{
  "id": "titanomachy",
  "type": "entity",
  "name": "Titanomachy",
  "summary": "The ten-year war of Zeus and the children of Cronus, fighting from Olympus, against the Titans on Othrys, won when Zeus freed the Hundred-handers and Cyclopes at Earth's advice; the Titans were buried under three hundred rocks and shut in Tartarus behind bronze gates. Apollodorus adds the drug of Metis and the lots; Aeschylus makes Prometheus the counsellor of Zeus.",
  "locale": "en",
  "tags": [
    "greek",
    "events",
    "titans",
    "succession-myth",
    "tartarus"
  ],
  "relations": [
    {
      "rel": "related",
      "target": "zeus"
    },
    {
      "rel": "related",
      "target": "cronus"
    },
    {
      "rel": "related",
      "target": "gaia"
    },
    {
      "rel": "related",
      "target": "atlas"
    },
    {
      "rel": "related",
      "target": "prometheus"
    },
    {
      "rel": "related",
      "target": "cyclopes"
    },
    {
      "rel": "related",
      "target": "tartarus"
    },
    {
      "rel": "related",
      "target": "mount-olympus"
    },
    {
      "rel": "attested_in",
      "target": "theogony"
    },
    {
      "rel": "attested_in",
      "target": "bibliotheca"
    }
  ],
  "questions": [
    "What was the Titanomachy?",
    "How long did the war between Zeus and the Titans last?",
    "How did Zeus defeat the Titans?",
    "Who helped Zeus in the Titanomachy?",
    "What happened to the Titans after the war?",
    "Did Prometheus fight in the Titanomachy?",
    "Where did the Titans and the gods fight from?"
  ],
  "claims": [
    {
      "id": "c1",
      "text": "The war turns on prisoners. Heaven had bound Obriareus, Cottus and Gyes \"beneath the wide-pathed earth\" out of jealousy of their size; Zeus and the children of Rhea \"brought them up again to the light at Earth's advising\", for she told the gods \"how with these they might gain victory\" (Theog. 617–628).",
      "sources": [
        "hesiod-theogony"
      ],
      "confidence": 0.95
    },
    {
      "id": "c2",
      "text": "Hesiod fixes sides, places and length: \"the lordly Titans from high Othrys, but the gods, givers of good, whom rich-haired Rhea bore in union with Cronos, from Olympus\", fighting \"for ten full years, and the hard strife had no close or end for either side\" (Theog. 629–638).",
      "sources": [
        "hesiod-theogony"
      ],
      "confidence": 0.95
    },
    {
      "id": "c3",
      "text": "Zeus fed the Hundred-handers nectar and ambrosia and asked them to \"show your great might and unconquerable strength\" against the Titans in return for their release; Cottus answered that it was through his devising \"we have come back again from the murky gloom\", and pledged to fight (Theog. 639–663).",
      "sources": [
        "hesiod-theogony"
      ],
      "confidence": 0.94
    },
    {
      "id": "c4",
      "text": "The decisive day: Zeus \"no longer held back his might\" but came \"from Heaven and from Olympus ... hurling his lightning\", so that the earth seethed, \"Astounding heat seized Chaos\", and it seemed \"as if Earth and wide Heaven above came together\" (Theog. 687–712); then Cottus, Briareos and Gyes \"launched from their strong hands\" three hundred rocks, overshadowed the Titans \"and hurled them beneath the wide-pathed earth, and bound them in bitter chains\" (Theog. 713–719).",
      "sources": [
        "hesiod-theogony"
      ],
      "confidence": 0.95
    },
    {
      "id": "c5",
      "text": "The prison: Tartarus, \"as far beneath the earth as heaven is above earth\", with a bronze fence and triple night, where \"by the counsel of Zeus ... the Titan gods are hidden under misty gloom ... And they may not go out; for Poseidon fixed gates of bronze upon it\", with Gyes, Cottus and Obriareus as \"trusty warders of Zeus\" (Theog. 720–735). Homer agrees on the place: \"the gods below Tartarus, that are called Titans\" (Il. 14.279), \"where abide Iapetus and Cronos ... and deep Tartarus is round about them\" (Il. 8.478–481); Virgil sees \"the Titanic brood roll lightning-blasted in the gulf profound\" (Aen. 6.576).",
      "sources": [
        "hesiod-theogony",
        "homer-iliad",
        "virgil-aeneid"
      ],
      "confidence": 0.95
    },
    {
      "id": "c6",
      "text": "Apollodorus's version adds machinery Hesiod lacks: Metis \"gave Cronus a drug to swallow\" that made him disgorge the children; the war lasted ten years; Earth prophesied victory with the prisoners' help, so Zeus \"slew their jailoress Campe\"; the Cyclopes gave Zeus the thunderbolt, Pluto a helmet and Poseidon a trident; the Titans were shut in Tartarus under the Hundred-handers' guard, and the victors \"cast lots for the sovereignty\" (Apollod. 1.2.1). Hesiod has no drug, no Campe, no helmet and no lots, but acclamation by the gods (Theog. 881–885).",
      "sources": [
        "apollodorus-library",
        "hesiod-theogony"
      ],
      "confidence": 0.93
    },
    {
      "id": "c7",
      "text": "Aeschylus gives Prometheus a role Hesiod does not: he advised the Titans \"that it was not by brute strength nor through violence, but by guile\" that victory would come; \"they did not pay any attention\", so he joined Zeus \"a welcome volunteer\", and \"it is by reason of my counsel that the cavernous gloom of Tartarus now hides ancient Cronus and his allies\" (PV 199–222). In the Theogony the war's counsellor is Earth (Theog. 626–628), and Prometheus is punished for other reasons.",
      "sources": [
        "aeschylus-prometheus-bound",
        "hesiod-theogony"
      ],
      "confidence": 0.93
    },
    {
      "id": "c8",
      "text": "The aftermath assigns the punishments: Atlas \"through hard constraint upholds the wide heaven\" at the borders of the earth, \"for this lot wise Zeus assigned to him\" (Theog. 517–520; cf. 746–748), and Hera can still swear by \"all the gods below Tartarus, that are called Titans\" (Il. 14.274–279). Pindar's island of the blessed is ruled by Cronus (Pind. Ol. 2.70), and Hesiod also lets Cronus rule the heroes at the ends of the earth (WD 169).",
      "sources": [
        "hesiod-theogony",
        "homer-iliad",
        "pindar-olympian-odes",
        "hesiod-works-and-days"
      ],
      "confidence": 0.9
    }
  ],
  "takeaways": [
    "Hesiod's war is won by the Hundred-handers' rocks and Zeus's lightning, on Earth's advice, after ten years (Theog. 617–735).",
    "The thunderbolt, helmet and trident as war-gifts, Campe and the lots are Apollodorus's additions.",
    "Aeschylus's Prometheus claims the credit for the victory; Hesiod gives him none.",
    "Cronus is in Tartarus in Homer and Hesiod's Theogony, yet rules the blessed in Hesiod's Works and Days and in Pindar."
  ],
  "faqs": [
    {
      "q": "How long did the war between Zeus and the Titans last?",
      "claim": "c2"
    },
    {
      "q": "How did Zeus defeat the Titans?",
      "claim": "c4"
    },
    {
      "q": "Who helped Zeus in the Titanomachy?",
      "claim": "c1"
    },
    {
      "q": "What happened to the Titans after the war?",
      "claim": "c5"
    },
    {
      "q": "Did Prometheus fight in the Titanomachy?",
      "claim": "c7"
    },
    {
      "q": "Where did the Titans and the gods fight from?",
      "claim": "c2"
    }
  ],
  "evidence_tier": "primary",
  "evidence": {
    "level": "theoretical",
    "source_types": [
      "paper"
    ]
  },
  "moat_flag": false,
  "winning_edge": "Takes the reader through Hesiod's account in order with line numbers, then lists exactly what Apollodorus and Aeschylus add or change, rather than the merged summary that gives Zeus a thunderbolt and Prometheus a plan in the same breath.",
  "confidence": 0.93,
  "last_verified": "2026-09-03",
  "media": [],
  "x": {
    "myth": {
      "pantheon": "greek",
      "kind": "event",
      "group": "titan",
      "domains": [
        "succession of the gods",
        "war in heaven"
      ],
      "wikidata": "Q220878"
    }
  },
  "canonical_url": "https://mythosdata.dev/k/titanomachy",
  "api_url": "https://mythosdata.dev/api/k/titanomachy.json",
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    "description": "The ten-year war of Zeus and the children of Cronus, fighting from Olympus, against the Titans on Othrys, won when Zeus freed the Hundred-handers and Cyclopes at Earth's advice; the Titans were buried under three hundred rocks and shut in Tartarus behind bronze gates. Apollodorus adds the drug of Metis and the lots; Aeschylus makes Prometheus the counsellor of Zeus.",
    "url": "https://mythosdata.dev/k/titanomachy",
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    "dateModified": "2026-09-03",
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