Editing Titans (section)

==Former gods==
The Titans, as a group, represent a pre-Olympian order.<ref>Hansen, p. 302: "As a group the Titans are the older gods, the former gods, in contrast to the Oympians, who are the younger and present gods".</ref> Hesiod uses the expression "the former gods" ({{transliteration|grc|theoi proteroi}}) in reference to the Titans.<ref>West 2007, [https://books.google.com/books?id=ZXrJA_5LKlYC&pg=PA162 p. 162]; Hard, [https://books.google.com/books?id=r1Y3xZWVlnIC&pg=PA35 p. 35]; West 1997, pp. 111, 298; [[Hesiod]], [[Theogony]] [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/hesiod-theogony/2018/pb_LCL057.37.xml 424], [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/hesiod-theogony/2018/pb_LCL057.41.xml 486]. As noted by Woodard, p. 154 n. 44, ''Theogony'' 486: ''Οὐρανίδῃ μέγ’ ἄνακτι, θεῶν προτέρων βασιλῆι'', which some interpret as meaning Cronus "former king of the gods" (e.g. [http://data.perseus.org/citations/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0020.tlg001.perseus-eng1:453-491 Evelyn-White]), others interpret as meaning Cronus "king of the former gods" (e.g. Most, [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/hesiod-theogony/2018/pb_LCL057.41.xml pp. 40, 41]; Caldwell, p. 56; West 1988, p. 17), for an argument against "former king" see West 1966, p. 301 on line 486 θεῶν προτέρων.</ref> They were the banished gods, who were no longer part of the upper world.<ref>Hard, [https://books.google.com/books?id=r1Y3xZWVlnIC&pg=PA35 p. 35]: "The essential point is that the Titans [are] the former ruling gods who were banished from the upper world when the present devine order was established."; West 1983, p. 164: "The Titans are by definition the banished gods, the gods who have gone out of the world"; West 1966, p. 200 on line 133.</ref> Rather they were the gods who dwelt underground in [[Tartarus]],<ref>Gantz, pp. 45&ndash;46; West 1966, p. 200 on line 133; [[Hesiod]], [[Theogony]] [http://data.perseus.org/citations/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0020.tlg001.perseus-eng1:729-766 729 ff.], [http://data.perseus.org/citations/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0020.tlg001.perseus-eng1:807-819 807&ndash;814]; [[Homer]], ''[[Iliad]]'' [http://data.perseus.org/citations/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0012.tlg001.perseus-eng1:8.469-8.511 8.478&ndash;481], [http://data.perseus.org/citations/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0012.tlg001.perseus-eng1:14.270-14.311 14.274], [http://data.perseus.org/citations/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0012.tlg001.perseus-eng1:14.270-14.311 14.278&ndash;279]; [http://data.perseus.org/citations/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0012.tlg001.perseus-eng1:15.220-15.252 15.225]; [[Aeschylus]] (?), ''[[Prometheus Bound]]'' [http://data.perseus.org/citations/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0085.tlg003.perseus-eng1:196-243 221].</ref>  and as such, they may have been thought of as "gods of the underworld", who were the antithesis of, and in opposition to, the Olympians, the gods of the heavens.<ref>Woodard, pp. 96&ndash;97; West 1966, p. 201.</ref> Hesiod called the Titans "earth-born" ([[chthonic]]),<ref>Woodard, p. 97; [[Hesiod]], ''[[Theogony]]'' [http://data.perseus.org/citations/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0020.tlg001.perseus-eng1:687-728 697].</ref> and in the ''Homeric Hymn to Apollo'', [[Hera]] prays to the Titans "who dwell beneath the earth", calling on them to aid her against Zeus, just as if they were chthonic spirits.<ref>Gantz, p. 46; ''Homeric Hymn to Apollo (3)'' [http://data.perseus.org/citations/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0013.tlg003.perseus-eng1:305-348 334&ndash;339].</ref> In a similar fashion, in the ''Iliad'', Hera, upon swearing an oath by the underworld river [[Styx]], "invoked by name all the gods below Tartarus, that are called Titans" as witnesses.<ref>Athanassakis and Wolkow, p. 140; Burkert 1985, p. 200, which gives the Titans as an example of "chthonic gods"; [[Homer]], ''[[Iliad]]'' [http://data.perseus.org/citations/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0012.tlg001.perseus-eng1:14.270-14.311 14.270&ndash;279].</ref>

They were the older gods, but not, apparently, as was once thought, the old gods of an indigenous group in Greece, historically displaced by the new gods of Greek invaders. Rather, they were a group of gods, whose mythology at least, seems to have been borrowed from the [[Near East]] (see "Near East origins," below).<ref>Woodard, [https://books.google.com/books?id=TQyRX6WmMUMC&pg=PA92 p. 92]; Hard, [https://books.google.com/books?id=r1Y3xZWVlnIC&pg=PA34 pp. 34&ndash;35]; Burkert 1995, [https://books.google.com/books?id=cIiUL7dWqNIC&pg=PA94 p. 94]; Caldwell, p. 36 on lines 133-137; West 1966, p. 200.</ref> These imported gods gave context and provided a backstory for the Olympian gods, explaining where these Greek Olympian gods had come from, and how they had come to occupy their position of supremacy in the cosmos. The Titans were the previous generation, and family of gods, whom the Olympians had to overthrow, and banish from the upper world, in order to become the ruling pantheon of Greek gods.

For Hesiod, possibly in order to match the twelve Olympian gods, there were twelve Titans: six males and six females, with some of Hesiod's names perhaps being mere poetic inventions, so as to arrive at the right number.<ref>West 1966 p. 36, which, concerning Hesiod's list of names, says: "Its very heterogeneity betrays its lack of traditional foundation. Rhea, Zeus' mother, must be married to Kronos, Zeus' father. Hyperion, as father of Helios, must be put back to that generation; so must ancient and venerable personages as Oceanus and Tethys, Themis and Mnemosyne. By the addition of four more colourless names (Koios, Kreios, Theia, and Phoibe), the list is made up to a complement of six males and six females";cf. West 1966, p. 200 on line 133.</ref> In Hesiod's ''Theogony'', apart from Cronus, the Titans play no part at all in the overthrow of Uranus, and we only hear of their collective action in the Titanomachy, their war with the Olympians.<ref>Hard, [https://books.google.com/books?id=r1Y3xZWVlnIC&pg=PA34 p. 34].</ref> As a group, they have no further role in conventional Greek myth, nor do they play any part in Greek cult.<ref>Hard, [https://books.google.com/books?id=r1Y3xZWVlnIC&pg=PA35 p. 35]; West 1966 pp. 200&ndash;201 on line 133.</ref>

As individuals, few of the Titans have any separate identity.<ref>Caldwell, p. 36 on lines 133-137.</ref> Aside from Cronus, the only other figure Homer mentions by name as being a Titan is Iapetus.<ref>West 1966 pp. 36, 157–158 on line 18.</ref> Some Titans seem only to serve a genealogical function, providing parents for more important offspring: Coeus and Phoebe as the parents of [[Leto]], the mother, by Zeus, of the Olympians [[Apollo]] and [[Artemis]]; Hyperion and Theia as the parents of [[Helios]], [[Selene]] and [[Eos]]; Iapetus as the father of [[Atlas (mythology)|Atlas]] and [[Prometheus]]; and Crius as the father of three sons [[Astraeus]], [[Pallas (Titan)|Pallas]], and [[Perses (Titan)|Perses]], who themselves seem only to exist to provide fathers for more important figures such as the [[Anemoi]] (Winds), [[Nike (mythology)|Nike]] (Victory), and [[Hecate]].