Pergamonmuseum - Antikensammlung - Pergamonaltar 34

Greek mythology Greek mythology is the body of myths originally told by the Ancient Greece, ancient Greeks, and a genre of ancient Greek folklore, today absorbed alongside Roman mythology into the broader designation of classical mythology. These stories conc ...

, Picolous (, ) is the name of one of the

Gigantes In Greek mythology, Greek and Roman mythology, the Giants, also called Gigantes (Ancient Greek, Greek: Γίγαντες, ''wiktionary:gigantes, Gígantes'', Γίγας, ''wiktionary:gigas, Gígas''), were a race of great strength and aggression, ...

, the offspring of the

earth goddess Earth is the third planet from the Sun and the only astronomical object known to Planetary habitability, harbor life. This is enabled by Earth being an ocean world, the only one in the Solar System sustaining liquid surface water. Almost all ...

Gaia In Greek mythology, Gaia (; , a poetic form of ('), meaning 'land' or 'earth'),, , . also spelled Gaea (), is the personification of Earth. Gaia is the ancestral mother—sometimes parthenogenic—of all life. She is the mother of Uranus (S ...

and the

sky god The sky often has important religious significance. Many polytheism, polytheistic religions have deity, deities associated with the sky. The daytime sky deities are typically distinct from the nighttime ones. Stith Thompson's ''Motif-Index o ...

Uranus Uranus is the seventh planet from the Sun. It is a gaseous cyan-coloured ice giant. Most of the planet is made of water, ammonia, and methane in a Supercritical fluid, supercritical phase of matter, which astronomy calls "ice" or Volatile ( ...

. Picolous fought against the

Olympian gods upright=1.8, Fragment of a relief (1st century BC1st century AD) depicting the twelve Olympians carrying their attributes in procession; from left to right: Hestia (scepter), Hermes (winged cap and staff), Aphrodite (veiled), Ares (helmet and s ...

during the Gigantomachy. He fled the battle, only to be slain shortly thereafter by

Helios In ancient Greek religion and Greek mythology, mythology, Helios (; ; Homeric Greek: ) is the god who personification, personifies the Sun. His name is also Latinized as Helius, and he is often given the epithets Hyperion ("the one above") an ...

the sun god when the giant attempted to attack his daughter

Circe In Greek mythology, Circe (; ) is an enchantress, sometimes considered a goddess or a nymph. In most accounts, Circe is described as the daughter of the sun god Helios and the Oceanid Perse (mythology), Perse. Circe was renowned for her vast kn ...

. Picolous's role in the Gigantomachy is attested by two Byzantine scholars of the

Middle Ages In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the 5th to the late 15th centuries, similarly to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire and ...

Eustathius of Thessalonica Eustathius of Thessalonica (or Eustathios of Thessalonike; ; ) was a Byzantine Greek scholar and Archbishop of Thessalonica and is a saint in the Eastern Orthodox Church. He is most noted for his stand against the sack of Thessalonica by the No ...

and Patriarch

Photios I of Constantinople Photius I of Constantinople (, ''Phōtios''; 815 – 6 February 893), also spelled ''Photius''Fr. Justin Taylor, essay "Canon Law in the Age of the Fathers" (published in Jordan Hite, T.O.R., and Daniel J. Ward, O.S.B., "Readings, Cases, Mate ...

, both of which quote earlier writers, Alexander of Paphos and Ptolemaeus Chennus respectively.

Etymology

The 'unique' etymology of Picolous' name is unclear and hard to decipher, having no apparent cognates in ancient Greek language. Derivation from the Hesiodic phrase (meaning ''terribile Sphinx'', in accusative case) has been proposed but rejected on the grounds of being "entirely fanciful."

Mythology

Patriarch Photius, who attributes the tale to Ptolemy Chennus, writes of an unnamed giant that attacked

and was killed by her father the sun god

, who was protecting his daughter; from his blood sprang a white herb, named moly after the hard battle (=môlos in

Ancient Greek Ancient Greek (, ; ) includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the classical antiquity, ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Greek ...

) that took place between the giant and the god. In greater detail, the homeric

scholia Scholia (: scholium or scholion, from , "comment", "interpretation") are grammatical, critical, or explanatory comments – original or copied from prior commentaries – which are inserted in the margin of the manuscript of ancient a ...

, quoting Alexander of Paphos, writes that Picolous fought alongside the other Giants against

Zeus Zeus (, ) is the chief deity of the List of Greek deities, Greek pantheon. He is a sky father, sky and thunder god in ancient Greek religion and Greek mythology, mythology, who rules as king of the gods on Mount Olympus. Zeus is the child ...

during the war that was known as the Gigantomachy, but fled the battle; he went to

Aeaea Aeaea, Ææa or Eëä ( or ; ) was a mythological island said to be the home of the goddess-sorceress Circe. In Homer's ''Odyssey'', Odysseus tells Alcinous that he stayed here for one year on his way home to Ithaca. Before leaving Aeaea, ...

, the home island of the sorceress goddess Circe and attempted to chase her away from her land, but then her father Helios slew him. From the blood of the giant that seeped on the ground a herb, moly, sprang that had a black root for the black blood of Picolous, and a white flower for the white

Sun The Sun is the star at the centre of the Solar System. It is a massive, nearly perfect sphere of hot plasma, heated to incandescence by nuclear fusion reactions in its core, radiating the energy from its surface mainly as visible light a ...

that killed him, or for the fact that Circe grew white out of terror. Eustathius, ''Ad Odysseam'
10.305
/ref> The plant that sprang from Picolous' death, moly, has been identified with the Prometheion, the special plant

Medea In Greek mythology, Medea (; ; ) is the daughter of Aeëtes, King Aeëtes of Colchis. Medea is known in most stories as a sorceress, an accomplished "wiktionary:φαρμακεία, pharmakeía" (medicinal magic), and is often depicted as a high- ...

used for her potion, which has a similar origin story as both were said to have grown from blood, that of Picolous and

Prometheus In Greek mythology, Prometheus (; , , possibly meaning "forethought")Smith"Prometheus". is a Titans, Titan. He is best known for defying the Olympian gods by taking theft of fire, fire from them and giving it to humanity in the form of technol ...

respectively, as well as the , "Circe's plant", another magical herb connected to Circe. As for real-world identifications, the plant that grew from Picolous's blood has been suggested to be the

snowdrop ''Galanthus'' (from Ancient Greek , (, "milk") + (, "flower")), or snowdrop, is a small genus of approximately 20 species of bulbous perennial herbaceous plants in the family (biology), family Amaryllidaceae. The plants have two linear leav ...

, a flower that counteracts amnesia, hallucinations, and delusions, which are hypothesized to be the real physics behind Circe's magic.

Notes

References

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External links

GIGANTES from The Theoi Project
{{Authority control Gigantes Helios in mythology Circe Metamorphoses into flowers in Greek mythology

Etymology

Mythology

See also

Notes

References

External links