Hey Everyone, welcome to Mythology Explained. In today's video, we're going to discuss the Aloads, Otus and Ephilates, giant twins and strong contenders for the most reckless and arrogant characters in all of Greek mythology.

They abducted Ares, the god of war, and imprisoned him for 13 months. They stacked mountains so that they could climb to the heavens and attack Mount Olympus, and they even tried to abduct a couple of goddesses, Hera and Artemis, and claim them for their own.

Let's get into it.

Otus and Ephialtes were twin brothers, the largest and most handsome the world had ever seen. Only the great hunter Orion was said to be more perfect of form and more handsome of face. Their mother was mortal, a princess of Thessaly. Iphimedeia was her name, and she was so infatuated with Poseidon that each day she would wander down to the shore and fill her lap with water. One day, Poseidon came to her daily place of yearning and bedded her, and though it was his seed that made these mighty twins, the god himself did not raise them. Another of Poseidon's sons, Aloeus, Lord of the Winds, was the stepfather, and he was the namesake for the moniker Aloadae, which meant son of Aloeus, that the twins were called.

Otus and Ephialtes were of colossal size and were blessed with prodigious strength. They were behemoths. At just nine years old, they were about 22.5 feet, or 7 meters, wide, and about 54 feet, or 16 meters, tall. They were giants, though not of the ilk of giants born from the droplets of blood that fell to the earth from Uranus' severed genitals, but giants because of their towering statures.

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