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The giants (around 100) are the sons of the mother Earth Gaea. It is a victory finally by Zeus over Gaea and in this way he ends the matriarchal epoch and establishes a patriarchal government order and culture. Maybe this transition is due to a period where man developed and advanced the technology of war. Image from the Pergamon Zeus Altar. The Goddess Athena, with a helmet on the head, shield in the hand, head of Medusa made with leather of snake on the chest, seizes by the hairs the winged giant Alkyoneous. Gaea (or Gaia, Earth), mother of the giants, aims her hand to the Goddess while imploring to forgive her son, but the snake of Athena is poisoning the young giant.
Gigantomachy from the Siphnian Treasury in Delphi, North Frieze, 530-525 BC, Delphi Archaeological Museum. On the left side Apollo and his sister Artemis against the giants. One giant tries to escape (his name from what we can read is Tharos or Ka[n]tharos). Ephialtes lies dead on the ground. A group of three other giants on the right side (Hyperphas, Alektos and one whose name is lost). The proud artist of this work wrote his name on the shield of the last of the three giants but it was lost)
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