1 00:00:03,360 --> 00:00:10,000 Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind, a production of iHeartRadio. 2 00:00:10,280 --> 00:00:13,080 Speaker 2: Hi, my name is Robert Lambin. This is the Monster Fact, 3 00:00:13,119 --> 00:00:15,360 Speaker 2: a short form series from Stuff to Blow Your Mind, 4 00:00:15,400 --> 00:00:19,800 Speaker 2: focusing in non mythical creatures, ideas and monsters in time, 5 00:00:23,800 --> 00:00:26,480 Speaker 2: and the gods, givers of good things, applauded when they 6 00:00:26,520 --> 00:00:30,200 Speaker 2: heard his word, and their spirit longed for war even 7 00:00:30,280 --> 00:00:33,599 Speaker 2: more than before. And they all, both male and female, 8 00:00:33,640 --> 00:00:37,280 Speaker 2: stirred up hated battle that day, the Titan gods and 9 00:00:37,400 --> 00:00:39,960 Speaker 2: all that were born of Cronos, together with those dread 10 00:00:40,120 --> 00:00:43,479 Speaker 2: mighty ones of overwhelming strength, whom Zeus brought up to 11 00:00:43,520 --> 00:00:46,720 Speaker 2: the light from Erebus beneath the earth, A hundred arms 12 00:00:46,720 --> 00:00:49,599 Speaker 2: sprang from the shoulders of all alike, and each had 13 00:00:49,640 --> 00:00:53,760 Speaker 2: fifty heads growing upon his shoulders, upon stout limbs. These 14 00:00:53,920 --> 00:00:58,280 Speaker 2: then stood against the Titans in grim strife, holding huge 15 00:00:58,360 --> 00:01:02,280 Speaker 2: rocks in their strong hands. These are the words of 16 00:01:02,360 --> 00:01:06,240 Speaker 2: Hesiod from his eighth century BCE text Theogony, here in 17 00:01:06,240 --> 00:01:10,119 Speaker 2: translation by Evelyn White, describing the one hundred handed warriors 18 00:01:10,360 --> 00:01:16,200 Speaker 2: the hecatonkyaries of Greek mythology. Naturally, the poet Hesiod compiled 19 00:01:16,280 --> 00:01:19,520 Speaker 2: various tellings and traditions in his poetry, and in doing so, 20 00:01:19,520 --> 00:01:23,840 Speaker 2: solidified a number of characters, relationships, and tales concerning the 21 00:01:23,840 --> 00:01:27,440 Speaker 2: Greek pantheon of deities. So what we read here is 22 00:01:27,480 --> 00:01:31,920 Speaker 2: effectively the most popular understanding of the Hecatonkers. They were 23 00:01:31,959 --> 00:01:36,000 Speaker 2: a very ancient race of multi headed and multi handed giants, 24 00:01:36,440 --> 00:01:39,080 Speaker 2: and they stood among the various children of the primordial 25 00:01:39,160 --> 00:01:44,440 Speaker 2: sky god Urunas. But Urunas hated these monstrosities from the 26 00:01:44,480 --> 00:01:49,120 Speaker 2: first and imprisoned them, locking them away out of sight. Eventually, 27 00:01:49,360 --> 00:01:54,920 Speaker 2: Urunas's offspring, Chronos, rises against his father, overthrows him, but 28 00:01:54,960 --> 00:01:59,480 Speaker 2: seemingly keeps these earlier unsightly offspring locked away. It is 29 00:01:59,480 --> 00:02:03,440 Speaker 2: not until Zeus, the child of Cronos, rises up with 30 00:02:03,760 --> 00:02:08,320 Speaker 2: his fellow Olympian gods, rebels against the Titans. They free 31 00:02:08,440 --> 00:02:12,640 Speaker 2: and recruit the Hecatonkyres, as well as their kin, the Cyclopses, 32 00:02:13,040 --> 00:02:18,400 Speaker 2: into their ensuing war for control of the cosmos. This 33 00:02:18,600 --> 00:02:23,239 Speaker 2: was the Titanomachi, and Hesiod describes their role in its battles, 34 00:02:23,639 --> 00:02:26,880 Speaker 2: naming the three most prominent of the one hundred handed 35 00:02:26,919 --> 00:02:32,960 Speaker 2: warriors in surviving traditions, and amongst the foremost Cotis and Bryarias, 36 00:02:33,240 --> 00:02:38,520 Speaker 2: and guys insatiate for war, raised fierce, fighting three hundred 37 00:02:38,600 --> 00:02:42,400 Speaker 2: rocks one upon another. They launched from their strong hands 38 00:02:42,440 --> 00:02:46,040 Speaker 2: and overshadowed the Titans with their missiles, and buried them 39 00:02:46,080 --> 00:02:49,760 Speaker 2: beneath the wide pathed earth, and bound them in bitter chains. 40 00:02:49,880 --> 00:02:53,040 Speaker 2: When they had conquered them by their strength, for all 41 00:02:53,120 --> 00:02:56,640 Speaker 2: their great spirit, as far beneath the earth to Tartarus. 42 00:02:57,480 --> 00:03:01,400 Speaker 2: The Hecatonkyres, according to Hesiod, are much more than allies 43 00:03:01,440 --> 00:03:04,280 Speaker 2: of the gods. In their war against the Titans, the 44 00:03:04,320 --> 00:03:09,200 Speaker 2: Hecatonqueries strike the final blow. They chain the Titans. They 45 00:03:09,240 --> 00:03:12,559 Speaker 2: become the wardens of the Titans, and are quite ironically 46 00:03:12,880 --> 00:03:16,800 Speaker 2: imprisoned once more in the process. Now it should be 47 00:03:16,880 --> 00:03:20,639 Speaker 2: noted that in some traditions the Hecatonkures may have fought 48 00:03:21,160 --> 00:03:25,079 Speaker 2: instead on the side of the Titans, and in some compilations, 49 00:03:25,080 --> 00:03:28,400 Speaker 2: such as Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, the authors 50 00:03:28,440 --> 00:03:32,200 Speaker 2: go so far as to describe individuals, specifically Bryarius as 51 00:03:32,240 --> 00:03:35,200 Speaker 2: a Titan. So it gets a bit confusing at times. 52 00:03:36,080 --> 00:03:38,480 Speaker 2: And I suppose that's how I have always felt about 53 00:03:38,480 --> 00:03:41,560 Speaker 2: the Hecatonquary since I was a child and read about them, 54 00:03:41,600 --> 00:03:46,680 Speaker 2: and various books, somewhat confused because the morphologies of so 55 00:03:46,720 --> 00:03:50,160 Speaker 2: many other Greek monsters are just so well defined, there's 56 00:03:50,160 --> 00:03:52,960 Speaker 2: so many illustrations of them. As a child, you can 57 00:03:53,080 --> 00:03:55,920 Speaker 2: draw them, you can roughly sketch them yourself, and it's 58 00:03:55,960 --> 00:03:58,600 Speaker 2: a lot of fun. But the hecatonquerris always seem to 59 00:03:58,600 --> 00:04:02,640 Speaker 2: defy logic. Their name feels more like a literary concept 60 00:04:02,720 --> 00:04:06,400 Speaker 2: describing a force of nature as opposed to a codified creature, 61 00:04:06,640 --> 00:04:10,040 Speaker 2: and indeed this is often how they are interpreted. They 62 00:04:10,040 --> 00:04:14,080 Speaker 2: are difficult to envision or to reproduce visually, and certainly 63 00:04:14,080 --> 00:04:16,120 Speaker 2: there are plenty of contemporary artists who have had a 64 00:04:16,160 --> 00:04:20,320 Speaker 2: lot of fun producing various surreal and just horrifying interpretations 65 00:04:20,320 --> 00:04:23,400 Speaker 2: of the hecatonqures, but one is generally hard pressed to 66 00:04:23,400 --> 00:04:27,880 Speaker 2: find representations of these creatures in art history. Now I 67 00:04:28,040 --> 00:04:30,479 Speaker 2: invite correction on this front, because I would very much 68 00:04:30,560 --> 00:04:33,960 Speaker 2: love to see such images, to see like classical illustrations, 69 00:04:34,040 --> 00:04:37,880 Speaker 2: medieval illustrations and so forth, all of the hecatonqures. But 70 00:04:38,160 --> 00:04:41,800 Speaker 2: my searches have generally come up well empty handed. Perhaps 71 00:04:41,800 --> 00:04:45,200 Speaker 2: we've simply lost ancient Greek depictions of these creatures. I 72 00:04:45,240 --> 00:04:48,080 Speaker 2: can only assume that they were too far removed from 73 00:04:48,080 --> 00:04:51,640 Speaker 2: actual human physiology to interest many sculptors. You know, I mean, 74 00:04:51,680 --> 00:04:55,200 Speaker 2: if you're interested in capturing the reality of the human form, 75 00:04:55,720 --> 00:04:59,279 Speaker 2: even in the telling of stories and the presentation of 76 00:04:59,320 --> 00:05:03,160 Speaker 2: information about deities, then this might not be your first stop. 77 00:05:03,839 --> 00:05:06,479 Speaker 2: Perhaps they were creature's best left for depiction in the 78 00:05:06,520 --> 00:05:11,479 Speaker 2: ages of surrealism and cosmic horror to come. Indeed, outside 79 00:05:11,560 --> 00:05:14,960 Speaker 2: of their role in the struggle against the Titans, little 80 00:05:15,000 --> 00:05:18,640 Speaker 2: seems to have survived about the Hecatonqures in general, aside 81 00:05:18,680 --> 00:05:23,040 Speaker 2: from some tangents concerning Bryarius. Again, the Hecatonquyres are perhaps 82 00:05:23,160 --> 00:05:28,080 Speaker 2: best interpreted as embodiments of natural forces. Given their hundred 83 00:05:28,120 --> 00:05:31,560 Speaker 2: hands and heads, they are like armies of men compiled 84 00:05:31,600 --> 00:05:35,080 Speaker 2: into a single grade entity, like a storm or earthquake, 85 00:05:35,360 --> 00:05:38,520 Speaker 2: with the power of an army. As such, turning to 86 00:05:38,600 --> 00:05:41,880 Speaker 2: the natural world of biology, our best example of hundred 87 00:05:41,880 --> 00:05:45,400 Speaker 2: headed entities are actually large groups working together, such as 88 00:05:45,520 --> 00:05:48,320 Speaker 2: humans or use social insects. Now, some of you out 89 00:05:48,320 --> 00:05:49,960 Speaker 2: there might be thinking to yourself, well, I know what 90 00:05:50,000 --> 00:05:54,000 Speaker 2: has one hundred appendages. Well, even centipedes, despite their name 91 00:05:54,040 --> 00:05:58,480 Speaker 2: which means one hundred footed, never have exactly one hundred limbs. 92 00:05:58,920 --> 00:06:00,920 Speaker 2: They may have as few as something like twenty three 93 00:06:01,000 --> 00:06:03,720 Speaker 2: leg bearing segments, or as many as I think one 94 00:06:03,800 --> 00:06:06,520 Speaker 2: hundred and ninety one, but there is always an odd 95 00:06:06,600 --> 00:06:10,640 Speaker 2: number of leg bearing segments, never the even fifty segments 96 00:06:10,640 --> 00:06:13,400 Speaker 2: that would produce a total of one hundred legs. By 97 00:06:13,440 --> 00:06:16,200 Speaker 2: the way, the first millipede with more than a thousand 98 00:06:16,279 --> 00:06:21,279 Speaker 2: legs wasn't discovered till twenty twenty one. Now, despite this disappointment, 99 00:06:21,520 --> 00:06:25,599 Speaker 2: scientists have fouled room to invoke the hecatonkures in the 100 00:06:25,640 --> 00:06:30,760 Speaker 2: naming of various organisms. Specifically, the name Bryarius is invoked 101 00:06:30,760 --> 00:06:34,359 Speaker 2: in the scientific name for various organisms, including, but not 102 00:06:34,440 --> 00:06:38,360 Speaker 2: limited to, the Caribbean reef octopus, the hairy c cucumber, 103 00:06:38,520 --> 00:06:42,400 Speaker 2: at least one species of sea star, the quirky seafinger, coral, 104 00:06:42,640 --> 00:06:46,880 Speaker 2: a sea slug, an extinct trilabite, and a Central American moth. 105 00:06:47,600 --> 00:06:51,359 Speaker 2: As for their mythic namesake, the hecatonkyres, well, maybe we 106 00:06:51,400 --> 00:06:55,040 Speaker 2: should heed the words of Hesiod once more. Perhaps we 107 00:06:55,200 --> 00:06:58,560 Speaker 2: lack for older depictions of the creature because they are 108 00:06:58,560 --> 00:07:00,960 Speaker 2: not to be approached, They are not to be looked upon, 109 00:07:01,600 --> 00:07:06,760 Speaker 2: even Uruanas chose not to do so, and he used 110 00:07:06,800 --> 00:07:09,280 Speaker 2: to hide them all away in a secret place of 111 00:07:09,320 --> 00:07:12,120 Speaker 2: earth so soon as each was born, and would not 112 00:07:12,240 --> 00:07:15,200 Speaker 2: suffer them to come up into the light. And Heaven 113 00:07:15,280 --> 00:07:20,080 Speaker 2: rejoiced in his evil doing, but vast earth groaned within. 114 00:07:21,920 --> 00:07:25,080 Speaker 2: Tune in for additional episodes of The Monster, Fact, The Artifact, 115 00:07:25,160 --> 00:07:28,720 Speaker 2: or Anamalia Stupendium each week. As always, you can email 116 00:07:28,800 --> 00:07:39,040 Speaker 2: us at contact at stuff to Blow your Mind dot com. 117 00:07:39,120 --> 00:07:42,080 Speaker 1: Stuff to Blow Your Mind is production of iHeartRadio. For 118 00:07:42,160 --> 00:07:44,960 Speaker 1: more podcasts from my Heart Radio, visit the iHeartRadio app, 119 00:07:45,120 --> 00:07:47,880 Speaker 1: Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.