Editing Titans (section)

{{Short description|Order of divine beings in Greek mythology}}
{{About|the Titans of Greek mythology||Titan (disambiguation){{!}}Titan}}
[[File:Cornelis Cornelisz. van Haarlem - The Fall of the Titans - Google Art Project.jpg|thumb|upright=1.3|''[[The Fall of the Titans]]'' by [[Cornelis van Haarlem]] (1596–1598)]]
{{Greek deities (Titans)}}

In [[Greek mythology]], the '''Titans''' ({{langx|grc|Τιτᾶνες}} {{tlit|grc|Tītânes}}; {{small|[[Grammatical number|singular]]:}} {{tlit|grc|Tītā́n}}) were the pre-[[Twelve Olympians|Olympian]] gods.<ref>Hansen, p. 302; Grimal, p. 457 s.v. Titans; Tripp, p. 579 s.v. Titans; Rose, p. 1079 s.v. Titan; Smith, [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0104%3Aalphabetic+letter%3DT%3Aentry+group%3D18%3Aentry%3Dtitan-bio-1 s.v. Titan 1.].</ref> According to the ''[[Theogony]]'' of [[Hesiod]], they were the twelve children of the primordial parents [[Uranus (mythology)|Uranus]] (Sky) and [[Gaia]] (Earth). The six male Titans were [[Oceanus]], [[Coeus]], [[Crius]], [[Hyperion (Titan)|Hyperion]], [[Iapetus]], and [[Cronus]]; the six female Titans—called the '''Titanides''' ({{lang|grc|Τιτανίδες}}) or '''Titanesses'''—were [[Theia]], [[Rhea (mythology)|Rhea]], [[Themis]], [[Mnemosyne]], [[Phoebe (Titaness)|Phoebe]], and [[Tethys (mythology)|Tethys]].

After Cronus mated with his older sister Rhea, she bore the first generation of Olympians: the six siblings [[Zeus]], [[Hades]], [[Poseidon]], [[Hestia]], [[Demeter]], and [[Hera]]. Certain other descendants of the Titans, such as [[Prometheus]], [[Atlas (mythology)|Atlas]], [[Helios]], and [[Leto]], are sometimes also called Titans.

The Titans were the former gods: the generation of gods preceding the [[Twelve Olympians#Olympians|Olympians]]. They were overthrown as part of the Greek succession myth, which tells how Cronus seized power from his father Uranus and ruled the cosmos with his fellow Titans before being in turn defeated and replaced as the ruling pantheon of gods by Zeus and the Olympians in a ten-year war called the ''[[Titanomachy]]'' ('battle of the Titans'). As a result of this war, the vanquished Titans were banished from the upper world and held imprisoned under guard in [[Tartarus]]. Some Titans were apparently allowed to remain free.