Terra

Jupiter imprisoned or defeated Terra's children, and Terra raised twenty-four tall and terrible Giants at Thracian Phlegra. They wore long locks and beards, and their feet ended in serpent tails. They seized rocks and firebrands from the mountain tops and hurled them towards Heaven. The Olympians struggled beneath the assault. In another telling, the Giants piled Mount Pelion upon Mount Ossa to reach Heaven and attack the gods.

Hera foretold that no god could kill the Giants. Only a lion-skinned mortal could destroy them, and he could succeed only if the Giants failed to find a secret herb that made them invulnerable. Jupiter consulted Athena and sent her to warn Heracles. He also ordered Eros, Selene, and Helius to stop shining. Under the weak light of the stars, Jupiter searched the earth for the herb.

The battle raged across the plain of Phlegra. Apollo struck Porphyrion in the left eye, and Heracles shot him in the right. Ephialtes fought Ares and drove him to his knees, before Apollo and Heracles killed him. Eros wounded Porphyrion with an arrow, and the wound turned his anger towards lust. Porphyrion tore Hera's robe, but Jupiter felled him with a thunderbolt. Heracles returned and mortally wounded him with an arrow. Dionysus struck Eurytus with his ivy staff. Hecate singed Clytius with her torches. Hephaestus scalded Mimas with red-hot metal, and Athena crushed Pallas with a stone. Heracles dealt each wounded Giant the final blow. Hestia and Demeter stayed away from the fighting, while the Fates watched.

Jupiter destroyed the remaining Giants with thunderbolts and overturned the mountains they had raised. Terra did not allow her sons to vanish without a trace. She gave life to the blood that soaked the battlefield, and new beings in human form rose from it. They hated the gods and desired savage slaughter.