LP0026 The Gigantomachy w/ extras

Legendary Passages #0026 - The Gigantomachy - Olympian Gods versus Giants from the Library of Apollodorus.     Last time we heard of the madness of Hercules and of his eight labor: the Mares of Diomedes. This time we cover many stories: Demeter searching for Persephone, the gods battling with giants and Typhon, the rescue of Prometheus, and the flood of Deucalion.     First, the god of the underworld, Pluto, abducted the goddess Persephone. Her mother Demeter searched for her in Eleusis, and eventually found her, but since Persephone had eaten the food of the dead, she must spend every winter there.     Second, between the 7th and 8th labors of Hercules, the gods of Olympus were attacked by Giants. They can only be killed by mortal-born Hercules and his deadly arrows, poisoned with hydra's blood.     Next, Typhon, so terrible a monster we still call superstorms Typhoons, cripples and imprisons Zeus in a cave guarded by a dragon. Hermes rescues and restores him, and Zeus eventually throws a mountain atop Typhon, creating the volcano Mount Etna.     Then there is the story of Prometheus, the titan who gave fire to mankind. His punishment was to have his liver devoured by a eagle, over and over again, until he was rescued by Hercules.     Lastly is the flood of Deucalion, son of Prometheus. He and his wife Pyrra survived 9 days and nights in a chest when Zeus flooded all the land, but when the waters subsided they threw stones over their shoulders which then transformed into men and women. The Gigantomachy a Legendary Passage from the Library of Apollodorus translated by J. G. Frazer [1.5.1] - [1.8.1] 5. Demeter and Persephone     Pluto fell in love with Persephone and with the help of Zeus carried her off secretly. But Demeter went about seeking her all over the earth with torches by night and day, and learning from the people of Hermion that Pluto had carried her off, she was wroth with the gods and quitted heaven, and came in the likeness of a woman to Eleusis. And first she sat down on the rock which has been named Laughless after her, beside what is called the Well of the Fair Dances; thereupon she made her way to Celeus, who at that time reigned over the Eleusinians. Some women were in the house, and when they bade her sit down beside them, a certain old crone, Iambe, joked the goddess and made her smile. For that reason they say that the women break jests at the Thesmophoria.     But Metanira, wife of Celeus, had a child and Demeter received it to nurse, and wishing to make it immortal she set the babe of nights on the fire and stripped off its mortal flesh. But as Demophon -- for that was the child's name -- grew marvelously by day, Praxithea watched, and discovering him buried in the fire she cried out; wherefore the babe was consumed by the fire and the goddess revealed herself.     But for Triptolemus, the elder of Metanira's children, she made a chariot of winged dragons, and gave him wheat, with which, wafted through the sky, he sowed the whole inhabited earth. But Panyasis affirms that Triptolemus was a son of Eleusis, for he says that Demeter came to him. Pherecydes, however, says that he was a son of Ocean and Earth.     But when Zeus ordered Pluto to send up the Maid, Pluto gave her a seed of a pomegranate to eat, in order that she might not tarry long with her mother. Not foreseeing the consequence, she swallowed it; and because Ascalaphus, son of Acheron and Gorgyra, bore witness against her, Demeter laid a heavy rock on him in Hades. But Persephone was compelled to remain a third of every year with Pluto and the rest of the time with the gods. 6. War of the Giants and Typhon     Such is the legend of Demeter. But Earth, vexed on account of the Titans, brought forth the giants, whom she had by Sky. These were matchless in the bulk of their bodies an