Этимология названия[]
Мифология[]
Титаны — в древнегреческой мифологии божества второго поколения, дети Урана (неба) и Геи (земли). Их шесть братьев и шесть сестёр-титанид, вступивших в брак между собой и породивших новое поколение богов: Прометея, Гелиоса, Муз, Лето и других. Они правили во времена легендарного Золотого века, а также составляли первый пантеон греческих божеств.
Первыми двенадцатью титанами были женщины Мнемосина, Тефия, Тейя, Фиби, Рея и Фемида, а также мужчины Океан, Гиперион, Кей, Кронос, Криос и Япет. Они родили больше титанов: дети Гипериона Гелиос, Селена и Эос; дети Кея Лето и Астерия; сыновья Япета Атлас, Прометей, Эпиметей и Менетий; дочь Океана Метис; сыновья Крия Астреус, Паллас и Перс.
Подобно тому, как Кронос сверг своего отца Урана, Титаны были свергнуты детьми Кроноса (Зевсом, Аидом, Посейдоном, Гестией, Герой и Деметрой) в титаномахии (или "Войне Титанов"). Греки, возможно, заимствовали эту мифему с Древнего Ближнего Востока.
Титаномахия[]
Greeks of the classical age knew 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 said to be the deepest part of the Underworld and the place where the evilest beings are tortured for all eternity.
Орфические источники[]
Hesiod does not have the last word on the Titans. Surviving fragments of poetry ascribed to Orpheus preserve some variations on the myth. In such text, Zeus does not simply set upon his father violently. Instead, Rhea spreads out a banquet for Cronus so that he becomes drunk upon fermented honey. Rather than being consigned to Tartarus, Cronus is dragged – still drunk – to the cave of Nyx (Night), where he continues to dream throughout eternity.
Another myth concerning the Titans that is not in Hesiod revolves around Dionysus. At some point in his reign, Zeus decides to give up the throne in favor of the infant Dionysus, who like the infant Zeus, is guarded by the Kouretes. The Titans decide to slay the child and claim the throne for themselves; they paint their faces white with gypsum, distract Dionysus with toys, then dismember him and boil and roast his limbs. Zeus, enraged, slays the Titans with his thunderbolt; Athena preserves the heart in a gypsum doll, out of which a new Dionysus is made. This story is told by the poets Callimachus and Nonnus, who call this Dionysus "Zagreus", and in a number of Orphic texts, which do not.
One iteration of this story, of the Late Antique Neoplatonist philosopher Olympiodorus, recounted in his commentary of Plato's Phaedo, affirms that humanity sprang up out of the fatty smoke of the burning Titan corpses. Pindar, Plato, and Oppian refer offhandedly to the "Titanic nature" of humans. According to them, the body is the titanic part, while soul is the divine part of humans. Other early writers imply that humanity was born out of the malevolent blood shed by the Titans in their war against Zeus. Some scholars consider that Olympiodorus' report, the only surviving explicit expression of this mythic connection, embodied a tradition that dated to the Bronze Age, while Radcliffe Edmonds has suggested an element of innovative allegorized improvisation to suit Olympiodorus' purpose.
Современные интерпретации[]
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.
Beekes connects the word with τιτώ (a now-obscure word for "day"). Other scholars connect the word to the Greek verb τείνω ("teino", to stretch), through an epic variation τιταίνω and τίσις (titaino and tisis, "retribution" and "vengeance"). Hesiod appears to share that view 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."
Современное использование[]
В астрономии[]
The planet Saturn is named for the Roman equivalent of the Titan Cronus. Saturn's largest moon, Titan, is named after the Titans generally, and the other moons of Saturn are named after individual titans, specifically Tethys, Phoebe, Rhea, Hyperion, and Iapetus. Astronomer William Henry Pickering claimed to discover another moon of Saturn which he named Themis, but this discovery was never confirmed, and the name Themis was given to an asteroid, 24 Themis. Asteroid 57 Mnemosyne was also named for a titan.
В популярной культуре[]
- In the 2011 movie Immortals starring Henry Cavill and Mickey Rourke, the Titans are locked away in Mount Tartarus until they are released by King Hyperion using the Epirus Bow. The Titans look like Gods but have dark orange helmets and their skin is a rock color. There appear to be more Titans in the film than in actual mythology.
- In the Disney 1997 animated film Hercules there are five Titans: four embody the four elements: Rock Titan, Ice Titan, Lava Titan, and the Tornado Titan, while the fifth is the one eyed Cyclops. They terrorize the earth until Zeus imprisons them; however, Hades later releases them to aid in his attempt to usurp Zeus. These Titans bear little similarity to their mythological counterparts. Later, in the animated series, the Titan Kronos is mentioned.
- In the 1981 film Clash of the Titans, the Kraken, actually an entity from Norse mythology, is presented as "the last Titan". It also describes the usage of the head of Medusa, who is actually a Gorgon, to fight him, as "a titan against another titan". In the 2010 remake, the Titans are mentioned at the beginning, when it is claimed Hades created the Kraken to defeat them. Kronos appears in the sequel Wrath of the Titans, where Ares turned to darkness and planned to revive his grandfather with Zeus' life force.
- The Italian sword-and-sandal film Arrivano i titani shows the Titans first as prisoners in Tartarus, but they are later liberated by Zeus to take down the megalomanic King Cadmus.
- The video game series, God of War, which is based on Greek mythology, features many of the Titans, mainly Gaia, Cronos and Atlas. They attempt to reignite their Great War with the Olympians with the help of a Spartan warrior named Kratos, who became the God of War after killing Ares.
- The Titans appeared in an episode of Charmed titled "Oh My Goddess" where Cronus, Demtrieus and Meta battled the Charmed Ones who became Goddesses. Eventually, the Titans were destroyed by Piper Halliwell.
- The Titans occasionally appear or are mentioned in Renaissance Pictures' Hercules/Xena franchise. In the Xena: Warrior Princess episode "The Titans," many Titans (far more than in the actual myths) were turned to stone by the Olympians, which Crius, Hyperion and Theia seek to undo. In the Hercules: The Legendary Journeys episode "Let There Be Light," it is said that the Titans successfully defeated Dahak, but the battle left them too weak to resist the Olympians. Also, in the Hercules series finale "Full Circle," Oceanus, Helios and Atlas appear, having made a deal with Ares to destroy the Olympians but spare him.
- Titan appears as a regular Earth-based summon in the video game series Final Fantasy.
- The Titans are a race of Eternals (gods) in the Warcraft universe. They are depicted as tall figures with metallic-colored skin. They defeated the Old Gods, who originally ruled Azeroth long ago, before the invasion of the Burning Legion.
- In the tabletop game, Warhammer 40,000, Titans are phenomenally large war machines, capable of laying waste to entire armies and cities with their colossal weapons. They are often referred to as "god-Machines" by Imperial forces, for they are virtually unstoppable (generally the only threat to a Titan on the battlefield is a Chaos Titan, or similar constructs created by other races).
- The largest class of combat vessels in the MMORPG Eve Online are classified as 'titans', and several of the Gallente faction vessels are named after Greek deities.
- In the series Percy Jackson and the Olympians, the Titans are the main villains, attempting to take over Olympus and rule civilization once more, after most of them were imprisoned in the Underworld.
- In DC Comics the Titans were exiled to another world after their defeat, which they called New Cronos. Kronos, however, was imprisoned in a tree. The Titans raised Troia and gave her her powers.
- Titans are depicted in Dante Alighieri's Inferno.
- The tabletop roleplaying game Exalted features a number of titan-like Primordials who were usurped by the gods prior to the First Age.
- The NVIDIA GeForce Titan was released 2013 and was at the time the most powerful GPU sold.
- In 2004, the Japanese automaker Nissan began production of a full-sized pickup truck for the North American market called the Titan.
- In Resident Evil Outbreak File #2, the giant zombie elephant rampaging throughout one scenario is called Titan.
- In the Dune series created by Frank Herbert and continued by his son, Brian Herbert, a group of rebels conquest the Old Empire. They call themselves Titans and their reign the Time of Titans.
- The popular Age of Empires Spin-off, Age of Mythology at first only contains three civilizations and mythologies: The Norse, the Greeks, and the Egyptians. Added in later in an equally-popular expansion, a fourth civilization was added, Atlantis, which worshipped the Titans. They are portrayed, as a whole, largely neutral with some Titans even switching sides at some points in the game for no reason. There are three Major Titans that can be worshipped: Chronos, Gaia, and Ouranos. Gaia is shown generally as good, Chronos as evil. Ouranos is mostly portrayed as a good force, but at one point in the game, his followers are on the evil side, however later still being the major god of the protagonists in one of the final battles.
- In the Brütal Legend video game, Titans are a race of benevolent creatures who invented music and left it for the modern world.
- In the Dennou Boukenki Webdiver, there is the final giant robot named Ditalion, which based on a Titan.
- The primary antagonists in the anime series, Attack on Titan are called "Titans" and are depicted as a race of giant humanoid creatures that attack and eat humans on sight. In the series, the Titans had driven humanity to the brink of extinction and forcing the human race to retreat in a three-layered walled city. The human race continues to fight the growing Titan population, but with no progress of expansion.
- In the manga Saint Seiya Episode.G, the Titans are important villains, attempting to rule civilization once more, and Leo Aiolia and the Gold Saints are assigned to stop them.
- The videogame Titan Quest tells the story of how the Telkine manage to cut off the gods from the mortal realms and attempt to free Typhon (identified in the game as a Titan) to have him assault Mount Olympus, with the player being a Greek soldier rising to the challenge and defending the world from the onslaught of mythological beasts and monsters.
- The videogame franchise Borderlands features various references to the Titans throughout each installment in the series. In the story, four characters called Vault Hunters end up on a planet called Pandora to search for a mythical alien Vault. The Vault is said to contain a cache of rare and powerful weapons. The Vault Hunters aren’t the only ones after this legendary stash. Among the others are the Atlas and Hyperion Corporations. The Hyperion Corporation builds a massive, H-shaped space station in Pandora’s orbit called Helios on which a fair portion of gameplay takes place in the third game of the franchise, Borderlands The Pre-Sequel. One of the playable characters for this game is a “gladiator” known as Athena, who is an ex-employee of the now non-existent Atlas Corporation.
- The videogame Catacomb Abyss (1992) features a level called The Battleground of the Titans, with the two titan races being trolls and demons.
Галерея[]
