View source for Aloadae

{{Short description|Giants from Greek mythology}}
{{redirect2|Ephialtes (giant)|Otos|the Spanish municipality|Otos, Valencia}}
{{Infobox deity
| type = Greek
| name = Aloadae
| image = File:Gustave Doré - Dante Alighieri - Inferno - Plate 65 (Canto XXXI - The Titans).jpg
| caption = Titans and Giants, including Ephialtes on the left, in [[Gustave Doré]]'s illustrations to [[Dante]]'s [[Divine Comedy]].
| deity_of = Twin [[Giants (Greek mythology)|giants]] of [[Ancient Thessaly|Thessaly]]
| abode = [[Thessaly]]
| consort = 
| mother = [[Iphimedeia]]
| father = [[Poseidon]] or [[Aloeus]]
| siblings = [[Pancratis]] ([[Pancrato]]), [[Elate (mythology)|Elate]], [[Platanus (mythology)|Platanus]]
| children = 
| successor = 
| predecessor = 
| member_of = the Thessalian Royal Family
| other_names = Aloads ''includes:''<br>Otus (Otos) and Ephialtes
}}

In [[Greek mythology]], the '''Aloadae''' ({{IPAc-en|ˌ|æ|l|oʊ|ˈ|eɪ|d|iː}}) or '''Aloads''' ([[Ancient Greek]]: Ἀλωάδαι ''Aloadai'') were '''Otus''' or '''Otos''' (Ὦτος means "insatiate") and '''Ephialtes''' (Ἐφιάλτης, which means "nightmare"),<ref>{{cite book|last=Beekes |first=Robert S. P. |title=Etymological Dictionary of Greek |publisher=Brill Academic Publishers |year=2009 |page=487 |isbn=978-90-04-17418-4}}</ref> [[Ancient Thessaly|Thessalian]] sons of Princess [[Iphimedeia|Iphimedia]], wife of [[Aloeus]], by [[Poseidon]],<ref>[[Homer]], ''[[Odyssey]]'' [http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Hom.+Od.+11.271&fromdoc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0136:book=:chapter=&highlight=Otus 11.305–8]</ref> whom she induced to make her pregnant by going to the seashore and disporting herself in the surf or scooping seawater into her bosom.<ref>[[Bibliotheca (Pseudo-Apollodorus)|Apollodorus]], [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Apollod.+1.7.4&fromdoc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0022:book=1:chapter=7&highlight=Aloads 1.7.4]</ref> From Aloeus, sometimes their real father, they received their [[patronymic]], the Aloadae. They had a sister [[Pancratis]] ([[Pancrato]]) who was renowned for her great beauty.<ref>[[Diodorus Siculus]], [https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Diodorus_Siculus/5D*.html#51.1 5.51.1–2]; [[Parthenius of Nicaea|Parthenius]], ''Erotica Pathemata'' [https://topostext.org/work/550#19 19] with the 2nd book of the Naxiaca of Andriscus as the source</ref>

== Mythology ==
The Aloads were strong and aggressive [[Giants (Greek mythology)|giants]], growing by nine fingers every month.  Nine [[fathoms]] tall aged nine, they were only outshone in beauty by [[Orion (mythology)|Orion]].<ref>Homer, ''Odyssey'' [http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Hom.+Od.+11.271&fromdoc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0136:book=:chapter=&highlight=Otus 11.310–312]; [[Gaius Julius Hyginus|Hyginus]], ''Fabulae'' [https://topostext.org/work/206#28 28]; Kerényi, 1951:154</ref><ref name="DGRBM">{{cite encyclopedia |year=1867 |title=Aloeidae |encyclopedia=[[Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology]] |publisher=[[Little, Brown and Company]] |location=Boston |url=http://quod.lib.umich.edu/cgi/t/text/pageviewer-idx?c=moa;cc=moa;idno=acl3129.0001.001;q1=demosthenes;size=l;frm=frameset;seq=147 |last=Schmitz |first=Leonhard |editor=William Smith |editor-link=William Smith (lexicographer) |volume=1 |pages=132–133 |authorlink=Leonhard Schmitz}}</ref>

=== War with the gods ===
The brothers wanted to storm [[Mount Olympus (Mountain) |Mount Olympus]] and gain [[Artemis]] for Otus<ref>[[Callimachus]], ''Hymn to Artemis'' [https://topostext.org/work/122#264 264]</ref> and [[Hera]] for Ephialtes. Their plan - the construction of a pile of mountains atop which they would confront the gods - is described by different authors (including [[Homer]], [[Virgil]],<ref>[[Virgil]], ''[[Aeneid]]'' [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Verg.+A.+6.582&fromdoc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.02.0054:book=:chapter=&highlight=Alo%C3%AFdae 6.582]</ref> and [[Ovid]]), and occasionally changed by translators. [[Mount Olympus (Mountain) |Mount Olympus]] is usually said to be the bottom mountain, with Mounts [[Mount Ossa (Greece) |Ossa]] and [[Pelion]] upon Ossa as second and third, either respectively or vice versa.<ref>Homer, ''Odyssey'' [http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Hom.+Od.+11.271&fromdoc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0136:book=:chapter=&highlight=Otus 11.313–318]</ref> Homer says that the Aloadae were killed by [[Apollo]] before they had any beards,<ref>Homer, ''Odyssey'' [http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Hom.+Od.+11.271&fromdoc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0136:book=:chapter=&highlight=Otus 11.319–320] - "[...] the son of Zeus, whom fair-haired Leto bore, slew them both before the down blossomed beneath their temples and covered their chins with a full growth of beard."</ref> consistent with their being bound to columns in the [[Greek underworld| Underworld]] by snakes, with the [[nymph]] of the [[Styx]] in the form of an owl over them.<ref>Hyginus, ''Fabulae'' [https://topostext.org/work/206#28 28]</ref>

According to another version of their struggle against the Olympians, alluded to so briefly<ref>It is related in the ''Iliad'' by the goddess [[Dione (Titaness)|Dione]] to her daughter [[Aphrodite]]</ref><ref>[[Philostratus]], ''Lives of the Sophists'' [https://topostext.org/work/224#2.1.1 2.1.1]</ref> that it must have been already familiar to the epic's hearers, they managed to kidnap [[Ares]] and hold him in a bronze jar, a storage ''[[pithos]]'', for thirteen months (a [[lunar year]]). <blockquote>"And that would have been the end of Ares and his appetite for war, if the beautiful [[Eriboea (mythology) | Eriboea]], the young giants' stepmother, had not told [[Hermes]] what they had done", Dione related.<ref>Homer, ''[[Iliad]]'' [http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Hom.+Il.+5.385&fromdoc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0134:book=:chapter=&highlight=Otus 5.385–391]</ref></blockquote>Alerted by Eriboea, Hermes rescued Ares.<ref name=":0">Roman, L., & Roman, M. (2010). {{Google books|tOgWfjNIxoMC|Encyclopedia of Greek and Roman mythology |page=55}}</ref>

The brothers died on the island of [[Naxos]],<ref>[[Pindar]], ''Pythian Odes'' [http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Pind.+P.+4&fromdoc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0162:book=:chapter=&highlight=Otus 4.88–89]</ref> when Artemis changed herself into a [[deer|doe]] and jumped between them. The Aloadae, not wanting her to get away, threw their spears and simultaneously killed each other.<ref>{{cite book|last1= Hamilton|first1= Edith|title= Mythology|date= 1942|publisher= Grand Central Publishing|location= New York|page= 144}}</ref><ref>This [[mytheme]], of the brothers' mutual murder, features in the myth of the mutual killings of [[Eteocles]] and [[Polynices]] that occurs in the war of the [[Seven against Thebes]] (as recounted for example in [[Aeschylus]]' play ''[[Seven Against Thebes]]'').</ref> In another version, either Apollo killed the Aloadae in their attempt to scale the mountains to the heavens, or Otus tried to rape Artemis, and Apollo sent the deer in their midst, provoking their deaths.<ref name=":0" /><ref>[[Apollonius of Rhodes|Apollonius Rhodius]], ''[[Argonautica]]'' [https://topostext.org/work/126#1.472 1.482–484]</ref>

Their two sisters, [[Elate (mythology) |Elate]] and [[Platanus (mythology) |Platanus]], mourned their deaths so much they were changed into trees, a [[fir]] and a [[Platanus |plane]] tree respectively.<ref>
{{cite book | first = Joseph Eddy | last = Fontenrose | author-link = Joseph Fontenrose | title = Orion: The Myth of the Hunter and the Huntress | publisher = [[University of California Press]] | date = 1981 | ISBN = 0-520-09632-0 | page = [https://books.google.com/books?id=tD4lJxC95mEC&pg=PA116 116] | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=tD4lJxC95mEC}}</ref>

=== Other stories ===
According to [[Diodorus Siculus|Diodorus]], the Aloadae are Thessalian heroes who were sent out by their father Aloeus to fetch back their mother Iphimedeia and their sister Pancratis, who had been carried off by [[Thracians]]. After having overtaken and defeated the Thracians in the island of Strongyle (Naxos), they settled there as rulers over the Thracians. But soon after, they killed each other in a dispute which had arisen between them, and the Naxians worshiped them as heroes.<ref>Diodorus Siculus, [https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Diodorus_Siculus/5D*.html#51.1 5.51.1–2]</ref>

In all these traditions, the Aloadae were represented as only remarkable for their gigantic physical strength; but there was another story which placed them in a different light. [[Pausanias (geographer)|Pausanias]] related that they were believed to have been the first of all men who worshiped the [[Muses]] on [[Mount Helicon]], and to have consecrated this mountain to them; but they worshiped only three Muses — [[Melete]], [[Mneme]] and [[Aoede (mythology)|Aoede]].<ref>[[Pausanias (geographer)|Pausanias]], [http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Paus.+9.29.2&fromdoc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0160:book=:chapter=&highlight=Aloeus 9.29.2]</ref> They were bringers of civilization, founding the cities and teaching culture to humanity. They were venerated specifically in [[Naxos (city)|Naxos]] and [[Boeotia]]n [[Ascra]], two cities they founded.<ref>Pausanias, [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text;jsessionid=6608086C6F6B93EB4774A8CCA5723B0C?doc=Paus.+9.29.1&fromdoc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0160:book=:chapter=&highlight=Ephialtes 9.29.1]</ref> Besides these two, the foundation of the town of Aloïum in Thessaly was ascribed to them.<ref>[[Stephanus of Byzantium]], s.v. ''[https://topostext.org/work/241#A79.2 Aloion]''</ref>

''Ephialtes'' (lit. "he who jumps upon") is also the [[Greek language|Greek]] word for "[[nightmare]]",<ref>[[Henry Liddell|Liddel, H.G.]] & [[Robert Scott (philologist)|Scott, R.]] ''[[A Greek–English Lexicon]]'', 9th ed. (Oxford, 1940), [[Sub voce#sub verbo|s.v.]] [http://artflx.uchicago.edu/cgi-bin/philologic/getobject.pl?c.27:9:135.LSJ {{lang|grc|ἐφιάλτης}}] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190605065633/http://artflx.uchicago.edu/cgi-bin/philologic/getobject.pl?c.27:9:135.LSJ |date=2019-06-05 }}</ref> and Ephialtes was sometimes considered the ''[[daimon]]'' of [[nightmare]]s. In the ''[[Inferno (Dante)|Inferno]]'' of [[Dante Alighieri|Dante's]] ''[[Divine Comedy]]'' Ephialtes is one of six giants placed in the great pit that separates the eighth and ninth circles of [[Hell]], Fraud and [[Cocytus]], respectively. He is chained as punishment for challenging [[Jupiter (mythology)|Jupiter]].

==Paleontology==
''[[Otozoum]]'', the [[ichnogenus]] of [[sauropodomorph]] [[dinosaur]], was named after Otus.<ref>Hitchcock, Edward, 1847, "Description of two new species of fossil footmarks found in Massachusetts and Connecticut, or of the animals that made them", ''American Journal of Science and Arts Series 2'', '''4'''(3): 46-57</ref>

==Notes==
{{Reflist|2}}

==References==
*[[Bibliotheca (Pseudo-Apollodorus)|Apollodorus]], ''The Library'' with an English Translation by Sir James George Frazer, F.B.A., F.R.S. in 2 Volumes, Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1921. ISBN 0-674-99135-4. [http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.01.0022 Online version at the Perseus Digital Library.] [http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.01.0021 Greek text available from the same website].
*[[Gaius Julius Hyginus]], ''Fabulae from The Myths of Hyginus'' translated and edited by Mary Grant. University of Kansas Publications in Humanistic Studies. [https://topostext.org/work/206 Online version at the Topos Text Project.]
*[[Homer]], [[Odyssey|''The Odyssey'']] with an English Translation by A.T. Murray, PH.D. in two volumes. Cambridge, MA., Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann, Ltd. 1919. {{ISBN|978-0674995611|}}. [http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.01.0136 Online version at the Perseus Digital Library.] [http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.01.0135 Greek text available from the same website].
*{{cite book|author-link=Karl Kerenyi|last=Kerenyi|first= Karl|title=The Gods of the Greeks|year=1951|pages=153ff}}
*[[Pausanias (geographer)|Pausanias]], ''Description of Greece'' with an English Translation by W.H.S. Jones, Litt.D., and H.A. Ormerod, M.A., in 4 Volumes. Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1918. {{ISBN|0-674-99328-4}}. [http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.01.0160 Online version at the Perseus Digital Library]
*Pausanias, ''Graeciae Descriptio.'' ''3 vols''. Leipzig, Teubner. 1903.  [http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.01.0159 Greek text available at the Perseus Digital Library].

==External links==
{{EB1911 poster|Alöīdae}}
*{{Commons category-inline}}

[[Category:Greek giants]]
[[Category:Family of Canace]]
[[Category:Children of Poseidon]]
[[Category:Condemned souls in Tartarus]]
[[Category:Deeds of Ares]]
[[Category:Mythological Thessalians]]
[[Category:Thessalian mythology]]
[[Category:Deeds of Apollo]]
[[Category:Deeds of Artemis]]
[[Category:Religion in ancient Boeotia]]
[[Category:Naxian mythology]]
[[Category:Brother duos]]
[[Category:Mythological duos]]
[[Category:Daimons]]
[[Category:Patronymics from Greek mythology]]