Titans

TITANS, Giants, famous in History, or rather in Fable, which they make to be the Sons of Heaven and Earth, and are said to have used all their Endeavours to dethrone Jupiter. The Word Titan is found but once in the Latin Text of Scripture. Judith, in her Canticle, says, that Holofernes did not fall by the young men, neither did the sons of the Titans smite him, nor high Giants set upon him; but Judith the daughter of Merari weakened him, with the beauty of her countenance. The Septuagint have rendered 2 Sam. v. 18.the Valley of Rephaim by the Valley of the Titans.

Apollodorus reckons up but six Titans; Oceanus, Cœlus, Hyperion, Crius, Japetus, Saturnus. Hyginus calls them, Briareus, Gyges, Steropes, Atlas, Hyperion, and Ptolus. Hesiod relates, that Cœlus had by the Earth the Cyclops, which were Harpes, Steropes, and Brontes, which he shut up, and chained in the black Tartarus. The Earth, their Mother, was enraged at this Treatment of her Children, and therefore animated the Titans against her Husband and their Father. All, except Oceanus, made War against him, and dethroned him. They put up their Brother Saturn in his Place, who did not act more favourably by them than Cœlus himself; for he laid them in Irons, and cast them into Tartarus.

Afterwards, Jupiter dealt with Saturn as he had dealt by Cœlus. He knock’d off the Chains from the three Giants with an hundred Hands and fifty Heads, whom Saturn had cast into Tartarus; which three Giants, Cottus, Briareus, and Gyges, assisted him much in the War which he made against the Titans. This War continued tinued for ten Years; but at last the Titans were subdued, Jupiter remained Master of Heaven, and plunged the Titans into Hell, where he overwhelmed them with the Weight of several Mountains that he cast upon them. See Hesiod’s Theogony.

It can hardly be doubted but that this Fable has some ancient History for its Foundation. Among the Names of the Titans, we find Japhet, Gyges, or Gog, Cottus, Chut, or Cush, the Son of Ham. The Name Titan may come from Dodanim, the Son of Japhet. The War of the Giants against Heaven may insinuate the wicked Actions of the first Men before the Deluge, of those ancient and famous Giants mentioned by Moses, who had corrupted their Ways, and who may be said to have declared War against God himself, and who were punished for their Rebellion by the Waters of the Deluge, which destroyed them all. Job represents them to us as groaning under the Waters: The Prophets describe them as banished and confined to the most profound Abyss, in dark Dungeons. The Wars of the Giants against the People of God, are known from Moses, Joshua, and the Books of Samuel and the Kings. There were still some Remains of them in David’s Time; and their Existence in almost all the Countries of the Earth is well attested from History. The ancient Greeks and Phœnicians have disguised all old Histories by the Fictions which they have mingled with them; and the Poets have improved upon them in this, to adorn and embellish their poetical Compositions.

Father Pezron¹ has pretended, that the Titans were the ancient Celtæ, or Gauls; that these were the Gomarim, descended from Gomer, the Son of Japheth. They were first called Sacæ, and afterwards took they Name of Titans. They first entered into Armenia, then into Cappadocia, and afterwards into Phrygia. The first of their Princes was Acmon; the second Uranus, a very warlike Prince, who carried his Conquests from Lesser Asia, as far as Spain. The third was Saturn, or Chronus, and the fourth Jupiter. He was the first of the Titans who attempted to take the Diadem upon him, and to give Form to the Empire of the Titans. His Son Tensat, otherwise Mercury, is he that after his Uncle Dis, otherwise called Pluto, settled the Titans in the Provinces of Europe, and especially in Gaul. It was he that introduced Government amongst them,

Vol. III. and gave them Laws. The Empire of the Titans continued about three hundred Years, in the Lesser Asia, in Greece, in Italy, and the rest of Europe. He fixes the Beginning of this Monarchy about the Time of the Patriarch Terah. He derives the Name Titans from the Celtick; Tit is the Earth, and Den signifies a Man; which is as much as to say, Children of the Earth. This Hypothesis may be seen at large in the Author; and tho’ it lies under very great Difficulties, yet we shall not undertake here to confute it.

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