrown by the Olympian gods.

By Mythographia Editorial Team Reviewed by Mythographia Editorial Team Updated 2026-09-09

In Practice

They are the twelve children of Ouranos (Sky) and Gaia (Earth): Kronos, Rhea, Oceanus, Tethys, Hyperion, Theia, Coeus, Phoebe, Crius, Mnemosyne, Themis, and Iapetus. Kronos led the Titans, castrating his own father Ouranos at Gaia's urging to seize power, and ruled in his place until Zeus, his own son, led the Olympians against him in turn. The Titanomachy, the war between the Titans and the Olympians, lasted ten years according to Hesiod, with neither side able to force a decision. Zeus broke the stalemate by freeing two groups Kronos had kept imprisoned in Tartarus: the Cyclopes, who forged his thunderbolt, and the hundred-handed Hecatoncheires, whose combined strength in battle overwhelmed the Titans. Not every child of the Titans fought against Zeus - Prometheus and his brother Epimetheus, sons of the Titan Iapetus rather than Titans of the original twelve themselves, sided with the Olympians, and Prometheus is remembered afterward for a separate conflict with Zeus over fire and the treatment of humanity rather than for the Titanomachy itself. Defeat did not mean identical punishment for every Titan. Most of the male Titans who fought against Zeus were imprisoned in Tartarus behind bronze gates, guarded by the freed Hecatoncheires. Atlas received an individual sentence instead: condemned to hold up the sky on his shoulders at the western edge of the world, a permanent physical burden rather than confinement. The Titanesses, including Rhea, Themis, Mnemosyne, and Tethys, are generally not described as punished at all, and several continue to appear active in later myth and cult alongside the Olympians who defeated their brothers. Apollodorus, writing centuries after Hesiod, retells the same succession of castration, rule, and overthrow in prose rather than verse, and largely agrees with Hesiod's account of who fought on which side.

How long did the war between the Titans and the Olympians last?

Ten years, according to Hesiod, with neither side able to force a decision through most of that time. The deadlock broke only once Zeus freed the Cyclopes and the hundred-handed Hecatoncheires from Tartarus, where Kronos had kept them imprisoned, and brought their strength and weapons into the fight on the Olympian side.

Hesiod, Theogony 636-638

Were all the Titans punished after losing the Titanomachy?

No. Most of the male Titans who fought were imprisoned in Tartarus, but Atlas received an individual punishment instead, condemned to hold up the sky rather than being confined. The Titanesses - Rhea, Themis, Mnemosyne, Tethys, and others - are generally not described as punished at all, and several remain active figures in later myth and cult.

Hesiod, Theogony 517-520

Is Prometheus a Titan?

Not one of the original twelve; he is the son of the Titan Iapetus, making him a Titan's child rather than a Titan of the founding generation. He and his brother Epimetheus sided with Zeus during the Titanomachy rather than fighting for Kronos, and Prometheus's most famous conflict with Zeus, over the theft of fire, comes afterward, as a separate story from the war itself.

Hesiod, Theogony 507-511

How did Zeus turn the tide of the Titanomachy?

By freeing beings Kronos had kept locked away in Tartarus: the Cyclopes, who forged Zeus's thunderbolt as a weapon no Titan could match, and the Hecatoncheires, hundred-handed giants whose combined strength in battle, hurling boulders by the hundreds at once, overwhelmed the Titans after ten years of stalemate.

Hesiod, Theogony 617-663

What happened to Kronos after the Titanomachy?

Hesiod places him imprisoned in Tartarus with the other defeated Titans, guarded by the Hecatoncheires. Some later, softer traditions instead have Zeus release Kronos to rule the Isles of the Blessed, a peaceful afterlife reserved for the most honored dead, but this is a later development rather than the outcome given in the Theogony itself.

Hesiod, Theogony 717-720

Where Accounts Differ

Kronos's fate after the war

Hesiod's Theogony imprisons Kronos in Tartarus after his defeat; a later, softer tradition instead has Zeus release him to rule over the Isles of the Blessed. The two endings are not reconciled across sources.