Aloeids (Aloadae)

Greek Giant sons of Iphimedia by Poseidon. Their names were Ephialtes and Otus; they were called the Aloeids after Aloeus, the husband of Iphimedia. The brothers grew at an enormous rate. By the time they were nine years old, they were 36 feet tall. These giants declared war on Olympus, the home of the gods. Ephialtes determined to capture Hera, wife of the great god Zeus. Otus swore he would capture Artemis, goddess of the hunt. First they seized Ares, god of war, and confined him in a bronze vessel, where he remained for 13 months until he was rescued by Hermes. Then their siege of Olympus began: The giants piled Mount Pelion atop Mount Ossa (in Thessaly) to create a ladder to the heavens. They were not afraid of the gods, for it had been prophesied that neither gods nor men would kill them. Artemis tricked them by turning herself into a white doe and prancing before them. The brothers threw their spears at the doe, who skillfully darted away, and they accidentally killed each other with their spears. Thus the prophecy was fulfilled, for neither gods nor humans had killed them; they had killed each other. The souls of the Aloeids went down to Tartarus, where they were tied back to back on either side of a pillar, with cords that were living vipers. The story of the Aloeids symbolizes the revolt of the giants against the gods. The imprisonment of Ares may symbolize a 13-month truce between two warring tribes of ancient Greece, when warlike tokens of both nations were sealed into a bronze jar to ensure peace. In another version of the myth, in Homer's Odyssey, it is said that the brothers would have successfully stormed Olympus if the god Apollo had not slain them with his arrows. The Aloeids were worshiped on the island of Naxos (where Artemis had appeared to them as a doe) and in the city of Ascra, in Boeotia, where they were regarded as founders of the city. Myths of the Aloeids also appear in Homer's Odyssey and in Virgil's Aeneid.