Hecatonchires

The Hecatonchires, or Hekatonkheires ("Hundred-Handed Ones", also with 50 heads), were figures in an archaic stage of Greek mythology, three giants of incredible strength and ferocity that surpassed that of all Titans whom they helped overthrow. Their name derives from the Greek (hekaton; "hundred") and (kheir; "hand"), "each of them having a hundred hands and fifty heads". Hesiod's Theogony reports that the three Hekatonkheires became the guards of the gates of Tartarus.

According to Hesiod, the Hekatonkheires were children of Gaia (Earth) and Uranus (sky). They were thus part of the very beginning of things in the submerged prehistory of Greek myth. Their names were Briareus the Vigorous, also called Aigaion, Latinized as Aegaeon, the "sea goat", Cottus the Striker or the Furious, and Gyges or Gyes the Big-Limbed. If some natural phenomena are symbolized by the Hekatoncheires then they may represent the gigantic forces of nature that appear in earthquakes and other convulsions or in the motion of sea waves.

Soon after they were born their father Uranus threw them into the depths of Tartarus because he saw them as hideous monsters. In some versions Uranus saw how ugly the Hekatonkheires were at their birth and pushed them back into Gaia's womb, upsetting Gaia greatly, causing her great pain and setting into motion the overthrow of Uranus by Cronus, who later imprisoned them in Tartarus.