Otus- Greek GiantGiant
Also known as: Otos, Ὦτος, and Ōtos
Domains
Description
Otus wooed Artemis while his twin Ephialtes pursued Hera. They stacked mountains to storm Olympus. The very goddess Otus desired destroyed them both, appearing as a deer between their spears.
Mythology & Lore
The Aloadae
Otus and his twin Ephialtes were sons of Poseidon by Iphimedeia. Homer says they were the tallest men the earth had fed since Orion. By the age of nine they stood nine fathoms tall and nine cubits broad. They piled Mount Ossa on Olympus and Mount Pelion on Ossa to reach the gods. In the Odyssey, Homer says Apollo killed them before their beards had grown.
Their defiance did not stop at heaven. In the Iliad, they seized Ares and crammed him into a bronze jar, where the god of war raged for thirteen months before Hermes found and freed him. Apollodorus adds that Otus desired Artemis herself, and Ephialtes pursued Hera.
Artemis and the Deer
In the Odyssey, Apollo killed them. Apollodorus tells a different death: Artemis appeared between the twins as a deer, and both hurled their spears. Each struck the other. Homer places them in the underworld afterward, bound back to back against a pillar with serpents coiled around them.
Relationships
- Slain by