Zeus and His War Against the Giants

 

Heracles killing the giant Antaeus (public domain)

 

 

Zeus and his family fought and killed evil giants.  Here is a passage from Diodorus Siculus:

Zeus also had other wars against the Giants, we are told in Macedonia near Pallene and in Italy on the plain which of old was named Phlergraen ("fiery") after the region about it which has been burned, but which in later times men called Cumacan. Now the Giants were punished by Zeus because they had treated the rest of mankind in a lawless fashion and, confiding in their bodily superiority and strength, had enslaved their neighbours, and because they were also disobeying the rules of justice which he was laying down and were raising up war against those whom all mankind considered to be gods because of the benefactions they were conferring upon men generally. Zeus, then, we are told, not only totally eradicated the impious and evil-doers from among mankind, but he also distributed honouors as they were merited among the noblest of magnitude of his benefactions and his superior power all men accorded to him as with one voice both the everlasting kingship which he possesses and his dwelling upon Mount Olympus. - Diodorus Siculus, Library of History Volume 3, page 291.

by Rita Jean Moran (www.thelibrarykids.com and www.hiddenhumanstory.com)

 

Graves of the Giants

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Temple_of_Apollo_at_Delphi_from_below_with_ivy.JPG

There are many places said to be the burial grounds for ancient gods/goddesses and giants.  Zeus is said to be buried in a cave on Crete.  Apollo is said to be buried at Delphi.  A giant's grave exists in Israel.  Many of the Native American mounds are said to have contained the bones of giants.  And the sidhes of Ireland are said to be the graves of giants.  According to wikipedia:

Euhemerus argued that Zeus was a mortal king who died on Crete, and that his tomb could still be found there with the inscription bearing his name. This claim however did not originate with Euhemerus, as the general sentiment of Crete during the time of Epimenides of Knossos (c. 600 BC) was that Zeus was buried somewhere in Crete. For this reason, the Cretans were often considered atheists, and Epimenides called them all liars (see Epimenides paradox). Callimachus, an opponent of Euhemerus' views on mythology argued that Zeus' Cretan tomb was fabricated, and that he was eternal:

“

Cretans always lie. For the Cretans even built a tomb, Lord, for you. But you did not die, for you are eternal.

”

A later Latin scholia on the Hymns of Callimachus, attempted to account for the tomb of Zeus. According to the scholia, the original tomb inscription read: "the tomb Minos, the son of Jupiter" but overtime the words "Minos, the son" wore away only leaving "the tomb of Jupiter", which had misled the Cretans into thinking that Zeus had died and was buried there.

Influenced by Euhemerus, Porphyry in the 3rd century AD claimed that Pythagoras had discovered the tomb of Zeus on Crete and written on the tomb's surface an inscription reading "Here died and was buried Zan, whom they call Zeus". Varro also wrote about the tomb of Zeus, but few accounts could agree of its precise location on Crete.

Giant people have been part of history for a long time as well as the Little people.

By Rita Jean Moran (www.thelibrarykids.com)

Sources:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Euhemerus

http://www.pantheon.org/articles/s/sidhe.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delphi

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Temple_of_Apollo_at_Delphi_from_below_with_ivy.JPG

Red-Haired Giants

The stories are abundant regarding the giant people.  They range from red-haired giants in China, Europe, America, Polynesia and Africa.   There are stories that they were as tall as 12 feet with some even taller than that.  Many bones have been dug up that indicate a very large headed people with  tall statures existed not too long ago.   Some of these heads are conical (conehead) in shape.  I will include some embedded videos of giants with coneheads and their mummies below.


The Tarim mummies in China were found recently and are from a tall Europeon race of people that lived in the area.

The Tarim mummies are a series of mummies discovered in the Tarim Basin in present-day Xinjiang, China, which date from 1900 BC to 200 AD. Some of the mummies are frequently associated with the presence of the Indo-European Tocharian languages in the Tarim Basin,^[although the evidence is not totally conclusive.

Research into the subject has attracted controversy, due to ethnic tensions in modern day Xinjiang. There have been concerns whether DNA results could affect claims by Uyghur peoples of being indigenous to the region. In comparing the DNA of the mummies to that of modern day Uyghur peoples, Victor H. Mair's team found some genetic similarities with the mummies, but no direct links, stating that "modern DNA and ancient DNA show that Uighurs, Kazaks, Kyrgyzs, the peoples of Central Asia are all mixed Caucasian and East Asian... the modern and ancient DNA tell the same story." He concludes that the mummies are basically Caucasoid, likely speakers of an Indo-European language; that East Asian peoples "began showing up in the eastern portions of the Tarim Basin about 3,000 years ago... while the Uighur peoples arrived after the collapse of the Orkon Uighur Kingdom, largely based in modern day Mongolia, around the year 842."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tarim_mummies








The Pharaohs of Egypt were shown as very tall with conical heads as compared to the average human.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Aten_disk.jpg


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Akhenaten








The tale of Finn McCool from Ireland tells the story of two giants who fought each other with one out-smarting the other.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fionn_mac_Cumhaill




One more intersting thing is that the Hawaiians considered the goddess Pele to be a tall white woman with red hair, who was killed by a jealous sister and was burried on an island off of Mauii.

In one version of the story, Pele is daughter of Kanehoalani and Haumea in the mystical land of Kuaihelani, a floating free land like Fata Morgana. Kuaihelani was in the region of Kahiki (Kukulu o Kahiki). She stays so close to her mother's fireplace with the fire-keeper Lono-makua. Her older sister Nā-maka-o-Kahaʻi, a sea goddess, fears that Pele's ambition would smother the home-land and drives Pele away. Kamohoali'i drives Pele south in a canoe called Honua-i-a-kea with her younger sister Hiʻiaka and with her brothers Ka-moho-aliʻi, Kane-milo-hai, Kane-apua, and arrives at the islets above Hawaii. There Kane-milo-hai is left on Mokupapapa, just a reef, to build it up in fitness for human residence. On Nihoa, 800 feet above the ocean she leaves Kane-apua after her visit to Lehua and crowning a wreath of kau-no'a. Pele feels sorry for her younger brother and picks him up again. Pele used the divining rod, Pa‘oa to pick her a new home. A group of chants tells of a pursuit by Namakaokaha'i and Pele is torn apart. Her bones, KaiwioPele form a hill on Kahikinui, while her spirit escaped to the island of Hawaiʻi.[2]:157 (Pele & Hi'iaka A myth from HAwaii by Nathaniel B. Emerson)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pele_(deity)


As with the Little People, the giant red-haired people have been all over the Earth and probably exist in one form or another, today.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_hair



By Rita Jean Moran (www.thelibrarykids.com)